Cardio Regimen: Cardio Workouts and Advice for Beginners

Cardiovascular exercises are an important part of staying healthy. They can increase heart health, improve endurance and overall physical performance. However cardio workouts can be intimidating for beginners who don’t know where to start or how to get started. In this video, we’ll give you insight that will help you get into cardio activities like jogging and rope skipping.

So without further ado let’s get started by answering one question – What is cardio, exactly? Well, shortly, any exercise that makes your heart rate go up, can be considered a cardio activity, because it is exercising your cardiovascular system.

This means that weight training, too, is a cardio activity!And while that might sound confusing, we are going to talk about aerobic cardio, rather than anaerobic cardio activities like weight lifting and sprints. Aerobic cardio implies prolonged, low-intensity training sessions. The term “Aerobic” simply means that the activity requires oxygen to be sustained energy-wise.

Just for reference and common knowledge, anaerobic activities do not require oxygen to be sustained energy-wise but lead to different adaptations, such as strength and explosiveness. Such activities are:

1. Jogging
2. Cycling
3. Skipping
4. Rowing
5. Swimming

So how does one start with aerobic cardio activities? Well, much like strength training, cardio training too, requires an incremental, methodical approach. So let’s build a beginner cardio plan, shall we? For this instance, we are going to take the most common cardio activity – Running.

Keep in mind, however, that you can apply the same principles and approach to any other activity, including but not limited to swimming, skipping and cycling. Alright, so, before you start running, you have to go through the basic preparation.

The first step is to find good, comfortable running shoes, as well as a running track, or, a nice, natural surface like regular soil. Avoid running on artificial, hard surfaces like asphalt or concrete, as that may place too much stress on your joints. After setting yourself with those, get to the place where you’ll do your session and warm up well for 5-10 minutes, stretching and mobilizing your entire body.

When you’re warmed up and ready to go, turn on your GPS tracking application and run 1 kilometer, at a pace that allows you to endure the entire distance without stopping. If you get tired, slow down the pace or just walk, but do not stop in one place.

Throughout the next cardio sessions, bump the distance up to 3 kilometers, gradually. Once you feel comfortable with those 3 kilometers, measure the time needed to complete that distance. Now, with each workout, try and beat this time! Besides increasing the running speed, you can keep increasing the distance further, but avoid excessively long cardio workouts, in the case that you also do weight training.

And so, to sum this up, as a beginner, all you have to do is:

1. Pick a cardio activity
2. Start with a semi-challenging distance
3. Slowly increase the distance over time
4. Track completion time and aim to improve it
5. Further increase the distance, over time

And so, are you ready to run?