If you are exercising, building cardiovascular strength and endurance should be your main goal.
Once your cardiovascular system is in good health, you can perform everyday tasks easier.
You can burn more calories if your aerobic capacity is harder. How to begin cardio exercises to build cardiovascular strength?
First assess your cardiovascular fitness. A personal trainer can help to determine your aerobic strength.
With a simple exercise routine, you can identify your level of strength followed by some tips for cardio training.
Stand with feet shoulder width apart and your arms resting comfortably at your sides.
Take a deep breath and begin to walk briskly swinging your arms gently. This warm up should be continued for two minutes and begin performing jumping jacks.
You can perform as many jumping jacks as possible without resting. After three minutes, stop your movement and take the pulse.
Your ideal heart rate should be 75-85% of your maximum heart rate.
You can find maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. If your age is 32, subtract 32 from 220. it is equal to 188. 75-85% of 188 equal 144 to 160. Thus your ideal heart rate for maximum cardiovascular conditioning is 144-160 beats per minute.
If your heart range is above 85%, you need to slow down your activity and work on building more strength without placing much stress on the body. If heart range is below 75%, you can work harder.
Building aerobic capacity through cardio exercise:
There are simple cardio exercises to condition the cardiovascular system and increase your aerobic capacity without depending on equipment or gym classes. Go with whatever cardio exercise works for you and stick with that to build greater strength.
Lengthen your cardio exercise workouts:
By increasing your cardio exercise workout by 15 minutes, you can burn up to 100 additional calories and give your metabolism stronger boost. If your workout is 30 minutes, extend it up to 45 minutes three times per week. Adding more time to your cardio exercise workout will bring results faster.
Swimming:
Swimming is one of the cardio exercise workout. You should understand how challenging an underwater workout can be. You have to learn how to breathe and rely on your aerobic capacity to support you when you are under water and cannot take a breath.
Water supports your weight and makes you more floating. You can able to work more of your muscles, thus requiring more air to drive your system. You will feel difference in less than three weeks if you start swimming workout for thirty minutes twice in a week.
You will be amazed at the change in your body and breathing capacity once you add swimming as a regular cardio exercise.
Arms to increase lung power:
If your cardio exercise plan includes walking or running, you can simply add arm movements as you move your legs. This works best for walkers than runners because they move in slow pace and can easily incorporate arm motions into the walk.
Raise your arms over head and for two beats and then back down. This increases your heart rate and it starts building the capacity in your lungs.
