(Plus Cardio Machine Tips)
Here at the Forge, the best gym in South Tampa, we love giving exercise tips so everyone can hit their goals in 2021!
Cardio is important to train for both people that go to the gym to lose weight or to pack on muscle.
Why? Because the heart is the most important muscle in the body!
The best part is you can look great and feel great!
The most important takeaway from this blog is that you need to be CONSISTENT.
So we created a workout that you will stick to and we promise you will love these easy to implement tips.
Blog Sections:
-Why You Want To Do Low Intensity Cardio.
-How To Lose Weight.
-Workout Routine.
-Forge Gym’s Cardio Machine Tips
Why Would You Choose Low Intensity Cardio?
This is a form of cardio that is performed with about 50-70 percent of your heart rate for a long period of time.
Here are 3 benefits of doing low intensity cardio:
1. Easy To Do:
Cardio training sessions can consist of just walking on the treadmill, riding a bike, or walking up a stair master. These movements are simple. But are really effective.
They are so easy, you can get lost listening to a podcast; or if your cardio equipment has a stand, you can set up your phone to watch Netflix.
Watching Netflix while losing weight in the gym? Sign me up!
Our members love this form of training and are CONSISTENT with it and see amazing results!
Because it is not too strenuous. It is a great form of multitasking. And you can feel good about getting it done!
2. Low impact on your joints:
Putting your joints a non-weighted range of motion promotes blood rushing inside them and helping you recover..
We prescribe this style of cardio training to our desk jockey clients because it makes
them feel a lot better after sitting, and it is easy to stick to.
3. Great way to recover sore muscles:
If you are in the process of gaining muscle, don’t be afraid to do cardio!
You won’t lose any unless you stop training for a very long time
Doing Cardio will actually help your weight training sessions by improving your cardiovascular performance.
So if your huffing and puffing from doing a heavy set of deadlifts, guess what? You can decrease your recovery time by adding 30 minute elliptical sessions during the week!
Principles Of Losing Weight
Now if you want to look the best you ever had and hit the South Tampa streets more confident than ever listen up!
The process of losing weight doesn’t have to start with starving yourself or going keto for a month. The biggest factor is your diet, which we will share in a separate blog post.
Some simple actions you can now is burn calories through cardio.
This doesn’t mean you can just eat pints of ice cream and cookies, it means you can make intuitive diet choices and chip away at your total calories by being active.
So eat a bit better than you are doing now, and start doing some simple cardio movements. Later you can fix up your diet to speed up the fat burning process!
Now 3,500 calories make up a pound of fat as cited by many research studies. We are not saying you go and burn those 3,500 calories in one treadmill run, because in one hour you will burn around 400 calories...so it will take 8.5 hours to burn those calories running! You will have no knees left!
What we are proposing is instead of burning 3,500 calories in one day...
How about in one week?
Maybe two weeks?
Start by burning 250 calories per session your first week = 1 pound lost in 2 weeks.
Then eventually burn 500 calories per session = 1 pound lost in 1 week
If you stuck to just burning 250 calories and were consistent for a year = 26 pounds lost in a year!
You will look noticeably different even losing 10 pounds! Amazing! All while doing something that is not compromising your joints and you can still binge Netflix while doing it.
How to Burn More Calories Efficiently:
There are a few factors to make sure you burn more calories, we just want you to worry about two:
-Time: If you only burn 250 calories in 30 minutes on the stationary bike, then try burning more by pedaling at the same pace for 1 hour to burn 500 calories.
-Resistance: If you burn 250 calories on the bike at level 1 resistance for 30 minutes, increase the resistance to 2 and compare the calories burnt between the two times. Your body will burn more calories because of more work.
Takeaways:
Safely increase these numbers so you can be a calorie burning machine, this means you're not struggling too hard but can talk to someone on the phone mildly comfortably.
GO HARDER...Safely. Strive to beat your last numbers and be a better version of you!
Be Consistent
Low Intensity Cardio Routines to Effectively Burn Fat
Monthly Routine for Beginners
Bring a podcast, favorite playlist, audiobook, YouTube video you would enjoy on your ass but instead you can do it while reaching your goals!
Workout:
Week 1:
7 sessions a week,
Aim to burn 250 calories per session
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Week 2:
7 sessions a week,
Aim to burn 350 calories per session
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Week 3:
7 sessions a week,
Aim to burn 450 calories per session
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Week 4:
7 Sessions A Week
Aim to burn 500 calories per session.
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Takeaways: By the end of the month you will have gained the ability to lose about a pound of fat per week! During this month you will have lost about 2-3 pounds if your diet was about the same. If you stick to losing a pound of fat per week, then that is an estimated 50 lbs lost in a year!!
4 Sessions Per Week Routine for Beginners:
Workout:
Week 1:
4 sessions a week,
Aim to burn 575 calories per session
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Week 2:
4 sessions a week,
Aim to burn 675 calories per session
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Week 3:
4 sessions a week,
Aim to burn 775 calories per session
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Week 4:
4 sessions a week
Aim to burn 875 calories per session.
Track the time it took
Track the resistance
Takeaways: This routine is for people with a limited schedule, but you will achieve a similar result, for both of these routines to work you need to know how to burn more calories. See here.
Now for some quick tips on each of our cardio equipment offered at our 24/7 gym; so you can do cardio anytime while you're in South Tampa!
Best Cardio Equipment And Exercise Tips
Walking On The Treadmill:
The most classic, but overlooked, example of low intensity cardio!
An hour walking on the treadmill for a 160 lb. person burns on average 200 calories walking at 2 mph.
Tips to effectively use the treadmill:
Set your treadmill incline to the highest possible, it is harder walking uphill than downhill, ALWAYS do this, this will increase calories burned.
Set the speed so your breathing will be mildly hard. Your breathing should like talking to someone and still be able to complete your sentences.
Avoid using the hand rails while you are working out. This will make the work easier for your body.
Track how many calories you burned.
Bring an epic playlist.
Refer to How To Burn More Calories to adjust progression in this workout and Low Intensity Cardio Routines for a workout template.
The Elliptical:
The elliptical has the ability to burn more calories than the treadmill because your arms and legs are doing work and is an excellent way to actively recover your whole body.
Tips to effectively use the elliptical:
1. Set the level to max every time to make it more difficult (Bottom Right Button)
2. Try to actively pull and push on the handles to increase the work your body is exerting.
3. Stride in a speed so your breathing is manageable, use the buttons to track it (Middle Button).
4. Set phone on a safe place and watch The Office for the 50th time!
Refer to How To Burn More Calories to adjust progression in this workout and Low Intensity Cardio Routines for a workout template.
Stair Stepper:
This piece of equipment can guarantee you to climb up many flights of stairs located in Tampa!
Tips to effectively use the Stair Stepper:
Avoid using the handrails as much as possible, if your struggling please use them and strive to not use them next session
Choose a speed so your breathing is controlled but still labored
We would recommend not getting to fancy and just doing regular walking, no lunges, side steps needed. Just plug in your headphones and enjoy your time getting healthy!
Listen to your favorite true crime podcast.
Refer to How To Burn More Calories to adjust progression in this workout and Low Intensity Cardio Routines for a workout template.
Rower:
The rowers are another piece of equipment that has your whole body active. Effective way to recover from a back workout especially!
Tips to effectively use the Rower:
Beat your previous time. If it took you 30 minutes to burn 250 calories, try to do it in 25
Elongate your sessions to burn more calories if you have time.
Adjust the resistance when applicable.
Refer to How To Burn More Calories to adjust progression in this workout and Low Intensity Cardio Routines for a workout template.
Join The Best Gym in South Tampa!
Now that you are super excited about doing cardio, seeing how simple it can be, and best of all how it can help you reach your goals...get started today at our gym and forge the best you.
If you learned anything, have questions, or would like to share your low intensity cardio tips join the conversation in the comment section below!
Its time to get started today!
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