How Much Cardio Should You Do A Week? Guide for Cardio Frequency

In order to get a well-rounded cardio exercise routine, one must include a combination of all important factors such as frequency, duration, and intensity. However, it has been a common practice for some to adjust these aspects to be more favourable than the other depending on an individual’s fitness goals. If you want to know the answer to how much cardio should you do a week, this article can serve as your guide to assess the proper frequency for your cardio exercise.

Not surprisingly, many have been asking if adding challenges to a personalised fitness program to reach a certain goal is considered a proper recommendation. At some point, it can be true that your goals should be one of the primary considerations when working out; but it is also important to maintain balance and do everything in moderation.

Overview and Assessment

Many people go to the gym with the commitment to reach their goals, only to back out after some time. The lack of enthusiasm often causes the root cause for the plan not reaching its success due to the confusion of how often an individual should do a routine.

It is also vital to keep an updated assessment of your overall health to know your limits physically and systemically. This can help you avoid going beyond low intensity or high-intensity interval training if your body is not capable of doing so.

To know the frequency of your exercise routine depends on many factors aside from how long you want to achieve noticeable results. Whether you want to lose weight or gain some muscle strength, the following guide can help you reach your target with higher success.

Assess you overall fitness capacity

Before starting your cardio exercises, you should have enough idea about your fitness level. The proper assessment of your overall fitness can serve as your benchmark in measuring your progress, body composition, flexibility, and muscular fitness. This guide will provide you with the necessary limits so that you’ll be aware of your current capacity.

Designing what your goals are

Having a proper plan on what you want to happen during and after your fitness program is important. We can consider many factors, such as:

Fitness goals – What is the purpose of your cardio exercises? Do you have plans to lose weight? Do you want to improve your muscular strength? Or do you want to improve your lifestyle? Keeping these goals in mind can help you stay focused and motivated.
Routine balance and schedule – Spreading your routine’s intensity between moderate to vigorous exercises can provide you with great benefits. A variety of physical activity can be very helpful to add spice on your routine.

Gathering your equipment

Starting with the proper fitness attire, complete your workout experience with the various fitness accessories available. Be sure to use equipment that is suitable for your chosen activity. If you plan to build a home gym for your cardio exercise, you can choose among world-class cardio machines available at Home Gym Australia.

Investing in the right fitness equipment is not simple and might require several factors to consider. Our team of experts carefully subjects our products to the necessary quality assurance tests to ensure that you’ll get the best quality products.

Getting Started

Now that you’re properly geared up and have the basic knowledge, you can begin your fitness program with enough dedication. When doing your routine, it is important to keep these things in mind:

Get plenty of warm-up and cool-down before and after your routines.
You don’t have to do all your exercises in one time. Split it up if needed.
Get creative and add some fun to boost your motivation.
Learn how to be flexible and listen to your body.

Progress Monitoring

Once you’ve started your cardio routines, you need to reassess your physical fitness from time to time. This will help you keep track of your progress and see any possible modifications on your current program.

How Much Cardio Should You Do for Heart Health?

For an aerobic exercise, a cardio routine is the most beneficial physical activity that boosts your heart health. Aside from that, cardio exercise can get your heart rate rising and make you sweat even more. This technique can help you reduce the risks of getting heart disease and can also bring positive effects to your blood cholesterol and blood lipid levels.

A bit of medical advice from the American Heart Association recommends having at least a hundred and fifty minutes of physical activity for a week. You can reach optimal benefits through moderate-intensity exercise rather than interval training. This means that you must get twenty to thirty minutes of activity for a week for five days. You can also get the benefits of a vigorous exercise with an allotted time of seventy-five minutes.

If you want to lower your bad cholesterol levels, you can also perform forty minutes of moderate to vigorous-intensity exercise up to four times a week. This, however, requires an initial consultation. Talk to your doctor first to assess if your exercise plan is suitable for your physical health and other needs.

How Much Cardio Should You Do for Muscle Gain?

To gain lean muscle, one must follow the right amount of balance for cardio exercise and strength training. Doing too much can increase your risk of having fatigue and overtraining, which may lead to muscle-related injuries. On the other hand, low-intensity movements can lower your ability to achieve muscle gains.

Sticking to moderate-intensity cardio routines between the ranges of two to three days per week can help you get the optimal results you need. You can also opt for high-intensity exercises if you want to have a shorter session.

If you want to have a continuous muscle building phase, you can avoid the dreaded plateau by keeping a variety of cardio exercises in between your routines. When it comes to building up muscles on your frame, changing things up and switching from different intensities will prevent your body from responding. Take some breaks and days off for recovery period.

How Much Cardio Should You Do for Weight Loss?

If you are one of the aspiring individuals who want to achieve a well-defined and sculpted figure, the cardio exercise is the best choice. You can lose weight from a continuous routine of low intensity to moderate-intensity training.

Medical advice from experts primarily explains that your cardio workout does not necessarily have to be vigorous or most commonly known as high-intensity interval training (HIIT). An intense physical activity does not guarantee weight loss and might do more harm than good. It is enough for your cardio exercise to remain at a moderate level, following a continuous pace.

Cardio exercises can contribute to weight loss as long as it reaches the necessary heart rate threshold. You can achieve this by training for three-hundred minutes for a week. This means that you must exercise for at least an hour for five days. If you find this requirement more challenging than usual, you can split up your routines or use a variety of home gym equipment such as elliptical machines or treadmills. Instead of repetitive movements, you can break up your schedule and incorporate some spice towards your routine.

Cardio for Overall Health: Fitness Guide

Now that you have enough knowledge on how often you should perform your cardio routine, it is time to bring your body to work. If you want to become successful in your weight loss journey, one thing must be kept in mind. It is better to gradually shed excess weight and steadily, not exceeding one to two pounds a week.

Fitness coaches and training instructors give this advice often to help an individual maintain a healthy lifestyle. This includes proper diet, good eating habits, and motivation to exercise, which leads to long term benefits.

Dieting

To go on a diet has already been proven as one of the most effective methods for weight loss. However, many people correlate dieting with either skipping meals or avoiding all meals completely. This is a common misconception that should not be tolerated and may put your health more at risk rather than good. It is also important to keep in mind that to maintain a weight loss, one should not rely on a diet alone. There are other aspects needed to keep a balanced rhythm towards your overall health.

Good eating habits

As the popular saying goes, “You are what you eat”. Aside from eating healthy foods, a good eating habit also means to avoid fatty foods and junk foods, as well as others that your body consumes in excess. Keeping a good eating habit can bring significant changes to your weight and your overall health.

Cardio exercise

The number of calories you burn depends on how often you do your exercises. If you completely commit yourself with it and stick to your initial fitness plans, you’ll be able to see the results in no time. Several experts recommend the following combination for a more effective workout:

Stretching
Cardio exercises
Strength training exercises
Core exercises

The Key Takeaway

The frequency of the fitness routine must not solely rely on a single factor. You can consider many aspects to identify the proper fitness plan that will suit your every need. Besides knowing your goals, it would be best if you also had a firm idea on how quickly you want to achieve your results and the amount of time you are willing to spend in order to commit to your exercises.

Home Fitness Equipment in Australia

Cardio exercises are rhythmic activities that can bring numerous benefits to your overall health. Knowing what cardio can do for you, you might be wondering how to begin your fitness journey.

Here at Home Gym Australia, you can jump-start towards reaching your goals from our high-quality cardio machines available. Get the most out of your aerobic exercise with the help of the most trusted brands and cardio equipment models suitable for your home gym.

Experience a world-class service like no other at Home Gym Australia. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send us your messages or you may browse through our website for more information.

References

Home Gym Australia is strictly implementing stiff rules and regulations when it comes to its investigative procedures. It has performed well-organised surveys and interviews based on client preference and expert opinions. Home Gym Australia also makes sure that peer reviews and product studies from reputable gym establishments and manufacturers are sourced out without bias and with fair judgment.

Waehner P. (May 2020). 9 Ways to Get a Great Cardio Workout at Home.

https://www.verywellfit.com/best-home-cardio-exercises-1231273

Laskowski E. (April 2019). How much should the average adult exercise every day?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/exercise/faq-20057916

Aschan S. (May 2007). The Top Five Things to Consider When Starting a Workout Program.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/Exercise/story?id=3196307&page=1

(May 2020). Exercise and Physical Fitness.

https://medlineplus.gov/exerciseandphysicalfitness.html

Harmon E. (March 2017). 13 Ways To Make Exercise Fun, Not A Chore.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/13-ways-to-make-exercise-fun-not-a-chore_b_58bd456ce4b0fa65b844b5a9

(July 2020). Exercise 101: Don’t skip the warm-up or cool-down.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercise-101-dont-skip-the-warm-up-or-cool-down