Fitness Together Brecksville

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Should I Do Cardio to Lose Weight or to Improve my Heart and Lung Health?

Trainer Tuesdays

Welcome back to the weekly edition on Trainer Tuesdays. Make sure to check in at our blog every Tuesday evening to learn the expertise of our great staff. Aside from being fantastic exercise coaches, they are also extremely knowledgeable in many aspects of health and fitness; so, it's time that you get to know them a little better! Each week, we will post a frequently asked, or sometimes just a fun fitness related question followed by the answers of each of the trainers at Fitness Together Brecksville.

Should I Do Cardio to Lose Weight or to Improve my Heart and Lung Health?

Michael Roberto: While cardio can aid in weight loss, I personally like to do it to strengthen my heart and lungs. During aerobic exercise (walking, jogging, etc.), your working muscles need more blood. So the heart works harder to do so and gets stronger and increases the volume of blood it can deliver. Meanwhile, your lungs become more efficient in delivering to the blood and removing the carbon dioxide waste. As an added bonus, your diaphragm, the muscle that supports your lungs, gets stronger as well.

Kelly Bailey: If you're trying to lose weight, cardio should be kept to a minimum. Your main focus should be on nutrition and lifting weights. Any cardio should consist of shorter bouts of "burst" training. Burst training, also called interval training, is performed by doing a very short and intense work interval, followed by a recovery period that is usually about twice the length of the work interval. You cycle through the work/rest intervals 4 to 6 times. A proper interval workout should take no more than 25 minutes to complete.

For cardiovascular health, the American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, five days per week. For those of you that dislike running or heavy sweat sessions, have no fear! The best moderate-intensity cardio you can do is brisk walking!

Adam Teplitz: There are endless benefits to cardio exercise. One of the most important ones is the improved health of your heart and your lungs. During aerobic exercise (cardio), your working muscles demand more oxygen, and this prompts the heart to work harder, get stronger, and increase the volume of blood it can deliver to muscles. Your lungs, meanwhile, become more efficient in delivering oxygen to the blood and removing the carbon dioxide waste.

The other main benefit to cardio is weight loss. During cardio exercise, your body is burning calories (mainly from carbohydrates and fats) to fuel the exercise.

Cardio should always be included with a strength training routine to maximize weight loss.
Everyone is unique and will benefit from their own individualized cardio program.

www.fitnesstogether.com/brecksville/customized-cardio-program

Personal Trainers Lisa & Amanda Supporting Heart Health Month

Amanda Ricci: The answer to the above question is both. Cardio should be done not only to improve the health of your heart and lungs but also to lose weight. By doing cardio, your increasing the amount of work of the heart and lungs. In order to move the heart must pump blood not only to the lungs but also to the rest of the muscles in the body so that they are able to contract, and thus your body is able to move. The more intense the exercise the harder the heart must work. Once the heart builds endurance, it become more efficient and doesn’t have to pump as hard to deliver blood to the muscles in the body. Therefore, it becomes stronger. One way to measure of your hearts endurance is through your heart rate or pulse in beats per minute. An example of this would be a professional endurance athlete, who has a pulse of 40 beats per minute, compared to someone who is active on average may be anywhere from 60-100 beats per minute.

In order for your body to move it needs energy. It receives this energy through the calories that we take in from eating food. It uses this energy with all the necessary activities needed for survival such as: sleeping, eating, breathing, moving and walking, etc. If you take in more calories than what you burn then you will gain weight. If you take in less than you will lose weight. If you do not eat enough calories than your body could go into starvation mode and hold onto body fat because it does not know when it is going to eat again. The calories that you burn by performing daily activities are not enough to get you into the fat burning zone. By doing cardio and getting your heart rate into your target zone you are adding to your calorie deficit, which will assist you in losing weight. Burning calories and eating healthy will create a negative energy balance in the body, which will assist you in losing weight. This is why it is necessary to do cardio for both losing weight and training your heart and lungs.

Steven Madden: I personally would focus on heart and lung health when doing cardio more that I would weight loss. The truth is that steady state cardio is one of the best ways to improve your cardiovascular system. Having a stronger heart and a larger lung capacity can be beneficial in all areas of life, not just what the scale says. Cardiovascular health can also be a better goal to focus on, as you can directly feel results. When you don't get winded going up the stairs, that can be a better accomplishment that dropping a few pounds. Plus, when you work on your cardiovascular system, you'll drop weight anyway, so why worry about it?

Lisa Clark: Cardiovascular exercise is both a great way to strengthen the heart and also aids in weight loss. By training the heart to pump more efficiently during cardio training, you in turn are boosting your metabolism, burning more calories and helping with weight loss. In addition it helps reduce stress, improves sleep and increases energy!

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Add Cardio to your Personal Training Routine

Trainer Tuesdays

Why is it Important to Do Cardio in Addition to Your Personal Training Workouts?

www.fitnesstogether.com/brecksville/cardio-workouts

Adam Teplitz: With February being heart health month, it's time to revisit the importance of cardio. Cardio can be defined as any movement that gets your heart rate up and increases blood circulation.

Here are a few benefits to incorporating cardio in your fitness routine :

Trainer Adam Teplitz on the elliptical

1) Improved heart health. Your heart is a muscle just like any other and in order for it to become strong, it must be worked. By getting the heart pumping at a faster rate on a regular basis, you will keep it in shape and healthy.

2) Increased metabolism. The more intense the cardio session, the more noticeable increase you will see with regards to your metabolic rate. (your body's efficiency at using nutrients for energy )

3) Management of diabetes. By performing cardio, you increase your muscles' ability to utilize glucose (blood sugar). Those who perform cardio regularly tend to have better control of their blood sugars and do not see as many blood sugar swings as those who don't.

When beginning a cardio routine, focus on just getting the body moving. Start at a slow to moderate pace. As you build up your fitness level, you can focus on more advanced forms of cardio such as interval training and tempo training. If you need additional help determining specific levels you should be training in, contact a Fitness Together personal trainer to sign up for our Cardio Together program.

Amanda Ricci: Doing cardio in addition to other workouts is beneficial in that it will make the heart stronger. Cardio is when you are participating in an activity, in which you achieve a steady heart rate and maintain it for a certain period of time. Some types of activities you can do to participate in cardio include: treadmill, elliptical, dancing, kickboxing, biking, walking, etc. Your heart is a muscle, and it is important to train not only the muscles you do see but the ones that you do not see as well. Some people may think they are doing cardio when they are shopping, vacuuming or cleaning. I’m here to tell you that that is false. You are burning some calories while doing those activities. However, it is not considered cardio and you are not burning as many as you could be. The heart rate must be maintained within a certain heart rate range that is individualized to each person in order for you to be considered to doing cardio. That is why it is important to receive a customized cardio program to find out your heart rate range as well as the length of time that you should be doing cardio.

Why should you do cardio? A stronger heart will prevent the heart from needing to pump as quickly to deliver all of your blood and oxygen to your lungs, and all the muscles in your body. The muscles must receive oxygen in order to contract and get stronger. Cardio will help to prevent coronary artery disease (heart attack, stroke, etc.), blood clots and also help to increase your good cholesterol level. Another benefit of cardio is that it helps to lower your resting heart rate a.k.a. your pulse, meaning your heart is becoming more efficient. In turn this builds up your endurance, helping you breathe easier during your weight training workouts as well as other activities you might already be taking part in. You will not get out of breath as quickly, so that means you’ll be able to increase the intensity of your current training program and be able to work harder, burn more calories and lose weight!

Michael Roberto: You may be thinking to yourself, "I'm bored with the dull strength training routine. I need something new." That's where cardio comes in. Not only is it a change in your exercise routine, but it offers a myriad of benefits. For starters, doing cardio makes your heart stronger and will be able to get less winded. Cardio also increases your metabolism which allows you to burn more fat and reach your weight loss goals quicker. Finally, doing cardio will release a "feel good" hormone that busts stress and give you a more positive outlook on life. These are but a few benefits you get from doing any form of cardio exercise.