Aerobic Exercise Is Great for Weight Loss...and Your Health

You need to exercise vigorously enough to speed up your heart rate and keep it up for at least 20 minutes. Why 20 minutes? Because it takes that long for your heart to work hard enough for you to experience cardiovascular and endorphin benefits.

Huff and Puff Your Way to Health

That’s right, get your heart rate up and keep it up for at least 20 minutes per session, ideally daily. Huff and puff a little. Break out in a sweat. Burn energy. Move fast. Vigorous aerobic exercise for 45 minutes every other day is a good alternative.

Cardio builds your endurance, strengthens your heart, and increases your lung capacity. It releases endorphins, those wonderful mood-elevating brain chemicals. Exercise is one time when harnessing the power of drugs is fine because your body is making them! They’re legal; they’re free; and in fact, they’re a natural high that your body is meant to enjoy.

Target Heart Rates

Here are target heart rates based on your age. Choose the age closest to yours. Try to keep your heart rate between the minimum and maximum for the duration of your cardio workout.

Measure your heart rate this way: Count your pulse by touching your fingers to the opposite wrist or to the pulse point in your neck. Count beats for 6 seconds. Multiply by 10 and that is your heart rate. If your heart rate stays close to the minimum target range for your age, increase your exercise session beyond 20 minutes or pick up the pace.

Here are some super choices for cardio/aerobic exercise:

• Biking. Bike either outdoors on a street bike or mountain bike or indoors on a stationary bike. It’s terrific for low-stress, high-intensity aerobic fitness.
• Classes. A vast variety of aerobic fitness classes are available: step classes, aerobic dancing classes, spinning classes, power pump classes, and classes like Jazzercise.
• Cardio equipment. These include treadmills, cross-country-skiing machines, elliptical trainers, stepping machines, and rowing machines.
• Cardio/aerobic videotapes. Hundreds of good routines are available on video and DVD. Videos let you exercise at home without having to go out and can save you time.
• Swimming. Swimming is great exercise, either indoors or outdoors, and indoor pools make swimming a year-round option. Swimming also elongates muscles; we like that.
• Walking. Plain old walking can count as cardio/aerobic exercise if you can get your heart rate up to the moderate level or higher. But to do that, you’ve got to walk fast. Walking is excellent at the beginning of your exercise program. As you progress, however, add in more strenuous exercise that gives you more cardio/aerobic benefit and that releases those uplifting endorphins. Walking alone won’t give you that lift. That’s why it’s called the “runner’s high,” not the “walker’s high!”
• Jogging, running, and race walking. Purchase a good pair of shoes and go enjoy the outdoors. Unlike noisy gym classes, these activities give you an opportunity to take in beautiful scenery on off-street trails.
• Rebounding using a mini trampoline or rebounder boots. Rebounding gets your endorphins flowing faster than many other forms of cardio/aerobic exercise, and feels great. Some research shows that rebounding can be detoxifying for the body (great!) because it may stimulate the flow of lymph fluid. We like the rebounding boots for both jogging outside and doing aerobic dancing indoors.

From The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Healthy Weight Loss, to order click here.