Cardio / Finisher Exercises

[Challo]

I joined a gym late last year and started the 5x5 program. I had a little break over Xmas due to work / issues getting to the gym and now wanting to get back in swing.

While I am still on the slightly lighter weights I wanted to add in some additional cardio / finisher types exercises to help burn some calories. Im adding in assisted pull-ups, but anyone got any recommendations?

The gym is pretty well equipped and they have battle ropes, weighted sleds, assault bikes, kettle bells, medicine balls etc.

[dieselgrunt]

Tabatha Intervals on the assault bike are awesome. One example workout would be 10 seconds as hard as you go, 20 seconds rest x 10.

[TheThing]

100 X burpess, 100 X ball slams, kettlebell swings, kettlebell snatches. Distance, time or intervals on a torture instrument of your choice such as a rower, ski erg or sled. Any of them will make your lungs bleed. Enjoy.

[bigandclever]

Lovely girl, Tabatha. Tabata on the other hand, mad man

https://www.tabataprotocol.com/

[mcelliott]

Weighted sled or prowler work will have you breathing through your ass, or smacking st out of a tyre with a 10kg lump hammer for 5 minutes solid.

[Challo]

Cheers all.

I do like the prowler so thats my normal go to, but never used the assault bike. Could be interesting

[TheThing]

mcelliott said:

Weighted sled or prowler work will have you breathing through your ass, or smacking st out of a tyre with a 10kg lump hammer for 5 minutes solid.

Good shout, I forgot about sledgehammer work. Also smacking st out of a heavy punch bag, tyre flipping and skipping. Although skipping is a skill you have to learn before it becomes an effective way of getting your 'cardio' in.

Edited by TheThing on Wednesday 4th January 17:34

[Animal]

Challo said:

I joined a gym late last year and started the 5x5 program. I had a little break over Xmas due to work / issues getting to the gym and now wanting to get back in swing.

While I am still on the slightly lighter weights I wanted to add in some additional cardio / finisher types exercises to help burn some calories. Im adding in assisted pull-ups, but anyone got any recommendations?

The gym is pretty well equipped and they have battle ropes, weighted sleds, assault bikes, kettle bells, medicine balls etc.

Are you after something to just spike your heart rate at the end of your workout before cooldown/stretching etc? If so, then one minute on the assault bike absolutely flat-out is very effective. Aim to hit a certain number of calories in that minute and try to increase each time. This one gets real serious, real quick! Alternatively, do a minute on a rower? Again, flat-out pace, and try to hit a certain number of metres.

If you want something with more of strength base then why not something like 10x10 pushups. 10 pushups, 10-sec rest for 10 rounds. Might be a bit too much strain on your upper body though if you're pushing 5x5 hard. Your finisher shouldn't interfere with your recovery for your next workout!

[roboxm3]

I used to "like" doing a skip/Kettlebell swing finisher i.e. skip 1min, KB swing 1min, repeat, repeat, repeat...

You can obviously change the weight of the KB and the swing type to suit the duration you're aiming for.

[CarlosFandango11]

dieselgrunt said:

Tabatha Intervals on the assault bike are awesome. One example workout would be 10 seconds as hard as you go, 20 seconds rest x 10.

Tabata intervals are 20 seconds as hard as you can go, then 10 seconds rest x 8.

[LimaDelta]

Bring Sally Up with either push-ups or squats (or one followed by the other) is a good one (not really cardio though). As are 30:30 x 5 burpees. I also like ball slams (giggidy) as a finisher.

[Fozziebear]

Attack or Assault bike, 2 min warm up the 10x20 sec hard 10x10 sec easy, bring a bucket

[didelydoo]

If you’ve not got a decent fitness base, don’t bother with tabata. Spend a bit of time with steady state, build up your cardio base. Then try some more intervals or similar when you’re able to deal with them.