Cardiovascular Training

There's one muscle, and it's perhaps the most important one of all-your heart. Cardiovascular training, or aerobics, requires a different approach, however, than other body parts. At the "heart" of cardiovascular training is one basic premise: if you elevate your heart rate to 65-80 percent of your maximum and keep it there for a period of at least 12 minutes it will stimulate the production of fat-burning enzymes. It will also strengthen your heart and increase the capacity of your lungs to re-oxygenate your blood more efficiently. The idea here is not to work yourself to a frenzy and go beyond your target heart rate, but to stay within that magic training range of 65-80 percent of maximum for a minimum of 12 minutes and, optimally, for 20 to 30 minutes.

Smart Tip: Training for longer periods will certainly hasten your improvement, but not on a 1-to-1, linear basis. Research has shown that the first 12 minutes of aerobic exercise produce a more lasting training effect than the second 12 minutes. So unless you're already in pretty good condition, it's probably better to do your 12 minutes more frequently (say 4-6 times per week) than it is to train for longer periods of 30 minutes or more but less frequently.

Many people believe that the primary purpose of aerobic exercise is to burn off excess calories while they're doing the exercise. However, that is not exactly true. Think about it, most aerobic activity can only burn off several hundred calories even if you exercised for an entire hour. Eat a hamburger with fries and you're already playing catch up. And you've just had lunch! The real purpose of aerobics is to stimulate the growth of the body's natural fat-burning enzymes long term so you burn more and more calories all the time, not just when you're exercising. Increase the size of the fireplace and you can burn more logs in it. The same principle applies to the calorie burning potential of your body.