When many people think of aerobic workouts, they focus on the cardiovascular benefits of maintaining heart health and burning calories. However, a one-hour aerobic workout provides enough time to also engage in activities that strengthen your muscles and build your flexibility. The key is to move quickly and fluidly so that you maintain an increased heart rate.
Pumping Weights
One of the easiest ways to make your one-hour aerobic workout more challenging and to give it a strengthening component is to add weights. Use light hand weights or strap on wrist weights. Keep your shoulders relaxed and fluidly pump your arms up and down as you walk briskly, jog, run or climb stairs. The light weights and high amount of repetitions will tone your arm muscles. If you want to target your shoulder muscles, raise your arms overhead for a few sets. Work your chest muscles by holding the weights upright, with your arms at 90-degree angles and slowly bring them toward your chest until your elbows touch.
Yoga
Forget seated meditation and restorative yoga. The more vigorous forms of yoga, like hot yoga, power yoga and Bikram yoga, provide an intense cardiovascular workout while also putting you through bends, poses and stretches that target your upper body, lower body and core muscles. Even simpler forms of yoga, such as doing a series of sun salutations, provide an aerobic, strengthening and flexibility workout if you keep the pace challenging.
Circuit Training
In circuit training, you customize your workout to meet your fitness goals. Most people aim for a mix of aerobic and strengthening exercises. Designate between six and 10 exercise stations that include cardiovascular work such as running in place, riding a stationary bicycle, using a stair-climber and jogging on a treadmill set at an incline. Alternate these stations with using resistance machines, doing bench presses and doing situps on a slant board.
Boot Camp
In boot camp workouts, participants move through a series of back-to-basics exercises and challenges that include calisthenics, floor work and sprinting. Boost muscle power and raise your heart rate with intense exercises such as pullups, abdominal crunches, lateral raises, triceps dips, squats, pushups and lunges. Add more cardiovascular exercise by doing jumping jacks, running up stairs, sprinting uphill, jumping rope or doing high kicks into a punching bag.
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