Spicing things up with circuits

Sometimes, I get bored with the same old, same old, so I'll start throwing strength and cardio workouts together in strange combinations. When I belonged to a real gym, I would do cardio circuits, too.

If you subscribe to Self or Fitness, they'll occasionally suggest doing one or two minute bursts of cardio in between the strength moves. It burns more calories, effectively turning your strength workout into a cardio workout, too. This time, I did 45 minutes of Taebo, but every 3 minutes I'd stop the tape and do a move from the Self Challenge strength workout for this month. It stretched my workout to a little over an hour, which meant that I kept my heart rate up for that long.

These are particularly fun to do outside with a friend or two. You can set up stations along a track: push-ups, crunches, lunges, etc. You run a 1/4, do an exercise, etc. Some people set them up as relays.