Cardio is simultaneously the most over-used and under-used aspect of working out. If you walk into most gyms, you’ll probably see a bunch of people slogging away on a treadmill for a few hours, and a bunch of other people who think that cardio means lifting weights faster. For most people, the sweet-spot is somewhere in the middle. Doing too much cardio can cause problems like joint problems, fatigue, muscle loss, and decreased metabolism. Too little cardio can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory problems, as well as hampering your fat loss and strength training.
So what’s the point of cardio?
First off, it helps improve your cardiovascular (heart and blood) and respiratory (lungs) systems. This makes you less likely to have health issues like strokes, lung cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Yay!
It also helps you to increase your overall conditioning, which in turn helps with things like improving other areas of your workout and making the daily tasks in your life easier. Perhaps the best part though is being able to establish dominance over your coworkers by taking the stairs without sounding like you’re going into cardiac arrest.
Just like with weight training, there are a lot of different ways to do cardio. We will get into each of these, and explore how to do them, when to do them, and why to do them.
Seaotter Fitness 