Pumping heart. Lungs working like a bellows. Blood pounding in your ears. A good cardio workout should lead to all these things, but there are far too many people who hate doing cardio.
In many cases, this is because people think jogging or running are the only ways to do cardio. A physical therapist can show you how to increase the amount of cardio in your daily routine. These specialists can even help you learn how to have fun with cardio, and they can help you address muscle or joint issues that are making your cardio less enjoyable. Here are three tips our physical therapists suggest for cardio haters:
- Jump around
One of the main reasons that people dread cardio is that doing half an hour or more of jogging can seem discouraging or overwhelming. However, this is far from the only way to increase how much cardio you’re doing. Doing some form of jumping can provide a great cardio workout.
Jumping rope. Trampolining. There’s lots of fun ways that you can jump around, and doing so can offer many benefits. Some of the benefits of jumping besides improving cardiovascular health include:
- Helping increase bone density
- Boosting the immune system
- Aiding digestion
- Supercharging your fat loss
- Promoting better brain function
- Go for a hike
Going on regular hikes is another fun way to increase how much cardio you’re doing. Hiking lets you get out into nature, and looking at the amazing views can help you walk longer and farther. It’s also a chance to reconnect with friends or loved ones, which can improve your mental health.
Other benefits that hiking can offer include:
- Improving your balance
- Building stronger muscles
- Reducing stress and anxiety
- Decreasing risk of depression
- Try some geocaching
Staying engaged with cardio can be challenging, but making it into a game can help you stay engaged. That’s where geocaching comes in. Geocaching is like modern-day treasure hunting. It involves using a GPS device to find containers called geocaches.
You can even try some digital geocaching with certain gaming apps. These apps reward you for walking, biking or running to specific locations. Some of the more popular geocache-style gaming apps include:
Peak Performance can help increase your cardiovascular health
Looking for more ways to increase how much cardio you’re doing? Our physical therapy team at Peak Performance can help you. We offer free screenings that can pinpoint muscle and joint issues that are making cardio difficult or even painful.
Our physical therapists also excel at building personalized therapy plans designed to address such issues and help improve your physical mobility. We can even help you get effective therapy from home thanks to the virtual therapy appointments we offer.
Contact us today for more information about how we can help with your mobility issues or to schedule an initial appointment.
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