While cardiovascular exercise offers a lot of health-related benefits, one positive result of regularly working out is improved endurance. This essentially means that you can engage in longer bouts of physical activity, thus providing additional health benefits in addition to helping improve your performance in sports and other physically demanding activities.
Some cardio activities are superior to others when it comes to building your cardiovascular endurance, and these include:
- Walking. The great thing about walking is that you can literally do it anywhere. You can do it on a treadmill in the gym, around your house or workplace, while away on vacation, and in any other geographical location you find yourself in at the moment. Plus, it is easy on your body, which makes it a preferred choice if you have trouble with your knees or other lower body joints.
- Jogging. Jogging offers the same type of cardio endurance benefits as walking, but it burns more calories as an added bonus. So, if you have a couple of pounds to lose, you may want to choose this option to speed up the results. Just make sure you increase your jogging times slowly if you’re new to this activity to avoid injuring your muscles, ligaments, or tendons.
- Swimming. Swimming is a great low-impact cardiovascular exercise for building your stamina. If you have a pool at home, great. If not, a lot of gyms or recreational centers offer pool use to their members, which may be an enticing reason to join. Start with just a few laps and add them on as you feel more able.
- Bicycling. Whether cycling indoors or out, both options offer endurance as a benefit, so choose either one or mix and match them if you’d like. Don’t be afraid to increase the pace or add a route with higher hills as you become more comfortable with this exercise, boosting your endurance even more.
Which one of these do you enjoy most? Why? Comment below!