CARDIO BENEFITS

We need to share with you the necessity of seeing your physician before you begin any exercise program. You will need to know if you are safe to begin a program and how much exercise and how intense your program should be.

AUNT BEE 2 BARBEE FITNESS CONSULTING.

Cardio is an abbreviation for Cardiovascular exercise. Any exercise that lifts your heart rate and keeps it elevated for a period of time is known as cardio. Cardio exercises are important because you lose weight, burn fat and improve your health. The beneficial thing about cardio is the variety of choices you have such as:  walking,swimming, jogging, dancing, stair climbing, rope jumping, horse riding, biking, aerobic dance/step aerobic. Cardio exercises help you get your heart rate into your target rate zone. This is important when you are trying to lose weight because you want to work at a certain level of intensity during your cardio exercises. There are 3 levels of intensity. Low intensity keeps you comfortable and is good for warm ups. Low intensity is 60 to 70%. Moderate intensity is 70 to 80%. This zone has a higher intensity level and you will burn more calories. And high intensity is 90 to 100%. This  level means you are working at your best. The best choice of cardio is the one you enjoy the most, because it means you will work this one the hardest. I found this true in my case. When I started my weight loss journey 13 years ago on February 18,2001 after signing my first gym contract, I could see that walking was my favorite choice of cardio. I liked it so much, I increased my miles from 2 to 7, and I worked my way up progressively to the 15 degree incline. The higher the incline, the more calories you will burn when walking the treadmill. Working this form of cardio as hard as I did enabled me to burn more calories and I lost a significant amount of weight. This in turn motivated me to continue down the weight loss road.  Running is a good choice also for a number of reasons.For one, it does not require special equipment.

This means you can do it just about anytime. Running is high impact, which means you will build strong bones and connective tissue. This is a very important health benefit you get from running or any high impact exercise. Having strong bones and connective tissue are very essential for good quality of life at any age, but even more so as you age.  Running also gets your heart rate up much faster and you will burn SERIOUS CALORIES!  This was truly a revelation to me when I found out that with running you will burn serious calories. This is certainly a good reason to give running a try! I enjoy the elliptical. I use this form of cardio at home as well as at the gym. The elliptical trainer is a very popular form of cardio because you can increase intensity without impact. This was very helpful to me when I first started using the elliptical trainer. When I first started using the elliptical,  I was still over 200 pounds and it was very helpful to me that I could increase  intensity without impact.


Bicycling is also an excellent cardio work-out. Your can do this at the gym or at home with a bike of your own. The unique aspect of bicycling is you can use a stationary one or a non stationary one. Having a choice between the two adds variety to your work-out routine.  With the bike you use the power of your legs and this helps you increase your endurance levels and burn a lot of calories. I like the different programs you can choose when using a stationary bike because you can choose some high level intensity programs that improve your heart and lung function as well as burn more fat and calories.l The variety of programs you have on the stationary bike helps to keep your work-out fun and challenging and this helps to motivate you to continue to make progress  with your weight loss FOR A HEALTHIER YOU!  Swimming is a great choice for cardio because your whole body gets involved, and the more body parts  you involve in a work-out, the more  calories you will burn. It was informative to learn that swimming supports your joints and you avoid high impact injuries.


Step Aerobics is an exercise that will really get your heart rate up. I remember my first step aerobic class. Step Aerobics is truly in a class by itself. This form of cardio will truly put your heart and lung function to the test and if you stick with this form of cardio, your heart and lung function will be at its  OPTIMUM!!  Step aerobics is beneficial also because  you learn balance, concentration and coordination. I found you really have to concentrate on every move. Each instructor is different and they each incorporate not only the same moves, but various other new ones they have learned. The concentration aspect comes in not knowing if the instructor has new moves and when they tell you to make them. Even the moves you know requires concentration because your are constantly switching back and forth from one move the other. Aerobics classes have  taught me good balance and coordination.  Aerobics classes will  also  teach you the value of maintaining good balance. So it is good to see that this form of cardio not only burns a lot of calories, but has many other  medicinal benefits as well. And speaking of the calories--with step aerobics you can burn anywhere from 300 to 400 calories in just one class--NOW THAT IS CERTAINLY WORTH THE EFFORT!!  SO WHAT EVER YOU DO, FIND THE RIGHT CARDIO THAT WORKS BEST FOR YOU!!