A lot of us are jumping into the fitness bandwagon because we want to start taking care of our bodies. As we age, we realize how living a healthy lifestyle can help fight off a lot of diseases and aging. Two of the most important things that we should always keep in mind if we wish to stay healthy are diet and exercise.Performing the right exercise is as important as eating the right food and avoiding a bad lifestyle. If you wish to lose weight, get rid of your flabby arms or let your abs show, lifting weights will not really make the cut. You should always give importance to cardio exercises because it helps us get rid of that much hated fat covering our best assets. So what are the best cardio exercises? When it comes to cardio exercises, there really is no right and wrong. What you need to keep in mind is to select an exercise that you know you will enjoy working hard at. However, there are some recommended workouts that will help you attain your weight loss goals faster.
1. RUN!
If the only equipment you have is a pair of running shoes, then you should definitely get up and do some running. What I love most about running is that I can do it anywhere at any given time. You need not to have tons of free time to do this because even 30 minutes of good running at least three times is already a good start. Running helps your connective tissues and bones become stronger because it is a high impact exercise. It increases your heart rate faster than exercises that are low impact. If you wish to challenge yourself more, you can try interval training or just do sprints and run on hills. This will also help you burn more calories than the usual running you do.However, you should be aware that not every high impact would work on every person so I suggest that you start slow first. Brisk walking is a good start and once you have built your stamina, you can already start running.
2. Ski Away!
If you live in a snowy area, one of the best exercises you can do to burn a lot of calories is cross-country skiing. This is considered as an excellent cardio workout because both you lower and upper body are involved. You need not to do a lot of work just so you could get your heart beat raising and this will allow you to burn more calories.Even if this is a good kind of workout, it also has some cons that you should also consider. For starters, you would need snow and a lot of gear. If you are a newbie, you need a lot of practice and tutorials first before you can start skiing. However, an alternative for skiing is doing a workout on an elliptical trainer.
3. Go Elliptical!
The elliptical trainer is probably one of the most well-known gym equipment and is probably one of the most favoured, too. I, myself, love the elliptical and I would choose it over the treadmill any day. It allows you to let your body move in a way more natural than any equipment. If you want a more challenging workout, then you could adjust the arm handles and ramps. There are also a lot of workouts that you can do with this equipment.
4. Bike Around!
You can burn a lot of calories and increase your endurance with the use of your legs. You can burn up to 500 calories in a 30 minute cycling workout and this will depend on your speed and resistance. What a lot of people love most about this workout is that you can include this in your day to day activities just like running. You can just use your bicycle as a mode of transportation to and from work or when running some errands. Not only you would get to burn some calories, you can also save your gas money, too! Since cycling is a low impact form of exercise, it is perfect for your joints. If you want to take it to the next level and learn some new forms, taking a spinning class at some gyms would be an awesome idea. Gyms like 24 Hour Fitness and Gold’s gym offer this kind of program and you should take advantage of it.
5. Swimming!
Another fun cardio workout a lot of people love is swimming. Since it is a full body exercise, you will be able to burn a lot of calories. There are loads of other excellent cardio exercises you can try. Asking an advice from a fitness expert or a gym instructor or even just researching on the internet would be a good idea so you will have enough knowledge before starting your workout.