So, you just started doing cardio or you’re planning to, and you want to make sure to get it right. I’m sure that you have a lot of questions and things you are wondering about. This is what I hope to help you with in this article. Let’s cover some of the basic tips that you should know about how to do cardio correctly.

How to Choose a Workout

Picking the right cardio workout for you is the first major decision that you need to make. There is a range of opinion as to which is the best for of cardio for you to do. A good rule of thumb is that the more intense a workout is the better it is for fat loss purposes. So, running will prove more helpful than walking. However, your choice of workout take into account two factors:

1. What you can physically do – If you suffer from certain injuries that make it difficult for you to engage in certain activities than you shouldn’t force yourself. A shoulder injury may make rowing hard and knee issues may make walking better than running. You need to do a workout which is physically right for you. » Read more: The Best Cardio Tips For Newbies

Aerobic activity is very different from other kinds of exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and weight lifting. Those exercises have their place, but their value is limited because they only target a few muscles. They build bulk especially on the arms and chest, and they make you look very impressive, but what about the heart, the lungs, and the digestive core muscles?

If you do weight lifting (as I also do), I hope that’s not all you do. If done alone without aerobic activity, muscle-building exercises can actually be harmful because they increase the number of muscle cells without increasing the capacity of the heart and lungs to supply those new muscle cells with the oxygen they need. As a result, some impressive body builders die prematurely of heart failure.

In order for aerobic activity to be effective, there must be sustained physical exertion that makes you breathe hard over a sustained period of time. Body building exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, and weight lifting make you breath hard, but they don’t last long. When you lift weights (depending on how much you lift), you can exhaust yourself in less than a minute. As a result your arm and chest muscles are developed, but your heart and lungs are not. Your arms are stronger, but in normal activity you are more fatigued because your heart and lungs have to work overtime. » Read more: Aerobic Activity For Muscle Tone