Cardio in this instance is short for cardiological, so it pertains to the heart, and means very plainly aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercises use the muscles for a relatively extended time; make the heart labor more to get the blood going faster than usual so the body tissues use oxygen as fuel in oxydizing carbohydrates and fat. For many individuals habitually doing aerobic exercises, a home gym of fitness equipment elliptical style, some light gym fitness equipment or workout equipment is the way to go. However, many people choose mere brisk walking, slow running, canoeing or two-player sports like table or lawn tennis.
Repeated aerobic exercises help the person in several ways:
• Improves the lung muscles for better air flow in and out of the lungs. It gives the body higher oxygen levels and better blood composition via higher amounts of red blood cells.
• Increases and strengthens the heart tissues, improving pumping efficiency and blood movement while lowering the resting heart rate. This is called aerobic conditioning and is the intended effect of aerobic exercises, thus the label cardio. This also improves blood circulation to reduce blood pressure and improves the cardiovascular status.
• Reduces general stress and improves mental health, including lower depression vulnerability.
• Increases bone development and thus reduces the potentials of brittle bones.
• Reduces other health common ailments like flu and colds.
• Clears the arteries by lowering bad cholesterol (LDL: low density lipoprotein) levels and increases those of good cholesterol (HDL or high density lipoproteins).
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But, aerobic exercising to be useful must have least amounts, especially in its duration of exercise and Professionalsrecommend twenty minutes of exercise should be done at least three times a week. Otherwise it will produce no effect on the body as whatever gains were made from the exercise will be lost in the no-exercise intervals.
A style of aerobic exercise very popular in the past years is the aerobics, group exercises entailing quick footwork and body motion led by an instructor and done freestyle or choreographed in synchronization with the tempo of music, making it more pleasurable in the process. This was particularly liked by women, especially when celebrities like Jane Fonda, Judi Sheppard Missett and Richard Simmons endorsed it via videos and television programs. A lot of aerobics salons use full-length mirrors to allow the trainees to discern if what they are doing is correct, much like training rooms for ballet dancers and other performers.
One of the other popular forms of aerobic exercise are tennis, jogging, badminton, tae bo which uses the movements in martial arts, and recently, the NIA or non-impact aerobics, a.k.a. neuromuscular integrative action, which avoids body damage from high-impact aerobic exercises.
Aerobic exercises are intended to improve and build up the body through recurring, low-intensity training which compels the tissues to give up their accumulated energy substances for oxydation. It is not intended for quick muscle development of the no-pain, no-gain variety. Thus there are always aerobic exercises for everyone, at any age, at any condition.
