When you are putting together a workout program that has the purpose of building muscle you will also need to include some sort of cardio exercise within that program. Of course a lot of people think of endless hours of jogging on a track as a way of cardio exercise but it doesn’t have to be that way. A lot of people think that you have to work extremely hard on a stairmaster, elliptical or treadmill in order to get the right cardio exercise. But that doesn’t have to be the case – it’s not so much working hard but working smart. Smart cardio can also be called fasted steady state cardio.

Fasted steady state cardio is a low intensity type of cardio and it will consist of briskly walking and usually done on an empty stomach. They can last from 30 minutes to an hour and usually done in the morning. This can be done on a treadmill, the track or somewhere else outside.

The reason why it is best to do this in the morning is because this is when our body’s insulin levels are lower and this is what tries to protect the fat in our bodies and if you do this in the morning it is far easier to combat the fat without the interference of the insulin.

Even though there is a lot of talk about high intensity vs low intensity and the burning of calories, remember that this is just part of your overall training program and you should worry more about high intensity when you are lifting weights. Besides you can lose more fat at the lower intensity levels than you would with higher intensity which may burn off more calories, it’s the fat that you want to be dealing with when it comes to the cardio exercise.

Another thing is that the low intensity is far gentler on your joints. When you do high intensity such as jogging your joints are being abused immensely by the force of the jogging and hitting the ground that you are running on. If you are also starting your workout because you are overweight, the low intensity is far better because if you do high intensity you are also adding the extra weight to the joints and this will add additional strain on your joints and could cause a lot of damage. The low intensity is not only good for the joints but the heart will benefit as well.

Like anything new, make sure that you check with your doctor to make sure that you are healthy enough to take on both your weight lifting and your cardio exercises. You may have to start with the low intensity cardio and then move onto the weights after you are in a little better shape.