Which Exercises Burn the Most Calories?

High-intensity training has been a big trend in recent years that has many fitness fanatics focused on performing the most strenuous activities that will help them burn the most calories possible in the least amount of time. If you’re a busy person that doesn’t have time to spend hours in the gym or you just like to use your time as efficiently as possible, then you’re going to want to peruse our top picks for exercises that give you the most bang for your buck (in no particular order).

Stationary Bike

Ah, the good old stationary bike. This non-weight bearing exercise gives you the ability to set your own tempo and resistance, putting you in full control of your workout. Although control is a good thing because you don’t get overwhelmed, it also means that if you don’t go at a vigorous pace, you risk not burning nearly as many calories as you’d like. If you do decide to spend an entire hour of cycling on the stationary bike at a brisk pace, you can burn more then 700 calories which is not something to thumb your nose at.

If you have access to a stationary bike, try intervals of high-intensity cycling. Start with a five-minute warmup and alternate between one-minute speed and two-minute recovery intervals. On a scale from 0 to 10, your speed intervals should be 7 to 9. Your recovery intervals should be from 5 to 6.

Swimming

Many people turn to swimming because it’s the ultimate low-impact workout. If your body is aching or you’ve just come off an injury, swimming can help you use all of your muscles and burn upwards of 600 calories an hour without putting any stress on your body. Swimming can also improve your muscle strength, blood flow, and lung and heart capacity which is great for individuals of any age. If you want to increase your caloric burn while you’re swimming, try to focus on doing laps or water aerobics.

Running

Running is by far one of the most popular ways to burn calories with 55.9 million Americans participating in running, jogging or trail running in 2017 alone. If your body is healthy enough to take the full force of your weight on each heel-toe strike, then running is definitely a hobby that you should look into starting up.

Running is great because you don’t need to go to the gym to do it; you can literally run anywhere you please. The faster you run, the more calories you’ll burn and the more you’ll improve your flexibility and increase your endurance. If you keep a steady pace and average about a 10-minute mile, you can burn well over 800 calories. To torch more calories during and after your workout, you can add short bursts of sprints into your run to help shock your system.

Kettlebell Circuit

Last by not least, kettlebells have become the staple of many fitness routines in the past decade that can give you a deep burn in places that you never thought could feel discomfort like that. If you’re performing enough compound kettlebell exercises and alternating between upper and lower body movements, you can easily burn 800+ calories in an hour.
If you want to get the most out of your kettlebell training session, make sure that you do a set of kettlebell swings, kettlebell squats, and kettlebell push presses without any rest. After completing all three exercise sets, rest for 15 to 20 seconds then start the process over again. This will give your body quite the jolt and awaken muscle groups that you never thought you would ever use.