For some it’s a dreaded word and for others it’s a passion they can’t get enough of. Whatever way you look at it, cardiovascular exercise is one of the key components that should never be left out of a fitness plan.
Cardio, short for cardiovascular exercise, is any movement that gets your heart rate up and increases blood circulation throughout the body. There are various means and methods of performing cardio exercise.
Most individuals performing cardio are using it as a way to burn off excess calories and since you are moving the body, it is going to increase the need for energy. Some forms of cardio are slightly better than others when wanting to reduce body fat percentage but all cardio, regardless of form, will burn calories. Since fat loss depends on calories burned versus calories consumed it is a step in the right direction.
Doing cardio also has various health benefits. By getting the heart pumping at a faster rate on a regular basis it also strengthens the heart as a muscle and lessens your chances of developing things such as heart disease. Too many people are getting winded just performing simple exercises such as walking up the stairs and the primary reason for this is because they are neglecting to work their heart muscle.
Benefits of Cardio
Cardiovascular Exercise Can Increase Metabolism
The more intense the cardio session, the more you’ll notice your metabolism changing. Intense interval sprints increase the metabolism. An increased metabolism means an easier time maintaining your weight or losing weight.
Improved Hormonal Profile
Performing cardio exercise also changes the hormonal profile in your body significantly. It releases ‘feel good’ hormones that will help ease depression and fatigue as well as releasing hormones that decrease appetite. People who participate in regular cardio exercise often have a much more positive outlook on life simply because they are getting the stress-relief benefits from these hormones.
These are just two of the benefits that you will see with regular cardiovascular exercise.
If you are just getting started, first focus on simply finding an activity that gets you moving and gets your heart rate up. Those are the two key components to what cardio is. Any form of exercise will do, whether it is going for a walk, a bike ride or performing in a team or individual sport.
The important thing is to keep your body moving. Weight lifting, unless done in a circuit style fashion, would not be considered aerobic cardio exercise since you are not moving continuously. It would be an anaerobic exercise.
As you build up your fitness level, you can concentrate on performing more advanced forms of cardio such as interval training, tempo training, sprints and so forth. First get started on building a solid cardio base though and then work from there.
The following exercises are popular forms of cardio:
There are many other forms of cardio that you can choose from as anything that involves fast movements for an extended period of time will train your cardiovascular fitness. Of course in order to benefit from the individual advantages of all these types of fitness you can try using multiple types of cardio together and this will prevent your training grow stale.