Going to the gym and doing some cardio exercises seems like an easy thing to do. Running, walking, going on an elliptical – those are easy to do. But what do you have to do to get the most out of your workout? There are a few guidelines you should follow (which were established by the ACSM, or American College of Sports Medicine) in order to make your cardio sessions most efficient.

1. Warming-up and cooling-down – Many people tend to ignore two important components of an exercise: the warm-up and cool-down!

The point of a warm-up is to get the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems for the next phase of the workout, which is called the conditioning phase. This allows you to get your heart rate up, reduce muscle stiffness, and get oxygen through your blood.

The point of having the cool-down is to get rid of waste products (such as lactic acid), reduce your chances of becoming dizzy or fainting due to the pooling of venous blood, and to lower the amount of adrenaline found in your blood.

Your warm-ups and cool-downs should last for about 5-15 minutes, and their intensity should be about 50% of your regular workout (you should be able to hold a conversation easily).

2. You should have cardio sessions that consist of 30+ minutes of moderate-intensity (3-5 days per week). If you’re trying to lose weight, this is very important. When you first do your cardio, your body is relying on its main energy source, glycogen. Only when it runs out of glycogen will it start using its secondary energy source; body fat. Therefore, if you don’t do enough cardio exercising in a single session, all of your work for that day will be for nothing!

If you are very unconditioned, then you may have to split up your workout into segments. For example, three 10-minute sessions. While this will not burn as much fat as one continuous session, it will allow you to build up your stamina and improve your health.

3. As for the intensity of your workout, it should be 50-85% of your maximum heart. Even if you’re out of shape, you can still do low intensity workouts and improve yourself. If you’re already very fit, then you can try high intensity workouts.

4. This fourth rule describes when you should move up in intensity/duration. Basically, you should only improve your intensity only after increasing your duration after two weeks. So let us assume you currently run for 30 minutes at a treadmill speed of 6. First, you should pump up your duration to 40 minutes (I chose a random number; choose what works best for you)… if you can do 40 minutes at 6-speed without any signs of extreme fatigue, then you can go back to 30 minutes at a higher level speed.