How to do Cardio?
What is my target?
Breathy and sweaty.
Yeah, you can measure your heart rate, you can get fancy with your metrics.
The metric I rely on?
Breathy and sweaty.
You’ve seen people in the gym or walking down the street or riding their bike. I used to see these guys in Central Park. They were suited up in their Lance Armstrong gear riding their bikes. Talking their heads off. Full conversations. No sound of breathing. No effort.
That’s the clue. No effort.
Breathy and sweaty means use the talk test. If you feel like talking, if it is easy to talk, you aren’t working hard enough to be doing cardio.
Breathy and sweaty means I could talk if I had to, but I do not want to.
When you are doing cardio, you want to get to the point where you are breathy and sweaty and don’t particularly want to talk. Then you know you are giving your heart a workout. And that is the goal of doing cardio.
Sure, you might do cardio to lose weight. And there are people who argue you can do it at a slower pace if that is your goal. Okay. But then when are you going to work your heart? That’s the muscle we’re counting on to last a lifetime.
Breathy and sweaty
How else can I tell I’m working hard enough?
Fitness folks like to use a Perceived Rate of Exertion scale. This is my version where I build on the idea of how easy or hard it is to talk for you to judge how you are progressing. The breathy and sweaty stage I mentioned above is approximately 6. During a HIIT workout, you might spend some seconds around 7 or 8 before returning to 5 or 6. Those bursts of more intensity are great in short spurts. Explore to find where you are most comfortable.
1 - Super Easy - Talking easily
2 - Pretty Easy - Still talking
3 - Moderate - Talking, but starting to think about breathing more
4 - Starting to be harder - Getting less interested in talking
5 - Hard - Saying fewer words
6 - Harder - Talking less and less
7 - Really Hard - Likely not talking
8 - Really Harder - Not talking
9 - Really, Really Hard - So not talking
10 - Maxxed out - What’s talking?
Pick an activity for what we’ll call regular cardio training.
Aim for 30 minutes. Go longer if it feels good.
You can take a walk. Start easy. Get your muscles warmed up. Pick up the pace. Keep going. Swinging your arms will add effort in a good way. You can plan to walk for a set amount of time or set a route that you know covers the distance or time you’d like to cover. Having a dog might add some fun and motivation. Meeting up with a friend can start and end with a great conversation. You can give each other smiles and quick encouragement during the breathy portion.
You can take a run. I’m not a runner, so I don’t have much advice here. But, as I understand it, same deal. Start a little slower till you warm up and then, as you are warm, pick up the pace. Same deal with swinging those arms. Same deal with running with your dog or a friend.
You can go for a bike ride. Same idea. Start slower and build up to a pace you can keep. If you have a hilly ride, adjust for the bigger effort to ride up the hill and easy effort of riding down the hill.
You can go for a swim. This feels completely different than a land-based activity. You can do the crawl or the breast stroke or a back stroke. As with walking or running, get started slow, build up to a good pace, and keep going. You can count laps and figure out how many laps brings you to 30 or more minutes.
You can get on an elliptical machine. I like to increase the incline for added work. Each machine has different program options. You can pick your favorite.
You can get on a treadmill to walk or run. I do like the incline option to add effort.
You can jump on a rowing machine and get your arms in on the action.
You can get out the jump rope and give it a whirl.
You can go to a Cardio class online or in the gym that gets you dancing or jumping or some combination for maybe as much as 60 minutes.
How much Cardio do I need to do?
DO: Cardio three times a week. It is a good alternate day from weight training. You can do cardio up to six days. We all need a day of rest.
DO: Vary it up. Try a different machine. Try a different method. Variety is good for your body mechanics and also your mood.
DON’T: Let yourself get bored.
DON’T: Overtrain to the point of exhaustion or undertrain to the point of what’s the point.
DON’T: Work through pain. If something hurts, stop. Ice. Rest. Maybe get it looked at.
DO: Warm up.
DO: Stretch after you finish your workout.
DO: Drink water before, during and after.
For something different, try Interval Training
It is what it sounds like, doing something and then doing something else.
There are two styles you’ve likely heard of:
HIIT – High Intensity Interval Training
Or
Tabata
Both are interval training. HIIT is designed by the designer or you. Tabata has a set formula. Try it both ways and see what you like.
The key idea is to work when you are working. And by work, we mean pushing yourself to being nearly out of breath. I asked for breathy and sweaty above. Here I am asking for you to get out of breath by the activity. If regular cardio is a 6 on the RPE scale, HIIT is 7-9, and can be 10.
What can you do?
Jump, jump rope, sprint, run fast, walk super fast, boxer shuffle and punch, biking fast, anything fast.
How to HIIT?
It is useful to set a timer. You want to work hard for a set amount of time and rest for a set amount of time.
If you are new to fitness, start with:
20 seconds of work, 60 seconds of recovery.
If you have been doing other forms of fitness and feel ready:
20 seconds of work, 20 seconds of rest.
As you get stronger, you can migrate to:
30 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest.
Go by how you feel. Be good to you. Don’t over do it.
Again, variety is useful.
On a path or on the treadmill, you can interchange walking, running and resting.
You can use different machines.
You can do jumping jacks, jump rope, skater or other cardio moves.
You can easily find an online class or video. Yeah, I’ll make one too.
Tabata
Is specific
You do 8 rounds of 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off.
The research by Tabata, the creator, and his team determined that shorter intervals with shorter rest created a large VO2max increase and increased anaerobic capacity. But these results depend on you doing your max in the 20 seconds of work.
VO2max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption measured during exercise. V is Volume. O2 is oxygen and max is for maximum.
Since we started to get a little sciency…let’s get into it.
The Science of Cardio
We start with resting heart rate. You can count your resting heart rate when you are at rest. First thing in the morning is a good time to check. According to the Mayo Clinic, the average adult beats between 60 to 100 beats per minute. That is your resting rate.
Exercise will increase your heart rate. You can stop and measure, as you did at rest, to see how fast you get your heart going.
You can also estimate your maximum heart rate using math. Subtract your age from 220. This is the average maximum number of times your heart will beat per minute during intense exercise.
You can then target at what level you’d like to work.
The American Heart Association generally recommends a target heart rate of:
· Moderate exercise intensity: 50% to about 70% of your maximum heart rate
· Vigorous exercise intensity: 70% to about 85% of your maximum heart rate
If you are new to exercise, you want to build-up to the vigorous level.
Here’s more math. You can calculate your heart rate reserve (HRR) by subtracting your resting heart rate from your maximum heart rate. Multiply your HRR by the % you want to exercise. Add your resting heart rate. Let me share an example prepared by the Mayo Clinic. You are 45 years old.
· First, subtract 45 from 220 to get 175 — this is your maximum heart rate.
· Next, check your resting heart rate first thing in the morning. Say it's 80 beats per minute. Calculate your HRR by subtracting 80 from 175. Your HRR is 95.
· Multiply 95 by 0.7 (70%) to get 66.5, then add your resting heart rate of 80 to get 146.5.
· Now multiply 95 by 0.85 (85%) to get 80.75, then add your resting heart rate of 80 to get 160.75.
· Your target heart rate zone for moderate exercise is 127.5 to 146.5 beats per minute.
· Your target heart rate zone for vigorous exercise is 146.5 to 160.75 beats per minute.
You can get an activity tracker to check or you might have a Fitbit or other smartphone. Absent these measures, I go by how I’m breathing at the RPE scale.
This math is average. Your maximum heart rate may be higher or lower.
Also note that medication can lower your maximum heart rate. This is true of meds to lower blood pressure. You can ask your doctor if you need to target a lower heart rate zone. My Mom, who is 85, with a replaced heart valve, knows to exercise at a much more moderate level.
The big tack away. If you exercise and don’t get breathy and don’t feel any exertion, odds are you are not working hard enough. Alternatively, if you are way up in the 8-10 zone of the RPE scale, maybe you need to back it off a bit.
If you have any questions or doubts, speak with your doctor before starting an exercise program.