These exercises will help you to shed kilos and tone up without going crazy at the gym

Is your gym trainer making your run like a dog on that not-so-knee friendly treadmill? Ladies, it’s time to catch your breath because just running is not going to get you a ripped body. 

Don’t worry–there is still a way for you to lose weight effectively. According to research conducted at the University of Copenhagen, only 30 minutes are enough to lose weight. All you need to do is exercise properly. Isn’t it brilliant?

The key here, is exercising properly–which makes running on the treadmill or exhausting yourself on the elliptical trainer a futile endeavour. That said, these five exercises can burn a whole lot of calories–sans any fancy equipment. Bonus? These exercises will also tone your entire body. 

1. Burpees FTW
Let’s play a game: tell us a muscle or a body area that you want to tone. Legs, arms, belly, butt, or something else? If you said all that and more–then my dear you need to try burpees.

According to Harvard University, a 56-kilo person can burn 240 calories in 30 minutes doing “vigorous calisthenics”, like burpees.

That’s how you do it: We aren’t suggesting you do it in one go. Break it into sets and then keep increasing the number of burpees you can do in one go.

2. Push-ups for one and all
Let us bust a big fitness myth today: push-ups are not a male dominant territory. You can do them easily. In fact, push-ups promise a full upper-body workout. They not only burn fat, but also tighten your muscles and tone them.

Fact check: Push-ups burn seven to eight calories a minute on average. So, if you do five sets of 25 push-ups each, then you can easily burn upto 200 calories–which is not a bad deal, BTW.

Also, read: Not just weight loss, here are 5 other things drinking green tea can do for you

That’s how it’s done: You should start with knee push-ups first to strengthen your arms and then graduate to regular push-ups, diamond push-ups, close-push-ups, and other variants.

3. Screw that fat with squats
We are with you when you say that you hate legs day. But then again, who doesn’t want toned legs? And if you want them too, then it’s time you depend on squats.

Depending on the intensity and your weight, squats have the capacity to burn 35 calories per minute, says a study published in the journal PLoS One.

Also, read: 7 exercises you can even do in the metro to get a well-toned body

Plus, it acts as a bonus in shaping up your sides and helps you in developing an hour-glass figure. That’s why skipping leg day is a big mistake.

That’s how it’s done: Follow this trajectory to avoid sore legs–half squats before you hop on to full. Then, mix them both–one half and one full. Jumping squats can also do wonders, but take your time to get to them.

4. Do the jumping jacks
This is the simplest exercise you can think of–and again it’s a full body wonder. As such there are no techniques required and you can do as many as you can.

That said, intensity and extensions matters and you can burn eight to 16 calories per minute.

That’s how you do it: Vary your speed and try different variants like–front raise jumping jacks, cross jumping jacks, or high knee jumping jacks.

5. Pull-up a plank
We know that you are well aware of the fact that planks are phenomenal and that’s why we aren’t repeating it again.

In fact, we have something else for you. You’ll be happy to know that a basic plank that you hold for a minute can help you burn up to five calories. But it does muscle strengthening too and that too for your entire body.

That’s how it’s done: Start with a basic plank and try to hold it to your maximum ability. Then slowly start increasing the timing by 10 seconds. Once that’s done then try straight arm raise plank and weighted planks (where you put weight on your back). Keeping your core tight while doing a plank is another ripper.

So, that’s done and dusted from our side ladies. Now try these and see how well they work for you. Here’s another tip: you can create a circuit of all five exercises and can amp up the weight loss and toning game for yourself.