Cardio

With so many Americans overweight, it's obvious that many of us are not doing cardio exercises. We should all do some type of cardio exercise for at least 30 minutes a day. How important is it that you have a cardio workout for at least 30 minutes a day and what can you do to fit an extra 30 minutes a day of cardio into your life? You should at least have 30 minutes of some type of cardio workout every day. Having at least 30 minutes a day of cardio will help decrease your blood glucose level. It will take at least 90 minutes of cardio a day to lose weight. In fact, cardio exercises for weight loss is mandatory or you will simply not lose weight.

Cardio exercises are simply doing something that raises your heart rate to in between 95 and 140 beats per minute. This same information is usually displayed on any cardio machines that are in gyms or if you buy a cardio machine for your house. Here are a few reasons why cardio is important:
1. Cardio exercises help you burn calories which in turn will help you lose weight.
2. Since your heart is actually the main muscle in your body cardio exercises will actually strengthen your heart.
3. Cardio workout benefits your lung capacity.
4. Cardio exercises are of great importance in controlling diabetics blood sugar readings.
5. Cardio workout will help in lowering your cholesterol and your blood pressure.
6. Cardio exercises make you feel and look better.
7. Doing cardio improves your ability to sleep.
8. Cardio exercises help to reduce stress in your life.
Bottom line: you need to do cardio workouts if you want to lose weight and continue cardio workouts to keep your weight under control.

The first thing you need to do is start trying different cardio exercises until you find one that you like. Pick an activity that you like. There are plenty of different kinds, so there is no reason you can't find at least one cardio workout that you like. If you like to go outdoors, and weather permits, running, biking or walking are some cardio workout ideas. If you like health clubs, you will see that they have a large variety of cardio including stationary bikes, recumbent bikes, elliptical trainers, treadmills and stair masters. Just about any cardio workout is fine, so long as the cardio workout involves getting your heart rate in between 95 and 140 beats per minute and you try and keep it there for 30 minutes.

After you pick your cardio workout type, the most important thing is how long you do your cardio exercise and trying to keep your heart rate consistent. You should work on this before you work on getting your heart rate high. If you're a beginner, be careful and start your cardio workout with a few minutes, adding a little more time with each cardio workout until your cardio workout is up to 30 minutes.
All I hear is to have a cardio workout for 30 minutes a day. But, if you don't have that kind of time, do whatever you can. Do mini cardio workouts throughout the day. Put cardio exercises at the top of your list and find the time, even if you have to do 3 ten minute cardio workouts.
Note:
If you feel like you want to cardio exercise more than 30 minutes a day that is fine. But I never do more than 90 minutes of cardio exercises even on a good day. Actually 30 minutes of cardio is good enough with my medications to keep my glucose levels in check but keeping your weight in check sometimes takes a little more cardio exercise. You can always start spending some time with strength training if you want more exercise.

This will all depend on what you want to accomplish. If you are at your target weight and you want to just have a little help controlling your blood sugar readings then 30 minutes a day is just fine. But if you want to lose weight that is another story. Then we are talking 90 minutes of cardio workout per day minimum if you seriously want to lose weight. Keep in mind, if you do not do at least 90 minutes of cardio exercises a day then you will have trouble losing weight. Of course you have to watch how many calories you consume also. If you are consuming 3000 calories a day, doing a cardio workout 90 minutes a day and are not losing weight what would you think the problem might be? You guessed it, so try eating a little less calories, like about 1200 for an average size women or 1600 for an average size male. Eat this many calories a day, do 90 minutes of cardio exercises (with your heart rate in between 95 and 140 beats per minute) and you will lose weight.

Everyone will tell you what the best cardio workout is. I will let you in on a big secret. The best cardio exercise is the one that you like doing that will keep your heart rate in between 95 and 140 beats per minute. It is important to do cardio you like. I cannot stress that enough. If you try one thing and you do not like it do not say to yourself I cannot do this, just try something else and keep trying different things until you find something that you like. Try and be flexible. Once you find a cardio exercise you like, change it around a little bit. This way you do not wind up getting bored. My cardio exercise is the stationary bikes. So at the gym for cardio I ride a regular stationary bike, I bought a recumbent bike for cardio in my house and I even bought a couple of different regular bicycles which I ride around outside all the time. This is the cardio workout that I like. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who do all different types of cardio exercises at the gym all the time. You might like that much of a cardio workout variety. Then of course you see the people who just jog all the time, even when it is cold. I guess that is what type of cardio workout they like, so that works for them. What ever type of cardio workout you like, that is the best one of the different types of cardio exercises for you.