21 Cardio Workouts That Aren't Just Running

Yes, it seems like running. No, it's not exactly running. A sprint, in its truest form, is very different from a traditional distance run. When you run, say, 3 miles, you're aiming to conserve energy as much as possible, keeping your arms steady and running in very upright fashion.

A sprint? Now, instead of bouncing lightly off the ground, you're attacking the ground to create speed. You start with your chest forward, aggressively swing your arms, and slam into the ground with every footstep. It's an explosive, powerful act, and yes, it can blast fat.

The key to sprinting is realizing that a true sprint can't last long; at most, you'll get 200 meters if you're really going hard. But battle through 10 100-meter sprints with, say, a minute between each, and you're workout's over in around 15 minutes, but you've still destroyed plenty of unwanted calories.

Med balls can be useful tools to add to traditional strength training or interval workouts for a plyometric element, or for adding a low load to bodyweight movements. Check out this burner workout for a solid routine.

Flowing is a relatively new brand of fitness that has you chaining together a sequence of exercises, doing one move, then seamlessly shifting to the next and then the next after that. Imagine doing a kettlebell swing, followed by a clean, followed by a snatch, followed by a squat-to-press. It's like dancing with weights, and it draws from more venerable disciplines like yoga, gymnastics, martial arts, and breakdancing to do more than mere rep after rep of an exercise.

It's also incredibly demanding on both your cardiovascular system and your strength, challenging you to move quickly and athletically while handling a weight (although it can be done with bodyweight as well). The result: You wind up breaking a fierce sweat as you build strength and athleticism. Flows do require more fitness experience than many kinds of cardio, because you'll want to flow only with exercise moves that you're comfortable with. But once you master enough exercises and get comfortable with several flows, you'll find yourself getting a total-body burn and burning serious calories all at once.

In a recent College of New Jersey study comparing various workout styles, battle-rope exercises came in first in terms of total oxygen consumption and an average calorie burn of 10.3 calories per minute.

The classic walking lunge, a staple of plenty of leg workouts, is a great way to incinerate fat. Just find a large space (or better yet, hit your outdoor 400-meter track), and start doing walking lunges. Aim to work for at least 5 to 10 minutes, doing your best to do so without taking a break.

The entire endeavor will have you breathing hard, because you're essentially repeating a bodyweight strength move over and over and over again. You're also building leg strength and endurance as you go.

One of the most fierce ways to get your heart rate up is the Ski-erg, a cardio device that's supposed to simulate cross-country skiing. To get the Ski-erg going, you need to aggressively and powerfully bend at the knees and hips while also pulling downwards hard on a pair of ropes attached to a variable-resistance fan.

It's a potent and versatile workout. You can easily go for, say, 2,000 meters. But you could also break this up into aggressive intervals, pushing hard for 20 seconds, then resting for 10 seconds, and repeating that pattern for 6 fat-blasting minutes. No matter what, expect to be drenched in sweat.

Get your cardio in by hitting the great outdoors on a bike. Spending a few hours biking along trails will do more than rev up your metabolism. It'll challenge your balance and athleticism as you react to varied terrain.

It's a perfect way to get outside, too, giving your body a much-needed dose of fresh air.

You'll be drenched after this workout, but it may not be sweat. If you need a nasty workout for your lungs (and more of your back than you may think), then hit the pool for some laps. You can either do interval work in the pool, swimming for, say, 100 meters, then resting for a minute and repeating 10 times, or you can just swim a steady distance (think 2,000 meters).

Either way, it's a solid workout, and it's low-impact to boot, sparing your joints and tendons from the wear-and-tear that comes with many other workouts.

Sometimes, the best way to get your cardio is by going up. Indoor rock climbing is a unique way to get your sweat on, requiring as much strength as it does agility. You're constantly moving and straining here, much like running.

But unlike running, your upper body doesn't get even the slightest bit of rest. Your hands (and forearm and grip muscles) get taxed to the max while grasping tiny handholds, and your back must constantly pull your torso toward the wall. It's a vicious blend that's growing increasingly popular.

You don't have to get in the ring against an opponent to knock out calories with boxing-style workouts. Hit a heavy bag, work with a partner, or just perform punch combos on air to smash through calories—up to 800 per hour, if a study from supplement maker Forza's claims are correct. Check out these boxing workouts to get punching.

You'll burn a ton of calories with the short bursts of speed, balance, and coordination it takes to finish a full agility ladder circuit—especially if you run through the drills continuously with limited rest.

But your brain might get the best benefit from this type of cardio exercise. A 2014 study from the Air Force Research Laboratory showed that agility training can improve cognitive performance along with boosting cardio levels. Instead of just plodding mindlessly along on a run, agility drills help you hone your VO2 max, athletic footwork, memory, and concentration.

There may not be a single weight exercise that blasts fat as effectively as the kettlebell swing. Each and every swing requires your body to be explosive, and has you alternately hinging at the hips and dropping your chest, then powering out of that position and working to exhale forcefully.

It's an explosive act that can be repeated quickly and easily and done in a variety of different formats. Try doing kettlebell swings for 30 seconds on, 30 off, for 6 minutes. Or work for 45 on, 15 off for 6 minutes. Expect to be drenched in sweat — all without ever leaving your living room.

A 185-pound guy can burn 377 calories during 30 minutes of vigorous rowing, or about 12.5 calorie per minute, reports a Harvard University study.

And because you need to utilize the muscles in your arms, legs, and back for efficient strokes, it's a great total-body trainer.

Want to row like an Olympian and burn even more calories on the rower? Fix The 5 Rowing Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making.