More formally called cardiovascular or aerobic exercise, cardio encompasses a wide variety of activities that get your heart pumping harder and help you to burn calories. How often you should do cardio depends on your current fitness level and a variety of other factors. If you want to lose weight, you should not only perform regular cardio, but you'll also need to incorporate other types of exercise and a healthy eating plan.
Cardio
In addition to burning calories and losing weight, cardio also helps you to strengthen your major muscles, your heart and your lungs, according to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Activities and exercises such as walking, jogging, running, swimming, bicycling and hiking are all great cardio workouts. Aerobic dance can also serve as unique and fun cardio exercises, with new classes emerging all the time. You could try belly dancing, flamenco, tango, salsa, capoeria or maculele, hip-hop funk or Caribbean rhythm classes. Cross-country skiing, stair climbing, step classes and sports such as basketball, soccer, racquetball or tennis are also cardio activities.
Weight Loss
To lose weight, you'll need to burn more calories than you consume. The amount of calories you burn from doing cardio depends on the intensity, frequency and duration of the exercise, says the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. At first, you can set a goal of performing moderate aerobic exercise for at least two and one-half hours per week or vigorous cardio for at least 1 hour and 15 minutes per week, spread throughout the week, MayoClinic.com recommends. You might do 30 minutes of moderate cardio five days per week or 60 minutes on two or three days per week. Moderate aerobic exercise are activities like walking, swimming, rowing and cross-country skiing, while vigorous cardio exercises include running, tennis, racquetball and many aerobic dance classes.
Fitness Plan
Although cardio is an effective way to burn calories and lose weight, it's only one part of a complete fitness and weight-loss plan. Strength training at least two days per week is essential to building strong muscles, which can help you to burn more calories even when you're resting, MayoClinic.com says. Strength training can include weight lifting with free weights or using resistance machines or bands. You can even simply perform leg squats, sit-ups and push-ups for your strength-training exercises. Flexibility is another important element, usually involving stretching exercises or activities such as yoga. Flexibility exercises are important to reduce injuries and improve your joints' range of motion, notes the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Considerations
If you're just beginning a regular exercise routine, talk with your doctor before starting it -- especially if you have any medical issues. Always warm up and cool down by stretching or walking for 5 to 10 minutes before and after doing cardio or other types of exercise, MayoClinic.com advises. Start out slow to prevent injuries and discouragement, but then work up gradually so that you're increasing the intensity and duration of your cardio exercises. Remember that although 30 minutes of cardio per day on most days of the week is usually helpful for providing a variety of health benefits, you should perform at least 60 minutes of cardio in order to lose weight, notes the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
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