Cardio Conditioning
"If you're not doing cardio three times a week, you need to start," Peeke says. "And if you're up to three weekly workouts, try to add more sessions. After 40, you have to try to do it every day to keep your metabolism humming: Deliberately knock out 300 to 400 calories on an elliptical trainer, a treadmill, a Spinning bike, whatever. Walking also counts." Cardio workouts, unlike strength training, can be done every day. "It's a lower-intensity stimulus on your muscles for a longer period of time," Westcott notes. "But if you want to take your cardio training to the next level, you have to alternate hard-training days with easier walking days so your muscles have time to recover."
Break Out of Your Rut
Try a new activity, class, or machine to shake your muscles out of complacency. The more you repeat a certain activity, the more efficient your muscles become, so you burn fewer calories. Can't sever your attachment to the treadmill? Change the incline to increase intensity and vary the movement: "You get the same results from a three-mile-per-hour walk on a treadmill at a six percent incline -- and get the same calorie burn -- as from running on a flat surface at a quicker pace," Brooks says.
Focus for Results
Reality check: Do you bring stacks of stuff to read while you're on the bike? "If you can focus on something else while you're working out, you're not doing it hard enough," Kaehler says. Listening to music is fine, however; the tunes you pick can actually help you kick up your effort.
Do a Condensed Cardio Session
"Get it out of your mind that cardio has to be 30 to 50 minutes every time to be meaningful," Kaehler says. Alternate two vigorous 20-minute workouts with three or four longer workouts every week. On the two days a week you strength train, do a 20-minute interval workout after you finish the weights. Increase the speed, incline, or resistance every five minutes to keep yourself working. On cardio-only days, break those longer sessions into three or four 15-minute bouts on different machines.
Push Your Comfort Zone
"I see women who walk at the same pace every day," Smith says. "To really see results, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone at least 10 to 20 percent of the time. I explain it in terms of expressions: You've got your happy face on when you're walking with your girlfriends. Every once in a while, you need that determined face, where you're almost breathless and thinking, 'I can do this for only 90 seconds.' It's those 90-second spurts that really improve your fitness level."
Try Circuit Training
"My secret psych-up for circuit training is that I feel like I can do anything for 30 seconds or a minute, so I push myself much harder when I work out in a circuit," Kaehler says. Since you're constantly changing activities, you tend not to slow down, the way you would if you were on the treadmill for 30 minutes. "When you're doing a circuit, you burn about seven calories a minute," Westcott says. "That's about 200 per half hour."
Circuits are easy to create at home: Just alternate a cardio move with a few strength exercises, as in the following example:
- Jump rope (or do jumping jacks) for 30 seconds to one minute, then grab some weights and...
- Do as many biceps curls as you can in one minute, then...
- Do as many lunges (alternate legs) or squats as you can in one minute, then grab some weights and...
- Do as many overhead triceps extensions (work arms one at a time) as you can in one minute, then...
- Jump rope for 30 seconds to one minute, then rest 30 seconds. Repeat this circuit two or three times.
Clock Your Efforts
There's nothing like using a stopwatch to assess your intensity. Make one of your weekly workouts a timed one. If you're a runner, find a hill and run repeats: Run up, timing yourself, and then jog back down. Repeat eight to 10 times, trying to continue running up the hill in the same amount of time. If you're a walker, map out a mile and time how long it takes you to walk it. Now push it: If you walk a 20-minute mile, shoot for 17 to 18 minutes; if you pump out a 15-minute mile, try for 12 or 13.
"These push-the-pace workouts really improve your underlying endurance," Smith says. When you find that they get too easy, try to do them at a faster pace.
Love What You Do
"Pick an activity you enjoy, whether it's soccer, golf, rock climbing, or cycling, and you have a built-in motivation to do more of it because you'll want to improve your skills for your sport," Brooks says. "If you're excited about something, you're motivated to become proficient at it and to do it more frequently, which will translate into results."
Discover Centering Activities
Sometimes it's not about the calorie burn but about rebalancing your chemistry. When stress hits, adrenaline mobilizes your fat cells to discharge their energy stores into your bloodstream. Cortisol then grabs the excess and stashes it in your abdomen. "Learning to manage our stress response so we're not draining our systems, which can disturb metabolism and lead to weight gain, is a key factor here," Smith says. Choose the activity that you find most meditative, whether it's yoga, hiking outdoors, or stretching. Do it regularly.
