May
23
In the first two parts of this series, we went over designing a weight workout. Today, we’re going to talk about cardio.
Overview
Yes, cardio is important. Yes, it burns a decent amount of calories, but that’s not really its main benefit. In fact, most people will spend 30 to 45 minutes doing cardio work and burn only 300 or so calories. That’s about as much as an average candy bar or two. The real benefit of cardio is not the short term calorie burn, it’s the medium term metabolism boost and the long term health benefits. Cardio boosts your body, causing you to burn more calories throughout the day. It also increases the health of your heart and circulatory system. So yes, you have to include some cardio in your workout if you’re really serious about being healthy.
Disclaimer
As always, keep in mind that you might have medical issues or problems that might make a cardio workout a bad idea. Please, if you have any problems at all or experience difficulty when you try out any of my suggestions, consult with a doctor. I’m trying to help you get healthy, not unhealthy!
The Basics
Cardio refers to your heart, and indeed, a cardio workout is one where you workout your entire cardiovascular system. That’s the part of your body, including your heart, that moves blood around. Your heart is a muscle, and like all muscles it needs a bit of a workout to remain healthy. So a good cardio workout is one that gets your heart moving fast and keeps it that way for a certain length of time.
In general, you’re looking to get your heart rate going at between 60 to 80% of max for around 15 to 20 minutes. Longer periods of time are fine, but they don’t give you as much benefit as the first 15 to 20 minutes. Your max heart rate is roughly defined as 220 minus your age. So for me, a 33 year old, my max heart rate is 187. So a good cardio workout for me is between 113bpm (beats per minute) and 150bpm.
One note to remember, is that the cardio portion of your workout is when your heart hits this target range. So if you start out running, and it takes you 10 minutes until your heart rate is elevated above 60% of max, then those first ten minutes didn’t really count. They were a good warm up but they weren’t really a cardio workout. That’s why I run for 30 minutes at a time. Because the first ten minutes are really just a warmup.
Before or After?
The first decision you need to make is a scheduling one. Do you want to do your cardio workout before or after your weights workout? There’s no right answer here, it’s mostly a preference issue. Doing a bit of cardio before weights is nice because it elevates your heart rate. However, it can also make you sweaty and / or tired, causing you to under perform. Personally, I do my cardio after weights, but that’s mostly because I sweat too much to lift weights after running or using the elliptical. So try it both ways and decide for yourself what you prefer.
Gym Etiquette
Which brings me to my next topic. Gyms are places where you share resources with other people. Cardio machines are limited resources that many people want to use. So keep the following two rules in mind:
- 30 minutes is about all you need for a good cardio workout. If you want to go longer, that’s up to you, but it’s pretty rude to do so when other people are waiting. If the gym is busy, keep your cardio workout to 30 minutes or less.
- Clean up after yourself. This is especially important to us guys. We sweat. Some of us, like me, sweat a lot. You may think that women find sweat sexy, and they may in fact do, but I don’t know anyone who considers a cardio machine covered in pools of sweat anything but disgusting. Nobody minds the fact that you sweat, just clean up the machine after you’re done.
Tomorrow, we’re going to discuss the various cardio options available to you at the gym. Until then, be healthy!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Comments
2 Responses to “How To Design A Work Out - Part 3, cardio basics.”
Leave a Reply
I’ve read of people doing cardio on their off days. If I were training Monday, Wednesday and Friday that might be Tuesday/Thursday. Running or biking outside resolves the problem of going to the gym every day.
Would you recommend that or should cardio be done with the rest of the training?
Hi Colin, thanks for stopping by.
Yep, there are definitely those who do cardio on their off days. Plus if you choose a non gym cardio then yes, you solve the issue of going to the gym every day.
There’s no real right choice here. I’ve seen a few studies that say doing a bit of cardio before weight training is good because it elevates your heart level, but the difference was very minor. In other words, there’s no scientific reason that says cardio should be done at the same time as weights.
Therefore, it’s all about convenience and what feels right to you. Personally, I’ve tried running outside the gym but my feet hurt too much when I run on pavement and there are no trails within convenient distance of my house. Also, since I take a break from work to go to the gym, it makes more sense to me to get everything done at once. So for me, it’s more convenient these days to do cardio right after my weight training, during the same gym visit.
Time wise, I think doing cardio and weights during the same visit is always going to be more convenient. However, you may have other reasons not to do that. For example, I have a friend who complains that cardio after weights is too hard and he can’t really perform as well as he would like.
My suggestion, try it both ways and see which one fits you better.
Gal