Health and Fitness Essentials The Cardio-vascular Workout.

All you need is a good pair of running shoes to get in a good cardiovascular workout. The majority of cardio-vascular exercises require little to no equipment from a third party to complete your routine. You can walk, dance, and run without any special equipment (well, if dancing, then maybe some music would help). Step, circuit training, biking, swimming, aerobics, and more are additional forms of cardio.

A person of average fitness can benefit from this cardio exercise; however, you should modify the duration and intensity depending on your level of fitness.

1. Start out walking and gradually increase your speed to a run for 20 minutes; this will help you warm up and get your blood flowing.

2. Rowing machine: Set the rowing machine for a 15-minute countdown or keep an eye on the clock or your watch. Use a slow rowing motion to get the pace going, keep it steady for the entire 13 minutes, and then use the final two minutes to slow it down.

3. Move right away to the exercise bike and ride steadily for 12 minutes before sprinting for the final 3 minutes.

4. After using the exercise bike, immediately use the step climber for 15 minutes of light-intensity climbing to warm up the legs. Since this is the last of your leg work, try to move quickly for the entire 15 minutes.

5. Move to the abs bench for some crunches after finishing the step climber. Your goal for this exercise is to complete 4 sets of crunches until failure. Try turning your body so that your right elbow touches your left knee and vice versa.

6. The leg raise machine is the final exercise in this brief cardio workout. As many reps as you can in three to four sets while bringing your knees to your chest (failure)

Remind yourself to fully warm down by stretching your muscles after finishing this cardio workout. You should spend about 1 hour and 20 minutes on the entire workout.