Try these effective cardio exercises to boost your fitness, endurance and overall conditioning.
“Cardio” exercises are a fantastic way to keep your heart healthy, boost your metabolism, and improve your overall fitness. When it comes to building an impressive cardiovascular system and an endurance engine to power through with lasting energy. You need to perform cardio. I’ll covers some effective cardio exercises you can do outdoors or at the gym for great results.
Whether you’re looking to spice up your home workout routine or find new challenges at the gym. There’s a wide range of cardio exercises to suit every fitness level and goal. To reap the benefits, you fully need to embrace cardio as an effective method in developing fitness and conditioning. As great as resistance training is, it won’t deliver the cardo benefits that these exercises deliver. Just ask a runner or cyclist. Nothing beats cardio when it comes to burning the calories and building your endurance in delivering a great fitness and conditioning base. As the saying goes, athletes run. So why not get the same rewards? Let’s do some cardio.
My favourite effective cardio exercises for real results.
Skipping is a classic exercise that work the shoulders, coordination, is low impact and can burn through those calories. It’s fun and cost effective to set up. A staple exercise withing the combat sports community. Any wonder what helps some of them look sleek and muscular? The convenience of using a skipping rope is that you can almost do it anywhere. For those who lead the busy lifestyle it can easily be packed when travelling.
Running is one of those activities that is critical in most of the performance aspects in sports. It is one of the most effective calories burning and cardiovascular fitness activities you can do. With a comfortable pair of running shoes anyone can go outdoors and get the benefits from running. It doesn’t take much as startup costs are reasonable. You can literally do it from outside your door, out and back. And a terrific activity to share with others in a social environment. There are many options when it comes to running. There are running clubs, the local park run which is a 5K event run every Saturday. For the more adventures there are running events covering trail running, road running or whatever suits you. One of the most effective cardio exercises to participate in.
Cycling for cardio fitness
Air bike. The classic air bike has been since the Schwinn company released it back in 1978. An old-fashioned piece of equipment that has long put the fear into those who want to challenge it. An exceptional tool for HITT training and not really for endurance. It’s an effective cardio machine when performing shorter tempos or belting out some intense intervals. Challenge yourself and go all out finishing off a workout, I dare you. Companies like rogue fitness have ensured that the air bike are prominent in many smaller gyms. For an exceptional lung burning workout, give this one a try.
Spin bikes. This piece of equipment needs little introduction as there isn’t a commercial gym that doesn’t have them. Join in a group fitness class involving this great piece of equipment and find out. Spin classes last anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and generally booked out. They are loud, cold and can be intimidating for those who are new to them. Apart from classes, the spin bike is great for long term fitness endurance. With a lot of people now having one setup in home studio. Armed with a laptop are ready to go.
Alternatively, you can do it the old-fashioned way and spin while watching your favourite TV show or just streaming. These bikes are great for the development of long-term endurance, a great calorie burn and an effective cardio workout when performing tempos. For longer rides it’s a fantastic low impact exercise that is recommended for older adults. As long as you’re happy to sit on its hours on end. A classic fat burner and great fitness tool.
Kettlebell swings for a different alternative.
As a kettlebell instructor the swing in particular fits in well as part of my fundamental exercises. It’s one of the first movements that I teach working the hip hinge. Which is folding forward, driving hips back with a neutral spine. Once learned this (hinge) movement transition well to other heavy-duty exercises involving including the squat, deadlift and bent over row when proper technique is leaned and safe to perform. Once you begin to use the best suited bell, high volume swing will have an impressive effect.
Expect wobbly legs, a higher-than-normal heart rate and a new appreciation for fresh air. The post effect of using the swing as an effective cardio exercise can last for hours. As a bonus your grip and core strength both improve from this very compact and dynamic exercise. One of my go to movements when training clients. An exceptional tool for generating fitness and great conditioning.
Complimenting your cardio training
Nutrition. One of the elements that goes well with a cardio fitness and calorie plan is paying attention to your nutrition. Whether you’re looking at increasing your fitness through cardio equipment or improving sports performance, the nutrition component is as important. Understanding what calories, you need, and consuming quality foods are essential in supporting any performance training. For example, getting the complex carbohydrates right allows you enough energy to push yourself. Properly fuelling your workouts is an important component when improving fitness and conditioning.
Making the mistake of taking a low carbohydrate approach is not ideal. Having the mindset that you must reduce all carbohydrates because you are dieting will end in disaster. With no glycogen to fuel your workout, your cardio fitness won’t improve. You have to eat and eat well getting the proper fuel in. With consistency you will be fitter and burn more calories. Alternatively, A 45-minute group fitness spin class that would only burn enough calories for general wellbeing can easily be undone. With a high consumption of calories through wrongful eating thinking you are feeding your workout. Get your nutrition right and you will find a healthy balance.
Weight training. With any cardiovascular fitness regime is essential to add at least some amount of weight training. Only doing cardio does have its benefits. However, for a more balanced plan you need to have some strength to support your activity and general life. Without strength you’ll just be cardio fit and not be as structurally strong as you could be. Potentially exposing yourself to possible injuries when participating in sports. Just do enough training to support you in having stronger and durable bones. Most importantly, ensure you have stronger muscles and a structure that can be pushed to generate the fitness levels that you’re after.
Effective cardio for health and fitness.
Whether you are looking at improving your overall health or play a sport. Adding cardio to you programme will affect your heart health in the most positive way. For everyone it should be the number one priority. It is a muscle that can only be worked efficiently though cardio exercises for optimum health and wellbeing. The benefit of having a good cardio engine is a more resilient immune system so, is great for those who get sick often. While it’s not going to cure everything, it will certainly help you in the prevention of these diseases once you work up your cardio and have a well-functioning immune system.
When it comes to sports performance, having fantastic cardio it creates greater lung power/capacity resulting in more oxygen aiding performance. This is important for athlete like cyclists, skiers, combat athletes, rowers or runners who need this ability to perform. When an athlete reaches peak performance, they generally have a high vo2max while having the ability to generate greater output when pushing their cardio to it limit.
Having a good level of cardio for general health and wellbeing makes you feel good. And the carryover effect has a positive impact on your mental health. The reason most people do cardio is essentially to manage weight. This, along with a good nutrition strategy while doing regular cardio plus regular weight training works best. Putting it all together takes a balanced approach in reaching and managing your bodyweight goals. Using any of these effective cardio exercises along with a consistent nutrition plan is a great start. Lastly, having good cardio provides you with more energy to get on with other leisure activities you enjoy.