Whether you’re planning to get fit, lose some weight, or simply trying to become healthier, cardio can be highly beneficial. If you’re a fitness enthusiast, the chances that you’ll already be aware of what cardio is are fairly high. What you may not know is why cardio is such an essential part of any workout plan.
Health experts recommend that in order to reduce the lingering health risks, one should do at least 150 minutes of cardio exercise a week. If you’re just stepping into the world of fitness, cardio is a rhythmic exercise that raises the heart rate and takes it into a zone where you’ll be able to burn more calories and fats. It makes your heart race, and hence, the impact of cardio exercise on your body is a lot more profound than your regular workout.
It won’t be an exaggeration to say that cardio is one of the most essential and rewarding forms of exercises that one can add to their workout routine. This blog post highlights all the reasons why we say cardio is so important.
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Aids In Weight Loss
One of the first reasons why cardio is important is that it helps you lose weight efficiently. Cardio is unlike the regular exercises that you do. It involves vigorous physical activity that puts your body under stress. It assists you in burning more calories than any other form of exercise and hence, makes shedding those extra pounds possible.
Boosts the Body’s Endurance
While it may seem too physical at first, cardio can actually help increase your body’s strength and endurance. You may feel tired after a few minutes initially, but when you expose your body to strenuous stress regularly, you’ll observe that you’re able to undertake longer minutes of cardio gradually.
2 to 4 minutes of cardio may seem like forever in the earlier days, but as you continue, you’ll be able to go on for 10 minutes and maybe more in some time. It does so by boosting your cardiovascular and respiratory capacity. You don’t feel as breathless and tired as you did in the first few days because your heart and lungs become stronger as a result of doing cardio exercises regularly.
Controls Blood Pressure
As you can tell by the name, cardio exercises involve your heart. They put the heart under stress and make it stronger. When you perform cardio, your heart beats faster. With that, your blood circulation improves. Although cardio may raise your heart rate initially, in the longer run, improved blood circulation plays a vital role in controlling the blood pressure.
Helps Prevent Heart Diseases
Another reason why cardio is important is that it helps prevent heart diseases. You may wonder how that is possible. Well, it is because when you perform cardio, your heart rate increases and your blood circulation improves, which in return opens up the narrowed blood vessels. The narrowing of blood vessels (whether due to deposition of fats or aging) is one of the leading causes of heart diseases like angina and high blood pressure. If you incorporate cardio in your everyday workout, you‘re actually reducing the risk of developing heart diseases.
Helps Control Cholesterol
Another way cardio can benefit your health by controlling the cholesterol levels. When you’re involved in moderate to heavy physical activity, the quantity of HDL (high-density lipoproteins), which is also referred to as good cholesterol, rises. HDL is beneficial for health, unlike the LDL (low-density lipoproteins). Vigorous physical activity like cardio for 20 minutes up to thrice a week is enough for you to start observing a positive impact on your cholesterol levels.
Helps Control Diabetes
It might come as a surprise to you, but cardio exercises can actually help keep your blood sugar levels in check. The more intense physical activity is, the more the sugar in the blood will be burnt for energy. Cardio involves extensive use of your muscles and your heart, which eventually rely on a consistent supply of energy. They get this energy supply through the burning of blood glucose. If you have diabetes and are struggling with keeping your blood sugar levels low, doing cardio can do the job just right. In addition, it can also help reduce insulin resistance and make your insulin work better to control the levels of your blood sugar.
Makes You Feel Good
If you think cardio exercise will make you feel drained out and dull, you’re highly mistaken. Despite being extremely physical and strenuous, cardio can actually make you feel good. When you perform cardio, it promotes the production of endorphins, which are also termed as feel-good chemicals. These are chemicals produced in the brain that promote the feeling of wellness and happiness. If you’ve been feeling gloomy lately or are fighting depression, stress, and anxiety, cardio may be the best non-medicine way of making yourself feel better!
Improves Bone Density
Cardio exercises are of many types. Weight-bearing cardio, in particular, can significantly improve your bone density and strength. When you exercise regularly, you’re actually placing force on your bones. Bones are living tissues, and they respond according to the forces that they’re exposed to. So, when you perform cardio, you intimate the body to produce more bone tissue, which makes your bones denser and stronger.
Cardio is not easy to do, especially if you’re just a beginner. It takes quite a while for your body to get used to this form of exercise. Despite being tough, it’s worth it in the end. Considering the plenty of benefits, you just can’t possibly undermine the importance of cardio. It won’t be wrong to say that cardio can literally be that one form of exercise that not only makes you fit but improves your overall health. Now, isn’t that something you’ll want out of a sweaty workout episode?
