Cardio Fitness Guide

Cardiovascular fitness is important for both fat/weight loss and maintaining overall cardiovascular health. When done correctly, cardio fitness will not impede a bodybuilding program by lessening muscle mass. A proper cardio fitness routine will help the body in many ways. By increasing oxygen intake and increasing blood flow, your cardio fitness workouts will give your body that boost it needs to jump to the next level of your fitness goals.

Benefits of Cardio Fitness include:

• Prevention of disease, such as obesity and heart attack
• Good mental health (studies show that people who exercise more are less likely to be depressed)
• Shed off that layer of unwanted fat to show off the body you worked so hard for
• Lowers blood pressure and resting heart rate
• Increases blood flow to your muscles, which results in more nutrients being delivered to them
• Increases endurance, which might help you lift heavier for longer time periods
• When you are doing cardio, there are a few things that you should remember, they are duration, intensity and frequency.

Duration

The ideal cardio fitness workout should last between 20 and 60 minutes. If you are a beginner, start off slow and eventually work your way up to a full session. Once you become stronger and more comfortable with your cardio workout, you will be able to incorporate longer cardio sessions and possibly even different programs and intervals. You should never strain yourself. If you feel weak or dizzy you should scale your cardio workouts back a bit until you are able to workout comfortably, gradually increasing the duration with each workout. Even though cardio will not usually cause muscle loss, if bodybuilding is your goal, you should limit your cardio vascular activities to 20-30 minutes to avoid burning too many calories. Bodybuilders require a greater amount of calories to feed growing muscles, way beyond what a person simply trying to burn fat would need.

If you do your cardio at a health club, you have a great deal of options on what equipment to use. Whether it be a stationary bike, treadmill or elliptical machine, its all in the quality of your workouts and maintaining your target heart rate.

Many people opt to buy their cardio equipment and workout in the comfort of their own homes. If you frequently find yourself short on time, this may be a good option for you to consider.