Cardio, nutrition key to good fitness - Fitness is Beautiful

I love to sweat. There's just something about the beads of salty water mixed with urea dripping down my face. The Gatorade commercial exemplifies my desire to sweat. Thinking biologically in terms of fat loss, sweat is good, so why shouldn't I love sweat?

The very presence of sweat indicates that there is an increase in body temperature and your body is trying to cool itself. The increase in body temperature also shows that your body is burning calories in an effort to perform its function. The only part of this entire process you're really interested in is the fat part: work it off.

To get the fat off, your metabolism must be increased. I have already covered two ways to do this: build muscle and maintain proper nutrition. Muscle is a very active tissue, burning massive quantities of calories, while proper nutrition fuels your body with the right nutrients at the right time. The activity that burns the most calories on its own is cardiorespiratory activity.

There are two main types of cardio: continuous and interval. Studies have shown a combination of both to be most effective in burning off that spare tire. Continuous cardio consists of any activity performed at a slow pace for long periods of time. The Olympic equivalent is the marathon. Interval training incorporates both high and low intensities into the routine. An example would be to spring for 30 seconds and rest for another 30, repeating the pattern. For the beginner, it is best to use continuous activities for 20 minutes to start, in order to build up endurance.

There are many ways to do cardio. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) releases health and fitness guidelines each year for the general population. The most recent guidelines indicate that walking briskly for 30 minutes a day can fulfill cardio activity. This gets boring. Walking for 30 minutes, la-la-la-la. Have some fun with your cardio, mix it up, get on the climbing wall or play some basketball in the AC. If it's a nice day out as it is at the time I'm writing this article - and regretting not writing it on a rainy day - take to the streets. A favorite route of mine is the "loop." It encompasses the circumference of Homewood campus: North Charles to Art Museum, onto Wyman Pkwy. and around the back of the campus on West 39th St., finishing it off with University Pkwy. to close the loop. This is about two miles of light hills and slopes, a good route to take.

On the other hand, interval training is much easier to perform with some kind of measurement available. Use the treadmills or the cross-trainer and alternate speeds, changing every minute or so until you've reached a total of 10 to 20 minutes. Compared to continuous training, this may not seem like a long workout, but do it at the right intensity and you'll retract that thought.

If you hate to run, which is totally understandable, there are many alternative activities. The Hopkins swimming pool has recreational periods, which vary. The cardio room offers an array of machines to suit your preference, or for those who wish to take the outdoors path and don't mind a drive out of the city, hiking a trail is always fun and biking a trail is more fun. To adapt a quote from my hometown bud, Jim Shea, "mountain hiking may be the champagne of thrills, but mountain biking is the moonshine of thrills."

To close, cardio training is much more varied and less rigid than weight training, which serves to make it all the more fun. Yet the right combination of the big three, cardio, weights and nutrition, will put you on the right track to better health and fitness.