3 Ways On How To Add Cardio To Your Workout

By Philip Yiga | January 16, 2015

There are many exercises that you can do today to make the body healthier and fit but most of these exercises may require adding some cardio to make them more effective. Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise helps to increase the breathing and heart rate. However, you should try to increase the cardio workouts in small increments so that your body can be able to adjust while keeping the muscles healthy.

On the other hand, doctors even recommend people to go for about 150 to 175 minutes of moderate cardiovascular exercise in a week or for 75-mintues of intense cardiovascular exercising like running or rope skipping. In fact, there are many ways of adding cardio exercises to your existing workout in order to boost your metabolism.  In this article I will tell you how to add some of these cardio exercises to your workout.

 

METHOD 1: A CARDIO WORKOUT PREPARATION:

• First consult your doctor in case you suffer from any chronic problems: this should be done so that you can get to know about the workouts you may adjust and to prevent aggravating your condition. The doctor may even recommend that you begin training sessions with a physical therapist in case you are new working out in your condition.

• Try to figure out your target moderate heart-rate: this is a very important step that will require you to take the number 220 and subtract it with your age, then multiply the answer with 0.70 in order to get your target heart rate. However, older people should always aim for a moderate target heart-rate for best results.

• Purchase a heart rate monitor: wear this monitor on your wrist while doing new workouts because it will help to show you whether you are hitting the target heart rate as you are working out.

• Buy and wear flexible clothes and athletic shoes that have cushions and arch supports: many of you make a mistake working out without proper foot support. This is actually not good because as you lift weight or even body weight, you will be putting pressure of about 7-10 times your body weight onto the feet and this can lead to injury in case you don’t have proper support.

 

METHOD 2: GOING FOR WORKOUT CLASSES:

Studies show that working out with a group of people can help to increase the intensity of your cardio workout: this means that you should at least replace 1-day of your normal exercising with a cardio workout which is meant to stimulate your metabolism. These cardio workouts may include:

• Take a spinning class: you will have to go any gym with a class filled with spinning bikes and from there; an instructor will lead you through a healthy cardio workout. Most of these spinning classes take about 30 to 60 minutes and these are just good enough to your metabolism and burning fat.
• Do a flow or power yoga at any local gym or yoga center: these 2 types of yoga basically focus on fat-burning than on meditative aspects of yoga practicing. These workouts allow you to learn a sequence of moves that help to work the muscles in the back, arms, shoulders, abdomen and even legs. The flow/power yoga is also a good in terms of strength training.
• Signing up for a boot camp: such classes are often offered by gyms, independent trainer and lifelong learning centers. They are usually based on a military boot camp model that features intense, interval training. These camps are great for weight loss because they include: jumping, running, push-ups, squats, sit-ups and many other exercises.
• Do water aerobics or water jogging: these classes usually take 45 to 60 minutes long. The workouts involve using a water-belt and water-weights. These exercises are good for anyone suffering from obesity or joint-pain because they require jumping or walking in water while using resistance to increase on the difficulty of moves. Foam weights also added inorder to increase on the resistance and to workout the arms and abs.

 

METHOD 3: ADDING CARDIO EXERCISES:

• Make your own schedule of cardiovascular exercises: in case you are already exercising for about 30-minutes for 3-4 times a week, then try adding some interval exercises at the beginning, middle or at end of the exercise routine in order to your heart rate while burning extra calories. Incase you are just starting the cardiovascular routine, begin with fast walking, cycling or water-aerobics for about 15-minutes and then increase the time by 5-10 minutes every week so as to increase on metabolism.
• Add interval-training to the workouts: interval training is great cardio exercise because it allows one to mix moderate-aerobic workouts with intense-aerobic workouts. These interval training workouts may include: cardiovascular exercises, sprinting intervals, spring pyramid and swimming sprint intervals.
• Try to add a cardio-burst to your exercises by walking or running up-stairs: aim at hiking up for about 6 to 20 floors before or after working out. Stair-walking is agreat aerobic workout because it ensures that you are carrying increased body-weight vertically while working forward and up the stairs. This actually helps to train your heart and lungs as you work out.
• Jump a rope for about 3-5 minutes before or after working out: begin by gently hopping with both feet and then try to hop with only one foot but while in one place. Afterwards, try hopping with high-knees as you jump over the rope. Rope jumping can be a great interval workout and you may even March or jog during the resting periods.
• Gently add small weights to your workout: most cardio exercises simply workout the legs but you may also have to add some weights to the hands or wrist weights. You can even pump your arms while swaying them back and forth in an exaggerated motion or try doing ups and bicep curls on an elliptical, treadmill or cycling machine. you can also get a weighted bar and hold it over the head for intervals inorder to workout your arms, back, obliques and abdominal muscles but ensure that you have good balance before and when doing this exercise.