Sure, you’ve probably heard that “cardio workout is a must”. But let’s break it down.
What exactly is cardio, what benefits does it offer, how long should you do it, and do you need to go all out?
Let’s find out.
What is Cardio?
Cardio workouts get your heart pumping consistently and involve most of your body. Cardio burns fat, boosts endurance, and enhances strength and speed.
We’ll delve into heart rate and its relation to training goals later.
Cardio workouts include walking, running, cycling, and rollerblading. Also, team sports, skiing, and the like. They are activities that can be sustained for a while.
Are All Cardio Workouts Long and Boring?
Not all. Some workouts are aerobic. But, there are also anaerobic ones with high intensity. These include sprinting and vigorous sports. In these, your heart rate nears its maximum.
Aerobic Exercise
– Easy breathing; you can chat while exercising
– Long-lasting without feeling exhausted
– During longer workouts (an hour or more), 60-90% of energy comes from fat burning
Anaerobic Exercise
– Rapid, deep breathing
– Overcoming fatigue is a challenge
– Requires more energy, activating carbohydrate synthesis, with less reliance on fat
It’s key to grasp that, during any exercise, the body uses many energy sources. But, their proportions vary.
There are also interval training. This is when aerobic and anaerobic cardio swap. For example, interval running :
100 meters at a low pace
↓
30 meters at maximum
↓
100 meters at a low pace and so on.
This way you will get the effect of both cardio: aerobic and anaerobic.
What Effect Does Cardio Workouts Training Give?
The effect of a cardio workout depends on the level of exercise. Light jogging, sprinting, or doing plank exercises with 2 in 1 ab roller give different benefits.
So, it’s crucial to understand why you are doing cardio workout. Then, select the load from there.
This way you will avoid the situation that many novice athletes find themselves in. They want to lose weight and run at their fastest. But, there is little point in this.
The level of exercise is determined by how close your heart rate is to your maximum. The closer, the more intense the load. To determine your maximum heart rate, use the formula: 220 – AGE.
For example, if a person is 30 years old, then his maximum heart rate is 190 beats per minute.
60-70% of maximum heart rate – fat burning
70-80% – increase in endurance
80-90% – development of explosive strength, growth of muscle mass
90-100% – maximum development of strength and speed
So, if our 30-year-old hero wants to lose weight, working at 114-133 beats per minute would be optimal.
If he is a professional athlete, then he will have to bring himself to 171-190 beats per minute.
Which Cardio is Better To Choose?
The body cares only about the “gear” the heart will use during cardio workout.
What it will do is not so important. Choose a percentage of your maximum heart rate based on your goal. Then, use the numbers to find the best activity for you.
To expand on the issue a little deeper, here are a few scenarios.
Scenario 1: Fat burning for a beginner. You need to choose an activity in which the heart rate is 60-70% of the maximum.
For beginners, this could be walking a bit faster than usual. Or, a calm bike ride, or using an Ab Roller. You can even work out on a rowing machine in front of the TV.
Scenario 2: Drying for an athlete. When walking and other light exercises do not get the heart rate you want, you need to increase the load.
Switch from walking to jogging. Pedal faster. Or, increase the level on the Relife exercise bike.
Scenario 3: Preparing for a long-distance race. You need to train at 70-80% of your maximum heart rate to increase endurance.
With each workout, the time you can run at the desired pace will increase. You’ll also be able to run at a relatively comfortable heart rate. You can also try a mini pedal exerciser
Scenario 4: Speed development. To do this, you need to work with a heart rate of 80% of the max. But, it is hard to do a long, intense workout.
Therefore, you can combine periods of high and low activity. For example, when I was playing football and training the snatch, I did this :
First, I ran 100 meters at a low pace and with a low heart rate. Then, I “exploded” and ran 30 meters at my limit. My heart rate approached the maximum.
How To Lose Weight With Cardio Training?
If you want to lose weight – get rid of excess fat and nothing else – do cardio workout that allows you to train with a heart rate of 60-70% of the maximum.
You will get hungrier from stress. Hard workouts are just the kind of stress that your body wants to “eat up”.
But training is not the most important thing in losing weight; you can lose weight without it at all. The main thing is to create a calorie deficit. Maybe you can try the Indoor Recumbent Exercise Bike.
You can run, jump, and swim as much as you like, but if you eat more calories than your body burns, you won’t lose weight. Because you can’t argue against the law of conservation of energy.
How to Calculate Calories for Weight Loss?
1) Calculate your basic calorie consumption using the Mifflin-Geor formula:
for men: (10 × WEIGHT) + (6.25 × HEIGHT, CM) – (5 × AGE) + 5
for women: (10 × WEIGHT) + (6.25 × HEIGHT, CM) – (5 × AGE) – 161
Example for a woman 35 years old, 160 cm, 65 kg: (10 × 65) + (6.25 × 160) – (5 × 35) – 161 = 650 + 1000 + 175 – 161 = 1664 kcal.
2) Adjust for your usual daily activity. Multiply your base calorie use by your activity factor. The more activity, the higher the coefficient :
– 1.2 – for sedentary people (sedentary work, rarely leave the house);
– 1.375 – for people with low activity (mostly sit, but go out somewhere 1-2 times a day);
– 1.55 – for moderately active people (walk a lot: to and from work to the store, to pick up children, just for a walk);
– 1.725 – for very active people (regular training);
– 1.9 – for extremely active people (athletes, work involving physical labor);
For example, the woman in the example has a sedentary job, but she walks to and from the office for 15 minutes – this is low activity. Then the final calorie intake is 1664 × 1.375 = 2288 kcal.
3) Take the resulting number and subtract 500 kcal from it – this will be the deficit that must be observed. As a result, our heroine should eat 1788 kcal per day. Then she will lose weight. Using the Stair Stepper Machine will help you burn more calories and help you achieve your fitness goals.
How Often do You do Cardio?
Every day – to provide the body with a minimum load. The body needs cardio training constantly in the form of regular physical activity throughout the day. As a rule, this activity comes in the form of steps – it is recommended to take 10-12 thousand steps per day. If it doesn’t work, then you need to fill the gap every day in the form of light cardio workout.
Every day – to create a calorie deficit. If you want to lose weight, cardio lets you eat a little more. This is a nice bonus when you’re changing eating habits to eat less. Let’s say, if you need a deficit of 500 kcal, then 300 of them can be achieved by walking for an hour. There will only be 200 kcal left to “undereat”.
3-4 times a week – to develop endurance, strength and muscle mass. After intense training, give your body time to recover. This way you can avoid injury and fatigue, and the results will be better.
How Long Should Cardio Training Last For Weight Loss?
There is a common myth: Supposedly fat begins to be consumed 30/45/90 minutes after the start of training.
This is not so: the body immediately needs energy, which it begins to take from glycogen, fat, and, slightly, muscles.
At the same time, the duration of exercise for weight loss should be 30 minutes.
It’s just a different matter: You will burn too few calories in a short workout. For example, for a person weighing 80 kg, a 15-minute workout with a heart rate of 125 beats per minute is only 134 kcal. There are fewer of them in a piece of bread.
But 30 minutes under the same conditions is already 269 kcal, and 45 minutes is 403 kcal. If your daily intake is 2,000 kcal, then a 45-minute workout will create a deficit of 20% of your intake.
Therefore, it makes sense to gradually increase the duration of exercise to burn more calories.
