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AerobicsAerobics, also referred to as cardiovascular exercise, are those exercises that get your heart pumping within your target heart rate zone. As you perform cardio exercises, you are moving your arms and legs with a rhythmic movement that allows your body to pump blood and oxygen to all parts of your body. This strengthens your heart, burns calories and burns fat. There are many different types of cardiovascular exercises so your workout routine will never get boring. Importance There are many benefits to exercise and aerobic exercises are one of the best to ward off many diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol just to name a few. By just adding 30 minutes a day of structured cardio exercise you will be strengthening your heart as well as burning calories. Many activities you may perform daily could be considered cardiovascular exercises such as mowing the lawn, walking the dog or even going up and down the stairs to do laundry. But to really get the benefit from aerobics, you want to try incorporating a structured workout routine that includes activities such as walking, running, swimming, bicycling, dancing or some form of high activity exercises. Fat Burning Benefits If you are looking to lose weight and burn fat then cardio workouts are one of the best ways to accomplish this. With a cardio workout, not only are you getting the medical benefits of reducing risks of certain diseases, you will be burning calories and fat.  Low to medium
impact cardio workouts burn approximately 60% of fat of the total calories
burned during exercise. This means that if you did
a brisk walk for
45 minutes
and burned approximately 250 calories you would be burning 150 fat
calories. The total number of calories you burn will depend on your age, gender, weight and activity. The best way to see how many calories you burned during exercise is to use an interactive exercise calorie calculator. These calculators will give you a good approximation of how many calories you burned during your exercise routine. The calculation for calories burned take into consideration many different factors and is not an exact science, but will be accurate enough if you are tracking your exercise calories. Although the low to medium intense cardio workouts bring you a higher percent of fat burned, they also give you a lower total calories burned. With higher impact cardio workouts you can actually burn more calories, and approximately 35% of this would be fat used for energy. So, depending on the total calories burned, you may get a higher fat burn with the high impact aerobics. However, you need to ensure you can last the full duration at this high intense level to get the most out of your fat burning exercises. Aerobic versus Anaerobic You may have heard the term anaerobic exercise and associated this with strength training exercises such as weight lifting. While these are anaerobic exercises there are times when your cardio routine turns into an anaerobic exercise. This happens when you exert more effort or your exercise requires a higher level of challenge. When this happens, your body uses a higher percentage of carbohydrates for fuel and less fat. Types of Exercises When planning your weekly exercise routine, you should always plan for both aerobic and strength training exercises to get the most out of your weight loss routines. Be sure to make your cardio workouts varied and fun. By adding variety, you will be more likely to stick to your workouts and not only get the health benefits, but also get the benefit of burning calories, fat and losing weight. There are several different types of cardio workouts. You can purchase DVD’s that will combine both aerobic and strength training. You can go for a brisk walk or jogging. Additionally, you could join a gym and use their training machines such as the treadmill or elliptical machines or purchase your own equipment. Another way to mix it up with aerobic and anaerobic exercises are to try high intense interval training, or HIIT. Interval training is where you add spurts of a high intense exercise such as sprinting to your cardio workout.  One of the downfalls of some aerobics are the impact to your body’s joints; especially the knees. If you have soreness in your joints or are past the age of 40, like me, then try doing some aerobics that are friendlier on the joints. One of my favorite joint friendly exercises is water aerobics exercises. Try a brisk walk instead of running or use an elliptical machine instead of the treadmill. Or if using a treadmill, keep it at a brisk walk and use the incline to get the benefit of a challenging workout. Listening to music while you walk is a great energizer and makes it more fun. Here's a great article on walking music that will help you select the right sounds for your walk. Regardless of what type of cardio workout you choose, you should aim to do at least 30 minutes of cardio exercises at least 3 to 4 times a week. This will help minimize the risk of certain diseases as well as the benefits of losing weight. Additional articles Exercise Myths Can exercising alone make you lose weight? Find out with these myths what's fact or fiction. Circuit Training Get the most out of your exercise routine by adding spurts of aerobics inbetween your strength training. Find out here what circuit training is all about. Exercise
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