Aerobics exercises are an important part of any fitness regime that targets at weight loss and gain of lean muscle mass. Aerobic exercise involves cardiovascular workouts – a combination of high-intensity rhythmic activity that involves the movement of a large groups of muscles at a fast pace. Aerobic activities pump up the heart rate and make the lungs work harder because the body’s need for oxygen increases. This in turn, increases energy levels, promotes fat loss, reduces stress and enhances cardiovascular health to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Health Benefits of Aerobics Exercises
Aerobics exercises involves repeated intense movement of the arms, legs and hips that promote the heart rate and leads to deeper and faster breathing which not only induces calorie burn, but also improves cardiovascular health and promotes the release of feel-good hormone endorphins. Here are a few amazing health benefits of aerobics workouts.
Promotes Weight Loss – Moderately intense aerobics activities for 30 to 60 minutes can help in weight management and promote calorie burning. It can help in solving overweight problems.
Improved Bone and Muscle Health – Regular aerobic exercises strengthens the bones, muscles and tissues and helps in reducing the risk of osteoporosis, lower back pain and other chronic bone diseases.
Increased Stamina – Medium intensity aerobic exercises helps in improving stamina by boosting the body ability to use oxygen by promoting the heart to send more blood to the muscles. As you get fitter, various activities such as jogging, swimming and cycling becomes easier for you.
Keep the Heart Healthy – Regular aerobic exercises boosts the level of HDL (good cholesterol) in blood while lowering the level of LDL (bad cholesterol) in blood, thereby reducing the risk of plaque build-up in the arteries.
Manage Chronic Diseases – Aerobic exercises can help in effective management of certain chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and coronary artery disease.
Boost the Mood – Aerobics exercises promotes the release of feel-good hormone endorphins that helps in reducing depression, anxiety and stress and promotes the feeling of relaxation.
10 Effective Aerobics Exercises to Burn Calories
You don’t need to sweat it out every day in the gym to have a lean body. Power packed aerobics activities that you can do both indoors and outdoors are an easy and fun-filled way to burn calories and have a lean figure.
Power Walking
Power walking is the easiest moderate-intensity aerobics exercise that can be done by anybody. It does not require any equipment other than a comfortable walking shoe and the level of intensity can be adjusted to match your fitness level. You can walk outside or indoors on a treadmill and done in the right way it can help in burning fat as fast as jogging.
Power walking reduces the risk of injury to joints and muscles because your legs hit the ground with much less force in case of walking. It is best to walk at a pace of 4.5 miles per hour for optimum calorie burning because walking at this pace can burn up to 345 calories per hour. So tighten your walking shoes and hit the road.
Jogging
Jogging is another popular aerobics exercise that pumps up the heart rate and improves metabolism, which in turn speeds up the fat burning process of the body. You can practice spot jogging (jogging in a place) or choose a track for jogging. It is a year-round physical activity that can be done both outdoors and indoors. What makes jogging so effective in shedding extra pounds is its capacity to work out each and every part of the body at the same time.
Try to maintain a pace of 8 miles per hour for best results. But you must consult your doctor before starting off with your jogging program, more so if you are over 40 years of age. Begin with brisk walking and gradually increase your pace and intensity.
Cycling
Cycling is one of the entertaining and fun filled aerobics exercises that boosts the heart rate and helps in improving cardiovascular health. You can use a stationary bike or cycle outdoors in challenging terrains in order to increase the difficulty of the exercise. Cycling works out almost all the major muscles of the body; especially lower part of the body and helps in improving the muscle tone of the thighs, legs and hips.
Steady cycling for an hour increases the metabolic rate you that your body keeps burning calories long after you have finished the ride. Cycling at a moderate pace of 10 miles per hour burns 372 calories, at a pace of 14 miles per hour helps to burn 745 calories and at a pace of 20 miles per hour helps to burn almost 1117 calories.
Aerobic Dance
Aerobic dances such as Zumba and Belly Dancing have become a popular part of aerobics classes because it not only helps in losing fat, but also aids in achieving a flexible body and flat belly. Zumba involves high-intensity aerobic activity combined with interval training for fast calorie burn.
The moves of Zumba concentrate on working out each and every body part and an hour of Zumba can help you lose 400 to 600 calories. Belly dancing is a sexy and exotic way to stay in shape. It helps in improving body posture and promotes weight loss by burning a lot of calories.
Swimming
Swimming is by far the best aerobic exercise that boosts up the heart rate and improves muscle strength and endurance without posing any impact of stress on the body. The intense moves such as butterfly stroke and breast stroke tones the muscles and helps in burning calories. It is an effective all-round activity that works for all-over body workout.
A session of intense freestyle swimming can burn 350 calories in 30 minutes and a secession of leisurely swimming can burn 200 to 250 calories in 30 minutes. Therefore, an hour of swimming can burn approximately 400 to 700 calories, which is pretty beneficial for your weight loss targets.
Stair Training
Aerobics exercise for weight loss must include stair training that is a simple yet effective way to boost the heart rate and improve cardiovascular health. It is an amazing warm up exercise that burns a lot of calories and helps in toning the lower body that makes it a popular part of circuit training and interval training routines.
You can begin by walking up and down a flight of stairs for 15 to 20 minutes and slowly increase the time to 30 minutes. Staircase exercises are a great out of gym workout that can be done without any equipment.
Circuit Training
Circuit training is a combination of resistance training exercises and aerobics exercises that makes it a high-intensity workout program specially designed for those interested in weight loss, muscle gain and improved over-all strength. The exercises in circuit training session are performed one after the other in quick succession with minimal rest in between.
This helps in maintaining the heart beat at elevated levels and boosts up metabolism so that the body keeps burning calories long after the session has ended. In addition, circuit training works each and every part of the body and therefore, is a complete over-all workout program.
Skipping Ropes
Jumping ropes is a cheap and easy to do high-intensity aerobic workout that helps in muscle toning and weight loss. Skipping targets the muscles of the shoulders, thighs, butt and calves and due to its high energy, it increases the heart rate and burns a lot of calories.
You can burn up to 930 calories in an hour by skipping at moderate pace. You can start off with the basic jumping moves and gradually try out different jumping patterns like side steps, cross jumps and speed steps. So, grab your rope and get into the fitness mode.
Core Power Yoga
The most important muscles in our body are the core muscles that comprise the abdominal and back muscles and core power yoga is an effective aerobic exercise that targets at working out these particular set of muscles in order to increase flexibility and promote weight loss. Core power yoga involves a series of cardio exercise that are performed in a heated room, but the postures must be repeated at a fast pace to gain maximum benefits.
Core power yoga strengthens and tones the muscles of the abdomen and the back and is also effective in increasing the flexibility of the hip and the pelvis. In addition, core power yoga also helps to increase stamina and concentration and reduce stress.
Kick Boxing
Kick boxing is one of the power packed aerobics exercises that can help you a developing a leaner and stronger body. It is a full-body aerobic workout that pumps up the heart rate and promotes weight loss by working out the core muscles. Kickboxing is a combination of martial arts techniques and high-intensity aerobics that can burn up to 750 calories in an hour. Therefore, a session of intense kickboxing helps in burning a lot more calories compared to jogging or walking and you can also learn various fun moves and use the techniques for self-defence.
When it comes to aerobics exercises, you are spoiled for choices. So, take up the activity that suits you best and start working towards a fitter and healthier “You”.