Cardio Training 1
Ultimate fat loss and six-pack abs
If you’re a bodybuilder you no doubt know the benefits to be gained from building larger, stronger muscles. But, how about your heart and lungs? Are you exercising them with regular cardio training? If not, you should seriously consider adding it to your training routine. Cardio exercise combined with weight training workouts provides a nearly perfect combination for keeping you healthy and fit and maximize fat loss leading to six-pack abs. Regular cardio training is good for cardiovascular health, as the increased heart rate achieved during your cardio workout will stimulate the heart and lungs to pump more blood in fewer beats and move more oxygen with less effort. The improvements you’ll gain in your overall cardiovascular health will decrease your risk of heart disease by improving your blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Besides the internal benefits, regular cardio exercise will do wonders with your outward appearance as well. If your goal is to look great on the beach or bodybuilding stage, you’ll need to have your midsection virtually fat free. By this we mean displaying a set of rock hard, six-pack abdominals. For ultimate fat loss, you’ll need to add cardio training to your workouts. Weight training will burn some calories while you do it, and there is a pronounced afterburn (burning calories from having a boosted metabolism), but cardio exercise burns more calories while you’re doing it. A workout that combines both weight training and cardio exercise is the ultimate for fat loss. And maximizing weight loss is the key to developing six-pack abs.
What exactly is cardio training?
Cardio training can be considered any form of physical activity that elevates your heart rate to a range between 60 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate- the fastest your heart can theoretically beat. Although not a precise measurement, subtracting your age from 220 will give you a good approximation of your theoretical maximum. For a 20-year-old the math would look like this:
220-20 = 200 beats per minute.
200X .60 = 120 = lower limit
200X .85 = 185 = upper limit
The target heart rate range to achieve good cardiovascular conditioning and developing six-pack abs for this individual would be 120 to 185 beats per minute. A good rule of thumb is to take the average and use that as your goal. In the previous case this would be 153 beats per minute.
