Add Some Madness To Your March Workout!

March Madness giving you inspiration at the gym? These three tips from fitbie.com will add some spice to your workouts, leaving you feeling fit and fab!


1. Make your intervals short, but really intense.

• If you’re already running (or biking or rowing) intervals to burn fat, try making each round short—really short—suggests Mike Wunsch, performance director at Results Fitness in Santa Clarita, CA.
• Even if an interval is 30 seconds, you may pace yourself for the first 10 seconds or so. To keep your intensity high throughout the interval, Wunsch suggests intervals of 15 or 20 seconds each. “It’s only 15 seconds, so you know you can go all out the whole way,” he says.
• Toronto trainer Craig Ballantyne suggests trying even shorter intervals—just 8 seconds per round of work, with 12 seconds rest in between each. He calls them Adrenaline Shuttle Sprints.
• *To boost adrenaline and fat burning, try this go/stop combo for 10-20 minutes straight

2. Do a lot of squats, really fast.

• Squats work more muscles than almost any other exercise. Cram more in—and that way you work the most muscles possible—with this scheme from Ballantyne: Perform as many sets of squats as you can for 10 minutes, with minimal rest between sets.
• This technique works with light or heavy weight. Ballantyne suggests sets of 20 reps with 45 pounds, sets of 15 with 95 pounds, and even sets of 8 with 185 or 205 pounds.

3. Get airborne with every move.

• What's the benefit? You can’t cheat a jump. Either your body leaves the ground or it doesn't, meaning your intensity won’t be in question. Try these explosive swaps for some of your favorite exercises.
• Instead of squats, try a set of jump squats: With or without dumbbells at your sides, push your hips back and lower into a squat until your thighs are nearly parallel to the floor. Push out of the squat so explosively that your feet leave the floor, jumping as high as you can. Land softly, reset, and repeat.
• Swap pushups for explosive pushups: Perform a regular pushup, and as you press back up, push with enough force to lift your hands off the ground. Land, and repeat.
• Swap bodyweight lunges for scissor lunges: With your feet shoulder-width apart, step forward into a lunge, and lower until your front knee is bent at least 90 degrees. Push out of the lunge into a jump and scissor your feet in the air, landing with your feet in opposite positions—your back foot in front, your front foot in back. Dip into a lunge, and repeat.