Cardio
Pump it Up for Heart Health
Anytime you look into losing weight or getting into better shape, you’re bound to come across a discussion of cardio . While many people think that refers only to certain high impact exercises like running , cardio exercise is really any activity that, at one time, people regularly referred to as aerobic exercise or plain old aerobics .
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Aerobic dancing, swimming, and even fast walking can be considering cardio. Some people even make their weight lifting routine do double duty for their cardio fitness by moving quickly through sets and keeping up the intensity so that their heart rate remains elevated. Running is aerobic and therefore often called cardio, but it’s only one of the many fun and healthy activities you can do to exercise your entire cardiovascular system.
How do you know if an exercise is considered cardio? While there’s no exact cut off, a good basic rule of thumb is that it’s anything that you maintain for several minutes so that the heart rate doesn’t slow down to a resting or almost-resting rate during the workout, and you use a lot of oxygen for a prolonged period during the exercise. Sprinting, for example, is high intensity, but it’s a short burst. The harder breathing doesn’t last long, and the heart rate is only elevated briefly. This doesn’t really use oxygen as energy during the exercise, but instead burns off stored fuel called glycogen.
To be cardio, the exercise must rely up on oxygen to keep you going. That means the glycogen stores are burned off quickly and then it’s the intake of oxygen that keeps you going .When you exercise using oxygen this way (which is what aerobic means), then your body burns fat. The elevated heart rate and the deep breathing exercise both your heart and lungs, and is one of the keys of staying fit and healthy.
While running is one of the best types of cardio you can do, unfortunately, it’s also one of the highest impact exercises around. Not everyone can benefit from the exercise because it causes problems with their knees, shins and/or feet. It can even cause hip pain if a person’s running shoes aren’t supportive enough. Stretches before running and before any exercise can help, but still some people can’t maintain that kind of exercise comfortably.
That doesn’t mean that you can’t do cardio if you’re not up to going for a jog, though. You can elevate your heart rate with fast walking. Swimming is very low-impact. And some aerobic dancing is fun, as well as low to moderate impact. You can also use cardio equipment like a stepper, or an elliptical machine that takes the impact out of each step but can replicate running.
If you’re trying to lose weight with cardio, check a chart that shows how many calories each exercise burns, and keep track of what you eat on a daily calorie counter . Then you can adjust your exercise (and your diet) to give you a healthy weight loss and the best chance at overall fitness.