Cardio Workout
Advice About Cardio Workouts
There are three basic aspects of cardio-training:
intensity, frequency and duration.
Intensity of Cardio Exercise
The objective is to obtain a target heart
rate between 60 percent and 85 percent of the maximum heart rate (to calculate
MHR subtract your age from 220). Point is, in order to improve your cardiovascular
system the heart must be made to work harder. You can vary the intensity
level by introducing interval-training: eg. walk really fast for three
minutes, then walk much more slowly for one minute. Interval training
helps boost metabolism and offers useful recovery bouts.
Frequency of Cardio Training
To improve cardio fitness and to reduce body
fat or improve body fat-percentage, you should do cardio exercise at least
three days a week. The American College of Sports Medicine and the Centers
for Disease Control (CDC) recommend that adults should accumulate 30 minutes
of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days of the week. Those
of you who are very unfit, out of shape and/or very overweight should
allow a rest period of 24-36 hours between cardio-aerobic workouts to
reduce injury and muscle/joint strain.
Duration of Cardio Training
For best fat-burning and cardiovascular effects,
a good cardio exercise workout (excluding warm-up and cool-down) should
last 20-60 minutes. To improve cardiovascular endurance, the American
College of Sports Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recommend
20 to 60 minutes on three to five days per week. Anyone who is very unfit,
out of shape and/or very overweight should exercise for no more than about
20 minutes. As you get fitter, you can gradually increase the duration
of your cardio routine.
More Cardio Training Tips
- Wait 60-90 mins after a meal before you
start training.
- Increase the duration of your routine before intensity.
- Vary the type of cardio-exercise as much as possible.
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