🏋️‍♂️ 8 Best cardio alternatives to running

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Here’s what’s going on in today’s edition:

• The best cardio alternatives to running

• How to build muscle by training one day per week

• The top weightlifting battles in the sport’s history

Cardio

Running on Fumes

Cross-country runners have a slogan they like to shove in the face of every other athlete: “Our sport is your punishment.”

For all of you out there who hate running as much as you hate hell, all Montagues, and thee, rejoice, because we’ve got a partial list of cardio options you can (and should) do instead. Best of all, we walk you through the best ways to maximize each one.

You definitely can’t sit down while running, but you can ease your backside onto a seat while you use a stationary bike to get your heart rate up. Similarly (and great for meatheads), you can sit while you drive your legs and pull with your back on a rowing machine.

Running doesn’t need to be the bane of your existence anymore, especially with these alternatives at your disposal.

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Workout Tips

One Out of Seven Ain’t Bad

Bodybuilding splits can vary as widely as the flora in the Amazon rainforest. Five-day plans; two-a-days; three on, two off; and bro-splits dominate the training landscape. But if the rigors of modern life make complete dedication to a bodybuilding schedule unrealistic, BarBend writer Jake Dickson has a solution: the one-day-a-week routine.

This isn’t exactly going to create the ideal environment for muscle growth, but you can still chisel your body to a decent degree if it’s all you have time for. You’ll have to maintain focus for the workout and make it count; you don’t have the wiggle room to walk back and forth from the water fountain too often or go into the gym without a concrete plan. This is a focused, streamlined routine.

If you’ve been trying to fit some serious hypertrophy training around a life that just doesn’t seem to have room for it, this may be your ticket to beach muscles this year.

Weightlifting

Showdown on the Platform

Weightlifting may be an individual sport about personal accomplishment and historic PRs, but once in a while, things turn into a Street Fighter II match where both contestants are on their last quarter and nobody wants to go home.

To celebrate these matchups, we’ve compiled a list of the best one-on-one shootouts in weightlifting history, with competitors pushing themselves and their opponents past the limit of what they thought was possible.

The biggest stages bring out the best in everyone, and the duels on this list do not disappoint. If the names are familiar to you, grab your reading glasses and get a glimpse into the awesome history of weightlifting.

Everything Else

A Weightlifting Collision

• If you want to keep up with all the drama in weightlifting’s lead-up to the Paris Olympics, you won’t want to miss the IWF Cup in Thailand early next month. Find out how to watch it.

• When you combine meathead determination and gymnastic capability, you get the muscle-up. Though daunting at first, this move is within everyone’s reach. Here’s how to do it.

• The 2024 Arnold Sports Festival UK hosted a bevy of elite athletes competing in their respective sports. In that vein, the IPF showcased some of the best powerlifters in the world.