Spring is here and it’s time to get serious about fitness. If you’re looking for some quick and easy ways to improve your stamina, strength, and endurance, you’ve come to the right place. Check out these awesome quick fitness boosts:
Mix It Up Boost
Cardio-only workouts keep you from increasing your endurance. Instead, mix up your strength and cardio days. This simple boost puts more of your big muscles to work, providing an uphill battle for your cardiovascular system and heart. Create a sequence or series of sequences that mix it up: for example, burpees followed by leg press and then core work—and repeat.
Walking Boost
Think walking is for old folks? Don’t be so quick to dismiss it. Work walking into every day. Whether you trade in a hamburger at your desk for a packed lunch and a walk or make sure you walk your dog every night, there are serious benefits to walking regularly.
Compound Boost
Compound movements are those that demand that you use more than one joint. The most common examples of compound movements are pull-ups, push-ups, and squats. If you’ve felt like these kinds of moves take more out of you, you’re right; they improve your endurance far more than do isolation moves.
Hybrid Boost
The compound movements make your body work multiple joints; hybrid movements work more muscles by combining two movements that are usually separate into one. Burpees, lunges and bicep curls, and squats with overhead presses are some great examples of hybrid movements. These awesome exercises keep your heart pumping and strength building.
Outdoor Boost
We know, we know: it’s cold. But your body works a lot harder when you get moving despite the chill. And once it gets nicer, take yourself to the park. You’ve got plenty of ground to cover there and some natural exercise equipment in playgrounds, benches, and hills.
Intensity Boost
Most of us don’t have excess time on our hands. But if you really want to boost intensity and add endurance to your routine, try short, fast, intense periods of training with HIIT routines. High intensity interval training (HIIT) helps you boost your fitness in a lot less time. Fast-paced, high-intensity lifting is also a fast way to improve endurance and strength, not to mention boost your metabolism.
Musical Boost
You know how great songs make you want to get up and go? So do psychologists and trainers; the right play mix can make your workout more effective. Brunel University researchers call great music a “legal performance enhancing drug”; music helps you work out longer without feeling as much pain, and even improves your mood.
No Routine Boost
We love that you’ve gotten into a fitness routine, but there are also times you should break out of your patterns. Changing up your workout keeps your mind challenged and works your body in new ways. This builds stamina, strength, and endurance with maximum efficiency.
The Bottom Line
Take charge of your fitness level this Spring! Quick fitness boosts benefit your health, your appearance, and your mindset. The more you boost your fitness now, the greater the pay off.
