Cardiovascular Training Fundamentals
Friday, 29 February 2008
Cardiovascular exercise is a vital component for anyone seeking health, fitness gains and to lose weight. The benefits from aerobic exercise are too many but a couple are increased energy, metabolic increase, gain of muscle and strength, and decrease of anxiety and depression. I might also add that cardiovascular exercise helps reduce diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis, heart disease and many others.
FITT (Frequency, Intensity, Time & Type)
Knowing the level of intensity is essential to reach your desired goal whether fitness improvement or weight loss. Exercise at too light of intensity will have you limiting your gains and exercise at too high of intensity can lead to overtraining and increasing your risk of injury. The basic level of intensity is to go by your heart rate depending on the goal you want to achieve, says the American College of Sports Medicine.
To calculate heart rate take 220 - your age that will = your maximum heart rate. Mutliply that number by .55 and .90 to find your correct training heart rate zone. Most exercise is done between 60% and 80% of maximum heart rates so take your pulse for 10 seconds and then multiply by 6 to find where your at in your workouts.
Depending on your fitness level stay between 20 to 60 minutes to lose weight and increase aerobic endurance. Slowly increase speed and length of workouts when you begin to succeed past workout intensities. Also, start with 2 to 3 times a week of cardio and slowly move to 3 to 5 days of cardio for maximum fitness and health gains.
Aerobic Activities
The types of aerobic activity and exercises are endless. Brisk walking, jogging, swimming and biking are a few of the common activities. The list continues on to include skiing, jumping rope, skating, dancing, kick boxing and many others! What is of prime importance is to pick an activity you enjoy!
Have a great day and God bless!
