Cardiovascular Exercise for Effective Fat Loss

Cardiovascular exercise (also known as cardio, CV, or aerobic exercise)is a vital part of your exercise program. It is the term given to exercises designed to raise your heart-rate to promote fat-burning.

Walking, jogging, running and cycling are all popular forms of cardio exercise.

You need to aim to do about 30 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercise every day or at least 20 minutes of vigorous-intensity exercise 3 days a week.

So how do you work out how much to do? Here’s the science bit –it’s not difficult but it’s important to get it right.

First you have to establish your maximum heartrate (MHR) which is calculated by subtracting your age from the number 220.

Therefore, if you are aged 32, your estimated MHR would be 220 – 32 = 188 beats per minute (BPM).

For moderate-intensity exercise, the target rate is 50% to 70% of your MHR.

So for a 32 year old person this would work out as:
50% level: 188 x 0.50 = 94 BPM
70% level: 188 x 0.70 = 132 BPM

Therefore to achieve moderate-intensity activity, a person aged 32 must maintain a heart rate of between 94 and 132 BPM during the exercise session.

For vigorous-intensity exercise, the target rate is
70% to 85% of the MHR.

So again, for a 32 year old person this would work out as:
70% level: 188 x 0.70 = 132 BPM
85% level: 188 x 0.85 = 160 BPM

To achieve vigorous -intensity activity, the same
person will require their heart rate to remain between 132 and 160 BPM during the exercise session.

Unless you have a heart rate monitor, you will have to stop exercising briefly to take your pulse. We recommend that you take your pulse at the wrist but you can try the neck or chest as alternatives. Just place the tips of the index and middle fingers over the artery and press lightly. Take a 30 second count of the heartbeats and multiply by 2 to calculate BPM.

When you start exercising, you are likely to need to take your pulse several times during a session in order to keep track of your progress. But as time goes on, you will need to check less frequently.

Always remember to warm up before you exercise. If you choose to run on a treadmill for example, start off walking for a few minutes and gradually increase your speed, keeping your heart rate below 120 BPM for up to 10 minutes to ensure you are properly warmed up, before you start into your moderate or
vigorous intensity session.

Stretching is also important before an exercise session.

At the end of the session it is equally important to cool down and again do stretching exercises to gain the maximum benefit from the session. If you are using a treadmill, gradually reduce the speed and let your heart rate to return to normal over a 5 to 10 minute period.

Regular cardio exercise will play a major part in helping your body to burn fat effectively.