No Fat Burning Zone
Although you burn a higher percentage of fat calories at slow and moderate aerobic intensities, you burn more total calories, and more total fat calories, when you exercise at higher intensities. You may choose to work out longer and/or slower for various reasons, but never slow down just because you think that?s necessary to be in a "fat burning zone."
Jumping Rope
Jumping rope can be a good aerobic exercise. For most people it?s pretty vigorous, so intervals may be the best way to go. Warm up with some brisk walking, then jump for two minutes, rest a minute or so, jump two, etc. If you can go longer, do it. Add half a minute to your jumping and/or shorten your rest periods if you want to improve your jumping time and make this one of your main exercises. Make sure to choose a surface that isn't too hard. Like other cardio exercises, work at a pace where you?re breathing a little hard but can still talk.
Stair Running
Running up stairs is a time-honored way to improve aerobic conditioning. Take them 2 at a time if you're athletic and consider them to be part of your interval training. Even if you're new to exercise, you can benefit from walking up stairs whenever you get a chance. The calories burned will add up, and your conditioning will improve. If you have trouble finding time to exercise, take 10 minutes once or twice a day and walk up and down stairs at work (or before or after). Hold on to the rail if you need to.
Step Mill
The Step Mill is like real stairs, offset and requiring you to lift your foot as the stairs go by. In contrast, your foot stays on the pedal with stair climbers. The Step Mill adds a little impact to your workout, and is somewhat harder to use, so take it easy when you start out. You may want to hold the rails lightly for balance.
In-line Skating
In-line skating can give you a great cardio workout. How long and how fast you skate affects the quality of the aerobic workout, but even moderate in-line workouts are good. Start out easy to warm up, and wear protective gear. There's a learning curve to skating, but if you practice and don't push yourself, you can master it. Consider a lesson if it doesn't come easy to you.
Stair Climbers
Stair climbers are excellent machines for cardiovascular conditioning. They are not meant for strength training and will not give you big muscles.
The major muscle group used is the quadriceps. Stand upright on the machine and use the hand rails only for balance. If you support your weight on your arms and take tiny steps, you can light up the display but will not be getting the aerobic workout you need. Use a lower level if necessary and do the work with your legs, taking a 6-8 inch step, keeping your foot flat on the pedals. This will burn calories, improve cardiovascular function, and strengthen your bones.
Elliptical Trainers
Elliptical machines are here to stay. People with bad knees love them, as they allow a good aerobic workout without any pounding on the knees. The technique seems awkward at first, but can be learned fairly easily. Beginners can take it easy, and advanced aerobic exercisers can use a combination of incline and resistance to work as hard as they want. If you buy an elliptical for home use, be careful to find one that?s well made, since the cheaper models may not hold up.
Breathe Through Your Mouth
To improve your aerobic conditioning, you should work hard enough that you just naturally start breathing through your mouth to get enough oxygen. It is sometimes recommended to breathe only through your nose to minimize effects of air pollution, but this limits the intensity of your workout. Avoid pollution by working out early or indoors, if necessary.
Dance for Fitness
For a good aerobic workout, you can dance until you break a sweat to your favorite hip hop or pop music, anything that has a quick beat to it. Try to dance continuously for at least 15 minutes. This aerobic exercise can help you in two ways:
1. You can become a better dancer.
2. You can lose weight while having fun and getting fit.
Improving Fitness
People who have higher cardiorespiratory fitness have fewer cardiovascular risk factors than people who are less fit, even if the less fit are equally or more active. This means you should improve your cardio (aerobic) fitness by challenging yourself instead of always doing the same workout. Move up a level on your bike or stair stepper, or try interval training: work hard for 2 or 3 minutes, then recover slowly for the same time. On the track, run a lap briskly followed by a slow lap. Do 4-8 intervals after a warmup once or twice a week instead of your regular workout, as a change of pace.
Which Workout?
The effectiveness of aerobic workouts depends on intensity and duration. As long as you get your heart rate into a training zone, any form of aerobic workout will have the same effectiveness if maintained for the same time. So you can use any type of exercise you enjoy, or go from one aerobic workout mode, or one machine, to another. No type of aerobic exercise is inherently better than the others. Your heart doesn?t know the difference.
Warming Up
The best way to warm up for aerobic exercise is to start out doing the same exercise you are going to use for the workout at an easy pace for a few minutes. Then launch into a regular intensity workout. For example, if you're going out for a run, start with easy jogging, or even walking, depending on your fitness level. You may need a longer warmup in the morning or in cold weather.
Choose the Right Class
Everything taught in the "aerobics" room is no longer aerobic. So many different kinds of classes are offered that the proper term is now "group exercise" rather than "aerobics." To qualify as aerobic exercise, a class must have continuous movement that raises your heart rate. You will find the old aerobic standbys like low impact, high-low, and step, and many dance-based classes that are aerobic. Some, but not all, martial arts-based classes qualify. Stretch and tone doesn't make it. Neither do pilates or yoga, though these are great exercise modes for other purposes. If you count on classes for your aerobic exercise, make sure you choose a class that includes at least 20 continuous minutes of movement you do on your feet.
Basic Fitness Routine
If you want to get a decent aerobic workout routine going, do aerobic exercise at least three times a week. During your aerobic workouts, try to keep your heart rate between 60-80 percent of maximum for at least twenty minutes. This will improve your cardiovascular fitness.
Treadmill Intensity
Holding the side rails on a treadmill reduces the intensity, so you are not burning as many calories as the display indicates. Holding the front rail so it pulls you along is worse yet. Hold the rails lightly for balance until you get used to the machine, then work toward letting your arms swing naturally.