Flat stomach - weight loss

If you think that the best exercises for a flat stomach are crunches you are wrong. Why? Because stomach crunches will only help you tone your belly. Crunches will allow you to achieve a pretty "six pack" ABS but you have to remember that you can do that only when you burn fat that is covering your stomach muscles first. So in fact the best stomach exercises are those which burn the fat from you organism which bring us to Cardio exercises.

What are Cardio exercises?

Well, Cardio exercises are a method in which you exercise at average intensity level for specific amount of time - 30 to 60 minutes. By doing that you will burn fat, calories and also you will develop your endurance. Cardio exercises are the best training for people that want to lose weight. Everybody can do them and it's a great way for burning fat and making your heart and lunges stronger - it is the best training for your heart.

Why is it good?

When you are doing exercises at average intensity level for a long time you force your heart to work hard, because a lot of oxygen needs to transported to your body with your blood and it is done by heart. Those exercises will not only strengthen your heart but your entire body. The more intense training is the more oxygen is needed. That's why when the training is more intense the oxygen-free processes are introduced because the amount of oxygen needed is not enough. But because fat is burn only in oxygen environment the best training for fat burning is a training with average level of intensity and the one that last for a long period of time. The high intense training will burn the carbohydrates first, not your fat storage and this is not what you want to do when trying to lose some weight.

What is important to remember is that our heart is a muscle. So it needs to be trained in order to work efficiently. The more efficient your heart is the more efficient is your entire body and this will help to burn more fat. Why? Because organism is capable of getting enough of oxygene to your blood which is necessary to burn the fat as a source of energy. That's why it's a good idea to train at least 30 to 60 minutes and look after your heart pulse. One of the biggest mistakes of people trying to lose weight is training at the high intensity level but in a short time. The effect of that kind of training is rather small.


How can we measure the intensity of the training?

The most popular method is checking the pulse of our heart. You could do that easily using pulse heart measure devices. First you have to understand what is the maximum heart pulse and how to calculate it. The maximum heart pulse is a maximum pulse you could train safely (when it comes to your heart) depending on your age. You can calculate it easily with this formula :
Tmax = 220 - age

Training with average level of intensity (Cardio training) should be done with 60-70% of your maximum heart pulse. This is called zone 2 or fat burning zone. The other zones of training are:
Zone 1 - (50-60% of Tmax) - low intense training - good for your health
Zone 3 - (70-80%) - training to improve your endurance
Zone 4 - (80-90%) - high intense training in which organism is not capable of getting enough oxygen and it is forced to use oxygen-free processes in which carbohydrates are burn.
Zone 5 - (90-100%) - very high intensity. Doing exercises at this level is only possible for small amount of time.


How often and how long should we train?

For Cardio exercises to be successfull you have to do them 3 times a week for at least 30 minutes - optimal time is 60 minutes of training. You can start with 30 minutes and while you gain confidence and endurance you can extend the training to 60 minutes or longer. You can also extend the intensity of the training but not by much.

What are the best, most popular cardio exercises?

- bike riding - normal or stationary is a great cardio exercise. It is possible to burn up to 500 calories in 30 minutes of workout.
- swimming - great for all of your body parts. Swimming for 30 minutes can burn up to 400 calories.
- tennis, squash - fast running from one site to another makes it great cardio training. You can burn up to 400 calories while playing tennis for 30 minutes.
- running - great because all you need is good shoes. While running for 30 minutes you can burn up to 300 calories.

If you introduce systematic cardio training into your week plan it will boost your overall health and help you lose weight. Cardio exercises are great weapon when it comes to weight loss, your health, your heart condition or stress, high blood pressure or even diabetes.