6 Cardio Workouts that Are Better than Running

If you want all the benefits of a great cardio workout without having to run, then this post is for you. Here we have some MMA and Boxing inspired workouts, as well as some high-intensity, high-volume training methods that will build muscle, burn fat, and keep your heart healthy. No need to pound the pavement and no treadmill required.

Let’s begin.

Human beings are built for endurance. That’s right, we are endurance animals. We’re made by our Creator to track animals for miles and miles while in pursuit of a kill. (That’s how we eat.)

There’s no need to hunt wild game anymore so our endurance has been reduced significantly. (Some would argue catastrophically.)

The potential is still there to have good endurance and a strong, healthy heart, you just need conditioning. We are humans with high potential after all. Most people figure jogging is the best way to build endurance.

Sure, it can be effective, but running sucks. It’s the most boring workout on the planet.

Luckily, there are fun ways to do cardio that don’t involve running.

Check out these alternatives to running which are inspired by some of the most elite athletic training protocols in existence.

But before we get into that, why would anyone do cardio in the first place?

Why Do Cardio?

Cardio is short for cardiovascular.

“Cardio” is the term for training cardiovascular efficiency and improving respiratory health. Thus, improving how well your body intakes and used oxygen, which is critically important for everything you do. Your energy levels, mood and productivity are all impacted by your blood oxygen level.

Meaning, cardio keeps your heart healthy. Your heart is a muscle that needs to be trained just like every other muscle in your body.

Cardio training also improves circulation and respiratory efficiency.

Which is important for nutrient delivery, healthy body functions, and expelling waste/toxins from body tissues.

Cardio is an effective fat burner, and is a great way to get lean.

Look at MMA fighters for example. They have dense muscles and ripped physiques.

Conditioning reduces fat that otherwise covers your muscle. A low body fat is how you get that look ‘hard’ and ‘cut’ look.

This article contains training techniques inspired by Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing workouts. Anyone can add these methods to their workout to burn more fat and build more muscle.

I put this list together because there are better way to train cardio than running.

Running is Good for Cardio, but There are Better Ways to Train

People run for three reasons:

They want to lose fat and look good.
They want to improve their overall health.
There’s a bear chasing them.

This article provides a solution for the first two. For the third you’re on your own.

Getting healthy and wanting to be the best version of yourself are noble reasons to run. But there are better ways to lose fat and improve health.

My biggest beef with running is that it’s terribly inefficient. Unless you are a runner, who runs for the sake of running, you are wasting time.

Let me explain:

Burning more calories than you consume leads to fat loss. Calories are burned through activity, recovery, and cell maintenance.

Although running is an activity that burns calories, very few calories are burned after the workout for recovery.

Running does not build (much) muscle so there’s no additional cell maintenance.

Running only burns calories while you are running.

The cardio workouts I’m about to present to you burn over 3x the calories. And they do it in less time.

These workouts are more intense than running and get results faster.

First up:

Barbell Complex Workout

Barbell complexes are a hybrid workout. They blend cardio and resistance training together.

They are high-rep workouts performing compound movements.

For this reason, barbell complexes are quite possibly the best way to build muscle, burn fat, get strong, and improve endurance all at the same time.

All you need is a barbell or E-Z bar for a barbell complex workout.

Compound exercises are multi-joint movements like squat, Press, Row, and Deadlift.

But instead of doing a pre-determined amount of sets and reps, you do a barbell complex exercise for as many reps as possible, within a certain length of time.

barbell complexes are a super simple total body workout that can be summed up this way: Just grab a barbell and move the weight for 20 minutes straight.

Do lunges, squats, deadlifts, clean and press, good mornings and shoulder press.

Do each exercise for 2-4 minutes. Don’t worry about sets and reps. Rest when you have to but keep rest as brief as possible. You want to work up a sweat and feel the burn.

Keep moving and do as many reps as possible for as long as possible.

Barbell Complex Benefits

Barbell complexes have a long list of benefits including burning fat, building muscle, and all the positives that come with preforming cardio exercises. They are one of the few ways to recompose your entire body by building muscle and burning fat at the same time.

The added muscle mass will reshape your physique, and burn calories around the clock.

Muscle Density

High rep workouts create muscle density.

Building dense, hard muscle requires many, many reps, and a lot of time under tension.

If you have dense muscles and low body fat, you will look powerful, athletic, and ripped.

4 barbell complex workouts a week will reshape your body faster than most any other workout routine.

And it only takes 20-minute workouts.

Barbell Complex Equipment

All you need to perform barbell complexes are a barbell (any size, although a barbell shorter then a regular 7-foot olympic barbell is a good bet in order to improve maneuverability. An EZ- Curl bar will work, too.)

Barbell Complex Workout Routine

The barbell complex workout consists of six compound exercises.

Perform each exercises non-stop for 3 minutes. Take a 30-60 second breather to change the weights and start the next exercise.

The goal is to do as many reps as possible, get the heart rate in the fat burning zone, and break a rolling sweat.

Deadlifts – 3 minutes
Clean and Press – 3 minutes
Bent Over Rows – 3 minutes
Military Press – 3 minutes
Squats – 3 minutes
Good Mornings -3 minutes

Barbell complexes do not require much weight. Beginners should use an unloaded 20 or 30-pound curling bar.

Once you’re more advanced you can add weight to make workouts more challenging.

Mixed Martial Arts Cardio Workouts

Mixed martial arts practitioners are some of the best conditioned people on Earth.

Their strength, endurance and athleticism is off the charts. These guys and girls are in and arms race to dominate the arena. Their workouts are a blend of various cardio activities.

They need strong hearts and lungs to stay in the fight.

Some of the favorite MMA cardio workouts are swimming, rowing, climbing and the stationary bike with added resistance.

Sparring. Get a membership at a boxing gym. Have a fresh opponent jump in each round to make you level up your game.

You don’t have to be training for the Octagon to benefit greatly from the following workouts.

Heavy Bag Workout

Punch a heavy bag non-stop for 1 minute and you’ll break a sweat. Guaranteed.

Heavy bag training is a total body workout that will give you defined arms, shoulders and abs.

Boxing is the ultimate endurance sport. Three, 15-minute rounds of constant movement.

The boxing training is just as grueling, intense, and relentless as the matches.

A full-on boxing workout will have you puking your guts out if you’re not ready for it.

I’ve been to a few different boxing gyms and the workouts are non-stop bodyweight exercises, handwork, and footwork technique. It takes a lot poise and non-stop motion.

Lots of shuffling, running, skipping rope and throwing punches. You are constantly moving. I cannot stress this part enough. MOVE.

It’s mentally and physically exhausting. A one hour boxing workout can burn over 1000 calories.

No boxing workout is complete without punching the heavy bag.

Heavy Bag Training is a Total Body Workout

Punching a heavy bag strengthens muscles, bones, joints and ligaments.

Hitting a resilient object making you stronger in every way.

Your muscles flex hard with each punch thrown. When your fist hits the heavy bag, the impact actually damages your muscle slightly, which your body repairs while you rest and makes them stronger.

To throw a solid punch you generate power by pushing your feet off the ground and transferring energy up your legs, through your core, through your shoulders and arms, all the way to your fist.

Every muscle in your body is engaged as you ‘dance’ around the bag.

The core stabilizes your body as you move in all directions and twist into punches from all angles. Your arms and shoulders are contracted throughout the entire workout while holding up your ‘dukes’.

Your entire body is works as a single unit when hitting the heavy bag. This trains your body as one big kinetic chain.

The constant motion, coupled with the striking and leg drive taxes your system.

This puts demand on your muscles and respiratory. Resulting in increased heart rate, heavy breathing, sweating and ultra fat burning.

Bob and Weave Constantly

It’s harder to hit a moving target.

When hitting a heavy bag, make sure you’re moving constantly.

Bob and weave back and forth, and side-to-side. Never keep your feet in one spot for more than a second.

This constant motion is a total body workout and one of the best cardio workouts you can do.

Do three rounds with a heavy bag throwing flurry after flurry until exhaustion.

Between each round take a quick, 1-minute break then do it again. Add more rounds as you get used to the workout. I use an 80 pound heavy bag and leather clinch gloves and recommend both. You want to make sure the bag is heavy enough to resit your punches in order to get the most from this workout. A bag that’s too light will not help you get stronger.

There’s a guy I know of that locked him self in a barn with a 100 pound heavy bag in summer heat and humidity. No fan, no air conditioning. and hit a heavy bag for 30 minutes straight. While training for Tough Man competition. He won his weight class.

Skip Rope / Jump Rope

Skipping rope is one of the best cardio workouts you can do. Jumping rope conditions your legs, core and arms all at the same time. Your shoulders will get rounder and more defined. Your thighs and calves will get stronger and leaner.

The jump rope motion puts constant tension on your shoulders, upper arm and forearms. Skipping rope for 5 days in a row for 20 minutes and you’ll notice you will have more defined arms and calves.

Skipping Rope increases your over athleticism and agility. Muhammad Ali skipped rope each workout. His quickness and footwork could be attributed partly to skipping rope.

He positioned his feet in a different spot every time he landed. It made him agile and quick on his feet because he worked his legs from so many angles so frequently.

This simulated the infinite number of foot positions he could be in at any point during a fight. Get a jump rope here and keep it in your gym bag for a quick workout anywhere.

Skipping rope works all the 200+ muscles in your legs for major calorie burning potential.

Plyometrics Workouts

Plyometrics are a type of workout for increasing explosive power. Think box jumps and clapping push ups.

The goal of plyometrics is to increase athleticism and overall fitness, explosive power, vertical leap, and quickness.

Power requires muscle to output force. The more force you can exert, that stronger you are and the more muscle you will gain.

To perform a plyometrics workout, all your need is a tall, sturdy box. Wear good shoes that fit and have good grip and support. You can enhance any plyometrics workout with a weighted vest.

Calisthenics Workouts for Cardio

Planks, push ups, burpees, pull ups, dips, and squat jumps are all incredible conditioning exercises.

20 straight minutes of any of the exercises above will rock your world.

The best part is that there are unlimited variations to calisthenic exercises, so if you ever get bored you can easily mix up the routine.

Never underestimate the effectiveness of simple bodyweight exercises.

Bodyweight exercises circuit training is a staple of many military personal and street workout connoisseurs.

Wear a weighted vest for added resistance and faster results.

Bodyweight Exercise Circuit

Do Pushups, then pull ups, then dips, then repeat.

Do as many push ups in a row as possible, then immediately do as many pull-ups as possible, then immediately do as many dips as possible. Then repeat that entire cycle until your completely exhausted.

Bodyweight circuits are very intense but incredibly effective. The best part is this workout can be done at home. All you need is a pull up bar if you want to do pull ups.

Give these workouts a shot next time you do cardio. You’ll see results that you would never get from running in a fraction of the time

Running is a Waste of Time

In my opinion, unless you enjoy running, it’s a waste of time. There are better, faster ways to reach your goal.

Don’t get me wrong – running is good exercises. It burns calories, and it’s a hell of a lot better than doing nothing.

BUT running is not efficient for losing fat and it can be bad on your joints.

I get bored running. Especially running on a treadmill indoors, breathing stale air.

Running more then once or twice a week seems more like a chore to me rather than an enjoyable activity.

In fact, I ran less than 5 time in the past year. And I still have abs to show for it.

“But won’t I lose endurance if I don’t run?”

You won’t lose endurance by not running as long as you train in a manner that keeps your heart rate elevated for an extended period of time. (Think super-sets and high volume workouts with little rest between sets.)

I recently went for a 5-mile run with my girlfriend. I ran the entire way, at a good pace, without stopping more than a minute 2-3 times. Proof that you don’t need to run to do cardio to keep your endurance.

There are Better Ways to Burn Fat

If you’re running to lose weight, there are better ways to burn fat.

If you want to lose fat, you’re better off building muscle. Muscle burns calories 24/7/365. Not only that, but adding muscle is the only way to reshape your body.

The workouts mentioned in this post can produce twice the results in half the time it would take for running.

Remember, running only burns calories while you are running.

High intensity training with resistance over consistent intervals burns calories during and after the workout.

These workouts pay dividends for life. Get off the treadmill and get ahead of the weight loss gain by building muscle.

6 Cardio Workouts for People Who Hate Running

Why Do Cardio?

Running is Good for Cardio, but There are Better Ways to Train

Barbell Complex Workout