Cardio is not the sexiest exercise.  A lot of it is repetitive.  Yep… still swimming (or biking or running or walking).  For some of us, this can be a feature as we sink into the rhythm of it (no, not to the bottom of the pool; that would be bad.).  But most cardio is not inherently interesting.

That said, if I have a limited amount of time or energy or both to devote to exercise, I’m going to choose cardio.

Why?  The biggest reason is that cardio provides an energy boost.  This may sound counterintuitive.  However, as the blood gets pumping through our bodies and we have to do a bunch more breathing, we wake up more.  Our brains start firing better and all of a sudden we have more oomph (that is a very special technical term that fitness professionals like myself use…).

That same energy boost accompanies a lift in mood.  We all can use that.  Ditto the calorie burn we get.  If that’s not enough good reasons, we can add in stress relief.

Go play.