Cardio, or aerobic, exercise gets your heart pumping faster and oxygen-rich blood flowing to your muscles. It helps control your cholesterol, reduce blood sugar to manage diabetes, lower high blood pressure and decrease anxiety and stress.
Whether you do steady-state cardio like jogging or intense bursts like HIIT, these workouts can help improve your cardiovascular fitness.
1. Burn calories
If you’re looking to burn some calories, cardio training is the way to go. Cardiovascular exercise increases the amount of oxygen and blood flowing to your heart, lungs and muscles, burning more calories during exercise and also increasing your metabolism.
The latest physical activity guidelines suggest that light or moderate-intensity cardio exercises can be done daily to improve overall health, while vigorous-intensity exercises may be better reserved for alternate days to avoid overtraining. Mixing both types of exercise can be helpful for varying workouts and targeting different energy systems.
Your aerobic system is best for long and easy activities like jogging, while your anaerobic engine is better for short bursts of intensity, such as squatting or sprinting. Exercises that blend both types, such as a REHIT session, offer the best of both worlds and can be incorporated into your workout routine in small bouts of 5-10 minutes.
2. Strengthen muscles
If you want to build muscle, it’s important to include strength training in your fitness routine. But the idea that cardio kills your gains is a myth.
In fact, incorporating cardio into your workouts can help you strengthen your muscles more quickly. Doing some moderate-intensity cardio like a leisurely cycle or jog warms up your muscles before you do weight lifting. This can make it easier to lift heavier weights and increase the number of reps you can do, helping you build muscle faster.
Additionally, cardio helps you burn calories even after your workout is over. That’s because your muscles need time to repair themselves, and your body continues to burn calories to fuel that process. This is why alternating your strength and cardio training is so beneficial to your overall health.
3. Improve heart health
A healthy cardiovascular system helps to decrease blood pressure, improves the blood proteins and fats that contribute to heart disease, prevents diabetes and can help lower cholesterol. Regular cardio exercise also reduces inflammation in the body, improves sleep quality and decreases stress.
It’s important to always spend a few minutes warming up with stretching before jumping on the treadmill or going for a jog. This will reduce the risk of injury and help to increase your endurance and aerobic power.
Another benefit of cardio is the natural endorphins that are released during and after a workout. These hormones promote feelings of well-being and can even help you fight off depression or stress. In addition to cardio, it’s important to incorporate balance and flexibility training into your weekly fitness routines.
4. Increase stamina
The heart-pumping, lung-expanding thrill of cardio workouts can increase your overall endurance. This means you’ll be able to work out for longer periods of time and even tackle everyday tasks without feeling so winded.
Aim for 20 to 60 minutes in your target heart rate zone per exercise session, including warm-up and cool down. This will ensure you burn through available glycogen energy and begin burning stored fat for fuel.
Try interval training, tempo runs, fartleks, and other cardiovascular exercises to improve your stamina. Adding in a strength training component to your workouts can also help you build endurance, and may make incorporating endurance-building exercises into your workout easier. Talk to your trainer to find the best exercises for your goals and abilities. They’ll be able to help you set realistic goals and achieve them over time.
5. Reduce stress
Cardiovascular exercise increases blood flow to your heart, lungs and major organs. It strengthens your heart muscle, improves blood sugar and immune system control and increases metabolism and energy levels.
Getting enough aerobic exercise may help you reduce stress. Your body releases endorphins during exercise, which are chemicals that help to fight feelings of anxiety and depression. In addition, your physical activity may improve sleep and give you a sense of accomplishment and mastery.
Regular cardiovascular exercise also promotes adult neurogenesis, which helps you develop new brain cells in certain areas of your brain. This may help you think more clearly, improve working memory and enable faster task-switching. This, in turn, may help you cope with and manage stress more effectively. In a recent online ADAA poll, 14 percent of respondents reported that exercising is one of their main stress-control techniques.Konditionsträning
