Information About Cardio Workouts

Cardiovascular, or aerobic, exercise involves moving the body in a continuous motion for an extended time frame. Aside from the fact that cardio burns calories, it also comes with numerous other benefits. Regular aerobic activity can reduce your risk for heart disease, lower high blood pressure and boost your mood. The type of cardio you choose in workouts is not important. What is important is that you exercise on a regular basis.

Warm-Up

When you do cardio, you activate multiple muscles and joints at the same time. When running, for example, the ankles, knees, hips, elbows and shoulders all work in unison. If you were to go into a cardio workout without warming up your joints and muscles, you risk becoming injured. To prevent this, perform a series of dynamic stretches. Unlike static stretches, dynamic stretches are done in motion that readies your body for activity. Alternating toe touches, heel raises, arm crossovers, knee highs, leg swings and lateral lunges are examples.

Receiving Benefits

For cardio workouts to be effective, you need to do them often enough and for a long enough time frame. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 30 minutes of physical activity daily to experience health benefits and 60 to 90 minutes daily to lose weight. To make the best progress, work out four or five days a week. If you are pressed for time and can't fit a long workout into your day, split your sessions into mini workouts and accumulate your time. This approach is just as effective as doing long-duration cardio.

Interval Training

A steady state workout is effective at promoting weight loss, but you can boost your results by performing interval training. Start your workout with a light five-minute warm-up, then exercise at about 80 percent maximum effort for 30 seconds. Reduce your intensity to about 50 percent maximum effort for 60 seconds and increase it for 30 seconds again. Alternate back and forth for the rest of your workout. This type of workout not only burns a high amount of calories while you do it, but it also raises your metabolism for hours after you are done. This is known as the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC for short, notes Dr. Len Kravitz, associate professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.

Tabata Training

Tabata training is a workout that trumps interval training when it comes to intensity. To do this workout, start with a light five-minute jog, then sprint as hard as you can for 20 seconds. Rest completely for 10 seconds, then sprint again. Alternate back and forth for the rest of your workout and finish with a light five minute cool-down jog. Sprinting is only used as an example here. You can apply Tabata training to any form of cardio, such as indoor cycling, elliptical training, rowing, stair-stepping or jumping rope. The most important thing is that you use a maximal amount of effort. Being that this workout is so intense, you only need to do it for four minutes. Tabata training gives you the same benefits of a regular interval workout, notes coach and trainer Brian Mackenzie.

Staying Hydrated

Cardio workouts cause you to sweat, especially when you exercise in a stuffy gym or outside on a hot day. To prevent dehydration, it is vitally important to drink water before, during and after your workouts. A consensus report from The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommends that women consume about 90 oz. of water a day and men consume 125 oz.