On the Road to Recovery IV- Cardio – Keeping the Heart Healthy when Using Your Legs is a ‘Hard Limit
What’s worse not being able to train your legs or not being able to do cardio?
Not being able to train both is catastrophic to both your metabolism and your heart health. Since both control your heart rate and both control the rate at which you burn fat, maintaining your weight or keeping body fat levels at bay can be challenging if not straight up difficult. (Continue reading for the answer…)
Finding ways to keep my heart rate up without using my legs was challenging for me. Here are 2 ways I found to keep my heart up at least at a recovery rate of 120 bpm:
•The first was to put a buoy between my legs and swim with my arms for 30 minutes.
•The second, the arm bike, I would slap on my heart rate monitor and monitor my heart rate for 30 minutes to stay within a recovery heart rate fat burning zone.
This is turn does a few things:
1. Put me in a recovery-training zone, which helps to speed up recovery.
2. Helps to circulate blood around the body, to the working muscles and into the healing area to once again speed up recovery.
3. Keeps my heart rate just high enough to burn a minimal amount of fat and train my heart without overstressing the body and again helping to speed recovery.
I can’t say this was fun but I was determined to keep some semblance of physical fitness throughout my recovery to make things easier on me both during and after.
It helped keep me focused and maintain a positive perspective and help attain that feel good serotonin release, even if just for a little bit.
The answer: Leg Training
When training your legs you can elicit both a rise in heart rate for a cardio benefit and strength training to maintain strength and lean muscle for a speedier metabolism and increased circulation for a speedier recovery.
Keep moving people.
DO WHAT YOU CAN WHILE YOU CAN’T DO!
GO for Life! 
In peace, health & with much love,
Joycelyn Bejar
Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Certified Personal Trainer