Examples of Cardio Exercises

Cardiovascular exercises reduce how hard your heart has to work to pump blood throughout your body. The harder it has to work to move blood in the body, the more beats it requires. Your body's blood pressure level benefits from your participation in cardio exercises, too. The better your cardio health, the lower your blood pressure will be. Three examples of cardio exercise include running, dancing and climbing steps.

Running

• Running as a cardio exercise enables you to burn more than 100 calories per mile. Other exercises, such as biking, don't burn nearly that amount, making running one of the best cardio exercises for losing weight. In fact, the more you weigh, the faster you lose weight running, with a 220-pound person losing weight faster by running than a 180-pound one.

  But this cardio exercise also helps you maintain your artery elasticity, which, in turn, reduces your overall blood pressure. Running maximizes lung use, since it requires you to use your entire lung, not just part of it, during deep breaths. So if you smoke, that can help you to improve the damage your negative health habit is creating, according to Vanderbilt.

Dancing

• Dancing, as a form of cardio exercise, pairs fun with fitness and helps you to forget that you are exercising; helping you to focus on the dance moves and music instead. Enjoying an exercise means you are more likely to repeat it and participate in it more often, increasing the benefits it can bring. And dancing is a form of exercise with almost as many cardio benefits as running, since it, too, requires elevated lung capacity use and provides a good aerobic workout. In addition, dancing works more muscles than running, such as the arms, back and abdomen. Belly dancing especially works the abdominal muscle group.

Climbing Steps

• Climbing steps can be a great cardio exercise. Your cardio health will dictate how fast and how many steps you climb, initially, but climbing steps provides a good challenge for your heart and lungs. The faster you climb, as well as how many steps--or how high you climb--will dictate how much of a cardio workout you get with this form of exercise. Thus climbing steps allows you to get that cardio workout tailored for your personal health while also enabling you to do it at a speed you can handle. Your heart and lungs will benefit, as well as the muscles in your legs, especially the calves and thighs. And climbing steps is a cardio exercise you can do year-round, indoors or out.