Cardiorespiratory training (Cardio for short) has many health benefits and as little as 10-20 minutes a day can:

Give you a stronger heart

Reduce the risk of heart disease

Lowers cholesterol levels (so you can eat more bacon…just kidding!)

lower blood pressure

Improve mental alertness

Improve your sleep (yes, sleep!)

Improve your tolerance for stress and stupid people at work

Reduce your risk of getting Diabetes

·…and 50 other benefits that are too good to be true!

While it’s such a beneficial form of training, it can be hard to figure out what you should be doing and what all the options are available to you. Well, the imagination is the limit, but let me summarize a few different modes of training for you to put in your toolbox.

1. Let’s start with the basics: Walking! While walking may not technically be defined as true cardio training, no one can deny the benefits of walking; after all, as humans, it is what we should do. Walking is a great way to start physical activity and best of all; you can go at your own pace. A good goal to aim for is 20-40 minutes, 3-4 times a week.

Here are some bonus tips just for you! Want to further engage your rear as you walk? Then take short, quick steps instead of long strides to get your glutes working. Also, walking is a time to relax. Forget about the problems of the day and enjoy your surroundings.

two. Steady state training: This is where you pick your favorite equipment (treadmill, bike, rollerblades, your own feet) and simply work at a steady pace with a low or moderate intensity over a period of time. Since this isn’t high-intensity, you can usually do it for longer and it’s great for beginners who aren’t ready for high-intensity exercise or just don’t like it.

3. Interval aerobic training: This is not high intensity training, but rather uses intervals of tempered intensity followed by low intensity recovery periods. For aerobic intervals, I would alternate runs with recovery periods (walking, light jogging, etc.) instead of sprint/recovery runs as seen in ANAEROBICS intervals This type of training generally burns more calories and is more interesting than constant cardio.

Four. Anaerobic interval training: You may know this as HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training and here you alternate between short sessions (15-60 seconds) of high intensity work followed by recovery periods. The relationship between work and rest depends on you and depends on your goals. If you’re training for sport, you’ll want to mimic the workload of your particular sport. For example, for hockey you could work at a high intensity for 15 seconds and then walk or jog for 30 seconds.

5. Training against boredom: OK, so I made up that name. I don’t have a patent on it yet, so feel free to use the term loosely. This is also known as multi-mode training and simply involves using different pieces of equipment throughout the set of exercises so you don’t get bored. For example, you could start by doing 10 minutes on an elliptical machine followed by 10 minutes on a bike and then 10 minutes on…well, whatever. If you don’t have the equipment handy, go to the park with the kids and play 10 minutes of frisbee, 10 minutes on the seesaw, and 10 minutes realizing how much fun you’re having… it all works!

6. Fartleck: I put this because I love to say the word; Fartlek, Fartlek, Fartlek!! This is a Swedish term meaning “speed game”. It has elements of interval training but it is not structured in terms of the relationship between work and rest. Here you can use any combination of your work/rest timing. An example would be selecting exercise extremes of 2, 4 and 6 minutes on various pieces of equipment changing their intensity and duration in a random order. You can set it this way:

Session 1: Treadmill (2 minutes), Elliptical Trainer (4 minutes), Bicycle (6 minutes)

Session 2: elliptical trainer (6 minutes), bicycle (4 minutes), treadmill (2 minutes)

Session 3: bicycle (4 minutes), treadmill (4 minutes), cycle ergometer (4 minutes)

For the 2 minute duration, I would work hard (a 15 on the scale of perceived exertion – see the scale at the bottom of this page for reference); the 4 minute duration works somewhat hard (a 13 on the effort scale) and for the 6 minute duration use a light intensity (11-12 on the effort scale). Fartlek is fun because it adds variety and you can customize it however you like.

7. Split Routine Workout: If you’re short on time, this is the way to go. If you don’t have time to do a 30-40 minute cardio session in one go, you can break it up into 2 or more sessions throughout the day, maybe 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes after work. You still get great benefits from this type of training and some people say they can work at a higher intensity when the sessions are shorter instead of long duration.

Now answering questions from the audience: Yes, you over there, do you have your hand raised?

Q: What do I do if I’ve been doing cardio for a long time and I stop losing weight?

A: If you find yourself reaching a plateau, the key is progress. To keep improving, then you need to keep overloading your body. Let’s say you’re going to jog for 20 minutes a day 3 times a week. That’s a total of 60 minutes per week. A good progression scale to use is to increase your workload by 10% per week every week or two. So that means your first progression would be 66 minutes per week (or 22 minutes per day/3 times per week) after a week or 2, then progress to 72 minutes per week, then 79… 86… 94 and so on until all you do is run all day forever and ever very much like Forrest Gump. (but don’t you really do that right?)

So, I’ll leave you with a final word… Fartlek 🙂

BORG scale Rate of perceived exertion

• 6 – 20% effort
• 7 – 30% effort – Very, very light (Rest)
• 8 – 40% effort
• 9 – 50% effort – Very light – smooth ride
• 10 – 55% effort
• 11 – 60% effort – Fairly light
• 12 – 65% effort
• 13 – 70% effort – Somewhat hard – steady pace
• 14 – 75% effort
• 15 – 80% effort – Difficult
• 16 – 85% effort
• 17 – 90% effort – Very hard
• 18 – 95% effort
• 19 – 100% effort – Very, very hard
• 20 – Exhaustion