Playing the cardio game.

As far as fitness goes, we hear the word cardio a lot. Do more cardio... lose weight, do cardio... burn fat, do cardio.... dang it I really did eat all three of those donuts instead of just imagining it so I'll need to do lots of cardio today.... stuff like that. But what's really effective? What does it actually mean? Without using a bunch of anatomy jargon... it basically comes down to is- you need to feel like you're working hard, in order to be effective. Personal trainers use the Rate of Effort (RPE) from 1 to 10 to track this kind of thing, because it's different for everyone. A RPE of 10 means you can only sustain that effort for less than 30 seconds.....1 means you could go all day. Another way of measuring your effective cardio, is the talk test. Simply run or jump on the bike next to a friend and talk.... keep increasing the intensity until you can't form sentences without breaths between words. This is when your body switches gears on how it uses fuel because it needs more, faster.... in summary- helping you lose weight and burn calories. I cannot stress interval training enough! it's a way to be really effective, without working as hard. Simply work at a PRE of 4 or 5 for a couple minutes, then increase the intensity for 30 seconds to a minute to an RPE of 8 or 9....then repeat! It's basically a way to trick your body into thinking it's working harder than it is.

Happy running... ellipticalling?... biking.... swimming.... lacrossing.... zumba-ing.... whatever gets you moving!