The Many Benefits Of Cardio Training For Improved Fitness
When you're looking to lose weight, the primary exercise you need to
engage in accomplish your goal is cardio training. If you devote
yourself exclusively to strength training, you'll likely end up getting
even bigger and weighing more, especially in the beginning, which might
serve to demotivate you.
You want to build muscle, but it's much more
important initially to cut fat through cardio training. You will also
become more healthy overall through increased cardiovascular exercise,
which can only aid you in your weight loss efforts.
Cardio training is
your current and future key to success when it comes to winning the
battle of the bulge. Not only will you improve your capacity
to burn fat, you will also become leaner. This is the formula for not
only weight loss, but for sustained weight loss, as well.
How much training will you have to do to achieve cardio fitness? The
American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you do
cardiovascular training for 20 minutes at your target heart rate up to a
maximum of one hour for a minimum of 5 sessions per week. More than one
hour is considered to be non-beneficial.
Right here you can quickly
decide on a course of action, as it relates to cardio training. If you
do the absolute minimum, you can set aside 20 minutes per day.
If you
have more flexibility
in your schedule, you may receive additional benefit by extending your
workout time to one hour per day. But keep in mind you want to be as
close as possible to your target heart rate, so expect some serious
exertion.
Cardiovascular training is clearly the most important aspect of
achieving fitness, especially for someone who's overweight. Strength
training is beneficial, of course, but it runs counter to your basic
needs of slimming. A few key components you need
to consider concerning cardio training are:
1) Intensity - the intensity relates to the type of exercise you do,
and how hard you do it. 2) Duration - the time your exercise routine takes. For
fat-burning, many fitness experts recommend a minimum of 45 minutes, 3
to 5 times per week
Strength training is also hugely important to fat loss for one big
reason: it's estimated that one pound of muscle helps you passively burn
35-50 calories per day. You can see how quickly this could add up.
This
has the potential to be your secret weapon against body fat! If you
gained 10 pounds of muscle, you would automatically burn 350-500 more
calories per day while at rest! For this reason, you're best to try to
balance both your
cardio and strength training, so that you get the most out of each.
If
you overdo your strength training, it will probably come at the expense
of your cardio training, and vice versa. If you are too intense about
cardio, you might have a hard time keeping the muscle on. The best thing
for you to do is to experiment until you find the perfect level.
Almost all of the modern equipment at gyms can target your heart rate,
so using a LifeFitness, or similar cardio machine is recommended. This
way, the guesswork is removed.
The LifeFitness unit will tell you your
target heart rate based on a live
reading, and will adjust it based on a constant reading from the sensors
you hold during your workout. 40 minutes daily of the "fat burn" mode
should be enough to help you kick start your metabolism and help you
shed those extra pounds.
Author: Darren McLaughlin
About the author:
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