Sunday, October 18, 2009

Bodybuilding Tips, The Best Cardio Machines

By Ricardo d Argence

Anytime you walk into a traditional gym around the country, there will be a healthy supply of cardio machines. Whether its treadmills, stationary bikes, stair climbers, ellipticals or any other cardio machine out there, you have plenty of choices.

A well structured cardio program obviously plays an important role in any effective fat burning workout plan; but which cardio machines are best and what criteria should we use to determine which machines to focus on?

It need not be a complicated process, but here are the 2 main factors that I would suggest looking out for when deciding which machines to include in your program.

1) The best option upfront is to find a cardio machine that is easy to use. Your goal here is to keep your session short, concise, and highly intensive. This will provide you with more benefits in less time.

For this reason, you don't want to have to divert your focus onto balancing yourself on the machine or maintaining a specific form throughout the workout.

Instead, the main goal is to have a high level intensity. The best way to do this is by using a basic and straightforward cardio machine.

2) Injuries are always something to think about when you're exercising, so make sure your machine minimizes the risks. For instance, you always want to make sure your joints and connective tissues are strong and healthy at all times.

In order to do this, we recommend sticking to a cardio machine that has low impact on your joints. If you have any existing injuries you definitely don't want to injure them.

We would also recommend that you experiment with different machines. If one causes more discomfort than the other, it's important to stay away from it. Here are a few machines I would recommend based on everything we covered above.

Upright Stationary Bike. This machine is extremely straightforward to use and will allow you to place all of your focus on generating a high level of intensity without having to worry about your form.

It is also a very low impact exercise and will keep the stress off of your joints. Stationary bikes are also easily programmable and are ideal when performing interval-style training, which is the kind that I most highly recommend.

Recumbent Bike. This is the same as a stationary bike, only your body is in a seated position. The seated position will take some of the stress off of your lower back, which is a nice advantage for those who have previous lower back problems.

Using a treadmill is another great choice. Instead of running outdoors and putting more impact on your joints, a treadmill will calm this quite a bit. Plus, whenever you need a bigger challenge, you can always increase the difficulty and set up an incline run.

Stairclimber. A stairclimber can be used by anyone from beginners to advanced. It is another low impact movement and allows you to keep the majority of your focus on putting forth a hard effort. Make sure to avoid leaning on the handle bars as this will reduce the intensity of the workout.

Everything we mentioned today should give you a better understanding of how a cardio machine is important to your fat burning success. We recommend including any one of them in your program.

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