Cardio style

Cardio!
Cardiovascular exercise (“Cardio” for short)

is simply exercise that elevates your heartrate for an exptended period of time and its more important for your general health than lifting weights.

The best part is thatcardio helps you lose fat, feel better, and look better!

The quickest way to look like you have packed on 10lbs muscle is to lose 10lbs of fat, its a really cool bodybuilding illusion.
Itcan take a years to add muscle but in a month you canlookmore muscular just by losing fat, it’s because bodyfat makes the body round and shapeless which hides the muscles.

Many people incorrectly avoid cardio thinking it will make them lose muscle or interfere with their ability to add muscle

– this is a myth!
Cardio does not burn muscleand in fact, it can help you gain muscle!
Cardio is a big topic and I cover it in detail here.

I discus show
much cardioto do,
when do cardio,
how to knowwhat is good cardio, and
what type of cardio is best.

I also cover how to buy cardio equipmentif you need pointers on what to buy for home use.

The Importance of CardioHere are some great reasons to docardio:*.

To lose fat and look better!
– Only way is to lose fat thru cardio and proper nutrition.*.

Cardio can

1. improve your mood and significantly reduce depression. 
Its been proven by study after study, cardio can make you happier!
Perform better at school or work!

2. Daily cardio reduces mental fatigue and gives you more energy.
A recent study from the U of G showed that daily cardio reduces fatigue by 65%*.To live a longer, healthier life..

3. To help gain muscle.Cardiovascular exercise should not be boring,
if it is then you are doing something wrong! 

There are many types of cardio, its not just traditional jogging! You can do interval training if you find jogging boring.
You can find a team sport you love and do it with a friend or spouse and the time will fly by. If you are stuck indoors on a machine, then find a good book, listen to the radio, or watch TV
– find a way to make it interesting and enjoyable.If you don’t have much time then jog to the gym, walk you kids to school, walk your dog, or start using your bike for transportation.

How much cardio?

If you are happy with your body fatpercentage and just want to keep your heart healthy.

Do 20 minutes of  light exercise (walking, gardening,etc) a day.  If you want to lose body fat then try and do 30-60 minutes of strenuous cardio (swimming, running, fast biking) every day.

Remember,cardio will not burn muscle

What if you just don’t have time for cardio?
There are other types of cardio that require less time butthey carry increased risk of injury, especially for beginners.
Much better is if you can find some part of your week where you can bike or walk for transportation instead of driving. 
Time sitting in traffic isnot only expensive but it is a waste of time, try and find some way of biking or walking instead ofdriving the car.

When should you do your cardio?
There is a lot of confusion about "when to do cardio?",

As many of you have heard, doing cardio before you eat in the morning burns off more calories so is that the best time?
Lots believe that the right time to do cardio is before a weight workout to provide a warm up but just as many believe that the right time is afterward.
Who is right?
None of them!
All of them!

The right time to do cardio is when you are most likely to do it!

Cardio is very important and its 100x more important that you actually DO your cardio than when to do it!

Lets look at some of the pros and cons of doing cardio at various times.

Doing Cardio And Weight Workouts Separately:Its optimal to do your cardio and weight workouts completely separately, that is, with four or more hours of rest between them.

This way, neither workout interferes with the other and you can give each 110% effort. For those of us who workout at home, this is easy to do.
For those who go to gyms, its not as easy if you depend on the stationary equipment for your cardio because then you need to make a second trip to the gym.

Now lets look at the non-optimal compromises.
Doing Cardio Before Breakfast:Yes, studies have shown that you burn off more calories if you do cardio before breakfast, but its a lousy time to do cardio in my opinion because you wont do yourcardio for nearly as long.

Who can focus on cardio when your stomach is growling and you feel faint from lack of food?
Not me!
Besides, doing cardio before breakfast isn’t the most convenient time for most folks.Doing Cardio Before A Weight Workout:The fans of doing cardio before a weight workout point to its ability to help warm up your muscles to prevent injury, true it does this.

For those who significantly overweight or are fitness beginners, walking or light joggingis the recommended cardio.

For these people doing their walking or light jogging before their weight workout is perfect, it warms them up and doesn’t interfere with their weight workout.

On the other hand, intermediate to advanced athletes need to push themselves much harder in their cardio workouts
– they get their heartrate higher and keep it elevated for longer.

Cardio workouts of this intensity will exhaust the body to the point where the weight workout will be lackluster at best reducing potential strength and mass gains.
If you are an intermediate or advanced athlete whose time isat a premium and don’t feel its important to add more muscle mass then doing cardio before theweight workout is ok, otherwise find a better time to do cardio.

Doing Cardio After A Weight Workout:

Doing cardio after a weight workout is my personal favorite, its not optimal but its a very good use of time

if you are doing your cardio at a gym because it eliminates the need for a second trip to the gym.
I always find that even after an intense weight workout, I still can give cardio the intensity it needs.
One thing I always do though is make sure to eat a small meal after lifting weights before starting the cardio.

Meal timing is important and its important to get a meal right after weight lifting and waiting till after you do 45min of cardio, shower, and get home is too much of a delay.

If you do your cardio after your weight workout, you need to find some alternative way to warm up your muscles before the weightworkout, not a big deal.

What is “good cardio”?

There is a lot of confusion about cardio, its really quite simple. 
Lets start with the basics. 

My definition of cardio is that it elevates your heart rate to 50%-85% of your maximum and keep it there for at least 20 minutes.  

What is your maximum?
Depends on your goal, your age, and your health. 
-If you have medical conditions, ask your doctor what is appropriate for you. 
-If you are in good health,

you can use these charts from the AHA AgeTarget HR Zone

50–85 %Avg Max Heart Rate 100 %

20 years100–170 beats per minute200 beats per minute

25 years98–166 beats per minute195 beats per minute30 years95–162 beats per minute190 beats per minute

35 years93–157 beats per minute185 beats per minute40 years90–153 beats per minute180 beats per minute

45 years88–149 beats per minute175 beats per minute

50 years85–145 beats per minute170 beats per minute

55 years83–140 beats per minute165 beats per minute

60 years80–136 beats per minute160 beats per minute

65 years78–132 beats per minute155 beats per minute

70 years75–128 beats per minute150 beats per minute

Weight lifting workouts are exhausting and ask if they count as cardio.
No!(The one exception ishybrid workouts)
– lets look at why. 
Here is a typical weight workout:Well, its longer than 20 minutes in duration so it satisfies the definition of cardio there, but look at the heartrate. In the rest between sets, its drops to almost the resting heartrate.

To be cardio, the heartrate has got to stay above that 60% line for the entire 20 minutes!.So if you are wondering if a particular activity is good cardio, its simple to find out.  Do it for a minimum of 20 minutes then measure your heart rate and compare it to the above chart. 
If your heart rate is in the target zone (50%- 85%), then it’s good cardio
– simple as that. 

With many forms of cardio, like cycling or walking, its easy to get lazy andjust lolli-gag along.  Its important that you monitor your heart rate during the cardio to make sure that you are not slacking off.
People often ask me questions like this
–“What if I run really, really fast,Can I just run a mile for my cardio?“
I’m going to state this again because many people get really confused about what good cardio is.

By my definition, cardio has two requirements:1.It elevates the heartrate to 50%-85% of your max heart rate2.
It keeps the heartrate elevated above 50% for at least 20 minutes
If you run a 6 minute mile, your heartrate will hit 85% or more while running but within a few minutes of stopping it will be down to your resting heartrate again.

It fails the second criteria because it will only elevate your heart rate about 8 minutes not the20 minutes required- running a mile is not good cardio.

If you find jogging boring, what you can do though is interval training (HIIT).
Sprint a minute, rest 30s, repeat for 20 minutes or more.

When you are resting, your heartrate slowly decreases but it stays above 60%.

If you are doing HIIT and your heartrate is dropping below 60% at any point then you are resting too much.

.Different Types Of CardioIf

you are a beginner, don’t get bogged down in this stuff.
For you cardio means

walking, jogging, cycling or swimming 20-40 minutes every day – period.

For advanced sports training, there are other types of cardiovascular workouts which involve intervals – repeated bursts of 100% effort punctuated by short rests.

Intervaltraining can increase your VO2 Max and increase your speed but for beginners, intermediates, or overweight people it often results in pulled muscles or joint injuries.

Here are the basic types of cardio:DescriptionTotal Duration Approximate Heart rate Brisk

walking 30+ min Steady cardio
– jogging, cycling, swimming, jumping rope, etc)

30+ minInterval Training (HIIT).
60s max speed sprint followed by 30s rest.

Activity can also be, swimming, rowing, cycling, jumping rope, etc.10-20 min

Tabata intervals 20s max speed sprint followed by 10s rest repeated 8 times4 min Little method – 60s max speed sprint followed 75s rest repeated 8 to 12 times18 – 27 min

Hybrid Workouts(complexes) – Interval training with powerlifting exercises.20-40 min
Team sports (constant sprinting)
- soccer, basketball, water polo, etc.Not baseball or football.60 min+
Please note that these heartrate charts are to help illustrate the duration and intensity of the cardio.

They are only very rough approximations of what actually happens to your actual heartrate.

Which Type Of Cardio Is Best?

That’s a loaded question...

So what kind of cardio is best?

It depends on your goals!!!

For 90% of you, just walking, jogging, or biking is best

– all the weight loss and health benefits without injury.

Its why many studies have shown walking as the best form ofcardio, because people are more likely to keep up walking day after day, month after month than any other form of exercise
– why?
Because its easy to do, enjoyable, and virtually injury free.

Intervals have their benefits for performance athletes but if beginners or over weight people try them, they will most likely get injured and set their fitness programs back six months or more.

Hybrid workouts are the ultimate in time efficiency and performance enhancement for the elite athlete

– you can lift weights and do your cardio at the same time!

If you are young athlete, have lots of homework, and in excellent health then maybe 4min a day of tabata intervals is the best choice.

If you are clinically obese and have high blood pressure then walking 30-40 minutes a day is the best form of cardio.

There is one truth to be shared, doing some form of cardio regularly is very important!

Worst mind that make a bad heath style

Your mind will create a habbits of the things that you do in live so this is The Worst Health Style Habits That Chronically Unhappy People Have in Common

Researchers state that some people just seem chronically unhappy.
Others that spend time around them start to feel depressed too.
Certainly, depression highlights one behavior that is infectious. Furthermore, a report that was provided by Psychology Today states that unhappy people really do sharecommon traits. However, all people have the ability to change their mindset.

It is undeniable that unhappy people seem to share a lot of things in common.
Certainly, everyone has experienced those traits at least once. However, sad ordepressed individuals seem to display those traits most of the time.
Let’s take a closer look.

Suspicious Minds
Happy people walk around with a trustingattitude.
They have a wide circle of friends and enjoy socializing.However, chronically unhappy people placea whole new spin on things.
They are suspicious of everyone that they meet. They assume that all strangers are the enemy and out to hurt them. They lock themselves away in little shell that is hard to open.

Jealousy
Unhappy people are jealous of others that have achieved great success in some way.They imagine that their success is hampering their achieving some imagined goal. Happypeople enjoy hearing about successful people.Life is ToughHappy people seem to go with the flow.
Unhappy people feel that life is hard and feel victimized by society.

The Blame
GameUnhappy people like to blame others for their misfortunes. For example, they blame their parents, that 3rd grade teacher they hated, or their demanding boss. Playing the blame game just makes them more unhappy and totally miserable.
Happy people take the blame for their actions.

Avoid Life’s Pleasures
People that are chronically unhappy seem to take pleasurein their misery.
The depressed also avoid just settling back and enjoying the pleasures of life. Enjoying food, wine, beauty, culture, music, friendship, or love is something thatis frivolous.
Happy people are actively involved with numerous distractions.Spend Too Much Time

Alone
Unhappy people seem to enjoy alone time.
They spend an unhealthy amount of time alone constantly thinking about circumstances and analyzing the behavior of others. Happy people are out enjoying life and friendships.
Highly Critical Unhappy people are masters at criticizing others.
They seem to take great displeasure with everything that surrounds them.
They criticize their family, kids, spouse, boss, teacher, neighbors, the weather, the food, the world. Happy people rarely stoop tocriticism.

Stuck in the Past
Unhappy people are in a major time warp.
They are stuck in the past. Sad or depressed individualslike to reminisce about the perfect life that they had before the current circumstance.
Many feel like life has passed them by and they wish for a second chance to take that great job or marry that old flame

How to lose weight faster in health style

Lose Weight With Ginger

Many of us are aware of the amazing medical benefits ofgingersuch as nausea relief and helpwith cold symptoms, and now studies show that ginger is a powerful antioxidant that aids in digestion by boostingpHin stomach acid and helps lower cholesterol it can influenceweight lossas well.

1 – The following is a recipe that will boost your metabolism with the spicy and delicious flavor of ginger. All you need is:½ cup of fresh ginger rootSharp knife or grater3 cups ofwater

2 – To quell appetite and aid digestion, begin by sipping a ginger tea. Chop ½ cup ginger into a saucepan with 3 cupsof boiling water and simmer for 3 minutes.Do this 3 times per day.

3 – You can also cut off a small piece of ginger from the root and chew it before each meal. It’s a bit spicy, but you’ll get used to it.

4 – Add ginger to any recipe, such as sautéed vegetables.5 – Grate ginger into a small glass with lemon and salt and drink it at a time before meals.

6- Try ginger banana smoothie. It’s a delicious way to lose weight. All you need is banana, yogurt, ginger and honey. You can also add some cinnamon for better taste. Cinnamon is also a great help in stabilizing blood sugar

There are many ways to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.However, most of them require you to be hungry and unsatisfied.If you don’t have iron willpower, then hunger will cause you to give up on these plans quickly.

The 3-step plan outlined here will:Kill your appetite.Make you lose weight fast, without being hungry.Improve your health at the same time.

Step 1 – Eliminate Sugars and Starches
The most important part is to removesugarsand starches (carbs) from your diet.These are the foods that stimulate secretion of insulin the most.
If you didn’t know already,insulin is the main fat storage hormone in the body.
When insulin goes down, fat hasan easier time getting out of the fat stores and the body starts burning fats instead of carbs.Another benefit oflowering insulinis that your kidneys shed excess sodium and water out of your body, which reduces bloat and unnecessary water weight (1,2).
It is not uncommon to lose up to10 pounds (sometimes more) in the first week of eating this way, both body fat and water weight.
This is a graph from a study comparing low-carb and low-fatdiets in overweight/obese women.
The low-carb group is eating until fullness, while the low-fat group iscalorie restricted and hungry.Cut the carbs, lower your insulin and you will start to eat less calories automatically and without hunger (4).Put simply, lowering your insulinputs fat loss on “autopilot.”Bottom Line:Removing sugars and starches (carbs) from your diet will lower your insulin levels, kill your appetite and make you lose weight without hunger.

Step 2 – Eat Protein, Fat and Vegetables
-Each one of your meals should include a protein source, a fat source and low-carb vegetables. Constructing your meals in this way will automatically bring your carb intake into therecommended rangeof 20-50 grams per day.Protein Sources:Meat – Beef, chicken, pork, lamb, bacon, etc.Fish and Seafood – Salmon, trout, shrimps, lobsters, etc.Eggs – Omega-3 enriched or pastured eggs are best.The importance of eatingplenty of proteincan not be overstated.This has been shown to boost metabolism by 80 to 100 calories per day (5,6,7).
High protein diets can also reduce obsessive thoughts about food by 60%, reduce desire for late-night snacking byhalf, and make you so full that you automatically eat 441 fewer calories per day… just byaddingprotein to your diet (8,9).When it comes to losing weight, protein is the king of nutrients. Period.Low-Carb Vegetables:BroccoliCauliflowerSpinachKaleBrussels SproutsCabbageSwiss ChardLettuceCucumberCeleryFull listhere.
Don’t be afraid to load your platewith these low-carb vegetables. You can eat massive amounts of them without going over 20-50 net carbs per day.A diet based on meat and vegetables contains all the fiber,vitamins and minerals you need to be healthy.

There is no physiological need for grains in the diet.Fat Sources:Coconut OilButterOlive OilLardTallowEat 2-3 mealsper day. If you find yourself hungry in the afternoon, add a 4th meal.
Don’t be afraid of eating fat, trying to do both low-carb AND low-fat at the same time is a recipe for failure. It will make you feelmiserableand abandon the plan.
The best cooking fat to use iscoconut oil. It is rich in fats called Medium Chain Triglycerides (MCTs).
These fats are more fulfilling than others and can boost metabolism slightly (10,11).There is no reason to fear these natural fats, new studies show thatsaturated fatdoesn’t raise your heart disease risk at all (12,13).
To see how you can assemble your meals, check out thislow carb meal planand this list oflow carb recipes.Bottom Line:Assemble each meal out of a proteinsource, a fat source and alow-carb vegetable.
This will put you into the 20-50gram carb range and drastically lower your insulin levels.

Step 3 (Optional) – Exercise 3-4 Times Per Week
You don’t need to exercise to lose weight on this plan, but it is recommended.The best option is to go to the gym 3-4 times a week.
Do a warm up, lift weights, then stretch.If you’re new to the gym, ask a trainer for some advice.
By lifting weights, you will burn afew calories and prevent your metabolism from slowing down, which is a common side effect of losing weight (14,15).Studies on low-carb diets show that you can even gain a bit of muscle while losing significant amounts of body fat (16).If lifting weights is not an option for you, then doing some easier cardio workouts like running, jogging, swimming or walking will suffice.Bottom Line:It is best to do some sort of resistance training like weight lifting. If that is notan option, cardio workouts work too.

Optional – Do a “Carb Re-feed”

Once Per WeekYou can take one day “off” per week where you eat more carbs.Many people prefer Saturday.It is important to try to stick to healthier carb sources like oats, rice, quinoa, potatoes, sweet potatoes, fruits, etc.
Butonlythis one higher carb day, if you start doing it more often than once per week then you’re not going to see much success on this plan.If you must have a cheat meal and eat something unhealthy, then do it on this day.
Be aware that cheat mealsor carb refeeds are NOT necessary,but they can up-regulate some fat burning hormones likeleptinand thyroid hormones (17,18).
You will gain some weight during your re-feed day, but most of it will be water weight and you will lose it again in the next 1-2 days.Bottom Line:Having one day of the week where you eat more carbs is perfectly acceptable, although not necessary.

What About Calories and PortionControl?

It is NOT necessary to count calories as long as you keep the carbs very low and stick to protein, fat and low-carb vegetables.However, if you really want to, then usethis calculator.
Enter your details, then pick the number from either the “Lose Weight” or the “Lose Weight Fast” section – depending on how fast you want to lose.There are many calorie countersyou can use to track the amountof calories you are eating.
I like Cron-O-Meter– it is free and easy to use.
The main goal is to keep carbs under 20-50 grams per day and get the rest of your calories fromproteinand fat.
Bottom Line:
It is not necessary to count calories to lose weight on this plan. It is most important to strictly keep your carbs in the 20-50 gram range.

Other Weight Loss Tips to Make Things Easier (and Faster)Pretty much all you have to do is the 3 steps:
1.Eliminate high-carb foods.
2.Eat Protein, Fat and Veggies.
3.Exercise 3-4 times per week (optional, but recommended).

However, there are a few other tips that you may find useful if you want to speed things up even further.None of these are old wives’ tales, they all have scientific evidence to back them up.Drink
Water:
One study shows that drinkingwaterhalf an hour before meals helps you eat fewer calories and lose 44% more weight. It can also boost metabolism slightly (19,20).Drink Coffee or Tea:If you’re acoffeeor ateadrinker, then by all means drink as much as you want as both can raise yourmetabolism(21,22).Eat Eggs For Breakfast:Studies show that people who replace a grain-based breakfast witheggsfeel more full for the next 36 hours, and lose up to 65% more weight (23,24).Eat

Viscous Fiber:
Viscous fiber supplements like glucomannancan help you lose weight, especially aroundthe belly area(25).Choose Weight Loss Friendly Foods:Certain foods are particularly useful for losing fat. Here is a list of the20 most weight loss friendly foods on earth.

Use Smaller Plates:
Studies show that people automatically eat less when they use smaller plates. Strange, but it works (26).Sleep Like a Baby:Poor sleep is one of the strongest risk factors for weight gain and obesity, taking care of your sleepis important(27,28).
Over the years, scientists have come up a number of weight loss methods that are effective.This article lists26 weight loss tips that are actually evidence-based.

Bottom Line:It is most important to stick to the three rules, but there are afew other things you can do to speed things up.You Will Become a “Fat Burning Beast”You can expect to lose 5-10 pounds of weight (sometimes more) in the first week, then consistent weight loss after that.I can personally lose 3-4 lbs per week for a few weeks when I do this strictly.

If you’re new to dieting, then things will probably happen quickly.
The more weight you have to lose, the faster you will lose it.For the first few days, you might feel a bit strange. Your body hasbeen burning carbs for all these years, it can take time for it to get used to burning fat instead.It is called the “low carb flu” and is usually over within a few days. For me it takes 3. Adding some sodium to your diet can help with this, such as dissolving a bouillon cube in a cup of hot water and drinking it.
After that, most people report feeling very good, positive and energetic. At this point you will officially have become a “fat burning beast.”Despite the decades ofanti-fat hysteria, the low-carb diet also improves your health in many other ways:Blood Sugartends to goway down on low-carb diets (29,30).Triglyceridestend to godown (31,32).Small, dense LDL(the bad) Cholesterol goes down (33,34).HDL(the good) cholesterol goes up (35).Blood pressureimproves significantly (36,37).To top it all of, low-carbdiets appear to beeasier to followthan low-fat diets.Bottom Line:You can expect to lose a lot of weight, but it depends on the person how quickly it will happen.

Low-carb diets also improve your health in many other ways.You Don’t Need to Starve Yourself to Lose WeightIf you have a medical condition then talk to your doctor before making changes because this plan can reduce your need for medication.By reducing carbs and lowering insulin levels, you change the hormonal environment and make your body and brain “want” to lose weight.This leads to drastically reducedappetite and hunger, eliminating the main reason that most people fail with conventional weight loss methods.
This is proven to make you lose about2-3 times as muchweightas a typical low-fat, calorie restricted diet (38,39,40).Another great benefit for the impatient folks is that the initial drop in water weight can lead to a big difference on the scale as early as the next morning.Here are a few examples of low-carb meals that are simple, delicious and can be prepared inunder 10 minutes:

7 Healthy Low-Carb Meals in 10 Minutes or Less.On this plan, you can eatgoodfood until fullness and still lose a ton of fat. Welcome to paradise.