The most important exercise you can do for your body

Two of the biggest mistakes I see in the gym are people that do not do cardiovascular exercise (often referred to as cardio) intensely enough, or those who neglect to do it altogether. First, I'll address those who don't even attempt it. This one goes out mostly to the guys who sit around and lift a weight that is most likely too heavy for them and then sit around for 5 minutes in between sets. Your heart is undeniably  the most important muscle in your body, so why would you not want to work it out and make it stronger? Big muscles and probably a big gut won't do anything to increase your overall health or lifespan. Now to those of you who say " Oh, this doesn't apply to me, I go to the gym everyday and do 30 minutes of cardio." If you are reading or talking to your neighbor while doing your "cardio", you aren't getting much benefit out of it. I'm not saying you have to be out of breath the whole time, just push yourself outside your comfort zone. You need to get your heart rate up. You are there to exercise your heart, not your eyes, ears, and mouth. You shouldn't be able to comfortably carry on a conversation for 30 minutes while exercising, and yes, get a little sweaty, it is good for you! Bring your iPod, turn on some fast paced songs, and get moving! OK, enough ranting and bashing (hopefully you got a few laughs from it though), now I'll get more into the science of it  and why you should listen to what I'm saying..

According to the Framingham Heart Study, daily moderate cardiovascular exercise can add at least 4 years to your lifespan.  That one sentence alone should be enough to motivate you to get your cardio in. Also, you are less likely to develop heart disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol levels. Aside from a longer healthier life, cardio is a great way to lose weight. When your heart is working harder to pump oxygen to the muscles, you have a much greater caloric expenditure. But wait, it gets even better. Your body will burn more calories after a workout than if you didn't exercise. Known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption or EPOC, is the number of calories expended to return the body to a pre-exercise resting state. It can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 48 hours to fully reach this resting state, depending on the intensity and duration of the exercise.

So now you are ready to do some cardio but aren't sure how intense your workout should be? Use this simple method to determine your target heart rate zone. Once you figure out the right range for your body, you can monitor your progress by periodically gripping the handles of the heart rate monitor equipped on most modern cardio training machines which I will get into in a minute. Also, there are personal  heart rate monitors you can purchase that you wear around you chest and wrist.
OK, so using the Karvonen formula, the target training zone is 60 to 80 % of you maximum heart rate.
    
Heart Rate Reserve = (Maximum heart rate-resting heart rate) X intensity + resting heart rate

So first you have to find you resting heart rate. Using your index and middle fingers, place them together on your wrist slightly below the thumb on the radial  artery or underneath your jaw on the carotid artery. In a resting state, count the number of beats in 60 second, this is your resting heart rate. You are looking for a number hopefully somewhere between 60 and 90. For maximum heart rate, it's as simple as subtracting your age from 220. So let's say you are 40 years old with a resting heart rate of 75 beats per minute giving you a maximum heart rate of 180 (220-40).

      (180-75) 60% + 75= 136
      (180-75) 80% + 75= 156
This person's training zone would be between 136 and 156 beats per minute.

There are many great ways of getting cardio exercise outside of a gym like running and swimming but for the purposes of this post, I am going to briefly go over the common machines you find in a gym with the heart rate monitors I previously spoke about.
1. Bicycle-good workout for the legs with increased resistance, somewhat less of a calorie burn due to the lower body isolation and being in a seated (vs standing) position but can be advantageous to those who can't be on their feet for longer durations.
2. Treadmill-most commonly used, good for beginners, better caloric expenditure with increased incline grade and hands off the machine unless absolutely needed, high impact on joints though
3. Elliptical-new age technology, low impact on joints especially knees, incorporates more upper body movement, also better caloric expenditure with increased incline grade.
4. Arc Trainer-also new age technology, greater resistance on the quad and glute muscles again with little impact on joints, higher caloric expenditure.

5. StairMaster- my favorite! highest caloric expenditure and most difficult in my mind, the name should say it all. I can burn 500 calories in just half an hour on this.
Next time you go to the gym try each of these out and see for yourself. The most common recommendation I have for the average person is the elliptical. Get one with the arm pumps and the incline grade!

All of these recommendations aren't for everybody. Should you question whether or not you are ready for high intensity exercise, consult your doctor first especially if you have muscle/ joint problems, high blood pressure, heart problems, are pregnant, are a diabetic, or are over the age of 50. Oh and please have a healthy snack an hour before exercising and hydrate hydrate hydrate! I'll speak more about that on another post one day...