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My theme of the month at Luna is "Push yourself past your comfort zone!" I can't tell you the number of times I have watched women at the gym just gab away while they are doing "cardio". That's NOT Cardio...it's called lolly gagging to me! Come on ladies....you need to push yourselves. If you can have a full conversation while you are exercising, then you are not doing it at the right intensity. You have to get your heart rate up and actually break a sweat for at least 20 to 30 minutes to consider yourself as doing cardio. The following are my recommendations....

Now if you are a beginner, please be advised that you do need to start off slow and build up your stamina. But after a few weeks of consistency, you should be increasing your intensity and stepping it up a notch or two. Go longer, go a little faster, do a higher level, increase the incline, jog a little then walk a little. There are many ways to increase your intensity, just figure out what works best for you.

One of my personal favorites is to do interval training on our treadmills that go up to a 50% incline. Yes, that is right...50%. Steeper than Camelback Mountain! After a good 5-10 minute warm up and some light stretching, here is an example of what I do for cardio.
(Please keep in mind that I am an advanced and deeply conditioned athlete, so work yourself up to this routine...yes push yourself past your comfort zone, but not past your limits!)

Round 1
3.5 speed 5% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 10% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 15% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 20% incline for 1 minute
Recover at 3.0 speed at 0% incline for 1 minute

Round 2
3.5 speed 10% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 15% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 20% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 25% incline for 1 minute
Recover at 3.0 speed at 0% incline for 1 minute

Round 3
6.0 speed at a negative 5% incline (Down hill) for 5 minutes
Recover at 3.0 speed at 0% incline for 1 minute

Round 4
3.5 speed 10% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 20% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 30% incline for 1 minute
3.5 speed 35% incline for 1 minute
Recover at 3.0 speed at 0% incline for 1-2 minutes

Round 5
3.0 speed 15% incline for 1 minute
3.0 speed 25% incline for 1 minute
3.0 speed 35% incline for 1 minute
3.0 speed 45% incline for 1 minute
Recover at 3.0 speed at 0% incline for 1-2 minutes

Round 6
6.0 speed at a negative 5% incline (Down hill) for 5 minutes
Recover at 3.0 speed at 0% incline for 1-2 minutes

By now I have done 30 minutes of good cardio. My heart rate gets up in the 160 bpm range and in the recovery mode I get it back down to the 110-120 bpm range. I drink anywhere from 8-16 ozs of water while I am doing the cardio too. Good music is also recommended to help push you past your comfort zone! If I am going to do longer than 30 minutes then Round 7 will be 15%, 25%, 35%, 45%, round 8 will be 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50%, and round 9 is the down hill run again. That bumps me to over 45 minutes and then I usually cool down for 5-10 minutes or until my heart rate is around 90 bpm. This routine will definitely burn some major calories, make you break a sweat, and there is no way you can gab to the person next to you!