Cardio

For general health, I recommend 30 minutes to 1 hour daily (at least 5 days a week) of low to moderate intensity cardio. This can include incidental cardio (eg. if you walk around all day for your job, walk your dog, do heavy lifting for work, etc).

To aid the body in recovery from lower body weightlifting sessions, I recommend doing low to moderate intensity cardio the day after a lower body workout. This is called active recovery.

Machines are not necessary for cardio, of course. One type of cardio you can do with no equipment and little space is plyometric cardio. See my sample plyometric routine.

Cardiovascular Activity For Fat Loss

If you are healthy enough to do so, I recommend doing two sessions per week of HIIT (high intensity interval training). Prefuel the HIIT with enough calories to cover the session. This will allow you to use the HIIT session solely for the afterburn effect. If you are not healthy enough to do the HIIT, do intervals at low to moderate intensity instead.

In addition to the HIIT, I recommend 1-2 sessions of moderate intensity cardio. In this case, you will be burning fat off during the session. Lastly, you can add low intensity cardio in the form of walking (up to 3 hours per week), if you have an inactive job.

Things To Note

• Before doing HIIT, make sure you have the all clear from your doctor to do high intensity activity. If you have heart or lung problems, it is recommended you do interval training at low to moderate intensity only.
• Add in cardio slowly, at the rate of 2-3 sessions per week. You can also start with shorter sessions (eg. 5 min HIIT or 15 min moderate intensity cardio) and work your way up to longer sessions slowly.
• Warmup before the activity for at least 5 minutes to gradually raise your heart rate. Cooldown for at least 5 minutes after to gradually lower your heart rate.
• Machines are usually very inaccurate in telling you how many calories you are burning. I recommend using a calorie chart to get a better estimate.

Calculator 2