Heart Rate Helpers

"Build muscle and burn calories in less time with metabolic training tools that can take the place of a cardio workout."

- By Alyssa Shaffer

Cardio doesn’t just have to be performed on a treadmill or a spin bike. In fact, you can burn a lot more calories and launch your heart rate into the strat­osphere by incorporating metabolic training tools.

“Using equipment like battle ropes, tyres, sledge­ hammers, sleds, and plyo boxes recruits a large amount of muscles, so you are working at a very high intensity and burning a ton of calories”, says Megan Dahlman, owner of US­ based Dahlman Elite Training Systems. Bonus: You’ll keep burning more calories even after your workout is done, since these metabolic workouts tend to create higher levels of excess post­exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), aka afterburn. That means your body has to work harder to get back to its natural resting state, so it burns a higher amount of calories long after you’ve left the gym. Because your energy output is in the red zone, these workout tools are about getting the most amount of work done in the shortest amount of time. “People don’t have the time to spend hours in the gym”, notes Trent Bender, a functional strength and conditioning coach based in Los Angeles, USA. “Using these tools helps elevate your heart rate in a fraction of the time as more traditional cardio machines.”