When you hear the word cardio, what comes to mind?
For me, it is thoughts of feeling bored and doing something for longer than I want to. If I really think about I will start to have ideas of quality of life, energy, and mental fortitude.
Cardiovascular training is essential to our quality of life. What ends up hurting many people is the all or nothing mindset of I only walk and run, lifting weights is dangerous, or the other end I lift weights to get strong, and cardio will leave me flabby.
Simply put, you need both. You need strength training to build strong muscles and bones that will allow you to handle life’s physical stressors and keep you balanced in your movement abilities. You need cardio to keep your heart healthy and efficiently carry blood and oxygen throughout your body.
3 Big Benefits of Cardio
Sleep:
Sleep is something we all need more of; cardiovascular exercises for at least 30 minutes a day have shown to give people better sleep that same day.
Endurance/Energy:
As you strengthen your cardiovascular system, your heart will become more efficient at carrying oxygen to the working muscles. This will allow you to work longer and not feel out of breath or fatigued.
Heart Health:
Research has shown cardiovascular exercise will lower the less desired cholesterol (LDL) and increase the beneficial cholesterol (HDL). One of the markers used to judge heart health.
How Often Should You Train Cardio
To get the benefits of cardio exercises, you need to do them at a higher frequency than strength training, but not at the same intensity.
If you were to workout three days a week, two of your workouts would be strength training, and the other workout should be moderate to intense cardio training.
The other four days of the week, you should have the goal of getting out for 15-30 minutes of low-intensity cardio for at least two of the four days. Examples would be walking, hiking, biking, swimming, yard work, cleaning, and so on.
Example Week
Monday: Strength Training
Tuesday: 30 min walk
Wednesday: Cardio
Thursday: Rest or 30 min walk
Friday: Strength Training
Saturday: Garden 1 hour
Sunday: Rest or housework 30 min
To live a healthy life, you need to add some level of moderate to high-intensity cardio to your life.
Your Fitness Sherpa,
Coach Josh
