What Are the Best Tips for Cardiovascular Exercise?

Whether one wants to increase aerobic fitness or burn body fat, cardiovascular exercise is a necessary component of a balanced fitness routine. There is a difference, however, between an hour spent on the elliptical trainer at a low- to-moderate intensity and 20 minutes of uphill sprint intervals on the treadmill. To understand the ideal approach to cardiovascular training, one’s goals must first be determined. The best tips for cardiovascular exercise take into consideration not only the equipment chosen, but the desired outcome of the cardio workout, the intensity of the workout, and the order of the exercise session.

Not all cardiovascular workouts are created equal. Those designed to improve heart and lung health may differ from those designed to burn fat. Those individuals whose primary fitness goal is improved cardiovascular endurance, such as someone training for a marathon, will want to make cardiovascular exercise the centerpiece of their workouts.

It is recommended that these exercisers perform three to five days of cardio per week and begin their workout with the cardio session, reserving strength training for afterward. The cardio session should last at least 30 minutes and may take up to several hours to complete in the case of long distance runners. As such, this type of cardiovascular workout is typically performed at a moderate and steady intensity, though it may be advisable to incorporate interval training a couple of days per week to optimally challenge the heart and lungs.

If the goal of the cardiovascular exercise is to lose weight, experts recommend high-intensity interval training in place of slow, steady work. This will not only challenge the heart and lungs, it increases the metabolism for up to a couple of hours after completion of the workout, and studies have shown it to be more successful at burning fat. A major criticism of lower intensity, longer duration cardio is that the body does not discriminate which calories it burns for energy, so these can come from fat or from muscle. To ensure that fat is burned and not muscle, the body’s most substantial calorie-burning tissue, experts recommend alternating brief intervals of high-intensity work — running uphill for 20 seconds, for example — with longer intervals of moderate-intensity work, such as walking briskly uphill for a minute or so. The method, whether running or using the bike, elliptical, or stairclimber, is not as important as maintaining the intensity.

How the workout session as a whole is structured also relates to the success of the cardiovascular workout. If weight loss is the desired result, keeping in mind that the goal of weight loss is fat loss, experts often recommend performing cardiovascular exercise after the strength-training session. This will allow the exerciser to put maximum effort into the strength-training portion of the workout as well as optimize the fat-burning potential of the cardio session. The logic behind this recommendation is that it is a person’s lean muscle mass, ultimately, that helps him to lose weight and keep it off. Therefore, by increasing that person’s muscle through strength-training before doing cardio, a more significant number of calories over time will be burned than can be achieved through cardiovascular exercise, leading to improved body composition.