It seems there are generally two extremes when it comes to cardio: those who love it and those who hate it. Believe it or not, there are some people who thoroughly enjoy spending 45 minutes to an hour (or more!) droning away on an elliptical machine, and would prefer cardio over any other form of exercise. Then there are others who cringe at even hearing the word c-a-r-d-i-o.
Cardiovascular exercise is hard. Period. And it should be, if you’re doing it right and want to get the most “bang for your caloric buck” out of your cardio session.
CARDIO FOR EVERYONE!
Cardio should be a regular part of your weekly fitness program in some capacity, whether you’re just living a healthy lifestyle or are a recreational athlete, whether you’re a newbie or a seasoned competitor. While cardio should be incorporated in some way for almost everyone, the intensity of your cardio, duration and frequency of the sessions – as well as the type of cardio – will vary depending on your goals, your nutrition, and your current cardio respiratory and exercise endurance level (which means at what capacity your heart and lungs can handle the demands of stresses brought on by exercise).
Cardio, as I mentioned before, can be really hard – which means you have to force yourself to do it (for help in this area, read It’s Self Discipline, Not Rocket Science), or find ways to be accountable for doing it like taking a cardio class, finding a cardio buddy, training for an event such as a 5k or obstacle course race or hiring a personal trainer. Cardio can also be monotonous, time consuming, and it can be boring.
Well, I have good news and bad news: it doesn’t have to be monotonous, or time consuming, or boring … but it should be hard. If your cardio session doesn’t leave you sweating and breathless, you aren’t challenging yourself with the intensity level. There are varying degrees of difficulty, so the intensity level of your cardio workout depends on several factors, including how many minutes you’d like your session to be.
LET YOUR HEART GUIDE YOU
As you may know, I come from a running background. I have run races as short as 1 mile and as long as a full marathon (26.2 miles) and everything in between. The shorter the distance, the faster you can push because it will all be over in a matter of minutes. The longer the distance, the more you want to pace yourself for the long haul.
I recently ran a 5-mile race and trained for about 6 weeks to prepare for the race. Not so much to get my endurance up-to-par for the 5 miles, but because I recently purchased a Polar M400 and was able to really gage where my heart rate zones are and what my comfortable level of pushing is at miles 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 so that I knew how hard I could push at each mile in order to get a great pace but still have some gas left in my tank. While I was training, I kept an eye on my heart rate and knew when I could push really heard and when I needed to back off. So I was able to monitor my pace via my heart rate during the 5 mile race based on what my pace and heart rate was during my training runs.
The same can be applied for your regular cardio sessions. Say you want to have a 30-minute cardio session and you want to really push your intensity level. If you choose more difficult exercises – such as burpees, high knees and mountain climbers – and put yourself on a 45 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest timer, you may tap out after 10-15 minutes because the high intensity level caused your heart rate to sky rocket.
Short, super intense cardio sessions such as this are fantastic for increasing exercise endurance, aiding in speeding up your metabolism, burning fat and time-efficiency. You can get a great, quick cardio workout in 10-15 minutes! But if your goal is 30 minutes of cardio, you may want to choose a 30 seconds of work, 15 seconds of rest timer, less intense or demanding exercises such as fast body weight squats, jumping jacks and jog-in-place.
If you want to do a 30-minute cardio session, you could also perform 10-15 minutes of HIIT, then do 15-20 minutes of steady state, such as jogging, the elliptical or walking on the treadmill on an incline. Performing a few minutes of HIIT exercises prior to steady state cardio will increase the calorie burn and maximize the efficiency of your steady state cardio session because your heart rate is already elevated from the HIIT. It will also break up the monotony of just doing steady state cardio for 30 minutes.
HOW TO CHOSE THE RIGHT CARDIO FOR YOU
The first thing to determine is how frequently you should do cardio (how many times per week) and how long the sessions should be. This depends on one primary factor: if you are gaining or losing (read Gaining vs. Losing). https://nicolewilkins.com/tip-me-tuesday-muscles-matter-most-2/
Once you have determined that, you’ll have to take a close look at your caloric intake in order to determine your general caloric expenditure requirements. If you are building muscle, or in a gaining phase, then you’ll want to maintain a caloric surplus. This doesn’t mean you should stop doing cardio all together. It means that you should closely monitor the intensity level, duration and frequency of your cardio sessions (and overall calories burned) in relation to how many calories you’re consuming on a daily basis so that your calories burned-to-calories consumed ratio doesn’t put you in a deficit.
On the flip side, you want to do the same if you are in a leaning out phase, but you’ll want to monitor your calorie intake-to-calorie expenditure to make sure you are in a health caloric deficit (not too steep of a deficit) and not a surplus.
The final way to determine how much and what type of cardio you should be doing for your goals is to see how your body responds to the cardio that is slowly incorporated or slowly taken away. The key word is slow. If you are starting a leaning out phase, you’ll want to slowly start incorporating cardio sessions, and slowly start to increase the duration, frequency and intensity.
If you are transitioning from a leaning out phase to a building phase, you also want to slowly decrease your cardio sessions by slowly decreasing those variables. The main reason for the slow transitions is so that you can see how your body responds to the changes, and can then determine if more changes are necessary. To find out more about this process, read Reverse Dieting 101: A Guide to Staying Lean. https://nicolewilkins.com/reverse-dieting-101-keys-to-staying-lean/
THE KEEP-IT-INTERESTING CARDIO GUIDE
Here is a great all-inclusive guide to mixing up your cardio to keep it exciting and interesting. As I mentioned before, you can incorporate any combination of these exercises and do a few rounds, then do 15-30 minutes of steady state cardio. Or you can do a few rounds of any of these exercises and do 10 minutes of steady state, then go back and do another round of any combination of these exercises and 10 more minutes of steady state, etc.
1) Choose how long your cardio session will last
2) Download a timer app on your phone if you don’t have one by doing a search in your app store for “interval timer,” “HIIT timer,” or “workout timer”
3) Choose an interval timer or a number of reps for your cardio session. Timer interval examples: 45/15; 40/20; 35/15; 30/12; 25/15; 25/12; 20/10
4) Choose any number of exercises, – it can be as little as one exercise for the entire workout or any number of the exercises listed below!
• Jump Rope/Invisible Jump Rope
• Up & Overs/Side-To-Side Lunges
• Box Jumps
• Fast Squats/Air Squats
• Squat Jumps
• Pulse Squats
• Jumping Lunges
• High Knees/Jog In Place
• Mountain Climbers
• Frog Jumps
• Push-Ups/Plyo Push-Ups
• Jumping Jacks
• Star Jumps
• Knee Tuck Jumps
• Kettlebell Swings
• Wall Sits/Wall Sits With Biceps Curls
• Bench Dips
• Burpees (different variations)
• Toe Taps
• Out/Ins (squat position, jump out, then jump in w/ feet together)
• Pull-Ups
• Sprints
• Stair Intervals (stair climber or stadium stairs or stairs at your house)
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ABOUT NAOMI RABON
One of the trainers on Nicole’s elite NW Fitness Training Team, Naomi is a certified Personal Trainer and Fitness Specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is a NPC Figure competitor who has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 12 years.
Go here to find out more about training with the NW Fitness Training Team!
Terrific article as always Naomi!
Log in to replyI have a question about cardio. I’m working on gaining lean muscle. I lift heavy five times a week(Split body parts). I consume 2500 calories per day. Can you give me an idea of the amount, intensity and types of cardio I should be doing? I’ve heard/read so many different things on the subject, but I have come to trust and value your advice. Thank you!
Thank you Marcia!
If you are working on gaining muscle, I would suggest starting out with lower-intensity cardio sessions for about 20-25 min about 2-4 times per week and see how that goes, and increase the duration and/or frequency from there. You don’t want to be in a deficit when gaining, so you’ll want to keep your cardio to a minimum 😉
I hope this helps! Let me know how it goes!
Log in to replyThank you so much Naomi! I will definitely let you know how it goes!
Log in to replyThere’s also great value in low-intensity cardio that isn’t the last bit hard, e.g., walking.
Log in to replyMary,
I agree walking is very beneficial for many reasons. I walk for cardio both outdoors and on the treadmill several times per week. I do feel that walking for a cardio workout should also have some level of difficulty. It shouldn’t be “easy” and one should feel some degree of challenge to it – elevated heart rate, heavier breathing, etc. – in order to have a “cardio workout” session.
It doesn’t mean every cardio session has to leave you drenched in sweat and completely breathless, but a cardio workout session should feel – at the very least – moderately hard (this will be different for everyone). Also, this article is specifically referring to cardio workout sessions, not leisurely walking as part of an active lifestyle, which is also very beneficial in general. But there is a difference between being active and engaging in a cardio-targeted workout session.
Thanks so much for your comment! I hope my explanation gave a better understanding of what I was trying to convey in the article 🙂
Log in to replyThank you. Great advice as usual 🙂
Log in to replyThank YOU Angela!! 😉 xo ~ Naomi
Log in to replyWhat are your favorite forms of steady state cardio? I’m in a gaining phase and doing 20mins 6 days a week. Not supposed to be anything intense. I always feel like I’m married to the stairmaster and want to switch it up. Like is walking on an incline good enough?
Log in to replyHi Courtney,
Yes! Walking on an incline is great, walking outside is great, and you can also do 10-15 min walking on incline on treadmill, then finish on the stairclimber or other cardio machine for more variety 😉
~ Naomi
Log in to replyCan you advise how much of a calorie burn you should seek if you are trying to burn fat for a competition? If I am 5’4, 129 lbs. How many calories should be eaten vs how many should I aim to burn with cardio?
Log in to replyHi Marcela!
Before I answer your question, may I ask are you currently prepping for a competition? If so, what is the date of your competition and are you working with a coach?
Log in to replyNo, I’m not currently prepping and I’m not working with a coach any longer. I have struggled in the past getting my body fat down
Log in to replyHi Naomi,
I read your article very carefully and am just starting to lean out after bulking for sometime.
I started back at am cardio with a 15 min warmup then 30 minutes of sprinting 1min on 45sec rest.
I found my heart rate sores (155 or higher) when I am running at 6.0 or higher. So, I backed it off and ran at 5.0-5.5 and found my heart rate did not go above 150.
You are absolutely right…slow and build up.
You are so inspirational and I enjoy seeing all you are achieving!
Thank you!
Log in to replyAwesome, Karren, and thank you!! Keep up the great work!! 😀
Log in to replyThe new workout for abs is letting me leave a comment and says that video is for members only so won’t let me view it. Help. Holly
Log in to replyWill use this quote …..” It self discipline, not rocket science” lol
Log in to replyI’m not able to do any jumping due to bad knees (runners knee and arthritis) what would you recommend for HIIT?
Log in to replyYou can do HIIT on anything- spin bike, stairs, etc. You do not have to jump 🙂
Log in to reply