Find Out How You Can Use Running To Lose Your Tummy Fat

By: Nick Jervis Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Do you use running to help you with your excercise regime already but find that often you struggle to get to the next level? Do you need some inspiration to lift you to the next stage and make some real progress. If yes, this article is here to help you.

Pick one of the following options and replace one of your weekly runs (or two if you run more than four to five times per week) with the suggested alternative. The idea is that you will increase the intensity but reduce the length of your workout by about 20 to 30 percent. Not only will this stimulate you mentally, but as it will make you work harder than you usually do it will bur more calories, great for your tummy!

If you are not a regular runner but realise you need to do more to improve your health, fitness and waist size, these are great routines to do.

Hill Running

Add some hill running to your program, particularly if you have been running or walking. You could shorten the length of your workouts but increase the intensity by adding the hills. For example in a 30-minute workout you could add in a 30 second to one minute hill run (depending on your fitness level and the slope of the hill) once every five minutes.

Beach Running

Get yourself to the beach if possible, replace one of your weekly runs with a session on the sand (the soft sand will work you much harder if your up to it!).

Bring stair climbing into one of your weekly runs. Find a set of steps to challenge your cardiovascular system and coordination and balance. Depending on the height of the stairs you will need to climb one to two stairs at a time. Run up the stairs as fast as you can and then recover whilst walking down the stairs at a slower pace. Replace about 20 percent of your workout with some stair running after a decent warm up. It is up to you when to do it, but doing this in the middle or at the end of your workout could really test you.

Break Up The Running For Variety

Break up your run with some resistance work in a park. Replace about 10 minutes of your run with 10 exercises; do as many of each in one minute as you can. Do as many push ups as you can in one minute and rest for anytime left over in that one minute period; if you can do 30 push ups and it takes you 40 seconds, then rest for the remaining 20 seconds. Here are a list of ten exercises; try them in order so that the upper and lower body get a break between exercises:

Press ups (narrow grip)
Squats
Dips
Lunges
Chin ups (find a bar in a park)
Calf raises (kids playground equipment can be useful as a step for these)
Air boxing
Running on the spot
Press Ups (wide grip)
Step ups (using a park bench)

Overall, variety is the key but so are the goals you are trying to attain. It is best to have your programmed reviewed regularly to avoid boredom and overuse injuries. We can all get stale and even the fittest runner can plateau. Reducing the length of workouts and increasing the intensity is one of the easiest ways to increase variety and add some spice into your workouts! Keep going, you can make it!