Fitting Cardio Into Your Schedule

They probably let out a collective sigh when they realized that they now have to find an hour every day to do something we can't seem to find five minutes for. How important are these guidelines and what can you do to incorporate them into your life?

Simple facts about cardio

Before I talk about how much cardio you should do, you need to understand why cardio is so important:

Cardio training is a way to burn calories and help you lose weight
Cardio training strengthens your heart so it doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood
Cardio training helps increase your lung capacity
Cardio training helps reduce the risk of a heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and diabetes
Cardio training makes you feel good
Cardio training helps you sleep better
Cardio training helps reduce stress
I could go on all day, but you get the idea

In short: you need cardio to keep your weight under control and to keep your stress at an acceptable level.

Choose your cardio training

The first thing you need to do is think about what kind of activities you would enjoy doing. Nowadays, there are so many options for cardio training that there is no reason you can't find something you enjoy. If you prefer outdoor activities, then running, cycling, or walking are good choices. If you enjoy going to the gym for your cardio, then you have access to bikes, elliptical trainers, treadmills, rowing machines, Stairmasters, and more. For home exercisers, there are videos and DVDs available covering everything from Tai Chi to kickboxing. Just about anything is acceptable as long as you find a movement that gets your heart rate into your Target Heart Rate Zone. Remember the following:

There is no 'best' cardio exercise. Anything that gets your heart rate up is good
It's not what cardio exercise you do, but how hard you train. Any exercise can be challenging if you put in the effort
Do something you enjoy. If you hate gym workouts, don't force yourself onto a treadmill. If you enjoy socializing, join a running club or engage in team sports
Do something you can see yourself doing at least three days a week
Be flexible. You don't have to do the same thing all the time; it's tedious and it slows down your weight loss. Feel free to crank up the radio and dance around the house like a lunatic!
Do something... anything! Please. We really need to work on that obesity problem!

How long should you do cardio?

Once you've decided what you want to do, the most important element of your cardio training is how long you're going to do it. You need to work on the duration of your cardio training before doing anything else; it's more important than how fast you go. If you're a beginner, start slowly and begin with a few minutes of training. Then, gradually increase the duration of each workout until you reach about 30 minutes. The 'official' guidelines recommend exercising for an hour. If you're laughing at the idea of finding an hour to exercise, listen up: if you don't have that time, use the time you DO have to:

Do mini-workouts throughout the day
Take a few minutes here and there to climb stairs or walk briskly
Do all those things you know you should do: take the stairs, walk more, stop driving around endlessly to park as close to the store as possible, etc.
Make time! People who exercise don't have any more time than people who don't exercise. They're just better at managing their time and prioritizing exercise. Plus, they know it makes their lives better (you'll figure that out for yourself)
Pay someone to get you to exercise. Finding a good personal trainer can make a big difference in terms of motivation and staying focused on your goals

Do something... anything. If you think five minutes isn't enough to exercise, you're completely wrong. Five minutes, ten minutes, 40 minutes... every minute counts so don't come to me with a 'I only have a few minutes' excuse because I'm not buying it and neither should you. Too much cardio isn't good either. You don't need to slowly kill yourself with hours of cardio; there's a point where more isn't better but worse. So, keep it reasonable and don't forget to take some rest days.

How often should you do cardio?

The frequency of your workouts will depend on your fitness level and your schedule. Beginners are best off starting with three days of alternating cardio (so a day of rest between cardio sessions) and working up from there. The general guidelines are:

To maintain your fitness level: 2 to 4 days a week, at least 20 minutes
To lose weight: 4 or more days a week, at least 30 minutes
To train for a triathlon: you don't want to know...

But what if you can't follow these rules? Then, train as many days as you can. If you only have two days to exercise (and you really have to work hard to convince me that you can't find an extra day to train), then that's what you should do. It's always better than doing nothing. Remember, if you can't follow the guidelines, it becomes harder to reach your goals. If you can't do what you need to do to achieve your goals, you have two options:

Change your schedule, lifestyle, or whatever it takes to achieve your goal, or
Change your goal

It's up to you to make the decision. There's no super glue that binds you to your goals and if you know you can't (or won't) do what's necessary, why lie to yourself? Be honest with yourself about what you want to achieve and go in that direction instead of setting yourself up for failure by setting goals you know you won't work for. End of lesson!

How hard should you train with cardio?

Once you're used to exercising - and you're at the 30-minute constant movement mark - you can start adjusting your intensity. How hard you train is an important factor in your training because:

How hard you work is directly related to the number of calories you burn
Raising your intensity is the best way to burn more calories if you have less time
It's an easy part of your training to change; you just have to work harder...
It's easy tomonitor with, for example, a heart rate monitor

So, how hard should you train? It depends on the time you have to train. You want to train at an intensity level that you can sustain throughout the entire length of your workout.

During a one-hour cardio workout, you should keep the intensity low to avoid overtraining
For shorter cardio workouts, you can increase the intensity because you're training for a shorter period
You can vary the intensity of some cardio workouts by using interval training to burn more calories
Make sure you can still talk to someone. If you can't talk, you're training too hard
Learn easy ways to monitor your intensity (e.g., with a heart rate monitor)

Important: the target heart rate calculation is just a GUIDE for cardio training; it's not the gospel. If an internet calculator says your maximum heart rate is 120 beats per minute and you're not even breaking a sweat, feel free to go faster. I'm just saying... You know your body better than an internet calculator, right?