Cardio or aerobic exercise (a routine that challenges your cardiovascular system) is vital to your health and fitness. It is designed to fire up your heart rate and improve your blood circulation, delivering more oxygen to various parts of your body and thereby keeping your heart and lungs healthy. Engaging your cardiovascular system regularly not only improves your quality of life but increases your lifespan. Read on to learn how to take your cardio fitness to the next level.
You can improve your cardio fitness by adding a couple of intensive tweaks to your current routines, blending resistance training alongside cardio exercise, and changing your resistance training routine in specific ways. This way, you can increase your heart rate and torch calories for a healthy cardiovascular system. For beginners, getting started can be quite intimidating, but if you follow these tips, you should be able to take your cardio workouts to a new height.
Be Consistent
An essential key to take your cardio to another level is by remaining consist. There are many ways to stay consistent with exercise. For instance, you must maintain accountability and commit yourself to working out even when you don’t feel like it, you should schedule your workouts, plan for obstacles, and address your mindset.
Track Your Routines
It’s not enough to stick to your regular routine since this will not take your cardio fitness to the next level. It’s important to track your routines and your progress. For example, you could draw a weekly and monthly cardio calendar of your sessions. You can also get a workout logbook or app where you record what exercises you did, how much weight you lifted, as well as the tempo you used. As the saying goes, “numbers don’t lie.” Tracking your routines will give you a better idea of what works and what doesn’t.
Vary Your Rest
Varying your rest is essential when you do strength training as well as when you do aerobic exercise. It is the right way to challenge yourself and get your heart rate under control. When you carry out each activity with as little rest as possible while trying to maintain a good form, you tax your aerobic system.
For example, after every first round of resistance training, rest for about 20 seconds. In your subsequent set, vary your rest to 15 seconds and pause for a 10-second break after your third round. You can also incorporate HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training), which uses different timing intervals on different regimens. Another way to push your body is by doing plyometrics. When your body gets a lesser amount of time to recover, your cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems get pushed to higher levels.
You may also want to avoid steady-state cardio. Except that you are training for a marathon, you should avoid staying at one place for more extended periods. Instead, vary the scale of the intensity and the timing of your training – this boosts your metabolism better than steady-state workouts.
Stay Focused
Concentration is key to unlocking your best performance. Get rid of distractions such as books or magazines, texting, or social media when you are training. Nobody who is seriously interested in pushing his/her body to new levels can focus on reading, texting, or engaging on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter. These activities distract your fitness session. Instead, focus on what you are doing, on cultivating your mind-muscle connection, on challenging yourself so you can make progress.
Buy Cardio Equipment
Another great way to take your cardio fitness to the next level is by buying your cardio equipment. Working out at home has numerous advantages. Signing up for a gym membership can be expensive over the long term, but you can work out at home if you buy your own machines. You also save money in the long run and add value to your home. Do you lack the necessary equipment to improve your cardio sessions? Then consider ordering cardio equipment online to take your at-home workouts to the next level.
Additionally, having equipment at home eliminates the chances of being exposed to pathogens or viruses while being outside. The convenience factor is another one of the top reasons to build a home gym. When you have a gym at home, there’s no need to travel or sit through traffic just to work out. Another major benefit of having a gym at home is there’s no need to fight for the piece of equipment you need to use. This not only allows you to follow your workout in order, but you can get your workout done in less time. Plus, the added convenience of having a gym in your home is that removes all excuses to skip a workout.
Take your cardio fitness to the next level by following the above tips. Remain consistent and focused, track your sessions, vary your training and your rest, and buy your own equipment so you can set yourself up for success, get your desired result, and improve your cardio fitness.
To a Fitter Healthier You,
The Fitness Wellness Mentor
