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A goal that almost everyone has when they are starting a fitness plan is to increase their cardio performance. Cardio can be described as any exercise that gets your heart rate up and keeps you continuously moving over a period of time. There is an aerobic category, which includes sessions that last longer than 5 minutes and utilize oxygen as a means of producing energy and then there is an anaerobic category, which can be defined as sessions that are much shorter in length (20 seconds to 1 minute). This is done without the presence of oxygen and uses a different energy system pathway (relying on stored energy producing compounds). Typically anaerobic sessions are sprint intervals.
In order to improve your cardio performance you should dedicate at least 3 days a week to it. Try and perform one longer session of 30 to 60 minutes in length, one moderate intensity, moderate length session (for approximately 30 minutes) and then one interval session. This will ensure that you work your body across the whole spectrum and will see a full range of benefits. You can also perform this type of exercise a few more days a week if you would like however it is not necessary for cardiovascular health. Also keep in mind that the more cardio you are performing, the harder it is to gain muscle mass so if that is a goal for you then you will need to take this into consideration.
One thing to beware of however is that more is not always better. The body has a tendency to adapt to this form of exercise so performing hour-long sessions at the same pace everyday is not going to continually produce results. In order to avoid plateauing you should incorporate interval sessions into your workout as this will push your body at a higher intensity level and be more effective in terms of both fat loss and improvements.
Sticking to a regular program does prove to be challenging for many people as most typically do not enjoy this type of exercise however if you do, you will see many health benefits.
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