Cardio Meaning

[ kahr-dee-oh ]

noun informal

1. Aerobic exercise stimulates and strengthens the heart and lungs: I mostly use weights but always add some cardio to my routine.

Adjective Informal.

2. Of or relating to aerobic exercise: The class begins with a slow and steady warmup and then switches to a cardio workout.
3. Of or relating to the heart; cardiovascular: He’s a hugely successful cardio surgeon.

In this article, we will explore the practical implications of cardio exercises for achieving your fitness goals. As a beginner in cardiovascular training, you might find the literal cardio meaning insufficient in assisting you with your fitness objectives. Therefore, we will delve into crafting a suitable fitness plan for beginners, determining the optimal duration of workouts, identifying cardio exercises that are most beneficial for you, and establishing the appropriate level of intensity for your workouts.

A lot of times, cardio for a beginner translates to someone looking for the correct way to perform a 100% cardio workout routine because they’re either timid, uneducated, intimidated, or biased about the benefits of weight training along with aerobic exercise.

 How Cardio And Weight Training Go Together

I don’t care if you’re a female, male, fat, skinny, tall, short, a track star, or a powerlifter. It won’t change that the underlying foundation of your fitness routine should always include weight training.

Why do you ask…

There are normally two goals people have in mind when they start to work out.

• Lose Weight
• Build Muscle
• Become tone
• Increase endurance

To properly attack both goals, you need a plan that includes cardiovascular and weight training aspects.

If your goal is to lose weight

1. Weight training will help you keep the lean muscle you already have, keeping your body focused on burning your extra fat reserves. It will also activate the process known as Nutrient Partitioning; the body decides if it has to store the energy from your diet or burn it; ideally, you’d like all those nutrients to be partitioned to muscle instead of fat.
2. When done alongside a proper nutrition plan, Cardio is very efficient at burning fat and will be used to keep you in a calorie deficit for an extended period.

Now let’s say your goal is to build muscle.

1. To build muscle, you have to push your body to the point where it needs to adapt to the stresses you’re putting it under, and weight training is the single most efficient means to achieve this.
2. Cardio will help control how much fat your body stores during a weightlifting routine because you’ll be in a calorie surplus.

The subject of which cardio exercises burn the most fat is highly debatable and controversial.

The expert opinions differ about the intensity levels, duration, and frequency; everybody has a different idea of what makes the perfect cardio session.

The truth is, executing a proper cardio routine is very straightforward.

Anyone putting in the effort to perform anaerobic exercise is looking to burn calories; any exercise done at a high level of intensity for a sufficient amount of time will allow you to reach this goal.

A couple of factors to think about when creating a cardio plan

• Reduce any chance of injury.
• Pay attention to your calorie intake and how much cardio you do to minimize lean muscle loss.
• Be as productive as possible at burning calories.
• Cardio exercise will increase your appetite; you must learn how to cope.

I will touch on these above topics and discuss how long each session should last, how often you should perform them, and which intensity levels are best for your goals.

Different Cardio intensity levels

There are countless cardio exercises.

• Jogging
• Running
• Jumping rope
• Plyometrics
• Walking
• Swimming
• Running stairs
• Biking
• Elliptical
• Hiking
• Mountain climbing
• Tennis
• Basketball
• Stairmaster
• Rowing
• Aerobics

I could name dozens more, but I think you get the point; any one of these options, in the end, will give you the same outcome; they’ll all burn calories, reduce fat gains during a bulking session, or burn a higher percentage of fat during a cutting phase.

The only difference is that some need more intensity from you to perform than others. So, for example, running will tire you out quicker than walking.

So now you’re thinking, which one is better?

This is where we will get into the controversial part of the argument.

For years, we were told that you didn’t want to work too hard and wanted to stay comfortable, meaning you would still be able to converse with someone while performing your exercise.

In other words, you’re not breathing very hard.

The reason behind this stems from the way your body uses its energy resources.

When you’re exercising at a comfortable pace and your oxygen supplies are equal to your oxygen demands, fat will be your body’s primary choice for a fuel source.

When you perform at a higher intensity level, known as anaerobic exercises, your body will switch to carbohydrates as its primary fuel source.

I know what you’re thinking; if my goal is to burn fat and low-intensity cardio forces your body to burn fat as its primary energy source, that must be the most efficient way to lose weight.

Right???

Not so quick…

While low-intensity cardio sessions that last a long time, such as a 40-minute walk, will burn a larger % of fat during the exercise

High-intensity, low-duration cardio exercises, or HIIT for short, will burn a greater NET amount of body fat lasting during cardio.

That means that when you’re sitting on the couch after your high-intensity workout, you’ll still be burning fat; in fact, the fat-burning effects will last for hours after the exercise.

This is possible because of the oxygen deficit you create within your body during a HIIT workout. The body is then forced to burn excessive calories to make up for the deficit.

In the end, HIIT workouts destroy more total body fat while maintaining the largest % of lean muscle mass. This is exactly what you want, whether you’re trying to build muscle or lose weight.

You have to be careful how many HIIT sessions you do a week depending on what other workouts you’re performing,

If you do weight training 4 days a week, adding 2 or 3 HIIT sessions may be too much.

Be careful and do what is best for you while still achieving your goals.

How long should a cardio workout last

How long your cardio workouts last will vary depending on what intensity you’re performing them at.

Intensity and duration will always go hand in hand.

The harder you work out, the less time your body will keep that pace up.

The average HIIT workout lasts between 15 to 20 minutes, and I would say that if you can easily exceed 20 minutes, you probably are not performing at a high enough intensity.

Or you’re an alien. If you are, there isn’t anything wrong with that; just saying.

Low-intensity workouts normally last around 45 to 60 minutes.

How Frequent Should You Do Cardio Workouts

There isn’t a one size fits all answer to this.

Individual body types, goals, and diets must be considered when answering this question.

Even what job you do will play a role; if you work in an office and sit on your butt for most of the day, you will need more cardio.

If you’re bending re-barb and constantly in motion throughout the day, you will need less.

I know this is common sense, but many people don’t consider it.

Your goals will determine this as well.

If you’re trying to build muscle, you need to be on a calorie surplus, so you don’t want to overdo the cardio and put yourself into a calorie deficit.

If your goal is to burn fat, you will do more cardio to maintain the calorie deficit.

As a beginner’s rule, I would say to perform 2 to 3 cardio sessions a week, track your progress, and modify it as needed.

If you have a proper nutrition and weight training plan, you shouldn’t exceed more than 3 cardio sessions a week; if you’re not implementing any weight training exercises, you will probably be around 4 or 5 sessions a week.

When Should You Do Your Cardio Workouts

This will depend on what other workouts you’re doing alongside your cardio workouts.

If you do not include any weight training exercises, you can perform cardio whenever it fits your daily life.

If you plan to balance your fitness routine with cardio and weight training, you must modify it.

If performing cardio and weight training on the same day, try to separate them by 8 hours; you never want to do cardio training directly before weight training.

Efficient weight training comes from lifting as heavy as you can as many times as possible within a set of reps and sets, depending on your goal. It would help if you always went into the gym as focused, energized, and strong as you can help.

If you absolutely have to perform one or the other right after each other due to time restraints, always do cardio after weights; remember that this may hinder the recovery of your muscles and, in the end, produce negative results.

I always recommend performing your cardio on your off days, or if time allows, do your cardio in the morning and weight training in the afternoon or vice versa.

How To Structure HIIT Workouts

The premise behind HIIT training is that you will perform an exercise at a higher intensity for a certain amount of time. You will perform at a lower intensity for a set amount of time and then repeat the process.

The positives of interval training are…

• You will expend maximum energy throughout the entire session.
• It maximizes the number of calories.
• Allows time to rest while performing the low-intensity intervals.
• Creates mental benefits also. The exercise won’t seem monotonous since you’re not continuing at the same pace.
• Your body will continue to burn fat even after you’re done with the initial workout.

You can use countless interval combinations, so don’t focus too much on the numbers; no interval structure will burn significantly fatter than another.

Just make sure that you aren’t half-assing your workouts and that you’re making continuous progress.

You won’t start with advanced interval training if you’re a beginner. You will need to start with a lower-intensity plan; you can push yourself with a higher-intensity one if you’re at a more advanced stage.

Intensity Intervals For Beginners

90 to 120 seconds of high intensity / 90 to 120 seconds of low intensity

This will not fit everyone; use it as a guideline and modify it as needed; it’s too easy to shorten the intervals and do the opposite if it’s too hard.

As you get used to it and get in better shape, you can perform at a higher pace.

During the high-intensity part of the exercise, you want to train at an intensity greater than you used to.

For example, if you’re on your favorite machine at the gym, and your normal resistance is setting 4 or 5, you’ll want to raise that to 7 or 8.

Often, people treat the low-intensity part of the exercise as a break; this isn’t what you should do; scale the resistance back to a 4 or 5.

As a beginner, I would push around 5 or 6 intervals.

Moderate Intensity

30 to 60 seconds of high intensity / 30 to 60 seconds of low intensity

This will be harder as you push yourself with almost maximum effort during the high-intensity part.

This doesn’t mean 100% since you can’t sustain a full effort for that long, but you should push yourself as hard as possible.

Since you’ll be working out at a higher intensity level, the lower intensity level must be modified to a lower level to help you recover.

Again this doesn’t mean you stop working; you need to set a pace where you are still moving and not letting your heart get too low but recovering enough for the next high-intensity interval.

I want to reiterate that the times above are guidelines, and you need to decide what is safe for you while progressing and achieving results. Your times will vary depending on your fitness level and experience.

You’ll look to perform between 6 to 10 of these intermediate intervals to make a full session.

High-Intensity (your muscles are going to burn)

These exercises will be performed at an all-out pace and should only be performed if you feel comfortable working at this extreme; with enough rest in between intervals, you will be expected to perform at 100% during the high-intensity part of the exercise.

It would help wind things down to the point where you stay in motion but barely exert any effort for the lower-intensity part.

This extreme will shorten your workouts’ duration while giving you the most desired effect on your caloric expenditure.

As a warning, when these high-intensity exercises are performed properly, they will kick your butt; they are brutal and require a lot of focus and determination.

If you choose a lower-end interval time, for example, 15 seconds high intensity and 30 seconds low intensity, I would use a stationary bike, spin bike, recumbent bike, or outdoor sprinting.

If you’ve decided to use a bike for your workout, a spin bike offers the highest calorie burn compared to stationary and recumbent bikes. Thus, it’s a great option if you’re looking for the quickest way to burn fat. Although spin bikes are commonly used by cyclists who want to train indoors, you can still use one as part of your fitness program. Just make sure to weigh the pros and cons of each option so you can get a hold of the best spin bike for your needs and preferences.

I would shy away from a treadmill because the treadmill’s speed won’t be able to adjust up and down quickly enough to keep up with the pace of your session.

You’ll complete 4 to 8 high intervals to make up a session.

Exercise Tips For Beginners

Start with an interval program and intensity level you feel safe with, and focus on progress. Always err on the side of caution, start with a lower intensity level, and gradually build up.

You can go all out for 20 seconds and rest for 40 to 60 seconds. Even if you feel this isn’t hard enough, gradually building up reduces your risk of injury and lets you avoid burnout.

Always do a warmup before any exercise. This will allow your body to be prepared for all the actions you’re going to take. With circular movements, it’s best first to warm up your major joints, including your wrists, neck, hips, shoulders, ankles, and legs.

Aim for repetitions if you’re looking to improve your capacity. Try monitoring your repetitions in a given interval and try beating them next time.

Use an interval timing program to simplify things and help you focus on your form. For example, it’d be more difficult to glance at your clock or watch now and then.

Avoid training on consecutive days. You can do training two to three times per week but don’t do it consecutively. On other days, you can try doing other training, such as Pilates or yoga.

Also, try working out with a partner. You can try alternating your workout and rest intervals. You work while your partner rests, and vice versa.

I would also highly recommend keeping a log of your cardio workouts; just like you want to see the progression in your weight lifting routines, you also want to see the same from your cardio sessions.

Always strive to do better with each workout; here are some examples of increasing your exercises’ difficulty.

• Increase the resistance of your machine
• increase the resistance that your traveling at a given resistance
• Decrease the resting times in between intervals
• Increase the work period of an interval at the same intensity
• Perform more intervals

Low-Intensity Non-Interval Cardio

An aerobic session will last around 40 to 45 minutes and be performed at a steady pace (no intervals) all the way through.

The intensity level will be lower than HIIT training, but it should not be easy; if you don’t feel your lungs being challenged, you’re not pushing yourself hard enough.

If you ranked your daily activity levels from 0 to 10

0 is when you’re sitting on the couch, and 10 being you are running through a brick wall; then these cardio sessions would fall between a 5 and 6.

There isn’t much else to these workouts; jump on whatever piece of equipment you like the most and get your blood pumping..

Digital Calorie Display

If you’ve ever been on any cardio equipment, you have seen the display that tells you how many calories you burnt during your session.

I want you to take these readings as lightly as possible; whatever piece of equipment you’re using, the calorie counters are very inaccurate, then others that have you put in your sex, weight, and age tend to be more accurate.

There are still a lot of different factors that can make these readings bogus.

You can use them as a baseline to see if changes to your intensity and duration increase or decrease the amount, but I don’t think it is accurate when it says you pump out 500 calories.

Besides, the main goal isn’t when you do HIIT training, how many calories you burn during the session. Instead, it’s the effect you have on your resting metabolism to burn calories long after the workout.

How To Get a Six Pack

Most conversations about cardio exercises end with asking what exercises I can do to get a six-pack or lose belly fat.

The answer is NONE…

No top-secret techniques, workouts, or diets will target the fat around your midsection.

In fact, it’s physically impossible to dictate the precise areas on your body where fat is decreased. This is known as the fallacy of spot reduction.

Fat loss only occurs on a total body scale.

As you keep to your fitness plan, you will eventually trim down everywhere, including your stomach.

Some people think it isn’t how it works when they do crunches or leg lifts, burning the fat around their stomach or turning it into muscle.

All you’re doing is working the abdominal muscle and not stimulating fat loss from that area.

I know I’m redundant here, but I always hear this.

Yes, if your goal is to develop a tight stomach, you will need to do resistance exercises that target the abdominal muscle, but they will only start to show once you have lost a certain percentage of body fat.

So the simple, straightforward answer to this is to focus on reducing your overall body fat%. This is accomplished through a proper combination of weight training and cardio and proper nutrition and supplementation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, understanding the true meaning of cardio is crucial for anyone striving to achieve their fitness goals. While the literal definition may be simple, it is essential to look beyond surface-level explanations and delve into the practical implications. Cardiovascular training plays a significant role in improving overall fitness, boosting endurance, and enhancing cardiovascular health.

By incorporating a well-rounded fitness plan that includes cardio exercises, individuals can experience numerous benefits such as weight management, increased energy levels, and a reduced risk of chronic diseases. However, tailoring the cardio routine to individual needs is important, considering factors like fitness level, preferences, and specific goals.

By creating a personalized fitness plan, determining the appropriate workout duration, selecting suitable cardio exercises, and adjusting intensity levels, beginners can embark on a fulfilling cardio journey toward improved fitness and overall well-being.