Cardio, or aerobic activity, is one of the three main types of exercise that we all need in order to be healthy. The other two are strength training and flexibility. But why exactly is cardio so important for exercise? The number one answer is that it helps us to live longer! But there are other important benefits too.
Cardio (short for cardiovascular) activity refers to using large muscle groups in a rhythmic manner for an extended period of time. Activities like running, swimming, dancing, using an elliptical machine, and stair climbing are all great forms of cardio. The point is to get your heart rate up and keep it up to train your body for endurance activities.
Doing cardio for exercise gives us so many more health benefits than most people are aware of. The biggest benefit, as I said, is a longer life. But until I went to school for Exercise Science I didn’t even realize all the ways cardio benefits us! So let’s go over those and maybe I can help motivate you to take part in those activities so you can live a longer life too!
Cardio strengthens your heart
First and foremost, remember that your heart is a muscle. And like any muscle, it needs to be strong in order to efficiently pump blood and deliver oxygen and nutrients to the rest of your body. A strong heart has a much easier time doing this. So if your heart is in shape you won’t get worn out so quickly.
Consistently training your heart muscle makes sure it’s up to the task of giving your body what it needs when it needs it. That’s important, but a strong heart also means that it will last longer for you (i.e. a longer life). Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is still the number one killer of all Americans.
“About 697,000 people in the United States died from heart disease in 2020″ (as reported by the CDC).
Also according to the CDC, “heart disease cost the United States about $229 billion each year from 2017 to 2018″. And these costs are expected to continue to rise over the coming years.
Sadly, and this is now widely accepted, CVD is mostly caused by poor diet and lifestyle factors. In other words, we are mostly in control of whether or not we even get heart disease. It’s a matter of what we eat, drink and do with our bodies that either raises or lowers our risk.
How much cardio should we do?
To combat CVD, pretty much all health agencies recommend engaging in a minimum of 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity. You could also just do 75 minutes of vigorous activity in a week if you’re ambitious! Either way, that’s really not that much time to invest each week to have a better life.
You can also think of it this way. For just 30 minutes on 5 days a week or about 22 minutes on 7 days you can engage in moderate activity and lower your risk of CVD. Good cardio exercise can be as simple as walking around your neighborhood, or as complicated as HIIT workouts at a gym. That seems like a small price to pay for a longer, healthier life.
Here’s a great HIIT explanation and workout that’s easy enough for beginners!
Remember that you’re better off getting a variety of workouts for the most health benefits. In other words, do different types of workouts throughout the week rather than the same thing all the time.
Cardio burns fat
Besides being great for your heart, cardio is great for burning fat! Any low-intensity continuous physical activity uses the fat that your body has stored for energy. So if you need to lose a few pounds, find some enjoyable aerobic activities to take part in most days of the week.
Related article: 7 Tips on how to enjoy exercise and stick with it.
If you haven’t yet been exercising, start with short bouts of walking and work your way up to at least 45 minutes each day. The longer you move, the more you’ll be burning fat! It’s OK to start out with 1 or 2 walking sessions a day that each last 10-20 minutes. You’ll still get the same overall health benefits from breaking up your sessions if you don’t have the time or energy to do it all at once.
The most important thing is to just keep at it. Consistent action creates consistent results! But be sure to have a plan for those rainy or cold days. If you walk all summer long and then quit in the winter due to weather, you’ll quickly gain back any weight you lost! So it’s wise to invest in a cardio machine.
If you don’t feel like you have the time to set aside to walk that much, just add more movement into your daily activities. Here’s an excellent article explaining weight/fat loss at lower intensities! Or you can check out my blog post called “Walking for weight loss” for some more practical tips.
Cardio gives you more energy
A little-known fact about doing cardio is that it actually helps your body make more energy. Isn’t that great?! The more you exercise, the more energy you’ll have, and here’s why according to Harvard Health Publishing.
Doing cardio causes your body to make more mitochondria which are known as the “powerhouses of the cell” because that’s where energy is made. When you have more mitochondria your body has the ability to make more energy.
Exercise also boosts the amount of oxygen circulating around your body which is delivered to your cells and muscles. This means your body gets what it needs quickly for energy.
To top it off (and you’ve probably heard this one), exercise boosts your “feel-good” hormones like endorphins. So even when you “don’t feel like exercising” you’ll feel better afterward because of this hormone. Our bodies are made to move and when we do we’re rewarded for that effort.
So if you’ve been feeling “drained” or “unmotivated” then you need more energy. And cardio can help you achieve that.
Cardio improves disease states
Getting in regular cardio workouts will lower your risk of high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and many types of cancer. It also has the benefit of improving your immune system. So there’s really no good reason not to engage in cardio for exercise! At least, not if you want to feel good and be healthy.
High blood pressure
As I’ve already mentioned, when you train your heart with aerobic activity it strengthens it. That means it can pump more blood more easily. A stronger heart decreases the pressure on the artery walls which lowers your blood pressure.
Blood pressure tends to rise as we age, but not simply because we’re aging. This rise is due in part to a lack of physical activity. But also because of a diet containing more salt, less potassium, and more saturated fat than our bodies can handle. So a combination of good dietary habits and exercise is key.
To learn more about this, read any books written by Dr. Neal Barnard, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Dean Ornish, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn just to name a few. They’ve all dedicated their lives to studying how to prevent and reverse disease through healthier living.
Obesity & Type 2 Diabetes
After many years of research, we now know that there is a clear link between obesity and Type 2 diabetes.
When we eat, especially carbs, our pancreas produces insulin which is used to get the sugar (the broken down carbs) from our blood into our body’s cells for energy. The more fat we have the more resistant our cells are to the insulin that’s trying to get the sugar to them. That’s as easy an explanation as I can give!
According to Diabetes Self-Management, “People with a BMI above 30 (considered obese) are 80 times more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes than people with a BMI under 22″. Unfortunately, 1/3 of all Americans are now considered obese. If you want to figure out what your BMI is, click here.
The best way to reduce your risk of getting type 2 diabetes is to keep your weight under control. The best way to keep your weight under control is through regular exercise and healthy eating habits. Are you noticing a common theme here? Think “more veggies, whole grains, and fiber; less sugar and animal products”!
Related article: The best exercise to reduce belly fat.
Cancer
The American Cancer Society and National Cancer Institute did a study that showed a link between exercise and a lowered risk of 13 different types of cancer. It was already known that breast, colon and endometrial cancers were strongly linked to low physical activity levels.
Now that we know we can lower our risk for many more types of cancer just by engaging in regular exercise, we can plan accordingly. It’s always better to try to prevent a disease rather than wait for a diagnosis and then try backtracking to undo it!
There are 3 ways that exercise lowers our cancer risk. It helps us to:
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- Maintain a healthier weight
- Control our hormone levels
- Speed up digestion so food doesn’t sit in our colons for long periods of time
There are a lot of things that we can’t control in life, but exercise is NOT one of them! There is no pill you can take to guarantee a lowered risk of cancer. But one “pill” you should try is exercise. You just need to find new forms of exercise that you can enjoy. It really is possible!
Why do we hate cardio so much?
So many people just hate doing cardio for exercise and I do get that. In the beginning, it can be really tough. When I first got my elliptical machine, I thought 5 minutes on it was excruciating! Getting your heart rate up and keeping it up is very uncomfortable, for anyone.
But just like anything else, practice will make it easier. If you haven’t been moving much, then starting a regular cardio routine will take a LOT of physical and mental effort. Don’t give up! If you keep working at it you’ll be amazed at how much progress you can make in 3-6 months.
This is why I always recommend that new exercisers start out with just walking. Start slow, 10-15 minutes at a time, and work your way up. Every 2 weeks or so you can add a little more time until you’re at 45 minutes a day. Then you can progress further with harder forms of cardio, like biking, swimming or walking hills. Even better, do all three of those forms of exercise!
After you start to feel like a cardio pro, you might want to invest in a machine like a treadmill or elliptical. Not only are they great for bad weather days, but they can also give you a harder workout with different levels of resistance.
It’s also not a bad idea to consider a gym membership so you can use all their machines instead of buying one yourself. That way you’ll get more variety in your routine. Some gyms are very inexpensive because they’re geared more toward machine use instead of instructor-led fitness classes.
Having said that, fitness classes are a great way to up your cardio game while also engaging in more strength training. Plus, instructors can teach you a lot! Classes also help with motivation to do more because there are other people working out with you. So it can be a great way to make new, healthy friends!
My final thoughts
In all of my research over the years I’ve learned NOT to take exercise for granted when it comes to my overall health! If you need more convincing then a really great book is “Younger Next Year for Women” by Crowley and Lodge. It’s not only entertaining but it gives detailed information about how our bodies work and the many ways exercise benefits us.
I’m sure it was one of the authors of this book that pointed out that we do cardio to keep us alive, and we do strength training to make our lives worth living! So if you want to stay alive longer then start doing cardio. Even when you don’t feel like it! It takes consistency to get the results you’re hoping for, but your life is worth it.
And remember, it’s not just about weight loss. It’s about:
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- Strengthening your heart so you can live a longer life.
- Burning fat to keep your body working right.
- Creating more energy for your body to use.
- Avoiding unhealthy disease states, like heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, and type 2 diabetes.
Starting a cardio program isn’t a quick fix for anything but in the long run it will make you healthier and eventually help you to look better too.
If you’re still feeling lost on what to do or how to progress, then hire a personal trainer to set up a specific program to follow. We love to teach people the right way to exercise so they can live healthier, happier lives too!