Doing at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity like walking, running or cycling can help you live a longer, healthier life. As an added benefit, you breathe more deeply and heavily during aerobic activity, making your heartbeat faster and more blood to flow to your heart and lungs, while your small blood vessels widen to remove waste products and release endorphins, which promote a general sense of well-being.
Step 1
Perform the half Turkish get-up exercise to tone your abdominal muscles, obliques, buttocks and hamstrings while doing aerobic activity. Lie face up on the floor with your right knee bent with your foot flat on the floor and your left leg extended outward. Raise your right arm toward the ceiling and extend your left arm directly out to the side on the floor with your palm down. Engage your abdominal muscles and press onto your left forearm to lift your torso off the floor, propping yourself up on your left elbow. Press into your left palm and right heel and squeeze your gluteal muscles to lift your hips and left leg up so your body is parallel to the floor. Reverse the motion and repeat the exercise for the desired amount of repetitions.
Step 2
Jump rope to get your heart rate pumping and burn calories through aerobic activity. To jump rope most efficiently, keep your arms by your sides as you swing the rope and keep your feet together. Make as tight a circle as possible, and jump as fat as you can for one minute before taking a break. Repeat the exercise if desired.
Step 3
Add the spider jump to your workout routine. Start on the floor in a full pushup position. Maintaining that position, lunge forward with your right foot toward the outside of your right hand. Balancing on your hands, jump off the floor, switching the position of your feet, bringing your left foot to the outside of your left hand and extending your right leg behind you. Continue the exercise, alternating legs for one to two minutes.
Step 4
Do shuttle-run drills to increase your physical agility and endurance while improving cardiovascular health. To do shuttle-run drills, mark two lines 30 feet apart with a piece of chalk. Run from just behind one line to the other and touch the ground with your hand. Run back as quickly as possible before repeating the exercise for as many repetitions as you want, increasing the number as your endurance increases.
Things You'll Need
- Jump rope
- Chalk
References
- Fitness" magazine: Get Fit: Express Workout; Rachel Buschert Vaziralli; February 2011
- "Health" magazine: Your Best Body Ever; Shaun Chavis, Su Reid-St. John; January/February 2011
- MayoClinic.com: Aerobic Exercise: Top 10 Reasons to Get Physical
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