On Monday we talked about the importance of resistance (weight training). Today we are going to focus on the importance of cardio training! Cardio refers to maximizing our cardiovascular system through intense body movements, not focused on specific muscle groups, but rather on getting the hard rate spiked.
 

 
One of the primary reasons people do cardio workouts is to burn calories and to lose weight. However, there are a number of other fitness benefits and overall health rewards from doing cardio as part of your regular fitness routine! Let’s take a look at five key benefits that will impact our everyday lives and not just our physique!
 
Healthy Heart
 
Ok, so while we did say that we don’t focus on specific muscles when we do cardio, which might not have been entirely true. Your heart is a muscle and like any other muscle, it must be worked to get stronger! When we don’t work our heart properly, or enough, it gets tired and weak over time and ultimately leads to poor functioning.
 
Working our heart on a regular basis will cause it to become strong and healthy. Look around you on a daily basis at people doing ordinary things (like walking up stairs) and you’ll notice how many people get out of breath very easily. This can be avoided by strengthening our hearts and cardio systems!
 
Better Metabolism
 
Cardio training also improves other processes in the body, particularly our metabolism!
 
Surely you’ve heard us mention what Fit Fx truly means during class. Essentially, the harder we work, the more effective our results will be! High Intensity Interval Training leads to increased metabolism, which maximizes something else we have talked about in class, the EPOC effect. The better our metabolism is, the easier it is to manage our weight.
 
Improved Hormones
 
You’ve probably heard of endorphins. Cardio training can improve the hormones in our body, release what we can term as “feel good” hormones or endorphins in our body, which ultimately leads to an improved self image and often can curb appetites! When we feel good about ourselves, we want to keep working at it!
 
Better Recovery
 
Cardio work, which requires us to get our body moving, can reduce what we refer to as DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness). The cardio work helps deliver blood to the muscle tissue that is oxygen rich and helps to improve repairing and rebuilding of the muscles! In other words, you get back in the gym quicker

Help with Diabetes
 
Lastly, many Americans deal with diabetes, which is something that consistent cardio training can help manage. This shows that cardio training can truly be life altering! Cardio training increases our body’s ability to use glucose. In other words, we can manage our blood sugar levels better.
 
These are just 5 of the countless benefits to cardio training. Check out our website at www.teamafterburn.com/testimonials to see the amazing results our members have experienced and also on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamafterburn!