Boosting your heart rate keeps your heart in top form and burns serious calories—no gym membership required. Here are 18 simple, surprising tips to help you get your heart pumping this summer.
1. Move your workout into the water. The next time you’re at the beach or poolside, take a break from lounge-chair languishing and try a shallow-water workout instead. Walking through thigh-deep water burns nearly twice as many calories as walking on land.
Total burn: More than 210 calories per half-hour
2. Hold the ’07 Olympic trials in your backyard. The real Games may be a year off, but you can make your mark in the garden-rock shot put or sandbox long jump. Choose your favorite summer Olympic sport and tweak it to make it backyard-friendly. Then gather all the friends and family you can and go for the gold.
Total burn: 170 calories per half-hour
3. Adopt a stretch of park or beach and keep it clean. Picking up trash can help both your community and your heart. Start by recruiting buddies, then crank up some fast-paced tunes on your boom box or MP3 player and get to work. All that squatting and lunging will leave you—and the land—looking beautiful.
Total burn: 102 calories per half-hour
4. Take a bike tour of a nearby city. Explore new neighborhoods, or grab a friend and a map to create your own sightseeing trip. Your heart will be racing in no time.
Total burn: Around 270 calories per half-hour at a moderate pace
5. Pick your own berries. Get a full-body workout while you gather fresh fruit. Walk the fields at a nearby farm, pick to your heart’s content, then carry the berry-filled baskets back to your car. To find a local farm, visit pickyourown.org.
Total burn: 102 calories per half-hour
6. “Test out” playground equipment. 170 calories per half-hour
7. Crank up the iPod and get your groove on. 153 calories per half-hour
8. Go canoeing. 119 calories per half-hour
9. Scale the longest staircase in town. 272 calories per half-hour
10. Get spinning with a hula hoop. 153 calories per half-hour
11. Jog on the beach. 238 calories per half-hour
12. Twirl a jump rope. 340 calories per half-hour
13. Play a game of tennis—with no out-of-bounds. 238 calories per half-hour
14. Volunteer to walk dogs at a local shelter. 102 calories per half-hour
15. Take a self-defense class. 340 calories per half-hour
16. Listen to books on tape while walking the chapters away. 129 calories per half-hour
17. Cultivate a garden of your family’s favorite veggies. 136 calories per half-hour
18. Pack a picnic and hike to the perfect spot. 238 calories per half-hour
Note: All calorie estimates are based on a 150-pound woman.
By Bethany Lye
Comments (2)
Well, suppose it’s a pool.
And higher then thigh high? Does the same concept work? please let me know. Suppose the pools 4 ft and your 5′4? haha are they’re any other ways to excercise in a pool an burn as many calories?
Girls – don’t fight – I am a proper English nut, as well. At least, I heard from this that thigh-high is the best. I used to teach water fitness for all groups of individuals, and, really, this is the first time I heard “thigh-high” and I am so glad. Also, note, that water fitness does not put stress on your feet if your are arthritic, but, you can work yourself into more pain if you work out too long or too vigorously. (I am one who knows.) Take it easy at first. People will tend to think water does not really slim you, but when I taught water fitness, my legs became, shall we say, magnificent. I am the caretaker at a large Mansion and Winter is, literally, dead. This article has really given me the impetus to get out their and use my Club membership. Good luck to you all and try, try, try to keep up the good work with the busy schedules. Put yourself first, for a change, and mark your workout days on your calendar, AND DO IT!