The Basics of Cardio Training

Last Updated on January 7, 2021

When someone talks about ‘working out’ they are usually referring to one of two different possible types, either aerobic style workouts or weight/strength/resistance training. In this article, we want to specifically cover aerobic style training and working out. Aerobics, also very commonly referred to as cardio (short for cardiovascular), is the type of exercise that generally involves an exercise or group of exercises that are low impact and long duration. However, we need to be clear here, low impact does NOT necessarily mean low intensity.  There are plenty of cardio workouts that can be extremely intense!

The purpose of cardiovascular workouts is to strengthen and enlarge your heart, work your lungs and improve circulation, blood flow and respiratory function. These parts work together to form your cardiovascular ‘system’.  Accordingly, the main benefit of cardio training is to improve your body’s cardiovascular system by training it to function more efficiently.

Now that you know what cardiovascular training is, let’s discuss some ways to achieve efficient cardio training. Generally speaking, when you are performing your favorite cardio exercises (we discuss some popular ones below) you want to make sure to get your heart rate to at least 60% of your max heart rate.

So you might be wondering, ‘how the heck to I determine my maximum heart rate?’ Well its simple enough, as a general guideline, take 220 and subtract your age. So if are 30 years old, a good rule of thumb would be 220-30=190 beats per minute. Now to achieve a good cardio heart rate, you would want to be around 60% of that, so 60% of 190 being 114. So while doing your cardio workout you should be aiming to maintain at least that heart rate, up to a maximum of 80%. This will allow you to achieve the benefits of cardio exercise.

Armed with the knowledge of how to calculate your target heart rate, the next step would be figuring out how to determine and monitor your heart rate while you are training. Many cardio machines include some kind of heart rate monitoring, but if the machine you are using doesn’t, or if you are performing exercises without the help of machine there are heart rate monitors can purchase. Heart rate monitors are an excellent piece of exercise equipment, and usually consist of a chest strap and watch. They are fairly inexpensive, and you can usually find a nice unit for around $30 or $40. Of course, as with anything else in life, you can get much more expensive models, but they really aren’t necessary.