In today’s world we have learned about all the benefits of living a clean and healthy lifestyle. We look to make sure we are eating right, staying healthy, and working out. There are a few different workouts that you can do to give you that over all body workout. There are four main activities that burn numerous calories while toning your muscles – jumping rope, running, swimming, and cycling. Yet, jumping rope will burn more calories in a shorter period of time than any of the other fitness activities.
Jump Rope
Jumping rope gives you a total body workout. It activates your entire body, from head to toe throughout the whole workout. It makes you focus on picking up your feet and forces you to pay attention to your foot work, making you quicker and more agile. Jumping rope allows you to elevate your heart rate and burn major calories during a shorter amount of time.
Most fitness workouts can cause an athlete to be at risk of injury due to its high impact, however, jumping rope is very safe as the risk of injury is relatively low. Jumping rope is a fun workout as you can continue to improve your skills and learn new tricks. You will even look pretty cool when you are whipping the jump rope around in all directions while you do some difficult trick in front of others.
Getting started is easy, just pick up a rope and start off by doing a few minutes each day and work your way up from there, building to 20 minutes or more. In 30 minutes of jumping rope, you will burn a tremendous amount of calories.
Running
Running is a great stress reliever. It allows people to clear their mind and be alone with their thoughts. This activity is more of a high intensity workout than jump roping. It is great for all ability levels, giving you a full body workout. Running helps you lose weight, burning a large amount of calories. By losing weight consistently through running, you will make your pants fit you a bit better.
Improving your health is another major benefit. You are able to boost your immune system, this way you do not get sick often. Raising your levels of good cholesterol and increasing your lung function while running aids in your overall health and well-being.
When running, you can run at any pace that you feel comfortable with. The harder you run, with a lower mile pace time, the more calories you will burn. You can set a goal for yourself no matter how big or small – whether it is to lower your mile pace time or complete a certain type of race.
Swimming
Swimming burns roughly 350 calories after 30 minutes of exercise, you can even go to a website that allows you to calculate how many calories you can lose per stroke. Just like with running, swimming is a great way to reduce your stress levels. Many people feel that jumping into the water always assists in making them feel good about themselves, including being mentally refreshing. Swimming is a low intensity workout and does not put as much pressure o your body as running does.
No matter what type of mood you’re in – angry, frustrated, or stressed, swimming will help alleviate that tension and boost your mood. You may not be a pro, but you will feel as if you are one. You often release hormones that make you relaxed and happy while swimming.
Just as if you were lifting weights, the water in a pool causes resistance when you are swimming. You have to work harder to get through the water which will help you strengthen your muscles. It is an inexpensive way to strengthen your muscles without weights or machines.
The benefits of swimming continue even after you have left the pool. Vigorous laps of swimming cause you to really burn through your energy, thus making you even more tired at bedtime. When your head hits the pillow after a swim, you will often fall right to sleep.
Cycling
Cycling is a middle of the road exercise when it comes to its intensity level. Most people think that due to pedaling during cycling, the muscles that are being toned are calves and thighs; however, your whole body is getting a workout. Your entire body is involved in the momentum of pedaling, working all muscles. When balancing, it may not seem so, but you are using your arm muscles as well.
By cycling there is an increased flexibility of the muscles and more aerobic conditioning is taking place. This type of workout increases stamina and raises energy levels, which is great if you are trying to train for a triathlon as you have to complete another activity after cycling.
Cycling is known to help with pain management. It is a stress reliever as cycling has a calming effect and takes away tension. It also is not meant just for fitness purposes either; cycling can be used as a mode of transportation to and from work or when you need to go out shopping. Therefore, even when you aren’t working out for fitness purposes, you are still toning your whole body.
The ins and outs of these Four Major Workouts
There are many similarities between these four fitness regimens. Each of these can help you lose weight, but with jumping rope, you lose more calories in less time than if you were completing any of the other workouts for the same amount of time. Another similarity these workouts have is that they primarily give you a full-body workout. Yet, jumping rope activates the entire body and gives one of the best full-body workouts in the least amount of physical time.
All of these exercises relieve stress and tension as working out often allows people to get into their own mindset and clear their heads. Each of these exercises has its benefits and an athlete should focus on the one or a combination of a few of these, that works for their schedule and physical fitness needs to help reach their fitness goals