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Mixing cardio and weights for great women's fitness

Women who want to have toned arms and legs often don’t realize that those things are by-products of being fit. And, a great way to get extremely quick very quickly is to mix weights and cardio into the same workout. Here’s how.

How I mixed cardio and weights

As you might know by now I am a big fan of skipping. It is a great way to train your arms and legs at the same time as well as getting an amazing cardio workout.

One day I decided to make a little circuit out of the skipping session and began mixing in a set of weights every time I made a skipping mistake and stopped the motion. The weights lead to me getting sore and tired arms and thus making more skipping mistakes and thus doing more weights! It was 30 minutes of sheer pain but the results were amazing.

After only three or four of these workouts I found myself able to run further and faster and my muscles (especially my arms) began looking more and more toned.

Why is it so good?

The reason I think this particular circuit worked so well is because it was working almost all the same muscles. For example, when you skip your shoulders get a good workout and then if you head over and do a set of military presses every time you make a skipping mistake you will find that they get sore pretty quickly.

Likewise, skipping works your legs and then doing s set of squats in between will pump your legs beyond belief! It is a great weight loss workout as you are mixing a high heart rate cardio session with a muscle building session - it does wonders for your metabolism.

An example workout Sticking with the skipping rope here are two of my favorite workouts of this style:

1 - Shoulder pump

• Start with a warm up; light stretches, running, etc.
• Start skipping at a cracking pace, doing double jumps if you can and keep it up for as long as possible.
• When the rope hits you or breaks your motion run over to a medium heavy bar bell and pump out as many military presses as you can.
• Breathe deeply for 10 seconds only.
• Run back to the skipping rope and repeat the whole thing.

2 - Leg pump

• Light stretches and running as well as some body weight squats to warm the legs.
• Same as before, start skipping as fast as you can this time, however, using a high jumping motion or a running motion to really pump the legs.
• When you stop throw the rope down and do a set of jumping squats until fail.
• Breathe for 20 seconds (you will need it!).
• Start again.

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You could do this with any exercise like crunches, pushups, bench press, etc. but I have found that the legs and the shoulder work best as this is what skipping mainly targets. The leg pump is especially hard and if anyone out there can do 20 minutes of that without stopping write to me and you will forever be my hero!

Warning - Circuits like this one can be extremely hard on your lungs, heart and muscles. Always warm up really well and make sure you are in good health before trying a workout like this. Also, it is a good idea to build up to a workout this full on taking longer breaks and using lighter weights.

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