Do This 30-Minute Beach Workout to Turn Up Your Calorie Burn

Exercising on sand offers not only amazing views but also a huge calorie blast. Just be sure to lather up with a good sunblock before you lather up your workout sweat. You may also some way to protect your eyes from the sun's glare and be sure to hydrate during your workout.

A study in the Journal of Experimental Biology found that running on sand requires 1.15 times more energy than running on a hard surface. That means that, for a 150-pound person, a half-hour, three-mile run on the beach would burn around 403 calories, compared to 350 calories on a typical surface.

Plus, exercising on a surface like sand is good for your joints—as long as the surface isn't too slanted since instability can be tough on your hips and cause muscle imbalances.

Try this 30-minute interval workout, courtesy of Zack Daley, trainer and training manager at Tone House, an athletic-based fitness studio in New York City. It features running as well as bodyweight exercises to improve total-body strength and is perfect for beginners and experienced runners.

Steps To Complete the 30-Minute Beach Workout

The 30-minute beach workout includes running and strength-building moves—that don't require weights—that you can complete, helping you get a quick sweat. Daley divides the beach workout into the following steps:

• Warm-up
• Two sets of push-ups and planks
• Two sets of lunges and jump squats
• Two sets of bear crawls
• Two sets of toe touches, plank knee-to-elbows, and bicycle-crunch burnouts
• Two sets of sprints

The 30-Minute Beach Workout

First, take 25 to 30 large steps from your starting point and make a mark in the sand. This will be your point of reference for the "down-and-back" portions of the workout.

The Warm-Up

These warm-up exercises will get your heart rate pumping and your muscles warmed up. Warming up is important to avoid injury and to work at your peak.

• Light jog/run down and back two times
• High knees down and back one time
• Butt kicks down and back one time
• Run down and back at about 60 percent of your top speed two times
• 10 burpees
• Lateral shuffle down and back two times, facing away from the water
• Lateral shuffle down and back two times, facing the water
• Skip down and back one time
• Run down and back at about 80 percent of your top speed one time

The Workout

• 15 to 25 push-ups
• 10 to 20 plank walks—alternating from high plank to elbow plank and back
• Rest for 30 to 45 seconds and repeat the previous two moves
• Walking lunges down and back
• 20 to 30 jump squats
• Rest for 30 to 45 seconds and repeat the previous two moves
• Bear crawl down and back
• Rest for 30 to 45 seconds and repeat the previous move
• 15 to 25 toe touches
• Plank knee-to-elbow—in high plank, bring your left knee to your left elbow, then the right knee to the right elbow; do 15 reps per side
• Bicycle-crunch burnout, where you keep going until you can't anymore
• Rest for 30 to 45 seconds and repeat the previous three moves
• Sprint down and back twice, aiming to reach your fastest speed

The calorie burn could be approximately 285 calories for 30 minutes of calisthenics (for a person weighing 150 pounds).

The Cool Down

After you're done with your workout, be sure to engage in some cool-down exercises. Taking time to cool down is crucial, as is the case with time to warm up, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).

This is because you need to give your body time to literally cool down temperature-wise and allow your blood vessels to contract. Some cool-down activities you may want to consider, per the AHA, include:

• Going for a five-minute walk, or at least until your heart rate gets lower than 120 beats per minute
• Stretching different areas for 10 to 30 seconds

If you're traveling to the beach—or anywhere that has sand available—deciding to get in some exercise beyond swimming, throwing a Frisbee, or playing beach volleyball is probably the last thing on your mind. However, while you have the sand available, it can be worth getting a structured workout in to burn some calories.