The treadmill or stationary cycle is what comes to mind when you think of cardio exercise. This gets monotonous after a while and people tend to stop doing it or slow down on exercising and also it is less effective.

The trend now is to combine weights with your cardio exercise. It helps add resistance to your training and makes it powerful. However you cannot add weights to all of the cardio exercises available. Here are a few cardio exercises that you can add weights to.

Thrusters are one of the exercises that are highly effective when combined with cardio. A lot of information about these exercises can be found online in the form of videos, literature, pictures, etc.

Weights that can be used are dumbbells, barbells or kettlebells. You need not restrict weights to only dumbbells or barbells, you can use sandbags for weight training.

Exercises like lifting the sandbag up and putting it down are simple and yet very effective. Alternatively you can pick the sandbag and place it on a shelf that’s a little high and then put it back down.

Both exercises can be repeated as many times as required.  The simplest exercise with the sandbag is to just lift it and do a quick walk or run. Of all the weights used kettlebells are the best.

You can swing with it or snatch it, both are equally effective. It not only helps you lose weight but also improves the functioning of your heart and lungs.

There is always a dilemma: which comes first cardio or weight training. Though you can do either it is preferable to start with weights as cardio can tire you and you might not get to work out much with the weights.

It is also safer to do cardio at the end. However when you combine cardio with weights it’s a two in one exercise. You could look into circuit training or interval training for more details about combining cardio and weight training. So if you want to lose weight fast this is the best option.