Cardio Fitness Exercises

By: Deon Melchior



Some bodybuilders neglect the importance of cardio exercises because they consider that they can cause the loss of muscle mass. But the cardio routine is important in weight loss and for maintaining a good cardiovascular health. Moreover, it is not responsible for muscle loss but it even helps gain more endurance and definition for your muscles. For that you need to complete your routine with aerobic exercises.
The Importance Of Cardio Workouts
There are many reasons for which you need to keep yourself updated with cardio workouts. First, this type of exercises prevents diseases, like obesity and heart attack. A good mental health is the result of making cardio workouts. It helps get rid of the unwanted fat; it lowers the blood pressure and the resting heart rate. It also increases the blood flow, making it easier for the body to assimilate the nutrients. In time, your endurance will increase and you will perform better at other exercises.
Duration, intensity and frequency are very important when you are doing cardio exercises.
How Long A Cardio Session Must Last?
For beginners, it is ok to start with a 10 minutes session of cardio exercises. For more advanced ones, it is best to practice between 20 and 60 minutes. It is advisable to take it slow, increasing the duration in time, thus avoiding fatigue and other problems. If you feel weak and dizzy, stop immediately or slow down the pace. Go see the doctor to find out if you are sick or you have other health problems. If you are interested in building muscle mass, resume your cardio workout at 30 minutes maximum. Otherwise, you will burn too much calories.
Routine for beginners
Routine for beginners should look something like this: 2 minutes of warming up, followed by 6 minutes of higher intensity activity like faster walking, then 2 minutes to cool down, when you can do stretching or light walking.

Routine for intermediates
Intermediates should warm up for 5 minutes and then perform 20-35 minutes of high intensity cardio activity. The routine ends with 5 minutes for cooling down.
Routine for advanced
Those that are advanced must start with warming up for 10 minutes. The high intensity cardio activity must be performed for 40 minutes, followed by 10 minutes to cool down.
Intensity
How intense you work out influences the fat loss process and the heart rate. Pay attention to your heart rate during exercises. Beginners must achieve a target heart rate lower than 55% of their maximum heart rates, while the rest can go up to 65-90%. To measure your heart rate during workout, use the hand censors that come with the gym equipment. They will tell you what your heart rate is and you will be able to exercise to the required intensity. If you cannot use these, as they are uncomfortable for you, or you practice outside, check the intensity by verifying how well you can talk.
Try to talk and sing while working out. If you can do that with no problem, you must increase the intensity a little, up to where you can talk with little difficulty. But if you find out that you can hardly talk, slow down the pace as you are working too hard.
How often?
The ideal frequency for practicing cardio workouts is 3-5 times a week, if you are not an ectomorph. If you intend to lose more fat, practice 5-7 times a week. Remember to never let a break longer than 48 hours between cardio sessions as you will lose the positive effects of the last one.
How to do interval training
A method to burn more calories and avoid the boredom caused by steady cardio exercises is to try interval training. Interval training consists of alternating the exercises on small durations of time. You can practice this type of routine for 15-20 minutes with faster and better effects than in the normal cardio workouts. For instance, after warming up, run for 3 minutes, then walk briskly for 2 minutes and continue like this till you finish. This routine is also useful for preventing muscle loss and, at the same time, it improves you cardiovascular abilities. The general rule is to change the duration of exercises all the time, to force your body to adapt quickly. You can make this exercise on a cardio machine or outside, as you wish.
What is best in interval training and steady rate training
If you go for interval training in your cardio exercises, you will burn a lot of fat, you will consume less time doing it and you will avoid losing muscle mass.
If you are the adept of steady cardio workouts, you will enjoy a higher endurance, your joints will be protected and you will burn more calories.
As you can see, both types of routine have their benefits, so it is best to combine the two when exercising. A recommendation would be to practice each one day at a time.
Cardio workouts for an entire week
You may start the week on Monday with steady state cardio exercises, using the stationary bike for 40 minutes. Tuesday, switch to interval training, performed on the treadmill for 20 minutes. Use Wednesday to rest and Thursday get back to steady state cardio activities, by swimming for 30 minutes. Friday, use the ecliptical trainer for 20 minutes to make interval training. Saturday is another day of rest, while Sunday go rollerblading for 60 minutes to get your necessary steady rate cardio exercises.
You can arrange your exercises any way you want them. But keep in mind to make them challenging and fun so your body does not get used to them and you do not get bored.



Deon Melchior is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com