Lean and tone your body faster by burning more fat with a non-machine cardio. You don’t need treadmills, stepmills or ellipticals; just your body and the ground. If you’re frustrated with having “no progress” lately in your weight loss or fat loss, then you’re not alone. Usually, it is easier to lose weight at the beginning of your exercise program. This is especially true if you are, let’s say, 100 pounds overweight. At this point, your metabolism is “running high” because of the excess weight. And, if you have not been active, your body will respond quickly to any new exercise activity.

As time moves on you have to make frequent changes to your exercise routine or your body will adapt. That’s when your progress begins to stall. There are alot of things you can do to change your routine such as choosing different exercises. You can change your exercises every time you exercise. One of the best ways to break through your weight loss plateau is to “ramp up” the intensity of your workouts. My observations of people working-out is that many simply don’t “work hard enough” during their workouts! Changing your body composition (more muscle, less fat) takes hard and smart work! Some people are considerably lazy but many simply don’t know what they should be doing.

What to do?

Get off the cardio machines. They do too much of the work for you. When you have a choice, do your cardio “on land”—either outside or on the floor. My number one preference for cardio is sprint intervals on grass or uphill. Because of my athletic background, I enjoy this type of cardio (enjoyment is very important). I also prefer to exercise outside mainly because I grew up where the sun usually shines 95% of the time. However, whatever the climate, it is good for the body to experience the vitamin D of the sun to counteract Seasonal Affective Disorder in the winter. Also, please remember when exercising on grass to invest in some professional, shock-absorbing trainers, because when you are exercising on uneven ground, without these trainers, you are very likely to develop a shin-splint or muscle strain.

There are many other choices for doing cardio “on land” such as bodyweight cardio (examples: mountain climbers, burpees, leg circuits, etc.), jump rope, butt kickers (running in place). The key here is to speed up and shorten your cardio work to about 20 minutes. Research, and my experience, has proven that this type of cardio work is one of the best ways to tone up your body. Note: Do this type of cardio no more than 3 days a week to prevent breakdown and injury. Train hard and smarter to reach your fitness goals!