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Resistance training and cardio exercise can in fact co-exist. As a matter of fact, blending them together creates the perfect time-saving gym session.

All you have to do is make a few intensity-amplifying tweaks to your existing strength workout and it can drive up your heart rate, burn more calories and improve your cardiovascular health.

Begin by getting more from your workout by following these six strategies that marry weights and cardio. You just might find you’re having more fun, too.

Vary Your Rest

The very first way to spike your heart rate while strength training: Perform each move back to back with as little rest as possible — that is, while still maintaining the proper form.

After the first round of resistance exercises, rest for 20 seconds. On the second set, rest for 15 seconds; and the third, pause for a 10-second break.

As your body gets less and less time to recover, it taxes your aerobic system. Do take into thought, because you can’t lift at max weight with this amount of sets, it’s usually an exceptional goal for fat loss, rather than strictly strength gains.

Hold Weights In Both Hands

Instead of putting all your effort into single-arm movements for exercises such as curls, rows or extensions, we suggest you pick up two dumbbells or kettlebells.

Then, go to work. Doing upper-body bilateral movements — such as bicep curls with both hands moving at the same time — increases your heart rate more than when focusing on one arm at a time.

Pepper in Plyometrics

Explosive movements — consider squat jumps and jumping lunges — are super effective and efficient for cranking up your cardio, while still building muscle.

To maximize the payoff of these powerful moves, perform at least 15 reps of each exercise. This can keep your heart rate elevated for up to 50 minutes post-exercise, according to one study.

Also, we recommend you try combining plyo’s with a strength and coordination move to lower some of the jarring impact on your body.

For example:

Do a dumbbell lateral lunge, followed by a bear crawl, then end with broad jumps. Take a brief rest before cycling through those three exercises again.

Lighten Your Load

A conventional strength workout, you would get a weight heavy enough that you could only do some reps for up to 45 seconds.

But to hit the sweet spot where lifting turns more aerobic, opt for lighter weights that allow you to perform a set for one to two minutes.

You might even drop the weight altogether and work for longer periods (i.e. go from a weighted squat to simply bodyweight squats).

Or, try and grab a set of five- to eight-pound weights and perform a move such as dumbbell uppercuts for one minute. Trust us, it will burn.