Archive for Cardiovascular
Bring Your Workout to a Whole New Level of Intensity
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Weighted vests have been rising in popularity for good reason. A weighted vest is an excellent item to help you excel in muscle growth and weight management. It can be used by all kinds of people; it’s currently being used by professional athletes, firefighter, military personnel, and even regular people! Not only will a weighted vest be useful for those looking to lose weight, but it’s also valuable for those who do body resistance training and endurance training.
Basically, a weighted vest fulfills one vital role: It gives your body additional resistance. As you train with the weighted vest, your brain and muscle fibers adapt to the new body weight. Afterwards, when the vest is removed, your body still believes that the weight is on you. This allows you to have increased power, strength, and calorie consumption. Read More→
Guidelines for an Efficient Cardio Workout
Posted by: | CommentsGoing 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.
Looking At the Cardiovascular System
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Perhaps you want some regular cardiovascular exercise. The exact mechanism by which these small particles cause cardiovascular damage is not clear, but inflammation appears to be the main culprit. Baseline tests to assess fatigue, strength, and cardiovascular heath were performed before the people received radiation therapy.
A long term goal is to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke as diabetes sufferers tend to be at higher risk. The Cooper Run is used most often to test cardiovascular endurance. There were only 12 cardiovascular and 23 non cardiovascular serious adverse events among the 284 patients overall. Read More→
Yes, Cardiovascular Workouts are Essential to Good Health
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As you probably remember from basic health classes, cardiovascular refers to the heart, so cardio exercises are those that elevate the heart rate and keep it elevated for sustained periods of time.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends three to five days a week for most cardiovascular exercise programs. For cardiovascular benefits, aim for 20 to 60 minutes in your target heart rate zone, apart from the time you spend in warm-up and cool-down.
A combination of cardiovascular work and resistance training can help burn fat and build muscle. Resistance training instigates heart-healthy changes in the cardiovascular system, such as allowing more blood to get to the muscles and enabling waste products to be cleared more efficiently. Read More→
Bodybuilding Without A Gym: Superior Results!
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If you think bodybuilding without a gym sounds far fetched, think again. Believe it or not, when it comes to bodybuilding, your own body is far superior to any gym equipment. There is no doubt that you can use your own bodyweight workout program to achieve gains that regular body building equipment cannot hope to provide.
Conventional bodybuilding gyms are typically jammed to the rafters with latest and greatest in bodybuilding and weightlifting machines. Inside those gyms attached to those machines are people sweating away, toning and sculpting their bodies in search of the perfect physique. If only they stopped to consider the benefits and simplicity of bodybuilding without a gym, those dedicated bodybuilders could better results quicker and spend less money. Read More→
Discover How High Intensity Interval Training Burns Away Fat Quickly
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You’re probably wondering about what you can to do make some amazing changes to your body. I know you’d love to get rid of a few extra pounds and get a lean, sculpted body with a 6 pack. But wouldn’t it be frustrating to have to spend hours upon hours on a treadmill just to get that desired body? Read More→
The Significance of Speed and Strength Training For Athletes
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If you never conducted a regular strength training program in the past, then you should part take in a total body regimen so that it will cover your bases for a more advanced speed program. The remainder of this article will assume that you’re previously done a strength training program and are ready to take your body towards the next level and achieve blazing speeds Read More→
How a Jump Rope Workout will Boost Your Weight Loss and Tone Your Body
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s something that martial artists, boxers, basketball players, and football players have in common… it’s that they all use a jump rope workout to train their bodies. Jump ropes aren’t just for kids; they’re also for people who want to train their body to get a major advantage over the competition and for those who are just looking for a great cardio workout.
You can add some jump rope exercises to your routine too. The only requirement is that you find a jump rope that suits your size. Jump ropes aren’t that expensive; good ones easily cost about $7 and high quality ones will cost you $10-$15! If you compare this price to workout machines such as treadmills, it’s considerably cheaper than $1000 or more!!
Not only is a jump rope inexpensive, but it’s amazing at the benefits your body will gain. There’s a reason why athletes prefer to use a jump rope workout to heighten their endurance. If you’ve ever jump roped before, then you’ll notice that you’re using your arms much more extensively than when you’re running or biking. By making you use your arms, it causes your whole body to work together, which results in a full body workout. Not only is this total body workout great, but jump roping is significantly less stressful on your legs compared to running. Therefore, you’ll rake in the health benefits without suffering from negatives such as bad ankles & knees.
Some other great health benefits from a jump rope workout include:
1. Improving your hand, eye, and foot coordination.
2. You’ll find that you can burn more calories than an 8-minute mile run.
3. Strengthens your muscles in your lower body and it can make your posture better by improving the core muscles in your back and spine areas.
4. Tones your arms, butt, thighs, chest, and abs – which is pretty much your entire body!
Other than trying to run all the way to the top of a steep hill, nothing else is better than working out your body effectively.
Before you begin, make sure you have the following things:
1. Comfortable shoes: You need something with a soft cushion to absorb the impact of your feet hitting the ground. Some good cross trainers are preferable. (I use a pair of ASICS shoes for my cardio workouts. If you go to any athletic shoe store, you’ll usually be recommended ASICS shoes because they’re one of the best cross-trainers. Click here to look at one of the most popular pairs of ASICS shoes for men and click here to look at a pair of women’s ASICS shoes.)
2. Comfortable clothes: Any sweatpants or shorts and a light t-shirt should do the job.
3. Space: If you’re doing this outside, then this won’t be a problem. But if you’re indoors, then make sure there’s enough room so that you won’t hit the wall or ceiling.
4. Try to avoid doing this jump rope workout on carpets, concrete, and grass/dirt. Avoid concrete because it won’t be good for your knees, and avoid carpets and grass/dirt because you need a surface that will give against your body. If possible, try to find wood or linoleum surfaces.
What kind of jump rope should you purchase?
There are many types of jump ropes out there, and each of them has slightly different attributes. For our purposes, speed ropes would be the best for a cardio workout. Compared to other ropes, a speed rope is the fastest rope out there. They’re also inexpensive and are very durable. These are the types of ropes that are used by athletes.
If you’re looking for a jump rope to purchase, click here to look at a Valeo Speed Jump Rope on Amazon. It’s a high quality rope that you can get for a measly $10 (it was on sale for $6.73 at the time of this writing!).
How long should your jump rope workout session be?
For every 30 minutes of jogging, you can achieve the same results with 10-15 minutes of using a jump rope. Depending on your fitness level, you should be doing just as much jump roping as you do jogging. So if you normally do 1 hour of jogging, you should instead do about 20-30 minutes of jump rope. (Huge time saver, right?)
One last thing… did I remember to say that it’s FUN to jump rope? Rather than mindlessly jogging or biking on a machine, you’ll have to constantly use your mind so that you don’t mess up your rhythm. You won’t get distracted from your environment with this and you won’t get bored!
Go get yourself a jump rope and start working out! Watch your fat melt away and feel the new and energized strength that your body will obtain!
