-The ability to deliver and use oxygen under the demands of intensive, prolonged exercise or work.
Any activity that involves large muscle groups and is sustained for prolonged periods of time has the potential to increase cardiorespiratory fitness. Examples: aerobics, bicycling, cross-country skiing, dancing (in various forms), jogging/running, roller blading, rowing, speed skating, stair climbing or stepping, swimming, hiking, and walking.
Other names associated with cardiorespiratory exercise: aerobic endurance training.
Benefits of Cardiorespiratory Exercise:
-Enhanced central (adaptations that occur in the heart and contribute to an increased ability to deliver oxygen) and peripheral (adaptations that occur in the vasculature or the muscles that contribute to an increased ability to extract oxygen) cardiorespiratory functioning
-increase in functional capacity (also shown as an increase in VO2max)
-increase in ventricular filling and high stroke volume and cardiac output
-increase in coronary vascular bed size (thus, greater ability to provide the myocardium or muscle of the heart with more O2 rich blood)
-increase in blood volume (due to an expansion of plasma volume)
-decrease in resting heart rate
-decrease in TPR (total peripheral resistance) at maximal exercise
-increase in active muscle blood flow during maximal exercise
To name a few...
Good news for men and women alike: evidence suggests that there is no difference between gender in central and peripheral adaptations to aerobic endurance training!
Take-Home Message:
3 to 5 days a week of 20 to 60 minutes worth of cardiorespiratory exercise over the course of a few months to a year will certainly allow you to demonstrate many if not all of the aforementioned benefits. Reasons to not exercise in some form or fashion (of which good examples of how to get aerobic exercise are listed above!!) is certainly to submit to premature death and/or health complications now or later in life.
The only excuse is the one you make up!
Treat yourself to some lovely Gunny weather of sunshine, blue skies, and warm temperatures. Your heart and other related body systems will thank you! Till next time...
Submitted by Al Smith, HAPLab Manager
Submitted by Al Smith, HAPLab Manager
