You can certainly feel your heart beating out of your chest during a session, but is running cardio exercise? We know it’s important to aim for a variety of cardio, strength, and flexibility exercises during an average week, but sometimes it’s hard to know which sports and activities fall into which category.
About 50 million Americans are fans of running, jogging, or walking, and if your goal is to increase your cardio, we’ve got good news: Running is a fantastic form of cardiovascular exercise. Not only that, it’s one of the best cardio exercises you can do when it comes to reducing your risk of cardiovascular disease, improving sleep quality, and boosting cognitive function.
Along with the many benefits of running (opens in a new tab)it’s also a relatively inexpensive way to get your daily dose of exercise. Although you can invest in one of the best treadmills (opens in a new tab) So you can work out in the comfort of your own home, as long as you have a decent pair of sneakers, you can lace up and run anytime, anywhere.
What is cardio exercise?
“What sets cardio apart from other forms of exercise is the reliance on your body’s ability to use oxygen during a workout,” explains Jack McNamara, a strength coach and professor of clinical exercise physiology. “This use of oxygen, also called aerobic metabolism, helps our body extract energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) from amino acids, carbohydrates, and fatty acids to fuel our muscles, usually for longer activities. That’s why A We often hear cardio referred to as aerobic exercise, that is, with oxygen.
“The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) defines aerobic exercise as ‘any activity that uses large muscle groups, is continuously maintainable, and is rhythmic in nature.’ All types of physical activity count as aerobic exercise, regardless of intensity: cycling, dancing, hiking, swimming, and even walking.”
jack mcnamara (opens in a new tab) is a highly experienced strength coach and lecturer in clinical exercise physiology. Since he began his career in 2005, McNamara has trained numerous athletes, worked as a clinical exercise physiologist, and taught graduate-level exercise science courses. His extensive experience was recognized last year when he became the first person to receive Master Trainer (Europe) and Chartered Practitioner (UK) status.
Most experts agree that to get the maximum benefits from cardiovascular exercise, you should aim to move at a moderate intensity or higher; can measure whether or not you have reached a “moderate” intensity by being able to talk but not sing while exercising.
The benefits of cardiovascular exercise include improving heart health, helping to prevent or manage cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes, and reducing symptoms of mental health problems such as depression and anxiety; plus, the runner’s euphoria is hard to beat!
Is running cardio?
Yes, running definitely counts as cardio exercise.
“Running not only uses large muscle groups continuously and rhythmically, it also makes our heart work harder and requires us to use more oxygen to sustain it,” says McNamara.
“Unless you’re working at very high intensities, like running, running will generally challenge our heart and lungs more or at least as much as our muscles, at least at the beginning of a race!”
How to improve cardiovascular fitness
Working on your technique is one of the best ways to push yourself harder and more safely during a race.
“For most of us, running is something we’ve ‘just done’ since we were kids, so we don’t pay attention to our posture, technique, or running pace,” says McNamara.
“By shortening our stride and increasing our cadence, the total number of steps we take each minute, we can benefit from not only better cardiovascular fitness, but also reduced risk of injury and more efficient running technique that leads to better running.” performance”.
Sprint and anaerobic exercise
You can add some quick short exercises like sprints to get some anaerobic exercise (opens in a new tab).
“Anaerobic exercise is physical activity that causes the body to break down glucose for energy without oxygen,” says McNamara. “This usually happens inside the body when the demand for oxygen exceeds the supply. In general, these activities are of short duration and high intensity.”
It can be a great way to put your running to work to strengthen your bones, as well as increase your lactate threshold (allowing you to work harder for longer) and improve overall power.
To increase the intensity of your workouts, McNamara recommends:
- Increase the number of sprint intervals
- Reduced active recovery/rest periods
- Increase the duration of the hard part of your intervals
- Change your terrain or add slopes
- increasing your speed
