In a new world of weight loss and calorie counting

Cardio is being over looked more and more

The notion of 'You don't have to do cardio to lose weight'

Is taking its toll

And while they are right... in that you don't have to do cardio to lose weight

You DO have to do cardio to have an overall improvement in your health

And whether it is weight loss or weight gain

HEALTH should always be your priority

Why You Must Include Cardio In Your Workouts

As a muscular organ, your heart will improve and increase in performance from regular activity

The stronger your heart is, the stronger the body functions

While weight training will help to increase your heart rate, it doesn't offer sustained elevated levels like regular cardiovascular activity

Which is why cardiovascular training is always recommended when it comes to improving your health and start your training regime

The 3 Main Types of Cardio

The 'fat burning zone' was a huge training phenomenon in the 90's and early 2000's

People would walk on a treadmill or perform other cardio activity keeping their heart rate between 65-70%% of their heart rate max (220-age *65%)

And the belief of this was that you sustained this pace for 45-60 minutes and because of the low impact

Your body would tap in to fat stores rather than burn glucose (carbohydrates)

This type of activity now is usually done with people walking outside, or hiking or gentle bike rides

It will improve your overall fitness levels to some degree but the focus on this is sustained activity and something that all of us can do to help improve our cardiovascular health

With this being very low impact and also fantastic for recovery walks, there is no excuse not to do this as part of your regime

The Next Phase

The next part would be to move in to the higher heart rate zones of 75-80%

This is usually for sustained running periods (20m +) and an activity where you can still talk, but not in long sentences

Running is generally the 'go to' exercise with this

The Final And Most Popular Today

HIIT training... or interval training is what a lot of people use today

Short bursts of energy for around 20sec with recover

This takes your heart rate to 85%+ and is hugely testing on your cardiovascular system

You will burn a lot of calories in a short space of time as well

And another love of this is people's view on EPOC (click for link)

This is a fantastic tool too if you are short of time

As it is something you can put at the ned of your workout with only 3-5 minutes work

Finally

Cardiovascular activity is so important to your overall health that no matter what your training goal is, it needs to be part of your regime

Don't ignore it for the belief that you have to do cardio

You Do!

It must be part of your plan

And it must be something you dedicate yourself too and build up

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