Hitch Fit Living Magazine Volume 5 - March/April 2016 | Page 36

The four major aspects to transformation are nutrition, anaerobic resistance training, aerobic cardiovascular training and recovery. If you’re not sure what to do for cardio portion, don’t worry you’re not the only one. Most of the time people who are on the cardio equipment are doing the wrong type of cardio for their end goal results. Some popular questions are; “When should I do cardio?” “How long do I need to go?” “What intensity level?” and “How many cardio sessions each week should I be doing?” There are several different types of cardiovascular training but really you only need to focus on three main types of cardio. The type of cardio you do really depends on your goals. In this article I’m going to explain what cardio is, how to perform each type, and I’ll break down my own personal cardio program and how I utilize all three of these forms of cardiovascular training as I believe a balanced approach supplies you with the best results. Cardio involves the conditioning of your entire circulatory system which is composed of your heart along with your lungs and all the blood vessels. Cardio is done to burn fat and to increase your Vo2-max. Vo2-max is the maximum amount of oxygen that an individual can utilize during intense or maximal effort exercise. There are two major variables for cardio training, the duration and the intensity level also known as heart rate (HR). Cardio is all about your heart rate which is measured in beats per minute (BPM). A common misconception is that in order to effectively burn body fat you must go all out and run like someone with intention to do harm is chasing you for several miles.