🔥 12 best cardio exercises for fat loss

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Welcome to The BarBend Newsletter! Here’s what’s on tap for today:

• Celebrate these 4th of July fitness sales

• 5 great hamstring builders

• The best CPT-inspired cardiovascular exercises

Note: We are taking Friday off from The BarBend Newsletter. Enjoy the long weekend, and be safe!

Sales

Get Independence From High Costs

Nothing is more American than leveraging a major holiday for major retail sales. If you aren’t taking advantage of these July 4th fitness deals, you’re not only not taking part in the celebration of a free economic system, you’re not doing your patriotic duty to help it sustain itself (kidding… kind of).

All the usual fitness equipment and supplement brands are here, but these are some of our favorites:

• Titan Fitness: Get up to 40% off on racks, benches, bars, and weights during this July 4th sale, no code needed

• NordicTrack: Save up to $1,700 on smart machine bundles. Plus, an extra $100 off orders $2499

• Powerblock: Free shipping on all orders

• Hydrow: Up to $615 in savings now

• Legion: BOGO 50% off sitewide + free gift card on orders over $99

• Bulletproof: 30% off sitewide

• Cellucor: 25% off sitewide

• Momentous: Save up to 40% off new subscriptions with code FORLIFE + free shipping on US orders of $75+

Make use of the biggest summer sales, stock up, update your gear, and go watch some stuff get exploded up in the sky over at the county fairgrounds.

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Exercises

The Hammy Express

Training hamstrings directly can sometimes feel unpleasant. Unlike the biceps (the hamstrings of the arms), you don’t always get a pleasing pump with exercises like GHR and Nordic hamstring curls, but rather a sensation of ripping the muscle in half. And then you move on to your next set.

These five hamstring exercises from legendary trainer Charles Glass are more old-school bodybuilding than something you’d find on TikTok (FitTok?), but they’re more than capable of slapping some real mass on the backs of your legs. 

For example, wider-stance paused leg presses can absolutely wreck your hamstrings with a totally different feeling than a traditional seated leg curl. Then there’s the Smith machine lunge, which is an absolutely slept-on move that will wreck you on leg day (in a good way!).

If you could use a little more meat on that leg bone, these are absolutely what you need to bring for Sunday dinner.

Cardio

Get a Move On

“I’ll throw in a little cardio at the end of my workout” is one of the most common things you’ll hear when hanging out with a pack of gym bros, followed very closely by the related statement, “I think I’ll skip out on my cardio today.”

So little thought is given to this strictly necessary–for–continued–existence health metric that choosing and planning what to actually do is rarely a part of the logbook. If you’re looking for a place to start, we’ve got you covered.

Our resident BarBend CPT walks you through the 12 cardio exercises you should be focusing on in your training, from brutal bodyweight challengers like burpees, to easy-going treadmill sessions that keep you at a steady pace. Get your heart going to the beat of these workouts, and make sure you don’t skip any.

Quick Hits

👑 Update on “The King”: Eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman was admitted to the hospital over the weekend with what was described as a “serious medical emergency.” Get the latest on Coleman’s condition.

🦵Bend Your Knee Thusly: Remember, before, when we talked about how useful the Smith machine lunge is for building serious leg strength? Here are five more reasons why you should never leave lunges out of your program.

🥊 Yo, Celebrate This: People may forget that Sylvester Stallone created a formula that would be copied in sports movies and video games for the rest of humanity’s existence — but his most long-lasting cinematic legacy may be the extreme physique transformations he brought to both the Rocky and Rambo franchises. Just in time for Sly’s birthday on July 6, we’re looking at how this A-lister forever changed big-screen muscle.

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