Running - A Year Round Plan

by Jeff Galloway

Fat burning and overall fitness exercises Nordic track This exercise machine simulates the motion used in cross country skiing. It is one of the better cross training modes for fat burning because it allows you to use a large number of muscle cells while raising body temperature. If you exercise at an easy pace, you can get into the fat burning zone (past 45 minutes) after a gradual build up to that amount. This exercise requires no pounding of the legs or feet and (unless you push it too hard or too long) allows you to run as usual the next day. Rowing machine There are a number of different types of rowing machines. Some work the legs a bit too hard for runners, but most allow you to use a wide variety of lower and upper body muscle groups. Like Nordic track, if you have the right machine for you, it’s possible to continue to exercise for about as long as you wish, once you have gradually worked up to this. Most of the better machines are good fat-burners: they use a large number of muscle cells, raise temperature, and can be continued for more than three-quarters of an hour. Cycling Indoor cycling (on an exercise cycle) is a better fat burner exercise than outdoor cycling, because it raises your body temperature more—you don’t get the cooling effect of the breeze that you generate on a bike. The muscles used in both indoor and outdoor cycling are mostly the quadraceps muscles—on the front of the thigh—reducing the total number of muscle cells compared with water running...