Cardio Workout Routines - How to Begin Healthy and Maintain Over A Long Period
Cardio workout routines are a necessary part of working out.
We all want great cardio and heart health.
It's important to start out healthy, and maintain it.
Many people don't even know where to begin when it comes to cardio health.
Also, we see those numbers on the treadmill and ellyptical machines, but, what do they mean? On most machines at the gyms, you will notice that there are heart rate targets on the machines.
Many people don't know how to read these.
Basically, it will have a list of ages, and then a lower heart rate, and a higher heart rate.
The lower heart rate is usually 65% of your maximum effort and the higher heart rate is 85% of your maximum effort.
You shouldn't allow your heart rate to go above the 85% maximum effort.
And you should have your heart rate at the 65% or above to be in a 'fat burning zone'.
Now, depending on where you are starting at, depends on how hard and long you go for your cardio workouts.
It also depends on what your goals are.
If you have weight loss goals or simply cardio heart health goals, depends on what you should start with and for how long you should go.
There are many studies that say if you have a lot of weight to lose, and walking is a challenge for you, then breaking up your walking sessions might be a better option.
You can start with 10 minutes twice a day, rather than doing the entire 20 minutes all at once.
Always start out slow and then add different intensities.
If you start out with even 5 minutes, you can try adding an extra minute a day, or an extra minute every other day until you can build yourself up to a full 30 minutes.
Once you have increased your workout routine to 30 minutes, you should start adding other intensities.
For instance, on the treadmill, you can increase your incline so that your work load is moving up a hill now.
And my favorite intensity to add is sprints, or interval training.
I find that 30 minutes of interval training can be more effective in weight loss than going at a steady pace for a full hour.
It's pretty basic.
You can start out with one sprint for 30 seconds and then drop it down to a walking pace.
When you sprint, go as hard and fast as you can for a full 30 seconds.
Don't hold back! Once you can do this comfortably, you can eventually work your way up to one minute sprints and one minute rests for the full 30 minutes!
We all want great cardio and heart health.
It's important to start out healthy, and maintain it.
Many people don't even know where to begin when it comes to cardio health.
Also, we see those numbers on the treadmill and ellyptical machines, but, what do they mean? On most machines at the gyms, you will notice that there are heart rate targets on the machines.
Many people don't know how to read these.
Basically, it will have a list of ages, and then a lower heart rate, and a higher heart rate.
The lower heart rate is usually 65% of your maximum effort and the higher heart rate is 85% of your maximum effort.
You shouldn't allow your heart rate to go above the 85% maximum effort.
And you should have your heart rate at the 65% or above to be in a 'fat burning zone'.
Now, depending on where you are starting at, depends on how hard and long you go for your cardio workouts.
It also depends on what your goals are.
If you have weight loss goals or simply cardio heart health goals, depends on what you should start with and for how long you should go.
There are many studies that say if you have a lot of weight to lose, and walking is a challenge for you, then breaking up your walking sessions might be a better option.
You can start with 10 minutes twice a day, rather than doing the entire 20 minutes all at once.
Always start out slow and then add different intensities.
If you start out with even 5 minutes, you can try adding an extra minute a day, or an extra minute every other day until you can build yourself up to a full 30 minutes.
Once you have increased your workout routine to 30 minutes, you should start adding other intensities.
For instance, on the treadmill, you can increase your incline so that your work load is moving up a hill now.
And my favorite intensity to add is sprints, or interval training.
I find that 30 minutes of interval training can be more effective in weight loss than going at a steady pace for a full hour.
It's pretty basic.
You can start out with one sprint for 30 seconds and then drop it down to a walking pace.
When you sprint, go as hard and fast as you can for a full 30 seconds.
Don't hold back! Once you can do this comfortably, you can eventually work your way up to one minute sprints and one minute rests for the full 30 minutes!
