The Easiest Way to Work on Your Cardio

Cardio is almost never fun or easy to do. It can put a dent in most any plan to stay fit and active. If hours on the treadmill or stationery bike sound like hell on earth, you'll have to figure out how you can make a cardio work for you. There are many different ways to get your heart going and get your body active. Anything that raises your heart rate to a fat-burning level can be considered cardio. Here are some ways to make doing cardio more fun so you'll stick with it:

Walk. If you just walk for 45 minutes or more per day you'll be doing yourself a great service. Our species was meant to walk, and it's ingrained in out genetics from out hunter-gatherer times. Studies have shown that cultures in the world today that have the highest rate of walking per day, have the highest longevity rates as well. It just makes sense because your body was made to move. Walking is a low-impact activity that provides numerous health benefits. A brisk pace will probably put your heart rate in a range that will provide fat-burning results. By just walking at a normal pace, you'll still get a lot of benefits from getting your body in motion.

Do High Intensity Interval Training – If it's the long amounts of time that make you resent cardio then you'll want to consider trying out an HIIT regimen. Here the longest you'll be doing your cardio routine for is 20 minutes, and often times is less. What it leads is varying back and forth between near-maximum level of effort and about half of that effort. Reports from studies conducted are showing you can equal the benefits received from spending twice as much time doing cardio at a medium-paced steady level. If it's all about results, why not get them in half the time and call it a day?

Get involved in sports and outdoor activities. If the thought of walking or doing an high intensity program makes you cringe, try getting started with a sport or outdoor hobby. Geocaching can get you off the sofa and into the near wilderness. It involves using a GPS device to track down coordinates to a hidden stash. If you want a more sporty hobby, you can choose to play a classic sport like basketball or tennis. All of these activities will complete the goal of getting you up and moving.

Cardio does not have to be a chore, but you can even work up a sweat doing thing around the house that need to be done. Scrubbing the kitchen floor burns calories, as does vacuuming if you do it vigorously enough. Folding clothes gets the blood pumping, and you may hate scrubbing the shower but if you put the right elbow grease into the job, you'll be burning calories at the same time.