Blast Away The Fat With Cardio
In recent years, cardio has received a lot of criticism with many people claiming that it’s not an effective fat loss exercise. While it’s true that cardio shouldn’t be the only exercise in your routine when trying to lose weight, it still has its value and neglecting it completely isn’t a good choice. In this article I’m going to be explaining why cardio should be part of your fat loss routine and discussing how to get the most of your cardio workouts.
Why Cardio Should Be Part Of Your Fat Loss Routine
1) Cardio Burns Lots Of Direct Calories: One of the main reasons you should be incorporating cardio into your workout routines is that it directly burns a lot more calories than lifting weights. On average, a weightlifting session burns 400 calories per hour while an intense cardio session burns between 600 and 1,000 calories per hour. In terms of fat loss, this is huge difference and by neglecting cardio you’ll be severely restricting the amount of calories you burn in a day.
2) Cardio Increases The Amount Of Calories You Burn While Resting: In addition to burning a lot of direct calories during the workout, cardio also increases the amount of calories you burn following the workout. Studies have shown that in the two days following a cardio workout, you burn 15% more calories. This means if you do a cardio workout once every three days, you can constantly elevate the amount of calories you burn by 15%.
How To Get The Maximum Benefit From Your Cardio Workouts
As you can see, if you want to maximize the amount of fat you burn on your weight loss journey, cardio needs to be part of your routine. However, to get the most out of your cardio workouts, you need to be using it in the right way. The tips below outline how you can do exactly that:
1) Incorporate At Least Two HIIT Cardio Sessions Into Your Week:HIIT (high intensity interval training) is a type of cardio training where you constantly alternate between high intensity and low intensity as you exercise. For example, if you were running on a treadmill, a typical HIIT session would involve 1 minute of sprinting followed by 1 minute of light jogging or walking and you would continue to alternate between sprints and light jogging or walking. As you get fitter, you increase the duration of the high intensity sections and reduce the duration of the low intensity sessions. HIIT allows you to burn a lot more calories per hour than performing your cardio workouts at medium intensity and by incorporating at least two HIIT cardio sessions into your week, you can significantly increase the amount of body fat you’ll burn overall.
2) Incorporate Cardio Into Your Daily Routine Where Possible: Incorporating cardio into your daily routine is a fantastic way to burn a few extra calories while performing day to day tasks. So if you normally drive to work but your workplace is within cycling distance, get on your bike and cycle there a few times each week. Alternatively, if there’s anywhere that you drive to regularly which is within walking distance, leave the car at home and walk instead. By doing this, you’ll burn plenty of extra calories, save on fuel and give your weight loss efforts a boost.
3) Use Bodyweight Moves To Get A Short Cardio Blast When You Have A Few Minutes To Spare: Bodyweight moves such as burpees, high knees, jumping jacks and mountain climbers are fantastic exercises to have on standby when you have a few minutes to spare with nothing to do. Since they require very little space and no equipment, you can do them anytime and anywhere and quickly turn any short spaces of free time into an intense, effective fat burning session.
Summary
I hope this article has shown you how cardio can help you lose weight and provided you with some useful tips for making the most of your cardio workouts. Simply follow the advice, start implementing it today and watch the pounds of fat melt away.
Best Cardio Exercises For Weight Loss
