If you are looking to improve your physical fitness and lose weight without lifting weights, there are many workouts available to help you meet your goals. Some exercises target fat burning, while others increase the number of calories you burn. Some are aerobic in nature, while others help you improve your ability to recover during sports activities by training your anaerobic energy systems.
Cycling Workout
Cycling is an excellent, non-impact way to burn calories. While your muscle use will be limited primarily to your lower body, the effort it takes to keep you going can easily get you into your aerobic target heart rate.
On an indoor bike, adjust the resistance settings to make pedaling easier or more difficult, depending on whether you want an aerobic or sprint-type workout. Standing on the pedals uses different leg muscles than sitting, so use both methods of pedaling if you are able. Changing resistance settings also lets you switch between a longer, slower pedal stroke and a short, quick one to train both low-twitch and high-twitch muscle fibers, depending on which you want to improve.
When riding outdoors, consider riding up and down hills to increase resistance, so you'll have to use more muscle effort. If you want to sprint train, find a long, stretch of level terrain where you won't have to stop or look for intersecting traffic.
Swimming Workout
Swimming provides a non-impact, full-body workout because the only resistance is the water, and you use most of your muscles to pull you through the pool. To get an aerobic workout, swim at a vigorously intense pace for at least 15 minutes. Vary your strokes--crawl, butterfly, sidestroke and breaststroke--to avoid muscle fatigue and to work a larger number of muscles.
To find your aerobic zone, subtract your age from 220, then multiply that number by .7 and .8. The first number is your maximum heart rate. Keeping your heart rate between 70 to 80 percent of your MHR creates an aerobic workout.
To improve your anaerobic energy system, swim sprints, close to your MHR, at about 80 to 90 percent, for 30 seconds, with a 90-second rest. As you get in better condition, you can increase your work to 60 to 90 seconds of work, with an appropriate rest period between each sprint. If you want to combine your training, save sprints for the end of your workout.
Walking/Jogging Workout
Brisk walking, done at 50 to 65 percent of your MHR burns 85 percent calories from fat and provides cardiovascular benefit, as well. Walking burns more calories from fat than aerobic or anaerobic exercise, but it burns fewer calories during the same time, so decide which is best to meet your goals. Add hills to your walks: Walking uphill requires more calf muscle to propel you up the incline, while a downhill grade requires you to brake yourself with your quadriceps. Swing or pump your arms and carry hand weights to add more muscle use to your walk.
When you jog, it's OK to stop and take breaks, which actually gives you a benefit non-stop jogging doesn't. During these short resting periods, your body has the chance to repair and recover, taking lactic acid and other anabolic waste away from your muscles and restoring the adenosine tri-phosphate in your muscles which is depleted during activity. With start-and-stop jogging, run at a slower pace so that you don't tire yourself quickly and make your outing mostly a walk.
If you can jog without stopping, jog at a pace and on a terrain that lets you jog longer as you build up your cardiovascular endurance. Avoid steep hills if you are a beginner who wants to have a continuous jog of 15 minutes or more.
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