Check out this quick, no-equipment-needed aerobic training routine you can do in your living room here: 10-min Footwork Training for All Ages! In-home Aerobic, Cardio, Respiratory, Coordination Exercise
Historically, research on the general health benefits of exercise has focussed primarily on cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory (CV/CR) activty. The most common training modes for "cardio" involve large muscle groups moving in rhythmic motions, like walking, dancing, running, swimming, and cycling. The intensity of any of these activities will typically be adjusted to accommodate different health and performance goals based on where our current fitness levels are. Someone who has been sedentary and is just started an exercise routine may find that a brisk walk already begins to elicit responses from the heart and lungs, whereas someone who leads a more active life may need a higher intensity mode of training to find that same response. Wherever we may be in our pursuit of health and fitness, it's always going to be important to work on developing or maintaining some level of CV/CR fitness, but generally speaking, the following recommendations will help guide you along the way.
Recommendations and Tips
General recommendations for improving heart and lung health are to accumulate a minimum of 150+ minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, 75+ minutes per week of vigorous-intensity, or a combination of the two, and to keep your cardiorespiratory systems active most days per week. These recommendations also mention total body, large muscle group coordinated and rhythmic movements as our targeted activities for building stronger brains and bodies. Another part of the general guidelines states that a variety of modes can be even more beneficial (i.e. a combination of walking, water aerobics, and cycling spread throughout the week).
In the beginning...
Try to accumulate more aerobic exercise throughout your week by breaking it down into a minutes per week goal. Low-impact modes of light-to-moderate intensity CV/CR activity like cycling, dancing, or even fast-paced (relative to you) walking are some of the best ways to improve your health, energy levels, coordination, stamina, and overall quality of life. For a healthier, stronger heart and all the benefits of aerobic exercise, we need to work toward adding this type of activity frequently into our daily routines, targeting a goal of five to seven days per week for a minimum of 20 continuous minutes per bout. Aerobic activity bouts can start as simple as a 10-minute walk that you do a couple of times per day, but, really, anything beyond your current workload will elicit adaptations and health improvements. Work on what you can manage safely without overdoing it and build your way up in frequency and duration of the bouts. The intensity level you're working at is not our primary focus here at the beginning; it should start at low-to-moderate intensity just outside your every day, comfort zone and will be something that we see progressing incrementally into higher intensities throughout your fitness journey.
As you advance....
Continue accumulating moderate, "breathy" aerobic exercise throughout your week. In addition to increasing the duration of the aerobic exercise bouts up to that 20-minute mark, we should also begin to challenge and build up our perceived exertion of what a moderate intensity is for us. With "breathy" aerobic work, we are looking for an intensity level that would allow you to carry a conversation broken up by breaths but does not let you easily talk or sing a song. We do not need to be desperately gasping for air, but we do want the lungs working a bit. Remember, for the best health benefits, we need to be working toward the goal of frequently adding in this type of activity five to seven days per week, and it is usually more beneficial to do so with a blend of different activities to minimize the chance of overuse injuries or psychological burnout.
As you build up your knowledge and experience, it becomes important to track various other metrics outside of the duration and frequency of your CV/CR workouts. We can track speed of movement or resistance levels when we're using certain modes and "cardio" machines. But an additional, more individualized and relevant number to get familiar with is your own heart rate. Whether using the old-time, tried and true methods of a finger on the neck or wrist and counting beats for ten seconds then multiplying by six to get your beats per minute measurements or using a newer-age wearable device that gives you even more detail and better insight into how your heart is responding to the workloads, become more aware of your heart and respiratory responses and you'll equip yourself with a stronger connection to your body, your training, and you'll enhance your motivation over time.
Aerobic Versus Anaerobic Energy
Steady-state cardio is the elevation of our heart and respiratory rates to anything beyond a resting rate and maintenance of that work level for some duration of time; this aerobic workload is what gives us stamina and steady energy levels throughout our daily lives when we're performing low-to-moderate intensity activities. The aerobic system utilizes the oxidation and breakdown of fats as its primary source of energy. At some point, as the intensity of the CV/CR workload increases, your body will shift from aerobic ("with oxygen") to anaerobic ("without oxygen") energy sources, which are stored in the muscles and organs. Our anaerobic work capacities are used during the highest and most challenging workloads. Vigorous, or "high" intensity, cardio is usually done in intervals and can be used once you build an excellent steady-state aerobic endurance base. High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) training is super popular, very challenging, and lots more fun (for some). However, it can also be risky due to the highly fatigued state it puts us in. Using work/rest intervals is a well-established method for boosting aerobic and anaerobic energy capacities. This kind of work comes with a friendly "afterburn," in which your body if forced to do additional work to recover for hours following a bout and is burning extra calories, known as Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption. The aerobic system helps us recover depleted energy sources in between rounds so we can continue the work intervals at high intensity and performance levels. We need to first build our CV/CR system's endurance to improve the ability of our body's tissues to take in, deliver, and utilize at the more moderate intensity, aerobic base to be able to then work at those higher intensities for multiple rounds in order to build our anaerobic capacities.
Both of these styles of cardiorespiratory work are effective, and each has its own set of benefits. As our health and fitness journeys progress, it's essential to continue to build that steady-state foundation of an elevated heart and respiratory rate over longer durations to enhance the endurance of the aerobic systems. It's also essential to work on those higher intensity, anaerobic energy systems because they are the ones our body reverts to and relies on for power in "fight or flight" situations of high stress. Remember, this is a journey, not a race, and it often takes much more time and effort than anticipated. Give your body grace and understanding, reassuring yourself that you're moving forward on the right path with every bit of exercise!
For a simple aerobic training, cardio bout (maybe anaerobic for some... but definitely brain-to-body coordination training) that maximizes all these recommendations, check out these in-home footwork training videos and SUBSCRIBE to my YouTube channel >>> Linear Footwork Series
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