Cardio exercise is beneficial on many levels.  Getting our heart rate up strengthens our heart, enhances our lung capacity, and helps reduce blood pressure and cholesterol.  It can also boost our mood and may help with immunity.  If cardio exercise came in a pill everyone would want that pill.  

Running, HIIT, and swimming are all great forms of cardio, but if you don’t have access to a pool, hate high intensity, or are worried about your joints you still have options. 

While cardio does require us to pick up the pace, you don’t need to work at warp speed.  

To do cardio workouts you do need to move faster, but it isn’t all or nothing.  You can build up incrementally.  You want to challenge yourself (heavy breathing), but don’t feel a sense of misery while moving.  You’ll want to be winded, but not feeling like you are going to be sick.  

And while we should all set a goal of being able to maintain moderate cardio for 30-minutes, you can start with 5-minutes and build up from there.  

To be gentler on your joints […]