Cardio Help – Articles and Tools for Effective Cardio Workouts

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This cardio area will lead you in the right direction to find effective calorie burning workouts and fat blasting exercises to help you lose body fat and drop pounds. Cardio is very important for several reasons. First, it helps strengthen and improve your cardiovascular system which includes your heart and blood vessels. This system helps increase blood and lymph circulation to transport vital nutrients and oxygen to every cell in your body. A strong heart will be able to pump more blood and deliver more oxygen with greater efficiency which results in a slower heart rate. Cardio also helps lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels along with being a great tool for burning calories, decreasing body fat and losing weight.

The key is to do enough cardio at the right levels each week in order to give your body a good workout with great results. It all depends on your current level of fitness when designing a cardio routine to fit your needs. If you are overweight and just starting out, a good 20-30 minute walk around the neighborhood is all you need to get started. After a few weeks, try to kick it up a notch and increase the duration or the intensity level for even greater results. You can increase the time to 40-60 minutes or start doing a light jog for 1-2 minutes in between walking. The jog/walk format is a great way to build up endurance when you are first starting out. If you can only jog for 30 seconds without tiring out, don’t worry! This is completely normal and it might take several weeks before you can jog for an extended period of time. If you have any knee or hip issues, just focus on the walking portion if you can do it without pain and discomfort.

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For advanced individuals who need a more intense cardio program, start implementing different forms of cross training into your cardio workouts to burn lots of fat and calories. If you have always ran or rode the bike for your main cardio exercise, mix in some jump rope, sprints or HIIT training into your routine. Your goal should always be focused on adding variety so your body doesn’t get used to the same exercises day in and day out. HIIT cardio (high intensity interval training) is excellent for creating a post-workout afterburn that helps rev up your metabolism to burn even more calories later in the day. There is something about an intense fat blasting 20 minute HIIT sprint workout that will leave you feeling very different when compared to a regular cardio session. Trust me!

Use the links below to find more information about the importance of including cardio exercise into your overall fitness plan. Many of the links will direct you to different cardio exercises and workouts to help you burn calories and lose fat!

Workouts:

Cardio Questions:

Cardio Videos:

Cardio Help:

Cardio Guides:

Cardio Tools:

Cardio Concerns:

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3 Comments

  1. Jessica Elliott on

    I’m currently recovering from having a broken leg 6 weeks ago and was just wondering what are the best kinds of cardio workouts to burn fat as I’ve started back at the gym, but I’m obviously limited to do any leg exercising. Just wanted to get your opinion!

    • Hi Jessica – One of the best exercises for burning calories while strengthening your upper body is the rower machine. It’s the one that you sit in and turn the handles in a circular motion. Hopefully your gym has one because it’s an excellent machine to use. Many wheelchair-bound individuals utilize this rower machine for great results.

  2. Great article thx for sharing – I have had some knee issues recently & also choosing to stay home for obvious reasons so have been hit the home rowing machine more than ever! But look forward to getting out and hitting the pavement on the open spaces in the future. How long do you think it takes to get back to original running fitness & distance when you have had a long break?

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