The Cardio-vascular Workout - Health and Fitness Essentials
By Michael Aldridge

To accomplish a good cardio-vascular workout all you really need is a good pair of running shoes. Most cardio-vascular exercise needs little or no third party apparatus to help you accomplish your routine. Running, dancing, walking can all be done with no equipment (well, if dancing, then maybe some music would help). Other forms of cardio are step, circuit training, bike riding, swimming, aerobics and more…

With most exercise you should always remember to warm up first and cool down afterwards. This means gently stretching and moving your muscles to start off with. Suddenly moving into full exercise without building up first will cause problems such as stiffness and cramps. Ease yourself into it. Then after exercise, the cool down is basically gently moving the muscles and joints to stretch and relax, as your body returns to its normal pace.

Running:

Make sure you have a good pair of running shoes. The technology put into these shoes nowadays is highly researched and designed to reduce shock to the feet, ankles, legs and back. So don t skimp on these - you get what you pay for.

Before you start your run, be sure to warm up first. Start with a brisk walk ensuring you move your arms vigorously gradually breaking into a slow jog. It is better to run at a speed to which you can still converse. If you find yourself losing breath, slow your pace down until you ve recovered. If you are a novice runner try running and walking, until you can hold your run for 15 minutes.

Now increase the length and time of your run by a couple of minutes every other time you hit the road or treadmill, until you can run for 30 minutes without stopping. Try to increase your run time by 10% each week, remember not to over do it and don t forget to warm down at the end of each by slowing down gradually. When your run is complete stretch your legs for 30 seconds per muscle, hamstring, calf and thigh.

Cycling:

Cycling is one of the best ways to get a good cardio-vascular workout.

First of all, if you are riding on the roads safety is paramount, always use the appropriate safety equipment when road riding. You can stay fit by riding a bike to work, most people work within a five mile radius of there place of work, which is a perfect distance for a bike ride.

Exercise bikes can be used in a variety of ways, general riding for specified length of time, this is like going for a bike ride with out the dangers of road riding and the weather. Warm up riding you can use an exercise bike for warming up the legs before a leg workout. Also exercise bike classes, these classes are taken by an instructor, who will put you through various levels of pace, quite like a circuit training exercise with a bike.

You may find it surprising to find that riding a bike five miles 3 times per week will improve your heart rate, your posture, skin and weight control. Some even say that riding and running are great ways of relieving stress.

Swimming:

One of the best ways to firm up and trim your body down. Due to the resistance the water has on the body swimming involves all the major muscle groups this allows the body to burn up to 20% more calories than swimming through air. Swimming a few lengths per day will keep you fit and give you an excellent workout. Swimming also has less impact on the joints than say, running.

If you wish to take your swim a little further try picking up the pace of your swim, you can work up to a great aerobic exercise and give your body an excellent workout.

Start off by swimming 1-2 lengths at a time resting between sets if necessary, after you have swam ten lengths call it a day. The next day repeat the process until you can swim five lengths without a break. Progress to ten lengths in by adding an extra length each time you return.

You can put together your own cardio raining routing in the gym, if you have a problem with this then the staff on hand will write one for you and show you how to achieve your goal. Try to make your cardio last between an hour and an hour and a half. A good start point for cardio is always a run.

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1. Run at a light pace for 20 minutes, start off at a walking pace and gradually move to a run, this helps you get warmed up and the blood pumping.

2. Rowing machine- set the rowing machine for a countdown time of 15 minutes or keep a check on your watch or the clock. Start off with a slow rowing motion to get the pace up, maintain this steady pace throughout the full 13 minutes and use the 2 minutes to slow the pace down.

3. Move immediately on to exercise bike take a stead paced ride for 12 minutes with a sprint finish for the remaining 3 minutes.

4. After the exercise bike move directly on to the step climber for a period of 15 minutes climbing on a light level to get the legs going. Try to move at a swift pace for the full 15 minutes as this is the last of the leg work you will be doing.

5. When you have completed the step climber, move onto the abs bench for some crunches. 4 sets of crunches to failure is your target for this exercise. Try twisting your body and touching your left knee with your right elbow and vice versa.

6. The last exercise in this quick cardio workout is the leg raise apparatus. Bring your knees up to your chest for 3-4 sets for as many reps as possible (failure)

After the completion of this cardio workout, remember to do a full warm down by stretching the muscles. The full workout should take you around 1 hour 20 minutes.

Article supplied by Michael Aldridge.

Vital Fitness

To get your free report “Free Fitness Tools and weekly exercise tips” please visit Free Fitness Tools - for accomplishing your fitness goals

For useful information on elliptical cross trainers please visit Elliptical cross trainers
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Meditation Techniques For The Beginner
By Beth Hansel

People have been practicing meditation for thousands of years. For many people it s a way of stress relief and to get in touch with the universal mind. Meditation cleans the mental house of troubles and meaningless, unconstructive thoughts. One of the best ways to meditate is by using music to set the mood and provide a focus point on which to concentrate. Meditation is pure quiet inner concentration.

There are basically two ways to meditate to using music: guided and unguided. Guided means that there is a person that verbally guides you through the process of mediating and unguided means that there is no guide and it s just music and soothing sounds. If you are a beginner, the guided method may be helpful in learning how to properly get your body and mind in harmony to enter the state of meditation. You must first relax your entire body, and then clear your mind of all thought. For some people this takes a bit of practice and for others it is quite easy. Once you can master your physical body by sitting completely still for a period of time (10-15 minutes) without moving at all and when you can do this along with having no thoughts you are well on your way to a useful and satisfying mediation.

Meditation music is very relaxing. There are many great mediation cds available. Some contain peaceful sounds of birds chirping, the breeze through the trees, water flowing through a stream or waves gently washing on the shore. Some also utilize vibrations. This is a fairly new concept that blends modern technology with ancient instruments including Crystal and Tibetan singing bowls, bells, drums and synthesizers which result in an extremely relaxing experience.

This use of vibrations makes sense since everything, including our bodies, is made up of vibrations. I think this is why music is such a pleasure for us. Do you ever “feel” the music? When you can feel it, it is in harmony with you. When you are feeling aggressive, aggressive music feels good. Music sets the mood and the reason is because everything operates on vibration.

Once you have mastered the physical body and your thoughts, you can then move to the stage of using visualization during your meditation. This is a wonderful enhancement to meditation. Through visualization you can create a place in your mind that is your “secret garden” of peace and tranquility. This is an important part of mediation. It can be anything you want! For instance it can be a garden, in the woods or on the beach. Whatever works for you. The point is that this is your place that nothing can interfere, where you find peace, no worries, and no interruptions. Your personal heaven. You can also imagine yourself floating which is very relaxing and peaceful. This is a very powerful benefit to meditation. Create a place that is 100% yours, it is your private place for peace and rejuvenation.

When you decide to start meditating, pick a place where you can be totally un-interrupted for at least 10-15 minutes. It should be dark and quite. Try to meditate in the same place every time. You can either sit in a comfortable chair or on the floor.

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Then think about your body and how your legs are heavy, then your midsection, your arms, etc. all the way up to your head. Concentrate on these things. Your first few sessions should be all about not moving the body for a period of time like 10-15 minutes. Just concentrate on being perfectly still. Once you have mastered this, you can combine this with mastering your thoughts. You can do this by concentrating on a sound or word such as quiet that you repeat either in your mind or aloud. This is called a mantra. It is a useful way to focus concentration and clear your mind of all thoughts as well as resist new thoughts. After you can do both for a period of time, then you can begin to allow only good thoughts and feelings in. Think about everything you are grateful for. Then you can create your own special place in your mind where you go to meditate, your “secret garden”. You ll find that meditation will be something that you can t go without. That s a good thing!

This will take practice but once you achieve it, you will be able to reach the “universal mind”. This is when real progress is made. You will find that when you are through meditating, you will feel refreshed and have a clear mind.

There is a new way to meditate now and that is walking meditation. Some people find that walking with their headphones extremely beneficial. Not only are you exercising the body which releases stress, you are also able to clear the mind and concentrate on the rhythm of your steps and the music. To me, however, I find that the best way is in a very dark and quite room with music playing down low. But everyone is different.

Whatever way you decide to go, the best decision is to just start! The benefits of meditation are unbeatable. You can find some awesome meditation cd s and other resources at www.easy-meditation-cd.com.

Meditation takes practice. Be patient and remember that the more you practice meditation the easier it will become. Meditation is natures high and it s totally good for you!

Beth Hansel
http://www.easy-meditation-cd.com

Blissful Collection of Meditation CDs, Meditation Products and Tools, Articles, Information, Links, Forums and More.

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