Cardio

I recently read a study that showed positive affects of incorporating cardiovascular activity with your weight training and nutrition program. The study concluded that a short but vigorous cardio routine is optimally the best type of cardio routine to perform if you are looking to lose weight and get in shape.


According to the study your cardiovascular workout should last no longer than 20 minutes per session, with one session per day for three days per week on non successive days. For those of us that see time as a factor for lack of exercising you can see that this only takes up 60 minutes of your time in a given week. This is a small of time to invest to lose that weight and make yourself healthier.

This means that if you like to run, run a bit faster for 20 minutes for three days out of the week just so long as it is not on back to back days.

The study showed that those who were in the study group increased their weight loss as opposed to the group that performed a normal cardio routine.

What this all means is that there may not be a need any longer to perform long sessions of cardio everyday of the week. Instead break your cardio routine down into vigorous sessions where you give it everything you have for 20 minutes and do it just three days per week.

As always do not forget that before you begin any exercise routine you should seek out the advice or a professional. You should also get a complete physical from your doctor or primary care physician to make sure that your body can handle the exercise, nutrition and weight loss program that you are about to go through.

I believe if you were to ask people about losing weight what is there number one fear and they will probably say countless hours spent exercising. I believe most would break weight loss fears down further by trying to lose weight with cardio.


Well as luck may have it doing a cardio routine is not a life altering or show stopping form of tragedy. In fact it could be fun if you do the right exercise. The first thought that pops into everyone’s mind is spending a lot of time on a treadmill, or a stationary bike or God forbid an aerobics class, Yikes!

Just relax, calm down as what I am about to tell you should ease your troubles and give you less to worry about. Your cardio routine can be fun. Yeah I know it is earth shattering but believe me if you don’t make it fun you will stop exercising and in turn never lose the weight.

There are a variety of ways to make your cardio routine fun. The first thing you want to do is pick some exercises that you enjoy. For instance I like riding a bike or walking the neighborhood with my dog. They are both forms of excellent cardio routines. Do you like to mow the lawn? Maybe clean the garage? If so then you can come over to my house…but seriously, find something that you enjoy that will keep you moving.

The next thing you need is to perform your fun exercise in a short vigorous routine. In other words try to do in twenty minutes what would normally take you 25 to 35 minutes. Short vigorous exercise is what we are looking for here.

Finally, do it only three times per week and never two days in a row. So as you can see your new cardio routine does not look as frightening as you might have imagined. If you add it up you will see that you are doing something fun for only 60 minutes out of the week.

Now that you have your new cardio routine the only thing left to ask yourself is what are you going to do with that slim new you!