Beginners are at a crucial juncture: they’ve made the decision to get into shape and realize they have a myriad of options in front of them. Make the wrong decision, and you’ll potentially derail your progress for months (or sometimes even years).

Learn from someone with experience with fat loss and stay away from long duration, steady state cardio. Here are some key issues I have with long duration, steady state cardio:

• It’s boring. If your training program is boring, it’s going to be tough for you to follow the program. Try and find something exciting. Something that you will look forward to doing each week.
• Jogging hurts. Jogging was my form of outdoor cardio. I used to jog for 3-4 miles at least 4 days per week. Of course it worked, but I soon found myself in pain.
  • The pain could have also be caused by overuse injuries, which comes from too much repetition of the same activity. Professional runner andcyclers often complain about knee problems later in life.
  • The pain started with my shins and traveled to my knees. The uneven outdoor surface, and the constant pounding on the knees does a lot of damage to your joints.
  • The bigger you are, the more you should stay away from jogging long distance. One or two miles is fine at a frequency of 2-3 days per week.
• Higher intensity distance cardio causes losses in strength, power, and muscle mass. You may not care about strength or power, but you should care about muscle mass.
  • Muscle mass will be your long-term fight against fat. This is because muscle is more metabolically active than fat. It takes more calories to maintain a pound of muscle than a pound of fat.
  • Hence, the more muscle you have on your body, the higher your metabolic rate. A fast metabolism will help you burn more calories throughout the day without performing more exercise or eating less.

• Aerobic exercise is an impractical method of burning lots of calories. The bigger you are, the more fat you will burn with aerobic exercise. But, as you get leaner and fitter, you will need to perform more aerobic exercise in order to burn the same amount of fat.
  • For example, if in the beginning you were able to burn 100 calories in 20 minutes, 6 months from now it may take you up to an hour to burn the same amount of calories.
  • Of course, this is just an example, but that is what happens. Your body becomes efficient at using energy to perform a task. Hence, it takes more work to burn more calories.

Now that you know why I don’t like long distance cardio, lets look at some of the forms of cardio that I do like:

Bodyweight Cardio

Bodyweight cardio is simply performing high intensity bodyweight exercises that are relatively easy in a cardio format. Cardio is basically raising your heart rate and increasing the demand for energy (calories).

The greater your demand for energy, the more calories and fat you will burn. Bodyweight cardio is often more fun than regular, steady state cardio. Plus, you can perform it anywhere and anytime you want.

You can perform bodyweight cardio in your hotel room, at the park, in your backyard, or your friends house. Hence, it is one of best, no-nonsense and no-excuses method to burn fat.

Hard Cardio

Hard cardio consists of any sort of higher intensity, moderate duration cardio. My favorite forms are sledgehammer swings, jump roping, and shadowboxing. This form of cardio is not only exciting and gets your heart rate up, but also prevents overuse injuries.

You can choose 2-3 forms of hard cardio, or even combine hard cardio with bodyweight cardio. This way, you prevent boredom and conserve your joints. Hard cardio helps develop power and speed.

For example, sledgehammer swings are used by many athletes to improve explosive power. Jump roping is also used by boxers to improveagility. Hence, you’ll be improving your athletic abilities while burning fat.

Interval Cardio

Interval training is where you perform an activity for a high intensity level, then take a short rest. Alternate between high intensity and lower intensity training. You can do this form of training with hard cardio or bodyweight exercises.

As mentioned earlier, distance cardio is an impractical form of burning fat as your body becomes more efficient at burning calories. They key to solving this is to use increase the intensity level.

Interval cardio is one way to increase the level of intensity. Sprinters perform this kind of cardio all the time. They sprint on the track, and follow up with a period of rest to return their heart rate to normal.

Kettlebell Cardio

Kettlebells are a training implement that have seen a resurgence in popularity. They’ve been around for many years, but it’s just recently that they’re starting to show up with commercial gyms.

Their effectiveness comes from the unique shape of the Kettlebell. A Kettlebell has a thick handle attached to a cannonball shaped weight. Hence, every single movement you perform engages a large amount of muscle in order to properly perform the movement.

If you have never heard of Kettlebells, it’s certainly something to look into. Kettlebell cardio workouts can be performed with either circuits or interval training. But make sure you start off light.

Dumbbell Cardio

If you don’t have access to Kettlebells, then you can try Dumbbell cardio. Dumbbell cardio simply allows you to combine cardio and weight training into one. After Kettlebell workouts, Dumbbell cardio workouts are the most challenging forms of training.

Adding resistance to your cardio workouts allows you to train your strength endurance as well as your cardio endurance. Sports such as martial arts, where you are constantly moving around (cardio) and fighting off an opponent (resistance), need a combination of resistance and cardio endurance training.

But, for the regular folks, combining strength and cardio workouts can help you get leaner while maintaining and even increasing your lean muscle mass and strength.

Are you 20-30 lbs overweight? You’ve probably heard lots of people telling you to do tons of cardio. Well, if you’re anything like me, then you hate cardio. Don’t worry, I have a solution: Kettlebell Cardio.

The following Kettlebell Cardio Workout will help you drop fat without relying on long, boring steady state cardio workouts. I’ve chosen very simple movements that you can learn in a matter of minutes.

Lets first go over the movements:

Kettlebell High Pull

Front Squat

One of the best ways to perform cardio using Kettlebells is something known as Escalating Density Training (EDT). This is just a fancy name for a very simple training method.

The idea is to alternate between two or more exercises for a specific time frame. So for example lets say you want your workout to last no more than 20 minutes.

Then you would simply get a timer and set it to 20 minutes. Perform 10 High Pulls with each hand. Rest as needed, then move onto front squats. Perform 10 repetitions.

Rest as needed. Write down somewhere that you completed one round, and attempt to perform another round. Lets assume that you were able to do 5 rounds in 20 minutes.

The following week, your goal will be to perform 6 rounds in 20 minutes. Once you can do 10 rounds of the circuit in 20 minutes, it’s time to try some more difficult movements.

For some more kettlebell training exercises and workouts, check out the Turbulence Training Kettlebell Revolution program. Click here for more information.

Kettlebells can be a great tool for losing fat. It’s unique shape and high intensity exercises will give you an incredibly tough workout. Just like most implements, you can design a training program to achieve your goals by modifying a few key parameters.

For example, in order to develop a Killer Cardio workout using Kettlebells, you want to stick to exercises that you can perform easily, and ones that train a large part of your body at once.

Kettlebell swings come to mind almost immediately. The Kettlebell Swing is the most basic Kettlebell movement out there, and one which can be learned by almost anyone.

Here’s how to perform the Kettlebell swing:

Another great Kettlebell exercise is the Kettlebell Thruster, which is a combination of a Squat and Overhead Press. This movement is tougher than it looks. Beginners may need to perform the squat and press separately to begin with.

Here’s how to perform the Kettlebell Thruster:

Now putting together your routine can be either the toughest thing you’ve done, or the easiest. It’s up to you. People have emailed me with complicated questions about their training programs.

I’m usually able to respond with a very simple solution. Most workouts depend on one thing: what are you capable of? Beginners should probably start off with taking more rest then they feel necessary.

Advanced trainees can experiment with unique high intensity techniques such as a supersets, circuit training, and interval training. Beginners can do supersets, but they will probably need to modify them and take a break between each of the two exercises they choose to alternate with.

One of the best ways to help you with your intervals is to use the GymBoss Interval Timer. It costs just $19.95, and you can program it to help you keep track of any sort of intervals you may use. Click here to grab yours today.

For more Kettlebell Workouts and Training Techniques, check out Turbulence Training Kettlebell Revolution.

Click here for more information

Here’s something that people don’t tell you about burning calories: the harder you work, the more calories you burn. One obvious example is a sprinter and a jogger. Sprinters work much harder than joggers. Their goal is to expend as much energy in as little time as possible.

Joggers, on the other hand, focus on conserving as much energy for as long as possible. Two dramatically different training styles. And two dramatically different types of physiques. A sprinter is not only lean, but he’s strong and powerful.

A typical jogger looks like he hasn’t eaten for days. He’s skinny and weak. What kind of physique do you want? If you want a strong, athletic physique, then you should focus on performing ballistic exercises at a high intensity level. One of the best ways to get a killer cardio workout in the comfort of your own home is to perform Kettlebell workouts.

Click Here for some Great Kettlebell Workouts

Exercises such as Kettlebell Snatches and Swings work many more muscle groups than sprinting. After just 10-20 repetitions, you’ll feel the movements in your lower back, shoulders, and hipflexors . And once you combine these ballistic movements with other basic Kettlebell exercises such as Floor Presses, Bent Over Rows, and Windmills, you’ll be able to get a great, full body workout in an extremely short period of time.

Kettlebell Cardio: It’s Time to Make your Cardio Fun

But the best thing about Kettlebell Cardio, as I like to call it, is that it’s a lot more fun than most other forms of cardio. My favorite forms of cardio used to be jump roping, shadowboxing, and sledgehammer swings. However, as my body adapted, theseforms of cardio became way too easy for me.

Many people are endlessly trying to burn fat with boring treadmill and elliptical workouts. The bottom line is that if you’re not having fun, then you won’t stick to you workouts. If you don’t stick to your workouts, then you won’t get results.

Before we get into using Kettlebell cardio to replace your current cardio, I first want to make sure you know how to do three of the basic Kettlebell movements: Snatches, Swings, and Cleans. If not, then please watch the following videos carefully.

Click Here for some Great Kettlebell Workouts

If you already know how to perform these movements, then simply skip down past them to get to some of my favorite intensity techniques you can use to develop high intensity Kettlebell cardio workouts:

The Exercises

Kettlebell Swing

Kettlebell Clean

Kettlebell Snatch

Click Here for some Great Kettlebell Workouts

Intensity Techniques

There are a lot of ways you can create your own Kettlebell cardio workouts. However, the following are some techniques that almost anyone – beginner, intermediate, or advanced – can start using today. These are not complex techniques.

In fact, you can probably get up off your computer right now, grab a kettlebell, and get a great, intense workout right now!

Intensity Technique #1: Pyramids

Pyramid repetitions are where you start off with a low repetition, then gradually increase the repetitions as the workout progresses. Once you get up to a predetermined number, you go back down the pyramid. By the time you’ve returned back down to the original number you started off with, you’ll be in a pool of sweat.

For example, lets use Swings as our example exercise. Start off with 3 repetitions, and rest 60 seconds. Add 3 repetitions, and keep going until you getup to 21 repetitions. Now go back down. So, you’re workout will look something like this:

• Kettlebell Swings for 3-6-9-12-15-18-21-18-15-12-9-6-3

Click Here for some Great Kettlebell Workouts

To make this workout harder, simply reduce your rest periods or alternate with another exercise. It’s best to superset the Kettlebell swings with pushups, pullups, or another cardio movement such as jump roping or shadowboxing. Perhaps you can alternate with a minute of jump roping after each set.

Intensity Technique #2: Repetitions for Time

Here’s another no-brainer intensity technique. Here’s what you do: choose a set number of repetitions, and perform it. For example, lets say you want to do 100repetitions of the Kettlebell swing. Just start a stop watch and see how long it takes you to do a 100 repetitions.

Don’t count sets, but if you need to rest, then rest. But try to keep your body moving and try to complete those 100 repetitions as fast as possible. 100 repetitions too hard? then start off with 50. 100 repetitions too easy? then either do more repetitions, or switch to a more difficult movement.

Intensity Technique #3: Timed Rounds

This is the complete opposite of repetitions for time. With timed rounds, you simply set a time limit and try to complete as many repetitions as possible within that time period. This is different then interval training, since the time frames you will use will be longer than 90 seconds.

Click Here for some Great Kettlebell Workouts

For example, you can do a timed round of 3 minutes, followed by a minute rest. So, for 3 minutes try to do as many swings as you can. Then rest for 60 seconds. Write down how many repetitions you did, and try to beat you repetitions for the next set of 3 minutes.

Most likely, you’ll only be able to do 2-3 of these timed rounds, if you truly exert yourself to the best of your abilities.

Additional Exercises, Workouts, and Techniques

Kettlebell Cardio is just one use of Kettlebell training. Not only can you use Kettlebell training to burn fat, but you can also use them to build lean muscle mass, get stronger, improve overall health, and improve your athletic fitness. In fact, there are dozens of other exercises and techniques you can perform with just one or two Kettlebells.

One of the most complete resources you can use for effective Kettlebell training is the Turbulence Training Kettlebell Revolution program. This system uses the world-famous Turbulence Training system to develop high intensity Kettlebell workouts.

Whether you’re just starting off with Kettlebells, or if you’re an advanced Kettlebell user, the Turbulence Training Kettlebell Revolution program is one system that you absolutely need to try. I suggest you grab you copy today. Click here for more information!

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