Cardio Strengthens Your Heart Muscle
Cardio improves your cardiovascular fitness, while lowering your resting pulse rate. Unlike aerobic exercise, cardio can be numerical, intense and of short duration, or of long duration.
Cardio workouts often break the strict definition of aerobic exercise. Cardio exercises can be numerical, such as performing 8 squat thrusts at a fast pace; intense and of short duration, such as doing sprints; or of a long duration, such as doing 30 minutes on an exercise bike. Further, these long duration cardio exercises can be of low, moderate, or high-intensity.
Physical exercise is about the body-mind connection. Your level of physical fitness affects your mind, just as much as your mind can affect your physical body and wellness. In the short term, one exercises NOT because you have to, but rather because it makes you feel better, and improves your quality of life. Participating in aerobic and cardio exercises will make you feel better by eliminating feelings of being run down and groggy. Experiencing the mental benefits of physical exercise should motivate you to perform cardio regularly.
A cardio exercise is either low or high impact. High impact activities, such as jogging, are hard on your joints and skeleton. Moreover, in the end can adversely affect your health by causing arthritis, or even give you a bum knee.
Contrary to popular belief, engaging in aerobic exercise is NOT the recommended way to lose body fat, for natural weight loss.
Cardio Strengthens Your Heart
Benefits of Aerobic Training
While somebody on the Web advocates just about every possible cardio exercise combination imaginable, no matter how extreme; the Natural Health Perspective does NOT.
Marathon runners and Tour de France bicyclists usually look like toothpicks. Achieving the pipe stem look of an 80-year-old is the last thing that any adult should be going for. Thus, the Natural Health Perspective recommends against engaging in aerobic activities of extremely long duration, since it results in the loss of valuable muscle mass. Nor should beginners be engaging in Phil Campbell's Peak 8 / Sprint 8 exercises or any type of extremely high-intensity, short duration workouts.
While walking programs are always a good place to start out, walking will only take you so far on your journey to wellness. Experienced walkers can make even better heart health progress by regularly engaging in aerobic exercises of at least 30 minutes duration, which will make you feel great in about two weeks.
Please read our Exercise Disclaimer.
References:
- "Twelve weeks of exercise training increased exercise capacity and 6MWT and decreased resting pulse rate significantly in patients with AF [atrial fibrillation]."
A randomized study of the effects of exercise training on patients with atrial fibrillation.
Osbak PS, Mourier M, Kjaer A, ...
Am Heart J. 2011 Dec;162(6):1080-7.
PMID: 22137082 - "The statistically significant training effects were lower pulse rate and less body fat, but did not include blood pressure."
Personality characteristics associated with aerobic exercise in adult males.
Renfrow NE, Bolton B.
J Pers Assess. 1979 Jun;43(3):261-6.
PMID: 16367008
