Are You STILL Doing Useless Workouts On Elliptical Machines And Treadmills? Part II: Good Alternatives To Elliptical Machine And Treadmill Workouts

Part II: Excellent alternatives to elliptical machine and treadmill workouts

This post is Part II  of an article by Mike Geary, Certified Personal Trainer and author of The Truth About Six Pack Abs. He explains why workouts on elliptical machines and treadmills are worthless (Part I) and then presents alternative workouts (Part II).

Mike’s alternative workouts to those on elliptical machines and treadmills are as follows:

Outdoor wind sprints are the ultimate workout for a rock hard lean body. Look at the powerful yet super-lean and ripped bodies of world class sprinters, and compare that to the withering weakling physiques of typical marathoners. What would you rather look like?

Jumping rope creates incredible mind/body connection and is actually fun (you can try speed jumping, crossover jumps, and double jumps once you get good at it).

Kettlebell workoutsNothing will get your heart pounding and sweat pouring like high rep kettlebell swings and/or snatches (or clean and presses)! These can be done with dumbbells too, but I prefer kettlebells as they have a better "feel" to them and the unbalanced nature of KBs makes you work harder.

Bodyweight exercisesMountain climbers, bodyweight squats, push-ups, jumping drills, lunges, bear crawls, plank holds, and so on.

Rowing machineDon't lump this in as a "cardio" machine per se like elliptical machines and treadmills. Rather, the rowing machine is actually a great full body workout that uses real resistance.

Hill sprintingThis is running as hard up a hill as possible, followed by walking down and repeating as many times as you can for a full workout (yet another classic drill for a rock hard lean body).

Shadow boxing is a killer workout, but if you are shy, this is best done at home since you will get some crazy looks doing this at a typical gym!

Swimming sprints are a more muscle toning workout compared with steady pace distance swimming. You get an upper body pump from sprint swimming (instead of swimming slow and steady, with sprint swimming, you swim as fast as you can exerting as much force as you can for 1 lap. Then rest for 15-20 seconds before doing another swim sprint).

Heavy bag punching/kicking workouts, speed bag, rebounding bagAll are tremendous workouts and much more fun than boring cardio machines (requires an very intense mind/body connection which increases results). 

I hope this article gives you plenty of ideas you can use to bring more variety into your workouts instead of relying on the same dull elliptical machine and treadmill workout routines. 

Have fun!

valmillsy

P.S. Learn more about The Truth About Six Pack Abs by clicking HERE.