Aerobic Fitness Routines

Aerobic exercise, sometimes called cardio exercise, is physical activity that raises heart rate and respiration, increasing the amount of oxygen in the blood. Aerobic activities are typically sustained for at least 30 minutes, which helps burn calories and increase heart health.

Cycling

• While walking and jogging are a great way to stay in shape, they tend to create a high amount of impact on joints and cause injury. Cycling for aerobic fitness is a good way to get the heart rate up and work the legs without damaging the joints. Whether you are riding outside or on a stationary bike, you should aim for at least 30 minutes of continuous biking. Start at a comfortable pace for the first 5 minutes, and increase your speed during the middle of the ride. If you are using a stationary bike, set low resistance to start and increase it as you progress. This will allow the body to warm up and the heart and lungs to supply oxygen faster before you go too hard. As you bike, your goal should be to keep a high cadence of around 90 rpm; then you will be doing 90 full circles of the pedals every minute. This will keep the heart rate up and force you into lower gears, keeping you focused on aerobic endurance.

Swimming

• Mixing your aerobic fitness workouts between different activities, or cross training, is a good way to keep working out fun an interesting. Swimming is an excellent aerobic activity that also usually has lower joint impact that running and walking. An issue many people have with swimming is that they tend to tire very quickly, making it difficult to sustain the exercise for at least 30 minutes to get a good aerobic workout. When swimming for fitness, it is important to go slow and utilize different strokes to keep going if necessary. Start out with a slow freestyle stroke for a few laps and move on to different ones as you tire. The breaststroke, backstroke, and sidestroke are often easier and less tiring, allowing you to lengthen your workout.

Yoga

• Using yoga as one of your weekly aerobic fitness sessions can be a great way to mix things up, but you need to make sure the session you go to actually constitutes an aerobic workout. Different yoga instructors will have different goals for their classes and routines. In order for yoga to qualify as aerobics, you need to be moving fairly constantly and engaging the muscles at all times. High intensity yoga routines will be best for raising the heart rate and keeping it elevated. You don't necessarily have to do difficult poses--you just have to stay active and move enough to sustain a high hear rate throughout class. During an aerobic yoga routine, you will likely be hot and sweaty after just a few minutes of working out.