Circuits and Cardio

So, do you know why running, biking, skiing, and swimming are considered cardio? Well, it's mainly because they use the bigger muscles groups, thus need more blood when used. More blood pumping=harder cardio.

Now, it's winter. Running, biking and swimming are hard to do. If you do outside to run, bike or swim (swimming would be a horrible idea) you could sick, injured or just really cold. Winter is a good time to do cross country skiing. Don't have skiing equipment or the knowledge of how to ski? Me neither. But I do have a treadmill, and the cardio machines are Planet Fitness. Honestly, running on a treadmill is very boring. Now matter how loud your music is, you'll get bored pretty quickly. Also, what if you don't have a treadmill, and still want to do some cardio? Well, you could do circuit training. Circuit training is pretty awesome. I highly recommend it. Here's a few reasons why: it strengthens your muscles, tones, burns fat, builds some muscluar endurance and is just pretty fun!

So how do you do a circuit that involves cardio? Well, mix it up with lower body workouts and lower body workouts. If you can use weights, use light ones. You want to perform each exercise for one minute, then switch to another exercise. You should alternate between upper and lower body to get the best results. Why do you switch between upper and lower body exercises? Well, you need to rest the muscles a little to use them again and again... but the cool thing is, your heart isn't resting, thus giving you a great cardio workout!

If you don't have any idea what to do for lower body exercises in your circuit, look at my last post. I re-posted my plyometrics post. Do some of the exercises in there for leg work. For upper body, just do dips, pushups, pullups, light weight lifts (if you have any weights), and maybe some ab or core.

Do about five sets on upper body and five sets on your lower body. So that you do five minutes on each. If that seems a bit too easy, go faster, or do more sets. Remember not to rest between sets!