CARDIO & AGILITY EXPLAINED
Moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise is an ideal way to safely increase heart rate, circulate lymphatic fluid (which increases your immune system function), increase circulating hormones, and help improve your fitness.
Cardiovascular exercise (also known as aerobic exercise) can help reduce your risk for disease and reduce blood pressure long term. Consistent exercise can help to raise HDL (Good) Cholesterol and lower harmful LDL cholesterol. Putting in sweat and effort now can prevent so many issues down the road. Moderate intensity cardiovascular exercise can help to burn calories and decrease body fat, and research shows us that while diet is certainly critical in maintaining body weight, those who consistently do cardiovascular exercise and strength training have the easiest time keeping excess body fat off, long term.
Agility is the ability to change the body’s position efficiently, using a combination of balance, coordination, speed, and strength. Agility exercise can help to improve body awareness and decrease risk of injury. Movement patterns should be more than just forward and backward. A healthy, fit body can move in all planes of motion, forward, backward, side-to-side, and rotate efficiently. If you are used to doing low intensity exercise, this will feel like a step up. It is important to listen and feel for signals of intensity. Breathing rate, heart rate, pain signals, and overall perception of effort are all important signals to pay attention to. Work at the pace that feels comfortable to you. You can push pause or take breaks if you need to.
For additional variation, the Intensity Cardiovascular Guide has many additional aerobic workouts to try! You can download it at any time and sort by low, moderate, and high intensity cardiovascular exercise. Pick the type that you prefer and get moving
