Recommend cardio exercises

[Flummox]

I'm looking to strengthen my heart and lungs. I'm 5'6.5", 122 lbs so I'm not really looking to lose weight or gain muscle mass. What are the best cardio exercises for this?

[EasyHeart]

Frankly, for long-term health walking is the best exercise you can do. If you get in the habit of walking a few miles every day for the rest of your life, your heart will be just fine. And you won't have to deal with all the ancillary joint and bone damage that runners deal with.

 

If you want to run, there's an old saying that "If you're running more then 3 miles, 3 times a week, you're not running to be healthy". So that's a good target if you want to run or use cardio equipment like elliptical machines or stationary bikes. Your heart doesn't care which one you use; all it cares about is that you're making it beat faster.

 

The trend now is to move away from "chronic cardio" (running 10+ miles a week) to interval training. For instance, you might run as fast as you can for 30 seconds and then walk or jog for 90 seconds to catch your breath, and then repeat. Once you can do that 8 times in a row, you'll have the cardio capacity of a college age soccer player. The trick is that you have to really run HARD when you sprint. (It is a LOT harder than it sounds! )

 

Cardio suppresses your immune system, so you should never run without at least one rest day between runs.

 

Think about weight-training, too. If you lift weights intensely, you don't really need to do any cardio because your heart will be pounding and getting stronger along with your other muscles. Or you could mix up weight training with some running. For instance, I lift weights twice a week and sprint once a week (and walk every day) and that keeps me in great shape.

 

The important thing is to find something that you enjoy doing. If you like something, you're more likely to keep on doing it. The "trick" to exercising is to make it part of your permanent lifestyle so that you do it for the rest of your life. We still have this stigma that exercising is play, but it's not. It's an obligation, just like working, eating and going to the dentist!!!

[TakeMeasIam]

Rowing, swimming and as mentione, walking.

 

Jumping from a plane without a parachute, can get the heart beating faster....

the trick with that is simply to avoid hitting the ground at the bottom.

[Flummox]

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

A swimming pool is too hard to access. I'm not sure if I want to weight train because I don't like the ripped look on women. Is it possible to weight train but not look like I took steroids?

 

Walking is enjoyable. So when you say walk a few miles what does that mean? 3-4 miles? I never really thought walking was that great for the heart, because I didn't think it got the heart to pump fast enough.

Edited April 21, 2012 by Flummox

[fortyninethousand322]

Sports? Tennis, or my favorite basketball (especially full court). Or mountain biking.

[USMCHokie]

Think about weight-training, too. If you lift weights intensely, you don't really need to do any cardio because your heart will be pounding and getting stronger along with your other muscles. Or you could mix up weight training with some running. For instance, I lift weights twice a week and sprint once a week (and walk every day) and that keeps me in great shape.

 

Absolutely...I don't remember the last time I went running...maybe last summer...?

 

Is it possible to weight train but not look like I took steroids?

 

Yes, it's very possible. Don't take steroids.

 

Walking is enjoyable. So when you say walk a few miles what does that mean? 3-4 miles? I never really thought walking was that great for the heart, because I didn't think it got the heart to pump fast enough.

 

Then just walk for the enjoyment of it. Otherwise, it isn't going to do much. Walking is really only useful for those with extremely sedentary lifestyles, and even then, it'd be necessary for them to eventually progress to more challenging workouts.

[EasyHeart]

You won't look like you're on steroids from lifting weights; women simply don't have enough testosterone or muscle mass. (Most men don't, either!) It's funny because I hear this concern from women all the time. Men sweat it out in the gym for weeks and months trying to gain a little bit of muscle, yet women think that if they do a few dumbbell curls they'll get huge. It won't happen!

 

There's no one best way to exercise. In fact, once you start you'll probably want to try different things. So you could start by just walking. Then walk a little faster. After a few months, you might want to give running a try. Or biking. Then the next year you might want to start lifting weights. Or doing yoga.

 

You don't have to buy a gym membership or a bunch of shoes and clothes right away. I'd suggest just experimenting with different things until you find the ones you like to do. Keep it simple. Start slow and gradually increase.

 

If you want to just start walking, for instance, start out by walking for a half hour. If that's easy, walk a little faster. Once you're doing 3.5-4 miles in an hour, that's a pretty brisk pace. And if you do that for the rest of your life, it's pretty unlikely that you'll develop heart problems. But like I said, it's also pretty likely that you'll want to try new things.

 

Have fun!!!

[Emilia]

Absolutely...I don't remember the last time I went running...maybe last summer...?

 

 

Really? How do you get away with that in your line of work? I do plenty of HIIT but I think running 30-60 minutes at a moderate pace gives you a different kind of strength/endurance and it's equally useful.

[Emilia]

I'm not sure if I want to weight train because I don't like the ripped look on women. Is it possible to weight train but not look like I took steroids?

 

 

It is very hard to get that ripped look as a woman, especially if you are older. I exercise a lot including lifting and don't have it. Partly because I have a carb rich diet (I can afford it and need it for anaerobic exercise) and partly because as a woman it would take me a very long time to build that sort of muscle mass anyway. It's testosterone that builds it.

 

Exercise gives you the muscles, your diet will determine your size - within reason.

 

I recommend weights because the extra strength gives you better posture (very few women have a good posture from what I can see) and helps to fight osteoporosis.

[USMCHokie]

Really? How do you get away with that in your line of work? I do plenty of HIIT but I think running 30-60 minutes at a moderate pace gives you a different kind of strength/endurance and it's equally useful.

 

I run 3 and a half miles a year for my two annual physical fitness tests...

[EasyHeart]

I haven't run in probably ten years and my resting heart rate is always 55-60 bpm. That's pretty good for a 50 year old who sits at a desk all day.

 

I think running is really over-rated. Especially as you get older and see all the runners having knee, hip or foot surgery. It's not worth it.

[tman666]

The whole "I'm a woman who doesn't want to lift heavy weights because I don't want to look like a bodybuilder" thing is something that seems to be a common misconception among females, which is most unfortunate. It's not just women though. There's plenty of guys out there too who are afraid to touch a weight because they don't want to end up looking like Ronnie Coleman.

 

If people had any idea the sheer amount of time, effort, supplementation, and drugs it takes to look like a pro-bodybuilder, they would realize that their fears are unfounded. Nobody wakes up one day and looks in the mirror and goes "Oh no!!! I've turned into the hulk!"

[EasyHeart]

Nobody wakes up one day and looks in the mirror and goes "Oh no!!! I've turned into the hulk!"

Well. . . .

 

Nobody except Bruce Banner, you mean.

[TakeMeasIam]

Yes, but doesn't he have to be very cross?

 

Maybe someone squeezed the toothpaste in the middle again....

[Emilia]

I run 3 and a half miles a year for my two annual physical fitness tests...

 

You don't have to time it? Like 6 minutes for a mile or anything like that? The reason why I'm asking is that it's hard to run fast enough if you don't run regularly (obviously).

[Emilia]

I haven't run in probably ten years and my resting heart rate is always 55-60 bpm. That's pretty good for a 50 year old who sits at a desk all day.

 

I think running is really over-rated. Especially as you get older and see all the runners having knee, hip or foot surgery. It's not worth it.

 

It depends on how much you run and how, it doesn't need to be a marathon. In fact running very long distances on a regular basis is bad for you. I try to do one 3-mile run a week and sprint intervals a couple of times. It's still the best exercise you can have for cardiovascular fitness and also for mental strength (especially interval training).

 

Resting heart-rate is subjective and varies from person to person so that itself doesn't determine how fit you are. Running up several flights of stairs and being out of breath does.

[EasyHeart]

The purpose of "cardio" exercise is to keep your heart strong so that you don't have a heart attack, nothing else. That's why it's called "cardio".

[tman666]

The purpose of "cardio" exercise is to keep your heart strong so that you don't have a heart attack, nothing else. That's why it's called "cardio".

 

It seems to me that there are plenty of other uses for cardio work other than keeping yourself from having a coronary...

 

How about low intensity steady state work for burning off extra calories without adversely affecting your CNS recovery? High intensity cardio such as Tabata training/HIIT/sprints/etc. tends to cut into one's recovery pretty heavily. Overdoing the high intensity cardio on top 3-4 days per week of heavy lifting, and there's a good chance you'll find yourself stalled/burnt out, sick, or injured.

 

How about high intensity conditioning work for augmenting your peak work capacity, explosiveness, speed, etc.?

 

Obviously, the ratio at which one utilizes low intensity cardio and high intensity cardio within their training will depend on their personal fitness/athletic goals, but there are plenty of smart and beneficial uses for cardio/conditioning work.

[EasyHeart]

Sure, if you're a professional athlete or someone who needs to increase their physical abilities in order to do their job, there's all sorts of things you can do.

 

But most of us are just regular people sitting at our computers. For the overwhelming majority of people in the world, the point of exercise is to stay or get healthy and be able to maintain basic functionality as they age, not to win contests.

[Amber3]

I run 5 miles twice a week, go for a swim twice a week (normally one day relaxing and one day intense), do aerobic exercises once a week, walk and bike every day and that keeps me super fit and I feel great about my body.