People exercise for varied reasons. You may exercise to improve your health, cardio fitness or endurance. Or perhaps you hit the gym because it gets you out of the house and reduces your stress. Whatever your reasons, burning calories probably ranks among your chief motives for pushing yourself out of the easy chair and into a workout. However, not all exercise is created equal in terms of burning calories. Certain kinds of exercises burn more calories while you're doing them, and burn even more calories after you have finished your workout.
Do Aerobics
Aerobic exercise is basically any activity that increases your need for oxygen. Exercise that involves continuous use of large muscle groups, such as walking, jogging, playing sports, swimming or biking, increases your need for oxygen. In general, the more muscles you use, the greater your oxygen consumption and the more calories you burn. This means that when you find yourself breathing heavier, you are burning more calories. Typically, as you move from rest to exercise, your breathing increases exponentially until it reaches a steady state. This transition usually takes about 3 minutes, according to University of New Mexico. Once you've reached this stable breathing pattern, you should strive to at least maintain that level of exertion. Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise that you sustain for at least 30 minutes will be the most effective strategy for most people. If the intensity of the workout is too great, you will not be able to sustain the activity, but if it is not intense enough, you won't induce sufficient aerobic activity to optimize calorie consumption.
Build Up Speed and Intensity
You can maximize the calories you burn by progressively increasing the intensity of your activity over the course of your workout. You want to gradually increase the intensity so you can sustain a long workout, but eventually attain a high load on your cardiorespiratory system, suggests exercise researcher, Len Kravitz. If you are jogging, slowly increase your speed over the course of your run, or if you are working out on a treadmill, increase the grade or speed.
Intersperse Intense Activity
Another way to burn more calories is to intersperse short bursts of high intensity activity into your low-to-moderate intensity workout. This sort of workout, called interval training, not only burns more calories during the workout, but it increases the so-called after-burn, the calories you burn after you've completed your workout. For example, when walking or jogging, every 5 minutes or so break into a 20-second sprint.
Work Your Lower Body
Exercises vary in how much they work out your upper and lower body. Working out your lower body increases the calories you burn, primarily because you use more muscle mass when you engage the gluteal muscles, the largest muscles in your body. Working your upper body simultaneously, for example by carrying weights and swinging your arms while running, may increase the intensity of your workout, but if it fatigues you and decreases the duration of your workout, you are better off focusing on just your lower body and having a longer workout, according to Kravitz.
Build Muscles
Incorporate weight training two or three days a week into your exercise program. Weight training builds lean muscle mass, which heightens your metabolism, increasing the number of calories you burn whether you are working out or at rest.
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