Newport Skinny Tea

Running is a challenging, effective workout, there's no doubt about it. Considered the gold standard for burning calories, running does have some draw backs, often beginning runners get injured and then are sidelined for an extended period of time. Plus, it can be boring and isolating if you often run alone.

Creating a new, varied Spring time exercise program with many different challenging workouts to cross train the body protects you from injury and overusing muscles, plus our bodies love to be constantly challenged in new ways to keep our metabolism and muscles surprised, which is great for your body and keeping you mentally engaged as well. Have fun with it, create a chart or use an app on your phone to pick 5 things you haven't tried before and see if you can do them each once a week for the next four weeks!

Your goal: Design a life you love, try new things that get results in less time and don't make you dread doing them. We're looking for exercises that burn around 10 calories per minute. Some you can sneak in from the list below, get up 20 minutes early or try doing them at night instead of snacking. I'm also going to challenge you to try something new that's SCARY! Like ballroom dancing, hula hoop class or surfing, anything you've always wanted to try but haven't yet! Something that the very thought of it gets you excited and thinking "wouldn't it be so cool if I knew how to...."

That's how you design a life you love!

Here's a list of other exercises that burn over 10 calories per minute:

Weight training

As little as 10 minutes, 3 times per week can have a positive effect on your body composition. It doesn't have to be a full-blown gym session to count either!

Researchers at the University of Southern Maine used a more advanced method to estimate energy expenditure during exercise, they found that weight training burns up to 71 percent more calories than originally thought. Which suggests that a fast-paced circuit workout burns as many calories as running at a 6-minute per mile pace.

Make sure you're lifting weights heavy enough to produce fatigue within 8-10 reps and perform the "negative" portion of the exercise twice as slowly as the lifting portion, this will maximize your results.

Burpees

Here's an explanation from Wiki

The burpee is a full body exercise used in strength training and as an aerobic exercise. The basic movement is performed in four steps and known as a "four-count burpee":

1. Begin in a standing position.
2. Drop into a squat position with your hands on the ground. (count 1)
3. Kick your feet back, while keeping your arms extended. (count 2)
4. Immediately return your feet to the squat position. (count 3)
5. Jump up from the squat position (count 4)

This link has a tutorial on burpees and other jumps: http://skinnyms.com/jazzed-up-jacks-and-jumps-tabata-workout/

Indoor Bike Sprints

Its possible to burn over 80 calories per minute if you give it everything you've got, make sure to follow the sprint with a cool down at least twice as long. Usually this requires a gym membership, but you can find creative solutions if you look for them. They even make under desk mini cycles now you can use while you work!

Jumping Rope

Portable and very inexpensive you can take a jump rope with you on a walk, travelling, in your car, outdoors, inside watching TV or while your kids play at the park, you can burn approximately 13 calories per minute jumping rope. It is one of the higher impact exercises on this list, so mix it in to your schedule but don't rely on it everyday. This link has tutorials on jumping rope and other jumps: http://skinnyms.com/jazzed-up-jacks-and-jumps-tabata-workout/

HIIT Circuits

From Dailyburn.com here's a beginners 20 minute HIIT circuit, where you perform 45 seconds of work, followed by 15 seconds of rest for 5 exercises and then you rest 1 minute between rounds and complete 3 rounds:

• Push Ups
• Squats
• Butt Kicks
• Tricep Dips
• Side Lunges

Tabata Jump Squats

This four-minute miracle drill burns major calories both during a workout and after. In an Auburn University at Montgomery study, participants who did eight rounds of all-out jump squats—20 seconds of hard work, separated by 10 seconds of rest—burned 13.4 calories per minute and doubled their post-exercise metabolic rate for at least 30 minutes.

This link has tutorials on a jumping sequence: http://skinnyms.com/jazzed-up-jacks-and-jumps-tabata-workout/

Kettlebell Swing

This explosive exercise works the big, powerful muscles around your glutes and quads, and sends your heart into overdrive, according to research from the University of Wisconsin. The motion of swinging the kettlebell really feels strange at first and works muscles you didn't even know you had! For between $10-$20 you can find one of these at Target and its an easy, fast workout to do while you're watching TV. This exercise will help you get those flat abs you want to show off in summer too, start with 10 sets of 10. See the instruction below from Prevention.com