Cardio Equipment

Cardiovascular exercise isn’t just for weight loss anymore. Cardio is the weight lifting of the heart and lungs and is absolutely essential to maintaining a healthy body. Cardio is classified as any exercise that raises your heart rate into a specific target heart rate zone (determined by your resting heart rate) and keeps it there for a specific amount of time.

To determine your resting heart rate, count your heart beats in 60 seconds – first thing in the morning after a good night’s sleep. Once you have your resting heart rate, visit a target heart rate calculator online. Or you can look at a target heart rate zone by age, established by the Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/target-heart-rate/SM00083 and follow the instructions.

To check your heart rate during exercise:

• Stop for a moment.
• Take your pulse for 10 seconds.
• Multiply this number by 6 to calculate your beats per minute.

You will get the most out of any cardio exercise by staying within your target heart rate zone for the prescribed amount of time.

Cardio machines have become popular. They’re safer than running on the streets and also keep you out of the weather. Cardio machines include treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, rowing machines, and stair climbers.

Treadmills are a pretty basic machine that everyone knows about. Treadmills are composed of a motorized belt that simulates walking and running in a variety of speeds. Some treadmills are also equipped with incline capabilities that can vary and challenge your normal workout routine.

A lot of people’s knees can’t take the impact of a regular treadmill though, and opt for elliptical machines. Elliptical machines simulate walking and running, but with a gliding, “elliptical” pedal movement that reduces impact injuries. Pedal paths can be varied and resistance increased on some of the nice models of elliptical machine.

Stationary bikes are another low-impact cardio machine offering the same benefits as ellipticals and treadmills, just in a slightly different package. If you’re a bike rider and the winters get you down, stationary bikes are the perfect warm and safe way to ride a bike all year.

Rowing machines, obviously, simulate skull rowing motion – rowing a boat. Resistance is added or taken away to vary the routine. Rowers are sometimes known as ergometers or erg machines. The machine works by sitting on a bench, gripping to oars, and rowing back and forth using legs and hips, biceps and triceps. Rowers are a great full body workout, combining cardio and strength training.

 

 

 

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