Activity is the jugular vein of living a healthy life. Naturally, a human body is designed in a way that prefers an active lifestyle. And when someone goes against nature, health starts heading south.
Unfortunately, life nowadays is very inactive. More and more jobs are getting bound to an office desk and the comfy cosy entertainment of Netflix and Youtube is further adding fuel to fire.
In such a case, it is important to choose some sort of activity in life and Exercising definitely comes on top of everything.
Now there are many mods of exercising. Yoga, Cardio and HIITs like Tabata Training are the most common ones. And they are all fine to do.
Each mode of exercise is good for health and can lead to happiness. You can pick one or a mix of all depending on the fitness goals you have.
But the critical thing is that you are picking something! They are all good and will benefit you one way or the other.
Based on what your fitness goals are, in this article, we are going to help you pick your mode of exercise. It can be Yoga, Cardio, HIIT or a mix of all.
Also, since modern Yoga is transformed a lot with the inclusion of science, it will be interesting to shed some light on the topic of “Is Yoga cardio“?
Because there are many Asanas of yoga, that will increase your heart rate and keep it pumped up for quite some time after workout.
How is Modern Yoga Cardio?
From the invention of Bikram Yoga to the use of space-age fabrics, yoga is becoming more modernized. In most asanas, you pay attention to the breath while challenging the body in poses.
Those challenges are definitely going to pump your heart rate up and give you benefits of a cardio workout. This is where yoga becomes cardio.
Following are some of the benefits you can get from yoga as a cardio workout:
- better sleep
- lower blood pressure
- increased flexibility
- and improved mood
Impact of science on Modern Yoga?
Yoga is an ancient practice that has been evolving to keep up with the demands of our fast-paced society.
As a result, there are now a plethora of styles and techniques to choose from, as well as many different ways to incorporate it into your lifestyle.
Science has also been researching the benefits of yoga and how it can help improve mental and physical health.
If you want to improve your cardiovascular health, and are not fond of high intensity workouts, then yoga is a good alternative to get in shape and improve cardiovascular fitness.
But remember, every mode of exercise is good and better than others in it’s own way.
When it comes to attaining optimal cardio vascular health, there is nothing better than High intensity interval training (HIIT).
What is HIIT?
HIIT is the abbreviation for high-intensity interval training. You may also know it as high-intensity intermittent exercise.
HIIT is a sort of cardiovascular exercise that fluctuates between hard anaerobic exercise and short-term recovery periods.
If you have limited time but still want to get an effective workout in, then HIIT must be your choice. It is definitely the “work smarter, not harder” plan of exercise.
Before starting any kind of HIIT routine, be sure that you have mobility, flexibility, and enormous energy to try any of its exercises.
What is HIIT good for?
HIIT like any other mode of exercise has many health benefits. Some of them include lower body fat, increase in heart rate leading to better cardiovascular health and blood pressure.
Also, you will experience lower blood sugar and improvement in insulin sensitivity.
But make sure that you are keeping a 24 hours gap in 2 HIIT sessions and not extending your sessions from 2 to 3 per week. Otherwise HIIT can do more harm to your body than benefits.
What is Cardio?
Cardio is any exercise that pumps your heart rate and keeps it pumped up for a good while.
This mode of Exercising really puts pressure on the respiratory system because due to heavy heart rate, the blood flows faster and your body needs a deeper and faster supply of oxygen.
Running is the most common form of cardio workout but you can find many other ways in comparison to running here.
What is Cardio good for?
Since cardio is an aerobic mode of exercise that continuously puts pressure on larger muscle groups.
It is especially good for long-distance stamina testing activities.
For example, if you are preparing for a marathon, you need to practice Cardio Exercises like taking a run or several short runs every day.
Practising it several times a week will get you in shape to fight up the long racing distance on the marathon day.
Cardio is also good for imaginative clarity, overcoming stress, and improving self-confidence. Anyone who has gone deep in nature can attest to its therapeutic abilities.
What is Yoga?
Modern yoga is a blend of spirituality, physical activity, art and science that brings together the physical activity and mental focus to achieve harmony between mind and body.
What is Yoga good for?
Yoga is good for weight loss, physical and mental welfare and many other benefits.
Other than physical health, yoga is also good in bringing harmony between mind and soul.
Check out 8 lesser-known benefits of Yoga in a video below:
Pros of HIIT Workouts
HIIT is recommended by Chinese physicians, yoga instructors, and health journalists to burn fat in a shorter time.
It burns 450 calories in 30 minutes for each adolescent. Way to produces lean muscles to burn fat and reasonably decrease belly fat.
It is a beneficial method for making men muscles and remodels their physique. “HIIT significantly reduced total (p = 0.003), abdominal (p = 0.007), and visceral (p = 0.018) fat mass,”.
It expands metabolic rate and strengthens your oxygen consumption. This is extremely valuable work.
1. Efficiency in HIIT
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) defines a workout that varies among intensive blasts of activity and set periods of less-intense activity or short-term rest.
If you want to reduce your weight efficiently and want to do a workout, must try HIIT exercise.
This is not a unique reason why HIIT is so famous. Read on to find the top benefits of HIIT workouts.
2. You can do HIIT from Anywhere
One of the foremost advantages of HIIT is that you don’t need any special equipment or space for an effective HIIT workout.
As the concept of HIIT is just to do maximum-intensity exercise in a short-term period. You can adjust it any time or space that curbs and get all the benefits.
HIIT involves categories like running, biking, jump roping, and rowing and fits all aerobic exercise.
3. HIIT is Ideal for Weight Loss
One of the endless reasons why HIIT workout is so famous is because they’re extremely useful for weight loss.
As you want to burn fat while trying to lose weight and build lean muscle to burn more fat. HIIT boosts your body to utilize energy from fat as opposed to carbs.
This makes losing fat more efficient. It’s hard to shed fat on a diet while sustaining muscle.
But studies have shown that with HIIT, you can save those hard-earned muscles while burning a large amount of fat.
4. HIIT Increases Metabolism
In addition to enhanced fat burning and muscle maintenance, HIIT workouts arouse the production of your human growth hormone (HGH). it goes up to 450% during the 24 hours after a workout.
This, in turn, enhances your metabolism in the short-term and later consistent HIIT workouts, increases your overall metabolic rate.
An upgraded rate of metabolism causes it less likely for you to gain weight.
A healthful metabolic system can shed toxins from your body more efficiently.
Doing a HIIT workout kick starts your body’s metabolism to a level that the fat burning effects last hours after the session have ended.
5. HIIT Improves Heart Health
Maybe one of the most valuable benefits of HIIT workout is promoting your cardiovascular health.
Commonly, people aren’t used to pushing themselves into the anaerobic zone.
HIIT workouts get you there in short outbursts while mixing in rest time, to refresh your heart and oxygen consumption.
HIIT has been proven to reduce blood pressure, heart rate, and blood sugar level.
Best HIIT Workouts:
- Push-ups
- Sit-ups
- Jumping jacks
- High knees
- Cable chops
Cons of HIIT:
- High chance of injury
- Prior skill involved
- Oblige to work up to this form of exercise
- Proper form is required
- Warm-up and post-exercise stretching is mandatory
- Restoration time between sessions is a must
Top 8 Cardio fitness practices for people suffering from Anxiety
- Brisk walking.
- Jogging or jogging in place.
- Bear crawls.
- Water aerobics.
- Cycling/bicycling
5 Pro Factors of Effective Cardio Program
1. Frequency
Frequency is the number of times a fitness enthusiast repeats a cardio activity during a week. A best practice is to do it 4-5 times a week and leave 2-3 days for rest.
Don’t overwork your body or it will harm your body instead of giving any benefits.
2. Intensity
Intensity refers to the energy levels you can put in a single session.
It is better to start a session with low-moderate intensity and test your limits only around the endpoints of a workout session.
3. Time
Time is about how much time you can spend in a cardio session. 25-30 minutes for beginners and 50-90 minutes for moderate and advanced fitness enthusiasts is a good amount of time to go with.
4. Type
Type describes the type of exercises you can perform in a cardio session. Choose your type of cardio according to your fitness goals.
5. Enjoyment
Enjoyment obviously refers to how much you are enjoying your workout sessions.
When there are options there obviously will be some favourite types of cardio. While others suggest you avoid this.
Final Verdict
At the end of the day, every mode of exercising has its advantages and disadvantages.
Be it HIIT, Cardio or Yoga they are all good for your fitness. And it really depends on your goals that what you want to achieve from them.
HIIT is surely better at burning calories and aiding you to shed unwanted pounds. But at the same time, it takes a lot out of the human body at a very brisk pace, which many people don’t have a heart for.
Cardio on the other hand is doing the same but at a lot slower pace and also minimal effort in comparison to HIIT.
Yoga between them is a totally different approach to achieving health goals.
It focuses on flexibility and calmness but modern yoga can surprise you with the type of intense asanas it has.
Whatever exercise mode you prefer, HIIT, Yoga or steady-state cardio?
They are all good for your fitness goals. Try them and see which one suits you the best.