Cardio, oh cardio… why people don’t love you? What is your first thought when we say cardio? The probably unpleasant feeling of running, sweating, bicycle at your local gym that you get soooo bored riding… Forget all about it! Cardio is very important, and it is here to be loved by you and anyone who wants to lose weight. In this text, we will tell you why you should love cardio and how to do it properly.
Why should I do cardio?
Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise – exercise that gets your heart rate up and increases blood circulation through your body. Properly performed, cardio is going to burn the excess fat in your body by burning calories.
Cardio is mostly known for it’s magic when it comes to weight loss, but what many do not know or not think about is that it is great for your health in many other ways.
Firstly, cardio is improving the health of your heart. By increasing the heart rate your heart gets its much-needed dose of exercise since it is a muscle. If you fail to work it, your heart gets weaker over time and that can cause many different heart issues.
Cardiovascular exercise also releases “happy” hormones to your body, so it is a good way to ease up the symptoms of depression or fatigue. Cardio will help you have a more positive attitude about life in general, a priceless result for your effort.
Finally, cardiovascular exercise helps you manage your problems with diabetes. By performing cardio you increase your muscle’s ability to utilize glucose, and if you exercise regularly you will have better control of your blood sugar.
Of course, if you have any medical problems, it is recommended to create your exercise plan with your personal trainer, who is going to create a specialized exercise plan tailored for your needs and help you control the condition.
How to do it right?
#1 Bike is one of the most important tools
The bike is one of the primary CrossFit tools and it gets even professional athletes in the most amazing shape! Only imagine the results you can get with regular bike riding.
The thing with using an assault bike is that it is challenging for people to push through time, distance and calorie burn. Riding bike gets boring, tiring and the only thing you wish for at the moment is for the session to end.
But assault bike has more pros than cons.
It provides great calorie burnout, your legs look amazing, it improves your squat form, and it is an amazing way to start your workout, following by some other types of exercising.
In addition to this, assault bike is a way for you to maintain your muscles mass since most of cardio exercises are known to be catabolic.
#2 Go for a walk
It is easy, it is free, it reduces stress and it improves your cardio!
This is easiest to be done – walk to work, shopping, with friends in the park. You can do it in a relaxing manner, or you can put your running sneakers on and do some speed walking.
This is not the only way you should do cardio if you want to lose weight, but it has amazing effects on your state of mind and it does improve your physical condition.
Another great thing is that you can fit this into your lifestyle and schedule anytime!
Tip: install some of the count stepping apps on your mobile phone and track your improvement. After some time you get addicted to busting your own record in steps, and you can compete with your friends and neighbors.
#3 Metcons
Metcons are often advised to our clients. If you check our social media profiles, you can see some of the exercises we did with our clients.
They are great for cardio and conditioning. This exercise is high intensity, it increases your heart rate, your metabolism jumps up and you are building muscles.
This is an amazing fat loss method, and the results are inevitable.
Metcons shouldn’t be practiced without the supervision of your personal trainers since the risk of injury is higher and a professional should monitor your movements.
#4 Kickboxing
Can you imagine anything more enjoyable after a stressful day at work than punching and kicking a boxing bag?
Kickboxing is fun, but also high-intensity cardio exercise which helps you to lose weight, relieve stress and build muscles! Kickboxing is one of the favorite training to our clients, and having the results in mind reasons are obvious.
The greatest benefit of kickboxing is melting fat – and do it fast. It burns around 750 calories in just an hour. It is especially effective with stubborn belly fat.
Finally…
Your cardiovascular exercises are not going to provide results without proper nutrition. We mention this often, but there is no way to stress this fact enough.
There are a lot of ways to improve your cardio, and here we presented our favorites. Hope this will help you achieve your fitness goals. If you need any more information, consultation or anything else – contact us.