Cardiovascular exercise is, in many ways, the opposite of weight training. With weight training, you lift maximal loads in a short amount of time, with the intent of building bigger, stronger muscles. Cardiovascular training burns calories, reduces fat and involves minimal added resistance, if any. Although building muscle increases your metabolism and contributes to weight loss, cardio works more quickly and more efficiently. Any cardio will help you lose weight fast, but few tricks can boost your efforts further.
Step 1
Start your workouts with a dynamic warm-up. Dynamic stretches are performed in motion and get your muscles and joints ready for the exercising motions they are about to perform. Walking lunges, leg swings, arm circles, shoulder rotations, arm crossovers, knee-highs, alternating toe touches and ankle bounces are examples.
Step 2
Spend five minutes doing a light warm-up to raise your core body temperature and further loosen your connective tissue. Start out very slowly and gradually increase your intensity as you approach the five-minute mark.
Step 3
Perform your cardio at a steady pace. Increase your intensity to a point that you can carry on a conversation, but feel winded. Stay at this intensity for your whole workout. The American College of Sports Medicine advises that you perform 60 to 90 minutes of cardio most days of the week if you aim to weight loss. Meet this guideline to see fast results.
Step 4
Add intervals into your workouts. Interval training will cause you to burn more calories, the Mayo Clinic reports. While you are working out, increase your intensity to 75 to 80 percent of maximum effort for 20 seconds, then reduce your intensity to about 50 percent of maximum effort for 40 seconds. Alternate back and forth. Mix 10 to 20 minutes of interval training into your current cardio sessions, or spend a whole session doing just intervals. Do not do dedicated interval training sessions on consecutive days, however, because of their intensity.
Step 5
Perform five or six different types of cardio in the form of a circuit. Start off running on a treadmill, then use an elliptical trainer, stair climber, rower, stationary bike and jump rope, for 60 seconds each. Rest for 60 seconds and repeat six to eight times. This will keep you from getting bored and also work your entire body.
Step 6
Cool down at the end of your workouts. Decrease your intensity gradually through a five-minute period — exactly the opposite of how you performed your warm-up.
Tips and Warnings
- Work out five to six days a week. Alternate your interval- and circuit-training sessions on nonconsecutive days. For example, do steady-state cardio on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, interval training on Tuesday and Thursday and circuit training on Saturday. Use any combination you like as long as you stick with the program on a weekly basis. All forms of cardio are effective. Choose a form, or forms, you enjoy and will stick with until you get your weight down to where you want it.
- Consult your doctor before starting a new exercise regimen.
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