Cardio Basics:

It helps you burn fat and calories for weight loss. It makes your heart strong so that it doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood. It increases your lung capacity. It helps reduce your risk of heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some forms of cancer. 

 

Everyone should have regular schedules of exercise. 

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Children: Children should be getting at least one hour of exercise a day. Exercising for children looks like running around, playing on a playground, jumping, playing tag, and many more possible exercises. 

Teens: Teens should be getting at least one hour of exercise a day. Sports, either recreational or school is a great way for them to stay active. If not that, biking, running, and throwing the ball around the yard are great ways for teens to stay active.

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20s: When you reach the 20s, your body is strong. You should be trying to workout for at least 30 minutes, 5 days a week. Exercises are endless. Major exercises include hiking, biking, playing sports with friends. These are all great types of cardio. But do not forget to include about 2-3 days a week designated for muscle-strength exercises. This is because at the age of 20, you start to lose a little muscle as well as bone strength. 

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30s: In the 30s, we start losing muscle because of age. This is a great time to incorporate some resistance training into the exercises. This can be done using weights or resistance bands. But don’t forget about the cardio. This can include aerobic classes, brisk walks, jogging, even cycling. 

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40s: Doing cardio 3 to 5 times a week is essential. This is because at the age of 40 the body starts declining at middle age. Muscles begin to lose mass and elasticity. This slows metabolism which makes it easier to gain weight. Along with that, men and women start to lose hormones which also makes it easier to gain weight, especially in the abdomen. This kind of weight gain can increase the risk of some health problems. These include high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. Cardio includes activities like walking or jumping. If there are pain in your joints you can do exercises that are low-impact activities such as biking or swimming.

 

50s: Start to lessen the intensity of the workouts that you do. If you are finding yourself aching more from some cardio, go to lower-impact activities. These include walking, biking, or swimming. Your body starts to “curve” forward. This is natural. Fight the curve by strengthening your abdomen as well as cardio. 

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60s: Try to exercise 30 minutes a day for 5 days a week. Continue to do cardio and aerobic exercises. This will help you start the fight with your balance and strength. Around this age your balance starts deteriorating and the chances of falling are higher than ever. Continue to do aerobic exercises to help decrease the chances of falling. The National Institutes of Health recommends daily exercises of leg raises, standing on one foot, and walking heel to toe on top of aerobic exercises such as walking, biking, or swimming. 

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70s+: Keep doing aerobic exercises each week. Along with this, this is the key age to keep strength and flexibility strong. This will help you have more years of being independent and being able to function. For aerobic exercises you can do swimming, dancing, biking, or swimming aerobics. 

 

Children and teens: Children ages 6-17 years old should be getting at least one hour of physical activity each day. 

 

Adults: Adults should be getting at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise for at least 5 days a week. This could include brisk walking, water aerobics, playing tennis, playing racquetball, riding a bike on level ground. These are just a few. 

 

Fat-burning cardio workouts you can do at home

Try these for 30 seconds each with no rest!

• Squat Jumps

• Push-ups 

• Mountain Climbers

• Jumping Jacks

• Sit-ups

• Single-leg v-ups

  • These exercises are great cardio exercises and fat burning exercises because of the fact they use the whole body. It gets your whole body moving.