Why Cardio Exercise Is Important.

What are cardio exercises?

Cardio exercise is any exercise that raises your heart rate. Cardio exercise uses large muscle movement over a sustained period of time keeping your heart rate to at least 50% of its maximum level.

Good examples of cardio workouts are:

Walking: this is easy and safe way to getting started in your cardio.

Elliptical: this impacts minimally on the knees and hips but keeps calorie burn high. When you increase incline, you activate more muscles.

Running: steady running burns calories but, sprinting does more.

High intensity interval training(HIIT): the concept where you perform a short burst of high-intensity exercise followed by a brief low-intensity activity, repeatedly, until too exhausted to continue.

Biking and cycling: cycling uses two large muscle groups in the legs and elevates the heart rate.

Stair climber: this uses more muscles than walking as you climb heights.

Swimming: known as a total body workout. It also works on heart and lungs.

Rowing: this works on the upper and lower body and has low stress on joints and ligaments.

Circuit training: a form of body conditioning or endurance training/resistance training using high-intensity aerobics. It targets strength building or muscular endurance.

Also Read: Beginners Swimming Workouts; Burn Total Body Fat In The Pool

We all understand that we're meant to do cardio exercises. We know it can help us lose weight by burning calories but, do we really know why we need cardio exercises?

That is just one question out of many. There are a lot of confusion about what to do, how long to do it and how much hard work to put in, making it hard to figure out just how to set up a successful  cardio program.
There are many suggestions on how much cardio or moderate intensity exercises to do weekly or daily.
If you are including cardio excercises for weight loss, you might need more time (60-90 minutes) depending on your diet and activities you are involved in.
Keeping all the rules straight is not easy to do. At times, it is better to forget about the rules and get back to basics. Cardio isn't about losing weight all the time.

The human body is meant to move

Think about how your body feels at the end of the day after doing a sedentary job.
Are your muscles tightened up? Do you feel back aches? Do you feel tire even though you have not done any physical work?
Probably, your shoulders hurt from tension and your head aches from staring at the screen of your computer for too long.

Now, compare to how your body feels after a workout. If you had done your workout right, your muscles feel warm and flexible, your blood pumps through your body, supplying oxygen and energy. You feel greatly energized, confident, proud of yourself and ready to take on the anything. Does it not feel much different?

So, you see? Our bodies are programmed to move not sit around all day.

What are the benefits of cardio exercise?

Cardio is thought of as a chore, puffing and sweating through workouts just to change our body looks. Cardio really helps to improve your body but, there are so many other benefits that may make you look at cardio exercise from new perspectives.

Some benefits include;

Weight Loss; it burns a lot of fat thereby reducing body weight.

Stronger heart and lungs: with good diets, cardio keeps the heart muscles energized and healthy also, the tissues of the lungs remain healthy due to proper breathing during cardio.

Increased bone density: with sufficient calcium and other necessary nutrients for bone growth in diets, cardio through bone activities charge up the bone cells to take up more nutrients for growth.

Reduced stress: cardio helps reduce stress by enhancing blood flow and calming the nerves thereby eliminating stress.

Reduced risk of heart diseases and some types of cancer

Temporary relief from depression and anxiety: these are problems generated from not feeling accomplished. Cardio improves blood flow, takes away stress and makes you feel accomplished thereby relieving you temporarily from depression and anxiety.

More confidence about how you feel and look.

Better sleep

More energy: with improved blood flow and better lung health, the blood gets oxygenated. Therefore, giving off more energy.

Setting good examples for younger people to stay active as they age.

Conclusion: cardio exercise as we now see is very vital to maintaining a fit and healthy body.

Also Read: 9 Tips On How To Lose Weight During Holidays Without Working Out.