Best Cardio Exercise

What is the Best Cardio Exercise ?

Cardio exercise is short for cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary exercise.  Cardio is aerobic exercise which means in the presence of oxygen.  By contrast weight training is anaerobic which means without oxygen.  Any activities in which you raise your heart rate above your resting level for time period of longer than around 90 seconds can be considered cardio.

Despite the obvious difference between cardio and weight training, the best cardio exercise and weight training do have their similarities.

The Best Cardio Exercises use Large Muscle Groups

Continuous use of your body's largest muscle groups (i.e. the legs) causes your heart and lunges to continuously transfer more oxygen from your lungs, to your blood, to your working muscles.  All this work requires energy which is either taken from you body's carbohydrate stores or body fat.

With Regards to Body Fat Reduction and Cardio, Your Calories Burned During Exercise is Only Half the Story

Like weight training, the type of cardio you do will effect your metabolism hours after your cardio session.  The higher the intensity, the higher your EPOC will be.  EPOC means Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption.  EPOC means the higher your heart rate was on average during your workout, the longer you will burn calories after recovering from your training.

To Improve you Must Track Your Progress

Again, like weight training you must constantly change your variables to make progress.  It may seem obvious but if for example you run a 10 minute mile and have the goal of an 8 minute mile, you must try to run faster than 10 to improve.

If you exercise at the same intensity over and over again you will not improve.  The SAID principle says it all.  Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands means you if you want to improve you fitness, strength, tone up, burn fat, lose weight you must perform exercise which will cause the stimulus.

Just because you lose 5 pounds from your regimen on the elliptical machine in the first week does not mean you will lose 5 pounds every week.  Your body can adapt to even the best cardio exercise rather faster.

Your heart rate is by far the most important variable for the best cardio exercise.  Heart rate during exercise determines your intensity.  Just like the amount of weight you use in weight training.  If you do not monitor your heart rate it will be very difficult to determine if you are making progress.

The First Step to Find the Best Cardio Exercise for You

Determine Your Resting Heart Rate

Your resting heart rate is the how many beats your hearts beats per minute while you are at rest.  It is measured in BPM which stands for Beats Per Minute.  It is important to get an accurate reading of your resting heart rate if you want to find your beginning target heart rate zone.

You can determine your resting heart rate by taking your pulse for a minute.  You can take your pulse at your neck or wrist.  Just remember to use your index and middle finger not your thumb because it has its own pulse.

You can also count the beats in a 5, 10, 20, or 30 second interval and multiply by whatever it takes to get to 60 to determine your resting heart rate.  The best time to determine your resting heart rate is right after you wake up in the morning.  Once you know your resting heart rate you can...

The Second Step to Find the Best Cardio Exercise for You

Find your Target Heart Rate Zone

You can use the Karvonen formula to find your target heart range.  The first step of the Karvonen formula is to get a rough estimate of your theoretic maximum heart rate.  220 - your age is an easy way to estimate your maximum heart rate.

Subtract your RHR Resting Heart Rate from your maximum heart rate then multiply by the low end and high end of your target zone 65% and 85%  The last step is to add on your resting heart rate to both numbers to find your zone.

For example say you are 40 years old with a resting heart rate of 70 beats per minute.

MHR Maximum Heart Rate = 220-(age40)=180

MHR - RHR = 180 - 70 = 110

110 x 65% and 110 x 85% =  71.5 and 93.5 + RHR

141.5 - 163.5 BPM is your Target Heart Rate zone.

You Have Your Target Heart Rate Zone, Now What ?

You have done the math and determined your target heart rate zone now you are ready to start the best cardio exercise.  The Karvonen formula estimated a safe an effective range which you should during the first part of your exercise program.

This does not mean you should stay at this range for the duration of your training.  As previously mentioned to make improvements in your cardiovascular fitness and lose weight and tone up you must make steady improvements.  With regards to heart rate, your heart rate response should decrease over time to the same intensity of exercise.

You may also have seen exercise zones charts which have fat burning zones.  These charts give the wrong impression that if you perform low intensity, slow cardio exercise you will burn more fat.

This only holds true for the duration of the exercise.  If you read about EPOC earlier you can do the math and figure out that...

The Fat Burning Zone is a Myth!

Burning fat efficiently is best achieved with a low fat, low calorie diet, intense cardio exercise and a full body complete weight training program, not 30 minutes of lackadaisical cardio exercise.

The time you spend exercising (unless you run a marathon every day) is insignificant compared to the time you aren't exercising.  This means to maximize the best cardio exercise you should perform it at your highest comfortable intensity and not be bound by some chart or formula.

Interval training causes your heart rate to go up and down in intervals and has been shown as most effective for fat burning.  During interval training your heart rate usually goes up into the higher zones for short periods of time.  You can learn more about interval training on the best cardio exercise workout page.

The only correct answer to this question is, "whenever you feel like it."  There is no point to perform cardio at a certain time just because it is "supposed to be the best."  If you don't have the energy for a cardio session, it is best to rest.

If you exercise when you don't feel like doing so, you will get a low quality workout. 

You may have read or heard that it is best to do your cardio exercise first thing in the morning for fat loss.  The story that cardio burns more fat in the morning on an empty stomach is another exercise myth.

The great thing about cardio is you can raise your heart rate doing many different things in many different places.  As long as you get your heart rate up for an extended period of time, you are doing cardio.  You can go for a swim at your local pool, play tennis, ride bicycle and many other things aside from your local or home gym.

The best place to do cardio is where you enjoy doing cardio.  It may sound like a simple answer but it is most important to enjoy your activities because it will be far more likely that you will keep it up.

As far as outdoors, the best place to do cardio depends on your goals.  If you look to tone up and burn fat, the best place is somewhere where there is a mixture of hills, flat grounds and steps. 

Summing Up Everything You Have Learned thus Far

• The best cardio exercise requires an elevation in your heart rate above resting level.
• The best cardio exercise should be performed at first within your target heart rate zone at first.
• You should try to increase your exercise intensity periodically.
• Interval training is best for fat burning.
• You do the best cardio exercise for you at home, in the park, in the gym basically anywhere.

Best Cardio Workout

Find out how to get a great cardio workout while doing something which is not as boring or monotonous as an hour on a treadmill in your local crowded gym or garage.  Learn more about specific variables which can make any exercise the best cardio exercise.

Best Cardio Machines

Whether you look to bring the gym to your home or have the best cardio exercise in the gym here are some machines which are great for getting your heart rate up.  Learn why you can get the best cardio exercise on almost all machines but some have their pitfalls.

All About Body Fat

Just can't seem to tone up the way you want?  If you learn all about your body fat, it will be easier to understand how to get rid of it to have the toned, lean body you want.

Best Weight Training Exercises

Click on any body part of the human anatomy to find the best resistance training exercises.  Resistance training goes hand in hand with your cardio to help you get and stay in the best shape of your life.

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