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Best cardio workouts

Best cardio workouts

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What is a cardio workout?

Is basically any exercise that gets your heart rate up and keeps it elevated for a significant amount of time.

Cardio workout is of course an old-time favourite when it comes to weight loss and speeding up your metabolism.

There are a lot of different cardio workouts you can do even without any gym equipment, from the comfort of your home. Before you choose anything, try to think of things you enjoy doing and don’t focus on trying to burn as many calories as possible in as little time as possible. Make it fun and choose exercises or activities you enjoy or it will turn into a chore and you will get bored. I honestly don’t believe there is a ‘right’ cardio, the best cardio is the one that works for you. Take walking for example, it’s great cardio and depending on your speed, you can still burn up to 200 calories in 30 minutes.

Remember!

Be on the safe side and consult your doctor before you start anything. High intensity cardio workouts can put a strain on your knees, joins, heart and so on. I would strongly urge you to start slow if you are a beginner and build it up. For example, if you have joint or knees problems, don’t choose running as it will add additional strain on your knees and joints.

I will give you some ideas of activities and exercises you can do, some or most without having to join a fitness club:

  1. Walking. Like I said, you can never go wrong with walking. So just take a walk to the park or walk to your local shop instead of driving
  2. Cycling. Doesn’t matter if it’s outdoors or indoors, can still burn up to 250-500 calories in 30 min. Take your bicycle to the park, I do it all the time and it’s great fun
  3. Swimming. It’s one of the best cardio exercises and you can burn about 100 calories every 10 minutes.
  4. Running. Another old-time favourite, you can burn around 300 calories in 30 min
  5. Elliptical trainer. Perhaps not as good as the treadmill but better if you have bad knees or joints 
  6. Tennis. Who doesn’t like tennis right? Well I used to live in Wimbledon so shall I say more? J Also, let’s not forget you burn around 350 calories in 30 min
  7. Basketball. I used to play a lot of basketball in school and although I am not as good as I used to be I still love the occasional game. And considering you burn around 400 calories in 30 min I strongly recommend it even if you never tried it before. I can also guarantee time tends to fly and you just forget you are exercising, it’s just great fun.
  8. Rowing. OK I have to confess I find it boring but we are all different. If you enjoy it, have a go, you will also burn around 300 calories in 30 min
  9. Racquetball. It’s great for calorie burning, around 400 in 30 min
  10. Zumba. If you like dancing try it, it’s great fun and can burn about 250 calories in 30 min
  11. Belly dancing. Even better than Zumba, about 400 calories in 30 min
  12. Jumping jacks. Another total body workout with a lot of other health benefits. You also burn about 100 calories in 10 min. But be careful, it might affect your joints so try for 30-60 seconds and alternate with other cardio exercises like jogging, jumping rope etc
  13. Jumping rope. Can burn around 220 calories in 20 min. Looks easy but it’s not that easy especially if you are a beginner so don’t push yourself
  14. Squat jumps. Great cardio but requires a strong heart and might affect your joints.

You can also try interval training which basically means moving from one exercise to another in set time intervals, say 15 min elliptical trainer, 15 min stationery bike, 15 min on the treadmill.

AND DON’T FORGET TO STRETCH AND DRINK LOTS OF WATER!

Good luck!

Tips to achieve your fitness goals

Tips to achieve your fitness goals

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You have decided on your SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goals?

Tips to achieve them:

1.      Nothing happens by accident.

If you want to be a lawyer, you don’t just wake up one day and you are a lawyer or study for a couple of weeks and done! No, it takes time and commitment so remember that!

2.      Exercise doesn’t have to be a chore.

Make it fun. Think about the things you enjoy doing, say play tennis, basketball, cycling, dancing, football, running and so on. What did you enjoy doing when you were a child? If you liked dancing as a child, try Zumba or Salsa. It’s a great way to exercise, learn something new, have fun and make new friends. 

3.      Write down your goals and be specific.

Writing things down makes them more real. 

4.      Small progressive milestones are important.

Don’t set yourself up to fail and work too hard from day one. You must build it up progressively. If you want to start running, don’t try to run 10 miles from day one, chances are you won’t be able to do it, you will ache the next day and give up. Instead, try to run for 2 miles three times a week in week one and increase to 3 miles in week two and so on.

5.      Try to mix it up.

Don’t do the same thing every day or you will get bored and give up. Also, your body will get used to the same exercise and start burning less calories.

6.      Ditch the old excuses and don’t compare yourself to others.

Don’t look around at fit people and say ‘they are just lucky to have great genes and fast metabolism’. Come on! Those people probably work very hard every day to stay fit, it doesn’t just happen! And yes sometimes there are naturally skinny people, but are they healthy? Probably not ,unless they also exercise and eat balanced meals. Skinny doesn’t mean fit! So stop using the same old excuses!

7.      Believe in yourself!

We both know you can do it!!

8.      Work with a purpose.
9.      Train with a friend or join a fitness club and make new friends.
10.   Don’t forget to stretch every day.
11.   Increase fluid intake.

Drink as much water as possible. Also, drink a glass on warm water with lemon first thing in the morning. 

12.   Control your cravings.

Before you reach out for that chocolate bar, try to drink some water or have a nap. You might not be hungry, just dehydrated or tired.

13.   Listen to music during exercising.

Studies have shown that listening to music could increase your endurance by up to 15%. Running without music is also really boring…

14.   If music is not your thing, you can still watch your favourite programme and exercise.
15.   Don’t forget the endorphins.

Exercising is a proven way to give you an euphoric feeling, in other words makes you happy!

16.   Build muscle.

And ladies, no, it doesn’t mean you need to start lifting weights. There are other ways to build lean muscles: resistance bands, medicine balls, your own body weight etc. Or try a boot camp.

17.   And lastly, reward yourself!! 
Setting up fitness goals

Setting up fitness goals

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The first and perhaps the most important step is making sure you are setting up fitness goals, short-term and long-term.

But remember!

Fitness goals must be realistic and achievable, SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely). Don’t set your short-term goal to lose 5 stones in 6 weeks, it will NOT Happen!

So, before you embark yourself on a spending spree, join a fitness club, buy exercise machines or whatever else you want to do STOP IT! We’ve all been there, especially after the new year, we want to get fit so what do we do? We join a gym! Am I right? For the first week or so we are excited and motivated and keep going to the gym and feel so proud about ourselves, we are doing it! What happens after another week or so? We get bored, we don’t see any improvements, we find other ‘more important things to do’ and give up and never go back! We just end up paying for a gym membership we are not using for 6 months or worse, a year!

So once again, STOP IT!

That only happens because we are not setting up any fitness goals, we just go with the flow!

Whether you want to lose weight fast or gain muscle, run the marathon, improve your physical strength, change your eating habits and so on, set yourself goals!

To keep motivated it is important to have both short and long-term fitness goals. Otherwise if your goals are just long term you will give up when you don’t see results fast. Trust me, I’ve done the same thing. I know something will take say 6 months to achieve and I say to myself ‘that’s ok, I can wait’ but after 2-3 weeks if I can’t see results I still give up.
So, if your goal is to lose weight, say 5 stones, that will realistically take over a year although it tends to vary from person to person depending on how fast your metabolism is.

The idea is to burn more calories than you eat. So, if you burn around 500 extra calories a day you will lose around 1 pound per week. Yes, you heard that right, you need to burn around 3500 calories a week to lose a pound! If you are eating more calories than you are burning then you need to exercise more or eat less. You are having second thoughts about that chocolate bar you just had right?

Once you set your fitness goals, keep motivated and remember! It takes time, you will not see results after a couple of days!

My advice is

After you start exercising, do not weigh yourself for at least 3 weeks! Yes, you heard that right! It’s different for everyone but generally you will not see results after a few weeks as you build muscles. Also, muscles are heavier than fat so weighing yourself can be misleading. But muscles help burn calories! Trust me, if you keep up with the exercising combined with a balanced diet you will see results! I don’t want you to feel demotivated and give up if after a couple of days into your programme if the weight has not changed or worse, it seems you are heavier! You are not!

Don’t give up!

Once you set your fitness goals, don’t give up! And there are a lot of fun ways to achieve your goals and I will give you a lot of ideas, so keep reading my articles.

Some vital things to remember:

1. Drink a lot of water! I know it’s boring and sometimes you don’t feel thirsty bla bla. Just do it! Sometimes when you feel hungry, you are not actually hungry, you are just dehydrated, so keep drinking!
2. Rest days are very important. Don’t carry on working hard without having enough rest as it can make you weaker not stronger as you are breaking down tissue and not building them up.
3. Focus on muscles when working out
4. Stretch every day
5. Be active. Don’t just sit around all day, get up and walk around every 30 min or so
6. Eat plenty of fruit and vegetable. OK, when I say plenty, I don’t mean eat 30 apples a day and 50 bananas 
7. Eat a balanced diet
8. REWARD YOURSELF! YES! After every week of keeping up with the programme, go out, get a massage, a haircut, whatever makes you happy! Maybe don’t buy clothes as you will need a much smaller size soon! 😉

Remember, it’s not just about losing weight, physical fitness improves the strength of our bones, increases life expectancy and reduces the risks of diseases. A balanced diet and nutrition is also important for our overall health. It also gives you all the nutrients you need to feel great and energised all day!

KEEP MOTIVATED, IT WILL ALL BE WORTH IT!