Real Cardio

Here’s our Exercise podcast, with exciting music and a new trick for motivation:

There are a lot of excellent exercise resources available. Most of them cost money. If you have the money to spend, great! But if you don’t, you can still get the exercise that you need to feel great, maintain healthy body weight, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.

There are also a lot of definitions of exercise, and a lot of ideas about what is “good” and what isn’t. But really, it isn’t very complicated: modern medicine has clearly proven that cardiovascular exercise is essential to maintain good health and prolong life.

The World Health Organization states, “Overall, strong evidence demonstrates that compared to less active adult men and women, individuals who are more active:

• have lower rates of all-cause mortality, coronary heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, colon and breast cancer, and depression;

• are likely to have less risk of a hip or vertebral fracture;

• exhibit a higher level of cardiorespiratory and muscular fitness; and

• are more likely to achieve weight maintenance, have a healthier body mass and composition.”

In keeping with standard medical guidelines, Middleway Method encourages you to do 45 to 60 minutes of real cardiovascular exercise 3 to 5 days a week. Real cardiovascular exercise means that you are doing movements that bring your heart rate up to your beginner or intermediate target heart rate for the whole time. Use the chart below to calculate your target beats/min.

If you’ve never done cardiovascular exercise, or if it has been a while since you’ve done it, then you’ll need to work up to it gradually. Start with 20 minutes for two weeks, then begin increasing by 10 minutes every two weeks until you’re comfortable working at your target heart rate for 45 minutes.

The trick will be to find the kind of movement that you can do rhythmically, without painful consequences, at the right pace, on a very consistent basis. Some possibilities are: walking very briskly uphill, rowing machine, elliptical, stationary bike, swimming, aquatic aerobics, cardio (step) classes, and at-home calisthenics. Some people can go running, but only if it doesn’t hurt your joints. The Middleway Method exercise rule is: if it hurts, don’t do it. We want to prevent chronic pain and arthritis, not create it.

Cardiovascular exercise at that level will change your metabolism. There will be a progression over time. First, it may be quite challenging. Check your heart rate frequently until you understand your pace. Don’t work too hard and burn out. The goal is a long, even pace that you can maintain without going into exhaustion. After about two weeks, you will start to feel a change. And then after about a month, your cells and blood vessels will begin to behave markedly differently. Your endurance will begin to increase and it will get more enjoyable.

We all know that when we exercise, our muscles get stronger. But what a lot of us don’t know is that when you do real cardio on a regular basis, every cell in your body begins to change on a physical level. Your cells begin to create more mitochondria – the powerhouses where energy is created. And, your body creates more blood vessels to fed those energy-hungry cells with oxygen and nutrients. This increase in energy and blood supply makes it so that you can move more easily, for a lot longer, without tiring. These changes are the basis for excellent health and healthy body weight.

Most people don’t do cardio because it takes time and effort. You just have to decide how you want to feel as you grow older, and then use that as motivation. If you think it is normal for a person to get old and frail and die of heart disease by the age of 70, that’s because it is normal for most people not to do cardiovascular exercise when they are younger. There is a serious health care crisis in this country, and it’s not just because of a broken medical system. In fact, all of the most common causes of chronic disease and death before the age of 70 are preventable with proper exercise and nutrition. Sometimes a serious thought is what it takes to choose to set aside the time and put in the energy to do what you need to do.

But it’s not all serious. Because when you exercise every day, you feel amazing. It is like having a new life.

So, if you don’t want to die young, and you want to feel great while you’re alive, start doing real cardio today.