Overview

Aerobic exercise improves the ability of your heart and lungs to pump oxygen and other nutrients to the rest of your body. When you exercise to improve your cardiovascular fitness, your heart rate is a good indicator of how intensely you should train to continue seeing improvements. Once you know your resting heart rate and maximum heart rate, you can adjust your cardio sessions to get the most from your time exercising.

Target Heart Rate Zone

To improve your cardiovascular health, exercise for periods of 20 to 60 minutes at an intensity level that targets your aerobic system, usually between 60 and 80 percent of your maximum heart rate. When you exercise outside this zone, you’re performing anaerobic exercise, useful for building strength rather than cardiovascular health.

Resting Heart Rate To calculate your maximum heart rate and target heart rate zone, you’ll need to know your resting heart rate, or RHR, first. Your RHR is a measure of beats per minute, or BPM, when your heart is at rest and undergoing no physical exertion. Take your pulse for one minute first thing in the morning, preferably after you’ve woken up naturally. If you must get up before taking your pulse, lie back down for one to two minutes before measuring.

Maximum Heart Rate

Your maximum heart rate, or MHR, is an estimate of your heart rate if you were to physically exert yourself at 100 percent intensity. Your target heart rate zone for aerobic exercise is 60 to 80 percent of your MHR. To calculate your target heart rate zone, subtract your age from 220 to find your maximum heart rate. Multiply that number by .6 and by .8 to find your target heart rate range.

Checking Your Pulse

To ensure that you’re staying within your target heart rate zone, check your pulse periodically as you exercise. If you have access to a heart monitor, glance at it to make sure you’re in the zone. If you don’t have a monitor but want to quickly measure your heart rate, count your heart beats for 10 seconds and multiply by six.

Overview When designing a fitness plan, there will be two forms of exercise that you want to integrate: cardiovascular and anaerobic. To understand what exercise will fall into the cardiovascular category, you must know a little more about these two main ways of working out. Before beginning to exercise, talk to your doctor to determine if you are strong enough for cardiovascular routines.

Aerobic vs. Anaerobic

Both aerobic and anaerobic exercise is part of a well-thought-out fitness plan. Aerobic exercise requires an increase in oxygen intake. This primary purpose is to burn stored fat by increasing the heart rate for an extended time. Anaerobic exercise is shorter and more intense. Many people may associate anaerobic exercise with weight lifting, but that is just one example. The University of Wisconsin lists racquetball and sprinting as additional examples of anaerobic exercise.

What Qualifies as Cardio Exercise Cardio is merely a short way to say cardiovascular training or aerobic exercise. The key is in the heart rate. During cardio exercises, you want to increase your heart rate to around 60 to 80 percent of the maximum rate for your age. Any exercise that gets you moving can accomplish this task. A brisk walk, jogging, riding a bike or dancing are all examples of cardio workouts. About Maximum Heart Rate Maximum heart rate, or MHR, is the fastest your heart can beat safely during exercise. This can vary per person, but generally age is the defining factor. From your maximum heart rate, you can determine a target heart rate zone. This can be between 60 and 80 percent of the MHR. Maximum heart rate and target zones are absolute numbers to know when planning cardio exercise. For a workout to qualify as cardio, you must keep your heart rate in the target zone for at least 15 to 20 minutes. A fast way to calculate MHR is to subtract your age from 220. For example, if you are 40 years old, your MHR would be 180 beats per minute. Once you know your MHR, you can estimate a target heart rate by taking 60 and 80 percent of this number. In the example, the target heart rate zone would be between 108 to 144 beats per minute. This is a rough estimate. Your doctor can help you find the best target heart rate for your fitness level. Intensity The target heart rate is crucial to getting the most out of the cardio workout. MayoClinic.com reports that what most individuals perceive as a vigorous workout may not fall into that category. Intensity is what makes aerobics work. To live a fit lifestyle, you should do 150 minutes of cardio workouts a week. This means you can jog, walk briskly, take an aerobics class or swim — as long as you maintain the intensity of the exercise and increase the heart rate to the target zone. Taking your pulse after the warm up will help you measure your heart rate, and once you reach the right number, you know you are doing cardio exercise.

Overview:

In December 2008, an extract of the stevia plant, was approved as a sweetener by the United States Food and Nutrition Board. The stevia rebaudiana Bertoni plant is a bush that grows in Central and South America. A dose of approximately 4 to 15 mg for each kg of body weight a day has been shown to produce no adverse side effects in people to date and is helpful for people with types 1 and 2 diabetes as well as those with hypertension who are looking to control their blood sugar. 

  Weight Loss

The key to losing weight is understanding that your weight is a balancing act, depending on you consuming less calories than you burn a day. One pound of fat is equal to approximately 3,500 calories. Therefore, if you are looking to lose a pound a week, you need to either consume 500 calories a day less than you have been, or burn off an extra 500 calories a day through physical activity. This is possible on almost any diet you decide to follow, as long as you are satisfied enough to stay on the diet.

Stevia for Weight Loss

Stevia is non-nutritive, meaning it is virtually calorie free. One gram of stevia contains zero calories, zero fat, zero carbohydrates, zero sodium and zero protein. To understand how this compares to sugar, 1 g of sugar contains 4 calories, and each teaspoon of sugar you use is 4 g, therefore 16 calories. Consider that one 12 oz. can of sweetened soda contains 8 tsp. of added sugar, which adds 130 calories to your diet. Replacing added sugar in your diet with zero calorie stevia can lower your daily caloric intake, helping you to lose weight, with the caloric difference depending on how much added sugar you currently consume.

Switching to Stevia

Raw stevia is 10 to 15 times sweeter than sugar, and stevia extract is said to be 200 to 300 times as sweet, so you only need a fraction of the amount as you would of sugar. Keep this in mind when using stevia in daily use and adjust the amount needed to your taste. Stevia is heat stable, so it can be used in cooking and baking. To adjust your recipes, use 1 tsp. liquid stevia, or 1/3 to 1/2 tsp. stevia extract powder, equal to 18 to 24 packs of stevia, for every 1 cup of sugar, and be sure to add 1/3 of a cup of liquid, or bulk, to adjust for the lost volume. 

Replacing sugar in your diet with stevia may help you in cutting down your consumed calories, which can lead to weight loss.

Your butt is made of of three muscles, called the gluteus minimus, gluteus maximus and gluteus medius, collectively called the glutes. When trained, these muscles will grow to give you the appearance of a larger, more rounded butt. Include these exercises into your fitness routine every other day to start to see an increase in the size of your butt.

Step Up

The step up will work target your butt, and also work your thighs and abs. Stand in front of a bench or a chair, holding dumbbells in each hand if you wish. Engage your abs by pulling your belly button to your spine for balance, and place your right foot onto the bench or the seat of the chair.

Squeeze your glutes as you step yourself up, so your left foot is level with your right, then lift your left knee up towards your chest. Lower your left leg, then lower your body down until your left toe is brushing the ground to complete one rep. Perform three sets of 12 to 15 reps, then repeat on the other side.

 

One-Legged Deadlift The one-legged deadlift will tone and strengthen your butt, helping to increase the size of the muscle to give you a bigger butt. Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, holding a five-to-10-pound dumbbell in each hand. Shift your weight onto your right foot, keeping your torso steady, and bend your left leg behind you. This is the starting position.

Tip forward at the hip, allowing your left leg to extend out behind you, and keeping your back straight as you allow the dumbbells to move towards the floor. Squeeze your glutes to straighten at the hip joint and pull yourself back to the starting position. Complete three sets of 12 to 15 reps, then repeat on the other side.

One-Legged Squat

The one-legged squat will strengthen and tone the glutes and thighs of the working leg, to help give you a bigger butt. Stand with your feet close together, and engage your abs by pulling your belly button to your spine—this will help you balance. Extend your left leg out in front of you, holding your left foot about two feet (60 cm) off the ground. This is the starting position.

Sink down into a squat, using your abs to keep yourself balanced, and sit down until your right thigh is parallel to the floor. Squeeze your glutes as you push with your right leg to bring yourself back to the starting position to complete one rep. Perform three sets of 12 to 15 reps, then repeat on the other side.

If you are just learning this exercise, you may not be able to accomplish a complete squat, but as you improve your balance and strength, you can work towards deeper squats.