No matter how old, young or who you are in the world, your body needs aerobic exercise. A healthy body is of utmost importance for the quality of your life! It has an unlimited number of pros that will help you feel great in all other areas of your life.
So how can you benefit from cardiovascular exercise and why is good for keeping your heart healthy?
First let’s talk about the two main forms of exercise: Aerobic and Anaerobic
The anaerobic exercise does not need oxygen (from breathing) to perform, it relies on energy sources that are stored in your muscles, anaerobic exercise is not like aerobic, is shorter in time and greater in intensity, so you generate a huge amount of force in a short period of time, think of a sprinter a bodybuilder or an Olympic weight-lifter.
The aerobic exercise, AKA Cardio, does need oxygen to perform, hence the name “aerobic” meaning with air or with oxygen, usually you would do it at moderate intensity and for at least 15 minutes, you do not need to generate any excessive amount of force, all you need is to raise your heart rate and that can be done by increasing the intensity, think of a long distance runner, a soccer player, or a ping-pong player… ha-ha just kidding, no pun intended!
Your goal doing cardio to maintain a healthy heart should be to keep it pumping from 60% to 80% of your max.
Heart rate is the speed of the heartbeat measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute (bpm)
Do you wanna know how to calculate your maximum? OK here is the formula:
220 Minus your Age = Your Maximum Hear Rate Your Maximum Heart Rate x 60% thru 80% = Your Target HR For example: If You are 50yrs old your maximum heart rate would be 170 (220-50)
If You haven’t work out in a while you should start at 60% of your max, so 102 is Your Target Keep in mind that when you start you will get to your target heart rate faster but, after exercising regularly on a steady basis you will notice an increase in your endurance so you will have to work harder to achieve your target HR. Your lungs and your heart will work better when they are conditioned, using the oxygen more effectively is another benefit of aerobic exercise.
Just walking around the block or an aerobic group class should be an easy way for you to start reaping the benefits of cardio exercise even more so if you don’t know how to start. Classes are conducted by group training instructors qualified to teach you how to perform the moves, which are usually simple every day life functional movements, but no matter what you must only perform up to your personal level of fitness, high and low intensity work outs are available in any aerobics class.
This type of exercise is an absolute must for cardiovascular fitness even if it is bit difficult at first, if you want a healthy heart you will need a healthy body and a healthy body takes regular aerobic sessions at least 3 times a week. This is the way to exercise your heart effectively and also will help you burn more calories which is good for your heart also since you will be burning more fat.
One thing to remember is to “always warm up” before any exercise and “always cool down” after any training session. A great way to warm up would be Foam Rolling or SMR (Self Myofascial Release) and for cool down you can do some stretching or foam roll again.. After all this, it would be crazy not to do some form of cardiovascular exercise at least twice a week, now you know some of it’s benefits, it helps control and reduce body fat, increases your endurance, gives you more energy, assists in your resilience to exhaustion… It also helps you mentally by improving your mood, lower anxiety, reduce depression, reduce tension, and give you a good night sleep. Can you benefit from all that?
Cardiovascular exercise has a ton of benefits and will make you feel better in all aspects of your life. I hope you take advantage of all that!
