Guest Author: Derek Cladek
So no matter what age you are, if you are not in shape you have probably wondered about getting in shape. You have probably made some type of New Years resolution, and you have probably gotten a membership at a gym too. The problem with many people is if they do not see the finish line they will not finish the race. Losing weight and getting into shape is a long process, like a marathon, it can be such a long process that it can get frustrating because all we want is our hot bodies and our perfect butts “right now.” But unless you plan on getting liposuction or some rubber band put around your stomach, results may take awhile, oh and by the way just because you lose weight does not mean you are in shape. So what happens when your only goal is to lose weight and you hit your plateau and the scale stops going down? What is going to motivate you to keep on doing your workouts and why even do cardio workouts, if all you want to do is lose weight? Well, you might be surprised on how many different things can benefit your body when you do a lot of cardio.
Besides weight loss, there are a lot of long-term benefits that happen when you do cardio, you get a stronger heart and healthier lungs, who doesn’t want that? Doing a cardio workout will give you more energy, which directly affects how you perform during the day, with your job, and your family, because if you have kids you need energy. It reduces stress; that alone is why we should all be doing cardio. Stress sucks, and hardly anybody likes it and less stress means better sleep. Now it is not about how long you sleep, but it is better sleep, healthier sleep. Have you ever heard of the term quality over quantity? Well this is quality and quantity. Cardio increases bone density, and it reduces the risk of cancer and heart disease. If you struggle with depression and anxiety, than a cardio workout can temporarily relieve you of your depression and you will feel better about yourself. It will also make you feel better about yourself, raise your self-esteem a little; we all need to feel better about ourselves. But if we take our focus off ourselves for a moment, having a cardio routine can set a great example for our kids, so that they can grow up and have healthy long lives, a healthy life can be passed down to your kids.
So with all this knowledge, how many times and for how long do you need to workout to get these benefits? Well, I will give you a couple options; some say you need to do 30 – 60 minutes of cardio three to five days a week, and some other people say if you have a heavy workout you can do three day a week, for 20 minutes. You can choose, but just getting out there and doing something active is great. If you want to have someone guide you, try P90X, it is a great workout routine that will guide you in great cardio workouts and strength workouts.
Guest Author: Taylor Ryan
For years I was under the impression that I would reach my physical goals through cardio exercise alone. I was afraid of the weight side of the gym and felt that women should remain at the elliptical machines. NOT TRUE. It was no surprise that I never achieved my goal, or came close for that matter. It finally hit me that I was working out 1-2 hours everyday and not seeing results. Sure I was thin but by looking at me I did not look like the athlete I wanted to resemble. I studied up a bit and learned that I was actually doing way too much cardio and I needed to revolutionize my workout.
Cardio is great for the heart, lungs and blood flow. It also helps to relieve stress and helps you sleep better through the night, so by no means am I saying it should be removed completely. I would be lost. When doing cardio the body initially uses fat for its fuel however this is not an effective source after about 20 minutes and the body uses lean muscle! Who wants to see their muscle fade away!? This is where strength training was first introduced to me.
Weight lifting strains the muscles creating tiny tears (this is where the muscle soreness comes from). These tears are repaired by the body after a workout and with it more muscle is created. Muscle needs lots of energy to sustain itself.
Just by adding one pound of muscle the body will need an additional 50 calories per day! This helps you to lose the weight while toning up. It is also better for the joints than cardio and the affects lasts longer than those of cardio. Cardio may burn more calories during the process but weight lifting burns calories during and for up to 2 hours after!
As stated above, I am not throwing cardio exercise out the window. When done moderately and safely it is great. The two forms of exercise actually complements each other. I still do a bit of cardio each time I work out but I stop at 20-25 minutes! This is my time to let out my frustrations and enjoy the time I have with my ipod playing in my ears and solitude from a busy day!
I want to stress that no woman should be afraid of weights. If you are afraid of getting bulky and hilk like, throw it out the window. A womens physiology does not resemble a mans and therefore she is not able to get huge. Testosterone is the number one factor allowing Arnold Schwarzenegger to look the way he did and we fortunately lack large amounts of this hormone. Weights allow women to look and feel strong, lean and sexy.
Below I will describe the best 20 minute cardio workouts!
It is called Interval Training and it can be applied to many different forms of cardio including boxing, running and biking.
The concept in a nutshell is shorter workouts, but higher intensity. This is accomplished by pushing hard for say two minutes and then slowing down for two minutes. If you repeat this cycle four more times then you have your 20 minutes. You could also do one minute hard, one minute easy and then repeat this nine more times.
Here is an example:
Interval training is perfect for running. If you are working out on a treadmill or running outdoors, it is the same routine. Start out with a warm up jog followed by two minutes of a challenging pace. This will not be your all out because you have to maintain it for two minutes, but a pace that will be very hard for you. You then follow this with two minutes of either a walk or a very slow jog. Repeat four more times and you have got yourself an effective cardio workout in only 20 minutes.
This concept can be applied to many different forms of cardio: two minutes hard, two minutes easy, repeat four more times. Or one minute hard, one minute easy, repeat nine more times.
You will get your blood flowing, your heart pumping and reap all the benefits cardio has to offer all in only 20 minutes.
Guest Author: Terry Sandhu
ercise is always the first thing that omes to mind whenever anyone wants to lose weight.There is no doubt that by doing cardio,along with changes to your diet,you will get results.
Cardio exercise is basically any exercise that is going to raise your heart rate and force you to breathe harder for an extended period of time. Cardio exercise has many benefits apart from weight loss. Cardio will give you more stamina and more endurance. It will improve the health of your heart, and it will improve the ability of your lungs to the point where your body can receive more oxygen more easily.
The more oxygen you can get into your body, the more energy you will have. Cardio will also have a positive effect on your body’s abilities to cope with stress. Cardio exercise can be performed through various methods such as brisk walking, jogging, running, cycling, swimming, using a stepper and so on. The method will depend on your preference. While engaged in cardio exercise you will without doubt burn calories.However this will come to a halt shortly after finshing cardio.
There is another method of exercising that you should do along with cardio in your weight loss program, which will substantially increase your results. This method is to start weight training. Most of the population is unaware of how valuable training with weights can be when it comes to losing weight successfully. When you are weight training, your metabolism gets a huge boost. Not only does it burn calories while you are training, it continues to burn calories for many hours after you have stopped training.
As we get older we naturally start losing muscle and in later life this can cause problems with joints, bones and our abilities to lose weight. So it’s important that we do what we can not only to keep muscle but to increase it where we can. Weight training is not just about bodybuilding or power lifting. All types of athletes and sports people use weight training in their routines, and they are not all body builders and power lifters.
When you only do cardio, you will lose weight. Keep in mind that some of the weight that you lose will be muscle and not just fat. This is something that really needs to be avoided. The fact is that the more muscle you have on your body, the more calories you will burn. Your body requires many more calories to keep muscle on your body compared to what it takes to keep fat on your body. When you cut back on calories and start cardio, your body will try to get rid of muscle because it is calorie expensive. This will have a negative effect on your body when it comes to weight loss.
Weight training has many benefits and should be an important part of a weight loss program.
Weight training will make you stronger. It will allow your body to burn more calories. It will offset the natural muscle loss that comes with age. It will make you look better. It will protect your bones and joints. It will keep your body firm and toned. You will feel more confident within yourself.
Throughout time a strong physique has received respect.
As you can see weight loss is only one benefit you will receive from weight training. Everyone should have some sort of weight training routine in their exercise program because the benefits of it are too numerous to ignore.
Weight training doesn’t have to mean grunting and groaning in a gym. If you have not trained with weights before or haven’t trained for a long time then you can start with bodyweight exercise. Weight training is about pushing or pulling at a weight. Your body can act as this weight through exercises like push ups, free squats, crunches and pull ups. When you think you are ready for the next step,you can join a gym or buy your own weights,which are pretty cheap if you buy used ones. This will save you the time and membership fees of going to a gym. You can substantially increase your results with cardio and weight training.
Guest Author: peterhutch
Cardio exercises are the best way to increase your heart rate and metabolism and if you train using intervals, you can keep your body burning fat even hours after finishing your workout. These exercises are one third of the factors to have a flat stomach (the others being strength training with stomach exercises and dieting).
The reality is, there actually is no number 1 cardio exercise. The most beneficial activity is the one you will do regularly. Therefore, finding out something you like is vital to accomplishing your weight loss dreams. That said, some workouts offer more intensity than others.
Cardio exercises are most important for anyone who is looking to pick up an exercise routine. Especially for a beginner exercises are most important as it will help to develop the stamina and the resistance that are required for other exercisers. The cardio exercises strengthen the muscles of the heart and of the lungs and make them more beneficial.
Cardio exercises may seem tough and boring. Some treadmills and stair climbers may claim to help you burn 1000 calories per hour, but you may not survive more than 30 seconds on them. Start with the activity which you can continue for a longer time period. Number of calories depends on your heart rate and fitness. A beginner will be able to burn 4-5 calories per minute but a fit person will burn 10-12 calories per minute. There are slow cardio exercises and high intensity cardio exercises and both burn your calories effectively.
It depends upon how fast you want results- Some cardio exercises are high intensity which would bring you faster results as compared to other cardio exercises. For example cardio dancing would provide you with a high intensity strong workout as compared to plain jogging. Therefore if you want fast results and are willing to put in the energy you must go for high intensity workouts.
There are a number of cardio exercises that are meant for the beginners. It depends on the person that which ones he want to perform and which ones are suitable for him. Cycling, running, swimming, aerobics, rowing, stair climbing and walking can be good examples of cardio exercises.
Those who spend longer hours will likely to burn more fat than those who stay for only 30 minutes of cardio exercises. The 10 common fat burning cardio exercises stated in this item have one common goal: to break down body fat and strengthen heart. Pick one that suits your capacity and body type.
A great way to get the best of both worlds, is to add some high-intensity interval training to your cardio workout. For example, do your low-intensity walking for about five minutes, next go into a higher-intensity jog for the next five minutes. Then return to walking until you catch your breath. Now break into a sprint for about a minutes and then walk again. Continue alternating between walking and running until the end of your workout, or for about 15 minutes.
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