Cardio is a very important part
of your weight lifting program!

Cardio is another important aspect of any weight lifting program. I think everyone should do it no matter what their goals are. Exercising your heart is something that should take priority in your life. I don't know if you realize this, but your heart is a very important part of your life. Keep it healthy and you will be a happy person for a long time. Too many people throughout the world ignore their heart.

Besides keeping your heart healthy, cardiovascular exercise plays an important role in building muscle and losing fat. I like different types of cardio to simply ease the pain of doing it. Many people don't like doing cardiovascular exercise because it is rather boring. I like to mix it up a little every once in a while and try something different. I'm also going to tell you how to make it a little more fun by taking your mind off of the exercise.

You're going to need to know how to measure your heart rate as a check to make sure you're not going too hard or too easy. Measuring heart rate is pretty simple. You more than likely already know how to measure your heart rate. It can be tedious, though to measure it while you are doing your exercise! There are devices for measuring your heart rate that make it easy on you. These heart rate devices continue measuring while you do your exercise so you don't have to stop and take a measurement.

Your heart rate will be important for determining whether you are doing low intensity or high intensity. Both types of cardio are discussed below...

Low Intensity Cardio
Low intensity cardio will be used mostly during the times when you are in a calorie deficit. So, when you are trying to lose fat or weight I want you to mostly be doing low intensity cardio. Low intensity cardio will consist of activities that will not raise your heart rate too high.

High Intensity Cardio
High instensity cardio will be used mostly during the times when you are in a calorie surplus. If you are in muscle building mode or weight gain mode, I want you to mostly be doing High Intensity. High Intensity Cardio will take about half the time to complete.

I like everyone to be doing cardio while on the WLC Program. No matter if you're trying to gain weight, build muscle, lose fat, or lose weight I like you to exercise your heart and cardiovascular system. Weight lifting is good exercise, but cardio is good exercise for your heart! There are so many benefits from doing it that you'd be crazy not to include it in your WLC program.

I do want a different amount of cardio and different types being done while on the WLC Program for the two different goals. What are the two different goals you can choose from while executing the WLC program?

1. Muscle Building
Focus is on muscle building while minimizing fat gain. We do not want to gain much fat while on the muscle building WLC program. We may even lose some fat along the way!

2. Fat Loss
Focus is on losing fat while maintaining as much muscle as possible. We do not want to lose much muscle while maximizing the amount of fat we can lose. We may even build some muscle on this program!

You need to know what your goal on WLC is going to be in order to know the cardiovascular exercise plan I am going to help you put together here. Once you know what your goal is going to be out of the four discussed above, you can continue on.

Now that you know your goal and we discussed the difference in Low Intensity and High Intensity Cardio, we need to know how to utilize them for the WLC Program.

Cardio for Muscle Building on the WLC Program
Why would you do cardio when trying to build muscle on the WLC program? When would you do the cardio? Would you do low intensity or high intensity? I'll give you the answer to all of these and more.

Cardio for Fat Loss on the WLC Program
Everyone knows to increase fat loss on any program that you should be doing cardio. What type of cardio will keep your muscle loss to a minimum? The answer is here.

Let's face the facts here. Cardio can be very boring at times, but you have to remember its importance! It is one of the most important things you can do for your health. If you want to be healthy and live longer, you've got to be doing your cardio! But we can make cardio more exciting by doing a few simple things. How in the world do we make cardio more exciting?

Methods of Doing Cardiovascular Exercise
You need to change your cardio around from time to time and try something different. Cardio can be fun when you change it around and try new methods. For example, go bike riding outside when the weather is nice instead of riding inside on a stationary bike. Go jogging or walking with your dog at the park on a nice day. Do your exercise in different locations.

Simply changing the cardio equipment you have can make cardiovascular exercise much more fun! Buy some new equipment for home, or try something new at your gym. Changing the style of cardio you perform will also keep your fat loss at a maximum! Having fun will keep you going too.

Music
Listening to your favorite music can help while doing cardio. Get you a portable mp3 player if you're going to be on the move.

Audio Books
You might as well get a good story in while doing your cardio. You can get instructional audio books and learn something while doing your cardio. Listening to audio books are one of my favorite things to do while doing cardio. Download something you've always wanted to learn about.

Television
Watch you some TV if you're going to be stationary. Put on Sportscenter if you're a big sports fan. Watch your favorite TV show. Catch up on the news.

DVD
Watch a favorite movie of yours. Rent you a new movie that you've been wanting to see and split it up over a few days and only watch while you do your cardio. You'll even look forward to your next cardio session so you can watch your movie.

Video Games
If you're doing your cardio on a stationary bike or another piece of equipment that use of your arms is not required, a good video game will keep you're mind off the cardio. If you're like me, I still like to play a good game of Madden Football.

You've got to make your cardio fun or you'll get tired of doing it because it's so monotonous. Understanding the importance of cardio will also help you stay consistent. I've always had trouble doing mine so I had to find ways to make it fun. It's especially hard to make it fun when it's freezing outside.

If you've got any more ideas for making your weight lifting and cardio fun, please let me know. Weight lifting requires more concentration than cardio so I like to keep distractions to a minimum when lifting weights. Cardio can use some distractions, though! Time will pass much faster.

Stumble It!

How to Lose Weight with Cardio: This is a very good site with great Cardio information from my friends at building-muscle-now.com. Check this page out along with all the other good muscle building information on his site. I only link to sites with good info and this is one of them!

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