A Beginner's Guide to Basic Cardio Exercises and Weight Training

By: Matthew Hall

Chapter 1 - Answering the Two Most Important Questions about Exercise

In the late 19th century, the first useful books and publications dealing with health, fitness, exercise, and physical activities emerged. As for today, there are hundreds of new publications being printed every year covering the same ideas all while broadening the subject matter. Surprisingly, while much of our knowledge about exercise has expanded, many of the goals remain the same, such as improved health, fitness and an overall improvement on life. 

Of course, this can only be achieved if you understand the fundamentals of exercise programs. There are many different exercises, each one giving different results. However, all exercises programs - past and present - will focus on a properly devised plan for success. 

This means you should always select the right exercise program for your needs, current fitness level, and lifestyle. For example, let's look at a two types of cardio training: anaerobic and aerobic workouts. While both of these cardio programs involve increased heart rate and lung functionality, their intensity levels are significantly different.

As for exactly how you should exercise is sort of a difficult question to answer in general terms. If I were to try and answer this in the simplest terms possible, I would say to exercise in a challenging yet safe manner. However, this is not an endorsement of perpetually low impact or low intensity training. Even though there is nothing wrong with low intensity training, it can lead to plateaus. If you are looking for exceptional strength, weight loss, or athletic performance, you will need to take your training to the next level.

But you need to stay within the limits of your own personal health and safety standards. Sprinting at high anaerobic levels burns a ton of calories and significantly increases stamina as well as muscle endurance. But you must be careful, anaerobic levels increase your heart rate enormously and make the processing of oxygen difficult, so make sure your at that level before proceeding. For a highly competitive and experienced athlete, anaerobic training is a must. Basketball, football, and hockey players, for example, require tons of anaerobic exercise in order to stay in the game.

Without anaerobic exercise training, they would never possess the stamina needed to do so. Similarly, someone new to exercise and conditioning should stay well below anaerobic training levels and stick to aerobic training. It is much less strenuous and requires less extreme physical attributes.

So the main goal of all exercise is picking the right program to achieve goals. But what are the most important goals of an exercise program? 

Chapter 2 - Defining and Achieving the Main Goals of any Exercise Program

No matter what exercise program you choose, you should have two main goals: to lose fat fast and an increase lean muscle mass.

While many people assume this is mainly for cosmetic purposes, there are many health benefits to losing fat. Obesity is often the cause of health related disorders such as heart disease, hypertension, kidney and liver problems, and strokes. 

Keep in mind you do not have to be morbidly obese to suffer from these problems. Even 20 pounds of excess weight can prove to be highly problematic. The best way to deal with this is through a combination of diet and exercise.

Far too often, however, many people attempt to reduce fat solely through diet. This is not the right course of action to take because a healthy diet alone will not increase cardiovascular conditioning nor will it improve heart functionality. So remember that exercise is a must, even if it is only a few times a week.

Excess fat is the result of stored calories. If you consume more calories than you burn, the excess calories will be stored as fat. The best way to burn it off is through a combination of cardiovascular exercise and weight training. Cardiovascular exercise involves physical activities such as playing sports, walking, running, and so on. Weight training deals with progressive resistance exercises or weightlifting.

Now, some people may assume that weight training is not as helpful for fat loss as cardio exercise is. This is not true at all! Weight training is a very critical component for increased weight loss! Muscle is denser than fat and it requires much more calories to sustain itself and increase in size and strength. This means that muscle will really help in burning fat since it automatically increases your fat burning rate.

So, if you want to increase the benefits of any exercise program, you should follow this three step approach: maintain a healthy diet, include progressive resistance weight training in your routine, and obviously cardiovascular exercise is a must. But here is some really good news; weightlifting and cardio exercise is not as difficult as many people believe. Seriously, anyone can do either of them, and once you start you will progressively get better and better so your motivation will increase and that extra fat will decrease.

Chapter 3 - The Basics of Weight Training

Muscles grow when they are overloaded. That is, when excess stress is placed on the muscle, it will grow larger in order to handle the load. This is simply the way our bodies are built. It wouldn’t be efficient for our bodies to constantly struggle with increased physical activities. So, in order to reduce the physical stress, a muscle will grow to handle the workload. This is where weight training comes from. 

Simply put, when you perform a weighted exercise on any major muscle group you overload the muscle and stimulate growth. The most common and most effective way of doing this is through the use of free weights. These come in the form of barbells or dumbbells, or anything that is not connected to a machine or cable/pulley. However, they are not the only means of overloading a muscle. 

Machine weights can be used as well. These systems either use cables connected to the weights or the resistance is devised through air compression. Also, light to medium intensity elastic cords can be useful as well, for a quick workout. While all these devices have their benefits, free weights are the absolute best for overloading the muscles and increasing muscle strength and size.

There are two types of weightlifting exercises: compound and isolation. Compound exercises involve using more than one muscle group with the intention of increasing muscle mass, these exercises are the best because they stimulated multiple muscle groups all at once which is more efficient and lead to an overall stronger physic. Isolated exercises are designed to improve the shape of a muscle or to rehab an injury. Common compound exercises include bench press, military press, squats and dead lifts.

Common isolation exercises include chest flys, triceps press downs, and leg extensions. Focus on compound exercises for your routine and save the isolation exercises for fine-tuning. 

Exercises are performed in repetitions and sets. A repetition is the number of times the exercise is performed before stopping. A set refers to how many times a series of repetitions are performed. So, if you were to perform 6 squats two times, this would be known as 2 sets of 6 reps.

When you want your muscles to grow, you need to force them to grow. This means lifting heavy. Now don’t lift so heavy that you risk an injury, especially if you’re a beginner, but if you’re doing 10 reps with a certain weight, for any exercise, you need to move up. Don’t be afraid of adding more weight either, if you were doing 8 reps with a certain weight on one day, and the next time you do that exercise you were able to do 10 reps of the same weight, add 5 or 10 more pounds. This will force yours muscles to adapt to the new weight by growing stronger.

Chapter 4 - Proper Weight Training Tips

It is not enough to merely lift weights. You must learn how to perform the exercises correctly in order to maximize the health benefits associated with the exercise. While there are many tips I can offer, there are three main areas that are the most important - intensity, rest, and duration of your routine, (nutrition is also a major factor, but that’s for another section).

Intensity refers to how strenuous the workout should be. Realistically, it should never be more strenuous than you can handle. While adding weight is important, adding too much, too soon can lead to muscle injuries. That, of course, means that you won’t be able to work out so you won’t achieve any results.

Duration: Ideally, you should warm up with light repetition exercises related to the muscle group they intend on working out that day for a few minutes and then lift weights for 30 - 45 minutes. Some may even go a full hour. However, anything more than an hour would be pushing your body past its natural limits and is considered overtraining. It would also be unnecessary since 45 minutes or so is more than enough to stimulate muscle growth.

Rest: Contrary to popular belief, muscles don’t grow in the gym. They grow while your resting, when the muscles recover. So, if you exercise the same muscle groups every day, you will not see any muscle growth. Instead, you should work out 4 - 5 days a week and never work the same muscle group more than twice a week. Anything else would be self-defeating. When you lift weights you break down your muscles through overload, when you rest you allow your muscles to repair themselves and grow stronger. So if you don’t allow your muscles to rest and repair themselves then how can they grow stronger?

Remember, the goal of weight training is to increase lean muscle mass to improve your metabolism and build a stronger body. If you follow a "less is more strategy" then you will reap the benefits of such workouts. When you overdo it, you increase the likelihood of muscle injuries, fatigue, and even depression. So always follow a sensible workout plan when you lift with heavy weights.

Chapter 5 - Cardio is King of Fat Loss

Without a doubt, the health benefits of cardiovascular exercise are profound. The impact of cardio training on body functions can lead to a significantly increased quality of life. After all, when your respiratory, circulation and immune systems are working at their maximum health potential they will be resistant to tons of common maladies.

Of course, cardio also burns fat fast and this eliminates the increasing multitude of problems that obesity causes. That is why cardio is king of the hill when it comes to fat loss.

On a baseline level, cardio exercises always involve physical movement. The more you move the more energy you expend. Since calories are basically stored energy, increasing your cardio intensity levels can be used to burn more and more stored fat. This is why people who perform a lot of cardio have a "ripped" muscular appearance.

Their muscles are more pronounced since their body fat percentage is low.

Now, while higher intensity cardio programs will burn more fat than low intensity programs, low intensity programs are valuable as well. Walking, for example, is the most popular form of low intensity cardio work. Walking can be performed by anyone regardless of fitness level and it does wonders for burning calories. However, for maximum benefit, it is wise to walk for long durations since it is a low intensity workout. I would recommend that you start walking every chance that your get. Don’t take the elevator, take the stairs, walk your kids to school rather than driving, etc.

Jogging is a higher intensity exercise than walking and, of course, running would be of greater intensity than jogging. So which exercise should you choose? The one that your current fitness level supports! You can up the intensity level at any time when you feel ready. But do not rush the process, just go with the flow and proceed when your current level becomes to easy.

Also, keep your cardio workouts on different days than your weight training workouts. You want your muscles to absorb as much nutrients as they can within 24 hours of that workout, and they can’t do that if your cardio is using up those nutrients as fuel.

Probably one of the best benefits of cardio workouts is their variety. Basically, anything that involves physical activity can be converted into a cardio workout. So, you really can choose a cardio program that fits your interests whether it is tennis, kickboxing, aerobics, basketball, etc.

This will also have a profound psychological advantage as well since developing an interest in a particular hobby can stimulate a sense of positive feeling and exponentially increase motivation. So yes, there is much more to cardio than most people assume!

Chapter 6 - Combining Weight Training and Cardio Workout Programs

In the previous chapter, I briefly discussed the psychological and health benefits of cardio workouts. Well, if you wish to maximize the psychological and health benefits, it would be wise to mix cardio and weight training exercises together. A combined workout program would dramatically improve your physical appearance.

This would obviously have a huge impact on your self-esteem and motivation as well. Also, the physical health benefits of a combined workout program would yield an overall psychological wellbeing. Could this be achieved by only following one workout program? Yes, but the odds will increase dramatically if both are utilized.

A duel workout program is not as tough as some people may assume. Here is a simple, beginner program that can be easily performed:

Weight Training: Over the course of 4 days, all the major muscle groups will be worked. Day 1 - shoulders and biceps, Day 2 - triceps and chest, Day 3 - legs, Day 4 - upper and lower back. Include a few compound exercises as well as 1 or 2 isolation exercises for each workout.

Cardio Training: Two days a week with 30 minutes or more of cardio exercises would work extremely well. (Anything less than 20 minutes will not rev the heart up enough to have a significant impact). You can perform the two-cardio days during your days off from weight training. This, of course, leaves one full day off for rest and recovery.

Does this workout program need to be followed to a T week after week? No, you can miss a day or two here and there. As we all know life does get in the way sometimes, but if you are generally consistent with your workouts you will see some major results.

Of course, this brief overview is exactly that - an overview. As you gain experience, you will gradually move closer and closer to your dream body. You may choose to change up your workout program once in a while. But the concept of cardio, weight training, and muscle recovery will remain an important part of your lifestyle. Then again, there is good reason for this: it dramatically improves your health and helps you sculpt the future you. Now, isn’t that what we all aspire towards?