Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: High-Intensity or Low-Intensity Workouts?

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: High-Intensity or Low-Intensity Workouts?
While butt and thigh exercises are meant to whip your body in shape, you need to start with a low-impact, low-intensity workout if you are a beginner to avoid injury. Though high-intensity cardio fitness workouts burn more calories, they are not for beginners. You don’t want to strain your muscles or ligaments, which would end up delaying your cardio fitness routine instead of helping you get in shape.

Although low-intensity cardio workouts burn fat and high-intensity workouts burn carbs, scientists believe that you will lose the same amount of fat overall. When you have progressed to a high-intensity workout, you will burn more fat after working out, whereas a low-intensity workout you will not burn as much. What it really comes down to is the fact that a calorie is a calorie. As long as you get your body moving, you will be on your way to fitness!

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Easy Home Exercises

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Easy Home Exercises

Sometimes you just don’t have enough time to sneak in a visit to the gym, or perhaps you don’t have the means to pay for a membership. Here is a cardio workout you can do at home after you put the kids to bed, while you’re watching TV or when you wake up in the morning:

* 5 minutes: jumping jacks
* 2 minutes: rotate upper cuts and with hook punches at a fast pace
* 5 minutes: run in place, with interspersing side shuffles
* 3 minutes: invisible jump rope
* 5 minutes: run in place with side shuffles
* 2 minutes: squats, keep your butt low
* 5 minutes: jumping jacks
* 3 minutes: cool down, running in place.

This routine will get your heart pumping and improve your stamina. You can trade any of your favorite thigh exercises into this routine.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Core Exercise to Do at Home

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Core Exercise to Do at Home
Here are some great cardio fitness exercises that will strengthen your core. You can do them at the gym or at home. It is best to do these types of exercises for an allotted amount of time, rather than a certain amount of repetitions. If you are a beginner try doing each exercise for two minutes at a time.

Swimmers- This exercise improves your core and endurance simultaneously. Lie on your back with your legs straight and your arms at your side. Slightly lift your head and torso followed by your arms and legs so the only thing that touches the floor is your butt. Lift your right arm and left leg, then quickly alternate to lifting your left arm and right leg. Don’t let your legs touch the floor or use your neck or shoulders to lift you. All your power should come from your abdominals.

Jumping Lunges- This is one of the great thigh exercises. Start in a standing position. Keep your right leg in front of you and your left leg behind you in a lunge position. Jump vertically, switching your right leg and left legs. Jump again quickly and switch your legs into their original position.
Bunny Hop- Start with your knees slightly bent and your feet shoulder width apart. Jump, rotating your hips to the right and your torso to the left. Keep your shoulders facing forward and make sure you only use your hips to turn. Jump quickly by doing the same movement, only this time twist your hips to the left and your torso to the right. Remember to use your trunk to rotate and not your shoulders.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Improve Your Endurance

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Improve Your Endurance

It’s easy to improve your endurance with basic cardio fitness and aerobic workouts. If you have better endurance, you will lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When you have strong endurance, you have the energy and stamina to participate in everyday activities, and then some.

As you perform a cardio workout, your heart pumps more blood to your body, allowing more oxygen to flow through your lungs and heart. When you build your cardiac endurance, you push your heart to work a little bit harder each time you work out. This makes your heart work more efficiently and recover faster.

It is important to develop your cardio slowly by gradually increasing the frequency, intensity and activity levels of your workouts. If you are a beginner, start by walking in 15 minute sessions. When those walks become easier, increase the time to 20 minutes, gradually adding more time as you build stamina.

When walking becomes too easy for you, increase the intensity of your workouts by jogging. At first you may want to jog for 15 minutes and then walk for 15 minutes. You eventually want to be able to sustain a moderately paced activity for at least 30 minutes on most days per week. Increase your activity level while on a walk or run by carrying hand weights or other objects that add resistance. Also, make sure you include some butt and thigh exercises in your workout to strengthen your legs.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Do Cardio to Avoid Heart Disease

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Do Cardio to Avoid Heart Disease

Heart disease is the top killer among women, according to the National Institute of Health. If you lead a sedentary lifestyle, you are more inclined to get heart disease. Steady cardiovascular or aerobic exercise is vital to your personal fitness. It is important to incorporate some sort of exercise into your life for at least 30 minutes on most days of the week to build muscle and increase fitness.

If it’s been a while since you’ve exercised, keep in mind that just one exercise session can improve your health. Along with exercise, cut fat from your diet and quit smoking. Keep track of your cholesterol and avoid stress. Pilates exercises are great for stress management or for those who aren’t into intense cardio workouts Remember to include a warm-up period before your workout and a cool down period after exercising. This is especially important if you haven’t worked out for a while.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Staying in Shape While Recovering from an Injury

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Staying in Shape While Recovering from an Injury
When you are recovering from an injury, one of the best ways to maintain a good fitness standing is by swimming. Swimming laps or water-aerobics burns just as many calories as a cardio workout on land, but does not put any pressure on your bones or ligaments. However, unlike land-based exercises, which tend to increase your body temperature and decrease your appetite, swimming does not raise your body temperature and can actually increase your appetite. In order to stay in shape and maintain their weight, swimmers need to be especially mindful of the calories they are consuming.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Understanding Your Heart Rate

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Understanding Your Heart Rate
The standard formula for determining your maximum heart rate during aerobic exercise is to subtract your age from 220. However, these formulas are decades old, don’t take into account individual fitness levels. A more modern approach, and one that is recommended by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is to use the Borg Rating for Perceived Exertion (RPE). The RPE is measured from 6-20. A 9 on the RPE scale would be extremely light exercise, like a healthy adult going for a stroll. An easy way to monitor yourself using the RPE during exercise is the talk test. A person who is working out at a light intensity should be able to talk easily. It should be a little more difficult to talk while working out at a moderate intensity, and if it is very difficult to speak, that means you are working out at a very high intensity. Experts recommend spending most of your cardio workout at a medium intensity, RPE of 12-14, where you can talk while working out. You can find more information on RPE from your doctor, personal trainer, or on the Centers for Disease Control website www.cdc.gov.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Using Weights During Cardio Exercise

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Using Weights During Cardio Exercise
Many women carry small weights in their hands or attatch weights to their ankles during cardio exercise. While it is true that carrying weights during cardiovascular or aerobic exercise can slightly increase the number of calories expended, most experts agree that the practice is unsafe and can lead to unnecesary strain and injuries. Using weights, even light ones of only 2 or 3 pounds, requires proper form and technique that is difficult to maintain throughout a cardio session. Furthermore, you run the risk of dropping a weight on yourself or someone else and causing injury that way.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Cardio and Weights

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Cardio and Weights
Women tend to focus on cardio because it burns more calories fast. However, cardio and strength training are both very important for fitness. Combining the cardio and strength training two to three times a week two is especially important for women, who tend to have lower metabolisms, less muscle and more body fat to begin with as well as being more vulnerable to muscle atrophy and decreased metabolism as they age. While your body doesn’t need any extra calories to maintain a pound of fat, it uses 30-50 calories every day just to maintain a pound of muscle. Using cardio and strength training in conjunction will help you reduce your body fat and increase your lean muscle mass and metabolism.

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Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Rev Up Your Workout With Interval Training

October 15th, 2008 Shaka

Women Fitness Tips >> Cardio Fitness For Women

Cardio Fitness For Women Tips: Rev Up Your Workout With Interval Training
Interval training involves working at varied intensities in order to challenge your cardiovascular system. It is a great way to mix up your workout and helps you beat your fitness plateau. A great place to start is to do high intensity training for 2 minutes followed with low intensity training for 2 minutes. Once you have mastered this interval, mix it up!

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