The P90x cardio x which is a part of the many routines in the P90x workout program helps improve your overall cardio vascular health and is effective in burning fat. However, due to its intensity, it shouldn’t be overdone and must be used sparingly along with other exercises.

The P90x Cardio x is truly beneficial for all those people who have become very health conscious off late. With obesity being a huge problem to tackle these days, more and more people are hitting the gym to stay fit. A good cardio vascular workout will help burn extra calories and will give you energy to keep going throughout the day. But sadly, not everybody has the time and some may not be able to afford to go to the gym. This is when the P90x cardio workouts come handy. The P90x schedule enables you to do your workouts in the comfort of your homes with the help of workout videos. The P90x is gaining popularity by the day.

One of the best available in the market today, the P90x cardio x workout is one among the many series of dozen workouts under the P90x schedule. These workouts are very intense and highly sweat inducing. The cardio x does not require any kind of equipments such as treadmills or elliptical trainers. It is very simple provided you follow the rules of the workouts consistently and it only calls for continuous physical activity for the entire period. If you are really determined, then nothing can get difficult. Although like any other cardio workouts, the P90x cardio x is a little extreme and fast paced. The cardio x can be used in different ways to meet your needs. It includes a whole lot of punch and kick movements mainly to develop and enhance your endurance power, flexibility and to improve your physical balance and coordination.

Although considered as an optional workout, the p90x cardio x can be added to supplement your other routine workouts. You could probably use cardio once or twice a week. Even though the cardio is low impact, some people find it very severe as the movements in this workout drives you to move a number of muscles and joints. There are also jumps, leaps, push ups and other side movements that results in a lot of sweating. Kenpo x, one of the routines in the cardio teaches you some great moves that helps to defend yourself and also keep good shape. Plyometrics is yet another workout under the P90x cardio x and is also called jump training as it involves a lot of jumps and is proven to improve your athletic performance.

If you are looking for a kettlebell cardio workout to change your training routine forever then you have arrived at the right place. If you are going to engage in a new hard style of cardiovascular training that goes way beyond the so-called traditional forms of aerobic training such as running and cycling then you have got to work with kettlebells. By now you may have heard of this ancient hard style device that has been widely used to build super fit bodies. This is why I am here to tell you about 3 tremendously effective lifts you can use with the kettlebell for some real cardiovascular fitness!

Kettlebell Cardio Workout!

1. Kettlebell Swings: The swing lift is the base and more commonly known strength endurance lift performed with the kettlebell. This lift is great for helping you to get a tremendous cardio strength training workout. This hard hitting exercise blasts all of the large muscle groups including your hips, glutes, back, shoulders, hamstrings, abs, and of course your heart! The lift is performed by you having to engage your hips and knees in a constant state of flexion and extension in order to create momentum to swing the bell back and forth like a pendulum. After only knocking out 10 to 15 of these in a row with a relatively heavy bell you will understand what I mean when I say CARDIO!

2. Kettlebell Snatches: The kettlebell snatch is a tremendous lift for core strength, leg power, hip strength, and shoulder strength. With all of this it is also a tremendously powerful exercise for helping you to develop the cardiovascular conditioning of a race horse! This dynamic lift is executed by you pulling the bell from between your legs up to a held locked position above your head in one smooth powerful movement. The bell is pulled from between your legs like a single arm swing and elevated to a high pull position with your arm by mimicking the motion of pulling back on a bow. Once the bell is at this high pull position then you can finish the drill off by vertically punching your palm towards the sky to lock it out. This lift is incredible for helping you to develop muscular and cardiovascular endurance while training the muscles of the posterior chain (hips, glutes, back, shoulders, hamstrings). I have always said that if you want to develop a dominant cardio workout, the ability to run somewhere fast, and punch someone hard then the kettlebell snatch lift is for you.

3. Kettlebell Jerks: The kettlebell jerk press is a wonderful exercise for helping you to develop shoulder, core, hip, and glute strength. This particular lift can be utilized for an impressive bout of cardiovascular fitness. As a matter of fact, even the best competition kettlebell lifters can go for minutes and minutes on end without ever resting or stopping a series of jerk presses. The lift can be executed a number of different ways, but for the sake of this article I will describe the single arm short cycle press. The short cycle press means that the kettlebell is cleaned and racked once at the chest and then followed by a series of jerks until the desired number or time is met. This is done by utilizing a “knee dip” to roll up onto the balls of your feet while simultaneously starting to vertically press the bell above your head. As the bell is moving vertically you will want to press your heels into the ground in order to push your body away from the rising kettlebell overhead. When you are finished from here simply stand up to finish off the lift.

If you haven’t already started to implement the 3 kettlebell lifts mentioned for your hard style cardio workouts then you are missing out. Take the time to learn more about these hard hitting cardio strength training drills and more by accessing the rest of my articles on the subject for free. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart!

A cardio workout for weight loss is a great way to help you lose weight and at the same time build leaner muscles. Yes, losing weight means having to get up and do some physical activity. When losing weight, the best mantra to take is this: eat less; exercise more.

About weight loss

Before doing a cardio workout for weight loss, it is important to understand what weight loss is. People usually have the wrong impression that losing weight equals to being thin. This is presumption often leads to dangerous results.

In medical terms, weight loss is the reduction of one’s weight to one that is proportional to his body type. To get your ideal weight, you have to know your body mass index (BMI), or the proportion of your weight to your height. Some people are either too thin or too overweight for their height, both of which are unhealthy.

Healthy weight loss

Adopting a healthy weight loss program is the best way to go if you want to lose weight. Healthy weight loss entails eating less and exercising more. This does not mean that you undergo crash diets and other weight loss products.

Eating less simply means you decrease the amount of calories you intake. This means:

1. Replacing soft drinks and sodas with water.

2. Swapping whole milk for semi-skimmed, or semi-skimmed for skimmed.

3. Eating less lunch than usual.

4. Decreasing the intake of sugar in tea and coffee.

5. Having smaller portions of the food you enjoy.

6. Avoiding second helpings at dinner.

7. Cutting out unhealthy treats such as confectionery, sugary biscuits and crisps between meals.

8. Cutting down on beer and alcohol.

Also, exercising more helps your body burn the stored energy and excess fat. One of the methods of exercise is a cardio workout for weight loss.

About cardio

Cardio workout is an effective weight loss method. Together with dieting, cardio workouts help you build a leaner and fit body.

Before you undertake a cardio workout, you need to consult first with a dietitian or a fitness trainer to guide you in your activities.

How often should you do cardio?

Because cardio workout is essential for weight loss, you need to undergo cardio almost everyday. Some claim that the best way to do cardio is during the morning, before breakfast. Why is that? Because doing cardio with an empty stomach results in your body burning the stored fat, as opposed to it burning what you just ate.

How long should a cardio workout take?

A regular cardio workout for weight loss should take about 45 minutes to an hour. When doing cardio, remember to work on a progress level and take note of your training zone. Do not push for an ambitious cardio workout plan that will only result in you pushing your body beyond its limits.

A low-intensity aerobic exercise uses body fat as its primary fuel source. However, as you get closer to your breaking point, your body starts using a smaller percentage of fat and a larger percentage of carbohydrates, another fuel source. Pick up the pace so you can burn more calories.

If you do the following activities for 30 minutes, this is the amount of calories you can expect to burn:

Aerobic dance – 342 calories

Basketball – 282 calories

Bicycling at 15 mph – 354 calories

Boxing – 330 calories

Circuit weight training – 378 calories

Golf (carrying clubs) – 174 calories

Karate, tae kwon do – 834 calories

Running 8-minute miles – 446 calories

Swimming freestyle, 35 yds/min. – 248 calories

Tennis, singles – 232 calories

Walking, 20-minute miles, flat – 120 calories

Muscle toning

Aside from weight loss, cardio workout also helps you build leaner and toner muscles. Combined with strength-training and a healthy diet, a cardio workout can help you achieve a healthier and better body image in no time.

If you are serious about getting results and achieving both a superior strength and cardiovascular component within your workouts then you have got to include kettlebell swings into the equation. Kettlebell swings are a hard hitting strength and cardio workout. This single lift is second to none in offering you astounding results and will enhance your workouts ten fold.

If you have heard of the kettlebell by now then you know that this ancient strength and conditioning device has a reputation that is quite impressive. The great thing about kettlebell training is that it is primarily a movement oriented style of training. You see when you engage in whole body movements up against the resistance of the kettlebell you stand to achieve a very high level of fitness. This single exercise is the perfect combination of lifting that delivers to you an awesome cardio and strength training workout to change the landscape of your training program forever. If you are like me then your schedule gets hectic and trips to the gym don’t always happen due to family, work, and the weekly visits to the grocery store. You know exactly where I’m coming from. Yes, even though I am a strength and conditioning professional I am human too! I promise I’m not a robot, even though I would like you to think so. Anyway, the kettlebell swing fits perfectly into this chaotic lifestyle that most of us have. Time efficient, hard hitting, and getting results are what we want and I am here to tell you that kettlebell swings are here to deliver this for you.

The kettlebell swing is an awesome lift and can be performed in a number of ways. This lift can be done with both arms and a single bell, a single arm, or with a bell in each hand. Either way you are going to get a tremendous cardio strength training workout. To perform this lift you will need to place the bell or bells on the ground between your feet. Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width. From here allow the bell or bells to hang at your groin with your body locked out at both your hips and knees. From here keep your shoulders retracted and perform the hip snap motion to drive the bells back and forth from between your legs up to chest level in an arc like motion. As you engage the lift make sure that you forcefully breathe with every rep while keeping your abdominal and core muscles tight. Forcefully “hike” the bell between your legs with every rep and drive your hips and knees through the lift to “lock out” at the top of every swing.

If you are wondering why this lift is such an effective cardio strength workout for the Titans then give it a try. This is an exercise that is sure to change the entire format or your strength training program. If you haven’t already taken the time to include kettlebell swings and other great kettlebell lifts into your workouts then you are missing out. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart my friend.

Anyone trying to get in shape or lose body fat, consider it a “fact” that they need “cardio workout routines” to accomplish these goals. I Am going to show you why you never have to do any traditional cardio to lose weight.

Some of the leanest and meanest people I know (men and women), NEVER do any type of normal or traditional cardio. Jogging,treadmill etc. When you hear cardio, what do you think of? Most people think cardio is working out on the treadmill,stationary bike, or maybe the elliptical machine. Well this is cardio but what I call “traditional cardio exercise routine”.

Cardio is ANY type of exercise that strengthens the heart muscles, improve respiration, provide muscle tone and increases bodily energy and endurance. To clarify, it’s any thing that gets your heart pumping.

Pick up some weights and started doing some reps and you will feel your heart going if you have a weight that challenges you, you are conditioning your heart. Don’t think because its weight training that it’s not a cardio workout routine. If you lift light weights, lift them properly, and take very few breaks during the workout, you will get an excellent cardiovascular workout and also build muscle.

Here are a few examples of good cardio workouts to name a few…

Clean and press exercises, kettle bell swings, try 20 reps of one arm swings, or two arm swings or dumb bell step ups. How about trying 5 minutes straight of rotating body weight squats, lunges, and pushups with very little rest between. Notice your heart pounding and sweat pouring off of you. I go into more detail about these exercises on my website. It needs to be intense with with very little rest between sets.

It doesn’t matter if you are lifting 250 pounds or just the bar bell at 45 pounds. If you are getting your heart rate up its working. Once you do these you won’t be saying that it is not conditioning your heart. Most people you see at the gyms and going steady on the cardio machines, many watching TV and reading magazines. Let’s get serious, if you can read or watch TV while doing any exercise then your not focused enough on what your doing not to mention probably not working out hard enough to see any results.

Look around your gym, find the people that have fit, sculpted bodies; I bet you won’t them see spending endless hours on the treadmills but most likely you will see them lifting weights. Don’t get me wrong cardio machines do have their benefits if done properly BUT if you want to burn fat and get that sculpted body then lifting weights is vital.

These styles of a cardio workout routines will save you time and strengthen and condition every major muscle in your body. Muscle burns fats so build more muscle and burn more fat. This sure beats long boring exercises on the treadmill.

Cardio training for fat loss is one of the best exercise regiment for people of all ages and capabilities. Thus, you should know how to do it the right way if you want to get permanent results and shape up for life.

For that, here are 5 tips for maximum fat loss cardio:

Make the decision

The first step is always the hardest step. Many people think starting a cardio fat loss regiment but never take the first step towards achieving the desired result. Unfortunately, thinking prevents doing. And the only way by which you can get results is by taking action and implementing effective fat loss strategies.

Set goals

After making the healthy decision, you need to commit to it by writing it on paper. The process of setting goals is a powerful tool that can propel you towards making your dream into a concrete reality. Goals usually provide clarity and motivation, hence they are what you need if you are seeking huge improvements but find it difficult to sustain your motivation.

Make cardio a habit

If you want a sustained cardio training regime, then you need to make it a habit into your daily life. We are creatures of habits and we are doomed to repeat 95% of our physical and mental patterns day after day. Fortunately, habits are made through practice and repetition.

Hence, you can make cardio workout as a habit by doing it on a consistent basis for a specified duration. And by the end of the fourth week of training, the cardio workout will ingrain itself progressively into your life and become a habit.

The cardio burning zone

Cardio training is effective for weight loss because it burns high amounts of calories in a short period of time. And for the most efficient workout, you need to train within your cardio burning zone for a sustained period of time for more than 20 minutes.

This training zone should be around 70 to 75% of your maximum heart rate. You may find it harder to keep pushing for a long time, but you can slow it down anytime you feel exhausted and take up the pace once you feel ready.

The energy defecit

Doing only cardio training for weight loss is not that effective, you need to back it up with the proper nutrition. This does not mean that you should restrict your eating and starve yourself as a way of trimming down. In fact the proper diet is the one that is full with valuable nutrients and can boost your energy levels, so you can find it easier to work out and lead a normal life without much trouble.

If you are looking for a cardio training routine that doesn’t require you to run the first stride outside on the pavement or inside on the treadmill then you have got to include the burpee calisthenic into the equation. You see real cardio involves the blistering sweat, heart pounding, wind sucking result of intense work. The best form of cardio comes wrapped finely in the form of strength and endurance combined. By coupling both elements of both cardio and strength you stand to get a much more profound training result from your workouts.

Phenomenal Cardio Without Running!

You see in order to dial up the intensity and positive results of your workouts you have got to combine both elements of strength and cardiovascular conditioning. A great way to do this is by engaging in calisthenics. So what are calisthenics? Calisthenics are whole body exercises performed in a very rhythmic and systematic way in order to promote the development of muscular strength, endurance, mobility, flexibility, and cardiovascular fitness. The burpee is a type of whole body calisthenic.

Cardio training without running takes structure, creativity, and the willingness to work! Just because you are not running doesn’t mean your cardio workouts are going to be a “cake walk.” The burpee is the definition of intense body blasting cardio. In order to pull this off you will want to start out by standing with your feet at shoulder width distance apart in length. From here you are going to start out by crouching down to place your hands on the ground in front of your body. Next, you will want to kick your feet back behind you extending your body into an upright push up position. Thirdly, you will wan to perform a normal push up from this upright push up position. After the push up simply kick your feet back up underneath your body in order for you to stand up to complete the drill. All of this basically constitutes a single repetition of the burpee.

After performing 10 to 15 of these whole body movements in this way you will understand why the burpee is so effective in terms of helping you to develop a serious level of cardiovascular conditioning. If you were looking for a truly hard hitting method to get your cardio in without having to run then you just found it. Take the time to learn more by accessing more of my articles on the subject for free. Remember that most anyone can train hard, but only the best train smart!

Trying to lose weight can be difficult particularly if one not motivated to achieve their goals. Sometimes it is best to join other people in their desire to lose unwanted pounds or get in shape. One of the best activities for fitness is through so-called “boot camps”. These exercise classes are rather intense and help burn away loads of calories while building muscle strength and developing cardiovascular stamina.

Most health clubs or gyms offer some kind of boot camp for their members. They may have 2 or 3 classes scheduled throughout the week. Times may vary during the day so you would have to check with the club to find out when you could attend. Other alternatives are though personal trainers that may provide them on an ad hoc basis. Whatever the schedule you should try to find a class that suits you as the benefits for your fitness are great.

Boot camps involve various exercises done for up to an hour at a time. Think back to your gym class back many years ago, when such things were offered of course, when you did jumping jacks, laps around the gym, pushups, situps and the like. The intent was to get your body moving and make it stronger and fit. Think of it in terms of a civilian boot camp not unlike an exercise regimen during military boot camp.

The idea is to combine enough physical activities to up your heart rate and also to build and tone muscle strength. You may begin with some body weight exercises to build strength like squats, pushups and core work, and then run four laps around the gym track only to return to jump rope for three minutes, and then begin more body weight work. All of this is done pretty much in one constant motion without stopping. Remember, the goal is to get work on your cardio and strength, which will necessarily burn calories helping you to lose weight.

Every boot camp class is different. No one should feel like they cannot join one as most are beginner friendly. Tell the instructor you are new. They should help and if they do not, find another class. If you are just starting out you may not be able to hang with the experienced and fit people. Over time this will change as you lose pounds and gain fitness. You may feel like you cannot keep up with the exercises and worse feel like you cannot even do many of them. The idea is to keep moving and stay motivated. Over a couple of classes you will get the hang of it and improve.

Health and Fitness are fast one of the priorities in people’s lives. This is mainly due to the availability and cheap prices of junk and fast food, not to mention the fact that more people are classified as overweight, or worse, obese than a decade ago. That is why more and more people are going to the gym or hiring a personal trainer. A good cardiovascular workout will really burn those calories, not to mention give you the energy and endurance to go through your day.

However not everyone has the time, money or energy to get out of their house and go to the gym. In addition, personal trainers ran run up quite a bill. That is why things like workout videos are gaining more popularity these days. With them, you will be able to workout in the comfort of your own home and at any time that you want. Nevertheless, there are so many available in the market that it makes it hard to find a really great workout.

P90X is quite possibly the best all around workout videos that is available out in the market today. It is a series of a dozen of the most ground-breaking, sweat-inducing and muscle-pumping workouts that are intended to help you lose weight and sculpt your body in just three months. One of the best cardio workouts in the series is called the Cardio X.

It is low-impact cardio routine that can be used in different kinds of ways to meet your workout needs. One of the cardio programs in the workout series is the Kenpo X. This workout was specially created to give you a highly intense workout that includes a whole lot of kick and punch arrangements that are targeted to develop and further improve your flexibility, endurance, coordination and even your balance as well. The best thing about the Kenpo X is that it not only helps you keep your body in shape, but it also shows you some truly great moves that you can use to defend yourself in case you need to.

Another great cardiovascular workout is the Plyometrics. It is a workout that gives you over thirty amazing jumping moves. Get ready to go airborne because you will not be spending a whole lot of time on the ground once you start. This workout is also known as jump training and has been confirmed as being able to drastically perk up athletic performance.

Nonetheless, you might not want to focus fully on your endurance, you might want to bulk up your muscles as well. You can use actually use the Cardio X program as a supplement to your typical P90X workout routine for times that you want to burn off some of those extra calories that you consumed. You can also use Cardio X as an alternate workout if you feel that your body needs to take a break from the usual high-impact workouts that you are doing.

All these are available with your P90x workout series. Whatever the reason that you have, doing the Cardio X program makes working out a fun and full-throttle way to have a great fat burning workout. You will be a lean, mean fitness machine in no time.

There is no question that some amount of cardio exercise is beneficial for your health. Decades of medical research has shown us that cardio exercise is helpful for reducing obesity and all the problems that come with it. Cardio exercise helps to tone muscles and can help to strengthen your bones and ligaments, benefits that will become more important as you get older. However, as with all good things there are certain downsides. Did you know that too much cardio exercise can cause serious health problems? Well, it can. Before you get too excited, no one is saying that that you should throw out your running shoes and spend your days on the couch; however, there are some risk factors to cardio. Before you start your regimen, you should consider the potential problems and work to minimize them.

Joint Damage and Other Orthopedic Injuries

Any high impact activity presents a high risk of joint problems. Anything that involves running or jumping can result in injuries like plantar fasciitis, shin splints and hip bursitis. Even people who only do limited amounts of cardio face some risk of injury; an excessive amount of exercise elevates that risk. The knees and hips are the joints that are most vulnerable to injury, especially in aging individuals. Your best bet is to involve yourself in low impact activities that place little or no stress on the joints. Options for this include using an exercise cycle, an elliptical machine or swimming. However, even with those safer options you may still face the risk of health issues if you do too much; it is a good idea to limit your cardio time to no more than 45 minutes per day.

Heart Issues

Yes, cardio exercise is beneficial to your heart but only if it is done in moderation. If you overdo it, you actually increase your risk of having a heart attack. Consider the fact that a study published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings journal showed that overdoing exercise can pose a threat to heart health. According to the study, more than an hour of daily exercise provides “diminishing returns” and can result in adverse cardiovascular effects. Atrial fibrillation and enlargement of the heart are two potential side effects of excessive cardio exercise; atrial fibrillation is also known as an “irregular heartbeat” and is problem that increases an individual’s risk of stroke. Another study presented at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress states that overly long sessions of exercise caused the risk of heart problems to be increased by a factor of seven.

Insomnia

If you find yourself lacking in energy, cardio exercise is one way to change that. However, excessive cardio exercise can actually leave you with too much energy. A workout can raise your levels of adrenaline and leave you too amped up to go to sleep at night. This is especially so if you do your cardio later in the evenings. The solution to this is to arrange your schedule so that you do your workout in the mornings or earlier in the evenings. This allows you enough time to wind down before going to bed. Limiting the duration of your cardio exercise will also help with insomnia.

Increased Appetite

An increase in your appetite can result from cardio exercise and may cause you to take in more calories. Eating more food is a side effect of cardio exercise for many people. The exertion causes their bodies to produce hormones that increase appetite with the net effect being that they start to consume more calories than they burn off. Their cardio exercise results in them gaining weight instead of losing it. A study published in the American Journal of Physiology shows that women who burned more calories than they consumed in a workout saw increased blood-concentrations of energy regulating hormones. Those are the hormones that signal the body’s desire for food. In other words, their bodies were telling them to eat to recover the calories they just lost. These effects are not limited to women as some men also have increased appetites after a cardio workout.

Oxidative Stress

This is when your body produces unstable molecules called free radicals; these molecules can damage your cells, which results in more of these free radicals being produced. Excessive exercise causes too much oxidative stress for your body to fight. The result of all this is that you develop an increased risk of heart disease and cancer. It is important to note that pretty much every type of exercise causes some amount of oxidative stress, and researchers think that some amount of it is necessary, just not too much. Moderate amounts of oxidative stress actually help to make your body stronger.

Elevated Levels of Cortisol

More than an hour or so of cardio exercise can stimulate the release of a hormone called “cortisol,” otherwise called the “stress hormone.” The purpose of this hormone is to change your metabolism in a way that enables you to better deal with stress. It provides you with increased energy for “fight or flight.” In the right amounts, cortisol can have health benefits in the form of muscle growth and improved heart health. The problem with excessive cardio exercise is that it can cause the hormone to accumulate in your system. Prolonged stress and high cortisol levels result in fat being retained and muscles being broken down. Elevated cortisol levels have been shown to result in the gain and retention of belly fat. Additionally, your immune system may be made weaker by higher levels of the hormone.

Reproductive Problems

One study in the Canadian Journal of Applied Physiology showed that oxidative stress from excessive cardio exercise has negative effects on the male reproductive system. After four weeks of excessive strenuous cardio exercise, researchers found a decrease in the size of reproductive organs of men participating in the study; this was accompanied by reduced levels of testosterone. A similar study using rats found oxidative stress and sexual dysfunction.

None of this should be taken as a criticism of exercising. You need to exercise. Moreover, even with all of the health risks, the fact remains that people who do some cardio exercise are better off than people who do none. However, how much they do has a significant effect on how much benefit they get from it.

Age is a major factor in how your body handles cardio exercise and the issues it can cause. Older individual’s should be particularly careful as bodies are not as resilient past a certain age; if you are over 40, you may face a longer recovery period when compared to someone in their 20s.