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Cardiovascular
Exercise Principles and Guidelines: Part 1
By Chad Tackett
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For maximum effectiveness and safety, cardiovascular exercise
has specific instructions on the frequency, duration, and
intensity. These are the three important components of cardiovascular
exercise that you really need to understand and implement
in your program.
In addition, your cardiovascular program
should include a warm-up, a cool-down, and stretching of
the primary muscles used in the exercise. This article is
part one of a two part series discussing the very important
principles and guidelines of a safe and effective cardiovascular
exercise program. Part one will explain the proper methods
of warming-up, stretching, and cooling-down and discuss
the frequency and duration of a sound cardiovascular routine.
Part two will discuss how to monitor exercise intensity
and heart zone training.
Cardio Warming Up and Stretching
One very common mistake is stretching before muscles are
warmed-up. It is important to stretch after your muscles
are warm (after blood has circulated through them). Never
stretch a cold muscle. First warm up. A warm-up should be
done for at least 5-10 minutes at a low intensity. Usually,
the warm-up is done by doing the same activity as the cardiovascular
workout but at an intensity of 50-60% of maximum heart rate
(max HR). After you've warmed-up for 5-10 minutes at a relatively
low intensity, your muscles should be warm. To prevent injury
and to improve your performance, you should stretch the
primary muscles used in the warm up before proceeding to
the cardiovascular exercise.
Cardio Exercise: Cooling Down
The cool down is similar to the warm-up in that it should
last 5-10 minutes and be done at a low intensity (50-60%
of max HR). After you have completed your cardiovascular
exercise and cooled-down properly, it is now important that
you stretch the primary muscles being used. Warming-up,
stretching, and cooling-down are very important to every
exercise session. They not only help your performance levels
and produce better results, they also drastically decrease
your risk of injury.
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Frequency of Cardiovascular Exercises
The first component of cardiovascular exercise is frequency
of the exercise, which refers to the number of exercise
sessions per week. To improve both cardiovascular fitness
and to decrease body fat or maintain body fat at optimum
levels, you should exercise (cardiovascularly) at least
three days a week. The American College of Sports Medicine
recommends three to five days a week for most cardiovascular
programs. Those of you who are very out of shape and/or
who are overweight and doing weight-bearing cardiovascular
exercise such as an aerobics class or jogging, might want
to have at least 36 to 48 hours of rest between workouts
to prevent an injury and to promote adequate bone and joint
stress recovery.
Duration of Cardio Exercise
The second component of cardiovascular exercise is the
duration, which refers to the time you've spent exercising.
The cardiovascular session, not including the warm-up and
cool-down, should vary from 20-60 minutes to gain significant
cardiorespiratory and fat burning-benefits. Each time you
do your cardiovascular exercise, try to do at least 20 minutes
or more. Of course, the longer you go, the more calories
and fat you'll "burn" and the better you'll condition
your cardiovascular system. All beginners, especially those
who are out of shape, should take a very conservative approach
and train at relatively low intensities (50-70% max HR)
for 10-25 minutes. As you get in better shape, you can gradually
increase the duration of time you exercise.
It is important that you gradually increase the duration
before you increase the intensity. That is, when beginning
a walking program for example, be more concerned with increasing
the number of minutes of the exercise session before you
increase the intensity, by increasing your speed or by walking
hilly terrain.
Please check back for Part Two, where I'll discuss how
to monitor your training intensity and how to use heart
zone training to achieve the specific results you desire.
Until then, remember that cardiovascular exercise should
be done a minimum of three times a week and a minimum of
20 minutes per session. Once your muscles are warm (after
warm up) and after the cardiovascular exercise, you should
stretch those muscles used in the exercise. For example,
after bicycling, stretch your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves,
hips, and low back. After doing the rowing machine, stretch
your legs, back, biceps, and shoulders. Good luck and enjoy
all the wonderful benefits of cardiovascular exercise.
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