The Facts About Cardio
Before we talk about how much cardio you should do, you should at least know why it's so important. Cardiovascular exercise simply means that you're involved in an activity that raises your heart rate to a level where you're working, but you can still talk .
Here's why cardio is so important:
It's one way to burn calories and help you lose weight
It makes your heart strong so that it doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood
It increases your lung capacity
It helps reduce risk of heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes
It makes you feel good
It helps you sleep better
It helps reduce stress
I could go on all day, but you get the point
Bottom line: you need cardio if you want to get your weight under control and get your stress to a tolerable level.
Pick Your Poison
The first thing you need to do is decide what kind of activities you'd like to do. These days, there are so many choices, there's no reason you can't find something you enjoy. If you like to go outdoors, running, cycling, hiking or walking are all good choices. If you like the gym, you'll have access to stationary bikes, elliptical trainers, treadmills, rowing machines, stair masters and more.
Just about anything is acceptable as long as it involves a movement that gets your heart rate into your Target Heart Rate Zone.
Remember:
There is no 'best' cardio exercise. Anything that gets your heart rate up fits the bill
It's not what you do, but how hard you work. Any exercise can be challenging if you make it that way.
Do something you enjoy. If you hate gym workouts, don't force yourself onto a treadmill. If you like socializing, consider team sports or a walking club.
Do something you can see yourself doing at least 3 days a week.
Be flexible. You don't have to do the same thing all the time--it's boring and will lead to weight loss plateaus as well. Feel free to turn on the radio and dance around the house like a fool.
Do something...anything. Please. We really need to take care of this obesity problem
How often should you exercise?
The frequency of your workouts will depend on your fitness level and your schedule. Beginners should start with about 3 non-consecutive days of cardio and work their way up to more frequent sessions. The general guidelines are:
To maintain current fitness level: 2-4 days a week (at least 20 minutes)
To lose weight: 4 or more days a week (at least 30 minutes)
To train for a triathlon: You don't want to know.
But, what if you can't follow the guidelines? Then do it for however many days you DO have. If you only have two days to workout (and you'd have to work really really hard to convince me you can't find another day to exercise, but whatever), then that's what you do. It's certainly better than nothing.
Keep in mind that if you can't follow the guidelines, you may have trouble reaching your goals.
If you can't do the work required to reach your goals, you have two choices:
Change your schedule/lifestyle/whatever to accommodate your goal, or
Change your goal
It's totally up to you. There's no super glue binding you to your goals and if you know you can't (or won't) do what it takes, then why lie to yourself? Because, you enjoy living in denial, don't you? Admit what you'll really do and move forward instead of setting yourself up for failure with goals you know you aren't going to work for. And don't end your sentences with prepositions! End of lecture.
How hard do you need to work?
Once you've gotten used to exercise (and are up to 30 minutes of continuous movement) you can start tweaking your intensity. How hard you work is a crucial factor in your workout because:
How hard you work is directly related to how many calories you burn
Raising intensity is the best way to burn more calories when you're short on time.
It's an easy part of your workout to change--all you do is work harder
It's easy to monitor with a heart rate monitor or perceived exertion scale
So how hard should you work? That depends on how long you have to exercise. You want to work at an intensity you can maintain for the length of your workout.
In an hour-long workout, keep intensity low so you won't wear yourself out.
In shorter workouts, raise the intensity since you're working out for a shorter period of time.
You can vary the intensity of some workouts with interval training to burn more calories
Make sure you can carry on a conversation.
If you can't talk, you're working too hard.
NOTE: The target heart rate calculation is just a GUIDELINE--not gospel. If the calculator says your max heart rate is 120 beats per minute and you're not even sweating, please feel free to go faster. Really, I can't believe I have to explain these things but I always, always do. You know your body way better than an internet calculator, right? Right.
Cardiovascular Exercise Principles and Guidelines
For maximum effectiveness and safety, cardiovascular exercise has specific instructions on the frequency, duration, and intensity. These are the three important components of cardiovascular exercise that you really need to understand and implement in your program. In addition, your cardiovascular program should include a warm-up, a cool-down, and stretching of the primary muscles used in the exercise.
Warming Up and Stretching One very common mistake is stretching before muscles are warmed-up. It is important to stretch after your muscles are warm (after blood has circulated through them). Never stretch a cold muscle. First warm up. A warm-up should be done for at least 5-10 minutes at a low intensity. Usually, the warm-up is done by doing the same activity as the cardio vascular workout but at an intensity of 50-60% of maximum heart rate (max HR). After you've warmed-up for 5-10 minutes at a relatively low intensity, your muscles should be warm. To prevent injury and to improve your performance, you should stretch the primary muscles used in the warm up before proceeding to the cardiovascular exercise.
Cooling Down The cool down is similar to the warm-up in that it should last 5-10 minutes and be done at a low intensity (50-60% of max HR). After you have completed your cardiovascular exercise and cooled-down properly, it is now important that you stretch the primary muscles being used. Warming-up, stretching, and cooling-down are very important to every exercise session. They not only help your performance levels and produce better results, they also drastically decrease your risk of injury.
Frequency of Exercise The first component of cardiovascular exercise is frequency of the exercise, which refers to the number of exercise sessions per week. To improve both cardiovascular fitness and to decrease body fat or maintain body fat at optimum levels, you should exercise (cardio vascularly) at least three days a week. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends three to five days a week for most cardiovascular programs. Those of you who are very out of shape and/or who are overweight and doing weight-bearing cardiovascular exercise such as an aerobics class or jogging, might want to have at least 36 to 48 hours of rest between workouts to prevent an injury and to promote adequate bone and joint stress recovery.
Duration of Exercise The second component of cardiovascular exercise is the duration, which refers to the time you've spent exercising. The cardiovascular session, not including the warm-up and cool-down, should vary from 20-60 minutes to gain significant cardio respiratory and fat burning-benefits. Each time you do your cardiovascular exercise, try to do at least 20 minutes or more. Of course, the longer you go, the more calories and fat you'll "burn" and the better you'll condition your cardiovascular system. All beginners, especially those who are out of shape, should take a very conservative approach and train at relatively low intensities (50-70% max HR) for 10-25 minutes. As you get in better shape, you can gradually increase the duration of time you exercise.
It is important that you gradually increase the duration before you increase the intensity. That is, when beginning a walking program for example, be more concerned with increasing the number of minutes of the exercise session before you increase the intensity, by increasing your speed or by walking hilly terrain
