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Cardiovascular
Fitness Basics
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What is Cardiovascular Fitness?
Cardiovascular
fitness can be defined simply as your body's ability to get oxygen
and blood to the muscles. The slang term "wind" sums
it up nicely.
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When
you do physical activity and your pulse quickens and your breathing
gets deeper, you are using your cardiovascular system.
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You
can improve your cardiovascular system's efficiency through
regular training.
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The
short term used when referring to cardiovascular exercise is
Cardio.
How
much Cardio do I need?
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There
are a few simple guidelines you can follow when determining
how much cardio work you should do. Basically, it all comes
down to your goals.
- If
you are trying to lose fat,
you need to do more cardio than if you are trying to gain
weight. For fat loss, three to five times per week at 20
to 40 minutes per session is plenty. Start conservatively
if you are just starting training, e.g. three times per
week, 20 minutes per session.
- If
you are trying to gain weight, you will find
that goal easier to achieve if you don't do any cardio at
all, though you will still maintain health benefits without
much effect on your weight gain if you do light cardio work
twice a week for 20 minutes.
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- For
improving cardiovascular fitness in general,
three or four times per week for 20 to 40 minutes per session
(depending on your current level of fitness) will yield
good results.
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Which
Type of Cardio Should I Do?
Cardiovascular
training, no matter what the exercise, is categorized based on duration
and intensity. When you are choosing which type of cardio to do,
keep your goals in mind.
- If your goal
is to improve your general cardiovascular fitness, do moderate
intensity work where you are starting to breathe deeply and you
can feel that you are working..
- If your goal
is fat loss but you're in poor shape, do low intensity, long duration
work such as walking.
- If you want
fat loss and you're in reasonably good cardiovascular shape, do
the type that burns the most calories, i.e. high-intensity
training (explained in detail below).
Maximum
Heart Rate
- Your
maximum heart rate (HR max)
is the theoretical number of beats per minute that your
heart is capable of producing.
- This
is found by subtracting your age from 220, e.g. if you're
40 years old,
220 - 40 = 180 HR max.
- This
is simply an estimation, not an absolute limit.
- To
measure aerobic exercise intensity, percentage of HR
max (%HR
max) is often used. If you want to exercise at
60% of your HR max,
your heart rate should be, using the example above, around
108 beats per minute.
- Your
heart rate is your guide for cardiovascular exercise intensity.
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Target
Heart Rate
Your
Target Heart Rate is the range of heart
beats per minute at which you should work at in order to best achieve
aerobic fitness. This range is typically between 60%
to 80% of your HR max. The
bottom end of the scale is best for low intensity training while
the top end is for high intensity training.
Taking
Your Heart Rate
- The
first is on the inside of the wrist below your thumb. Use
your forefinger and middle finger to feel the pulse (this
is known as palpation).
- The
second site is on the carotid artery on the neck (either
side). Place your fingers on the side of your windpipe,
just below the jaw.
- Count
the beats for 10 seconds then multiply by six to get beats
per minute. This count can last for 10 seconds, 15 seconds,
20 seconds, 30 seconds or a full minute. Multiply by 6,
4, 3, and 2 respectively to get beats per minute.
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- An
electronic heart rate monitor that is strapped to your chest
or on a watch can also be used to keep track of your heart
rate (the chest strap style is usually more accurate, being
much closer to your heart).
- There
are also some cardio machines that have touch sensitive
pads on the handlebars that can take your pulse by counting
the electrical signals of your heart beat. Make sure the
pads are clean and dry and grip them firmly.
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The
Low Intensity = Fat Loss Myth
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It is
a myth that low intensity is best for fat loss just because
more fat is burned for fuel as a percentage of the total calories
burned.
- Low
Intensity (L.I. for short) burns about
50% fat for fuel while High Intensity
(H.I.) burns about 40%. This is not a big difference.
Say, for
example, you burn 100 calories in 20 minutes of L.I.
work compared to 160 calories in 10 minutes of HI work,
you've still burned more total fat doing HI.
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Low
Intensity
100 calories x 50% = 50 calories
High Intensity
160 calories x 40% = 64 calories
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- High
intensity training will also boost your metabolism
long AFTER the workout is
done. This does not happen with low intensity training. High
Intensity training is a powerful fat loss tool, but
should only be used by trainers who already have a good level
of fitness.
The
basic idea when you're trying to lose fat is to create a caloric
deficit. The type of training does not matter so much as creating
that deficit. High Intensity
training just creates the deficit more efficiently than Low
Intensity training.
Aerobic
vs. Anaerobic
Aerobic
literally means with oxygen while anaerobic means without oxygen.
- The
Aerobic training zone
is the training intensity where you are burning fuel with
oxygen.
- The
Anaerobic training zone
is the training intensity where you are burning fuel without
oxygen.
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The
Anaerobic Threshold is the point
at which the aerobic, oxygen-burning system can no longer supply
enough energy to meet the demands of the exercise and you begin
to produce lactic acid. Once over 85% HR max, you will not last
longer than a few minutes unless you decrease the intensity. High
caliber endurance athletes can feel the point where they are about
to cross their Anaerobic Threshold
and can operate for long periods of time just below it.
Cardio
and Weight Training
The best way
to incorporate cardio into your training is to do it in a completely
different session then your weight training. If you plan on doing
both weights and cardio in the same session, do the weights first.
There are two major reasons for this:
- First,
doing cardio before weights will pre-fatigue your muscles, limiting
your weight training. Doing cardio after weights will not.
- Second,
weight training will serve as a sort of pre-exhaust for cardio;
lowering your blood sugar and allowing you to burn fat immediately
after you start cardio. If you do cardio first, it will take about
20 minutes before you really start to burn fat
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