High or Low Intensity Cardio, What is the Best

One of the best types of exercise you can do to lose fat and improve your overall health is cardiovascular exercise. You need to have strong lungs and heart to be healthy. The duration of your cardiovascular exercise is impacted by the intensity. Intensity also affects how many calories you burn, your heart rate, and muscular involvement.

High intensity burns a lot more calories per minute, but you do it for a shorter time. High intensity also raises your heart rate to higher levels faster as well as your breathing rate. Your muscles have to work harder and you could benefit with muscle strengthening and growth.

Low intensity is done for a longer amount of time and normally you burn the same amount of calories as you do with high intensity. Your heart rate increases more slowly and tops at a lower levels. Your respiratory rate often hits the same level but the increase is slower. Your muscles are not worked as taxed with this exercise and you increase your endurance, though you don’t get gains in either size or strength.

How intensely you do your cardio exercise depends on your fitness level and experience. For example, some people can jog easily while for others it’s a high intensity exercise and some can swim while others struggle. You should measure your intensity level by your exertion level and heart rate. If you have to expend lots of energy to do the exercise for just a short amount of time and your heart rate rises fast it’s high intensity. If you can easily hold a conversation while exercising for a longer time then it’s lower intensity.

So what are the benefits of each? Any low intensity is great for those beginning an exercise program and those who have a health issue, such as heart or lung problems. You can do low intensity workouts over a long time and increase the fat you burn over that time frame. Although it’s not true all the time, low intensity workouts are usually easier on your joints. You also improve the health of your blood vessels and heart since there is a steady increase and leveling of your heart rate.

High intensity cardio is done in a short time span but burns more calories. There is muscle building potential since it works the muscles harder than low intensity. Your heart also gets stronger since it has to pump harder, but the walls of the heart may thicken. High intensity exercises are not good ideas for beginners because the cardiovascular system isn’t ready for it and muscles get sore.

Many people who want to lose fat wonder which is better for them. The best thing to do is to start out with low intensity workouts and get your body used to the work load. Slowly add high intensity workouts once in a while to keep variety and boost your metabolism. You’ll work your way up to high intensity easily this way.

The use of pre workout supplements will help you increase your capacity for a high intensity cardio session.