Low intensity cardio can be very beneficial for your health. It is primarily used as a way to increase long term endurance, so athletes can take part in marathons or other very lengthy competitions. There are several programs that you can use to increase your overall running endurance, but keep in mind that low intensity cardio doesn’t always have to refer to running. Biking, swimming, rowing, cross country skiing and in fact any other regular, rhythmic activity that uses several muscles in your body (primarily the legs and feet) can be considered as belonging to this type of activity.
What does low intensity cardio do for you?
When you begin doing an activity, you start to increase your heart rate. As your heart rate increases and you get into the flow of your chosen activity, it will steady out at a rate which some health professionals believe is the ideal “goldilocks zone” for fat burning. Apparently this is when your metabolism is working at its fullest and burning off the excess body fat for energy.
Therefore, doing low intensity cardio can be effectively used for weight loss in addition to increasing overall endurance. While you are doing a cardiovascular exercise, your heart is not only pumping blood around your body, but as you breathe you are also filling your lungs and bloodstream up with oxygen, which refreshes and makes the whole process work. Long periods of low intensity cardio activity that are regularly repeated can also purify your blood, by moving it around more and more and increasing the chances that toxins and other unnecessary waste products are removed by your kidneys.
Low intensity cardio is mainly for increasing endurance
While low intensity cardio can mainly be used to increase your endurance and longevity when it comes to doing a certain physical activity, you can also try interspersing your low intensity cardio sessions with small periods or bursts of high intensity cardio. In other words, you can jog for a few minutes and then sprint for 30 seconds. Or if you are biking, then you cycle steadily for a few minutes and then pedal furiously, increasing your speed to as fast as you can manage. There are ways to do this in virtually every type of low intensity cardio activity: for instance, in swimming you would leisurely do the breast stroke and then vigorously change to freestyle or the butterfly for a lap and try to boost your speed by kicking harder. You keep cycling through this method until you complete your normal workout time.
The benefits of low intensity cardio mixed with high intensity bursts of speed (like fartlek training ) is that you not only increase your endurance, but at the same time you are also increasing your speed and your strength. Runners find that this is one great way that they can reduce huge chunks of time off their timing, making the goal of reaching that finish line even closer than before.
Low intensity cardio is a good way to get into shape, lose weight and even develop your strength and endurance.