5 Workouts That Blast Calories Away

Are you ready to change your workouts up? Not burning enough calories?

It's easy to get lazy when it comes to your fitness routine. That sounds like the opposite of what it should be. How could people get lazy when it comes to fitness? People tend to get comfortable with the same routine. This leads to doing the same fitness routine every day of each week. It's important to consistently change things up if you want your body to continue to change and respond to all of the hard work you're putting in. Find out how you can switch up your workouts and burn some serious calories while doing it. These five workouts may help you change your fitness routine and burn baby burn!

1. HIIT Training. HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training. Done in short periods of intervals, HIIT is a fantastic way to improve your cardio fitness, rev up your metabolism and burn a ton of calories in a short period of time. To do HIIT you'll need to think high intensity vs. low intensity. An example of a HIIT workout would be to sprint for 1 minute at the highest level you can sprint. Follow that sprint up by a recovery period of walking. Walk until you have fully recovered. Repeat this high intensity low intensity scenario 8 to 10 times. If you decide to use HIIT in your training, start slow and build up to more intense intervals. Twenty minutes of HIIT is enough to achieve the results you're looking for.

2. Soft Sand. The sand is your friend! Unfortunately, we're not talking about the kind of sand that you normally walk or run on down by the water. Hit the soft, deep sand that's hard to walk in. You'll burn up to 50% more calories working out in the soft sand than on pavement. At that rate, an hour workout could pack in a fierce calorie burn.

3. Body weight. Use your body -- your whole body. Take the bodyweight workout to the limit by pushing yourself to push your body weight, pull your body weight and run like the wind. Exercises like push ups, pull ups, lunges, squats, inchworm, frog hops and more can work your muscles in a way you normally wouldn't work them. In addition, this type of training conditions your body in a functional way keeping you fit for the activities of daily living and beyond.

4. Altitude. Head for the hills or mountains. Your metabolic rate can get a natural boost of up to 10% when working out in higher altitudes. Activities like skiing, hiking, climbing and mountain biking are not only fun but also get the metabolism going in a big way. Your body has to function at a much more efficient rate due to the lack of oxygen. You'll challenge your heart and lungs and condition your body in a whole new way. Getting out of the gym and into the outdoors will work muscles you never knew you had! Make sure to acclimate to altitude before you go all out with your workouts.

5. Martial Arts. Not only are martial arts disciplines incredibly challenging to participate in but they have a purpose. Learn a skill like boxing, karate or basic self defense while getting your heart pumping and leaving your aggression and stress in the ring. Martial arts burn calories and also help to center yourself enabling you to become very body aware. Knock out your opponent and knock those calories right out of your body with martial arts! Try out different disciplines like kick boxing, karate, taekwondo or mixed martial arts to determine your preferred type.