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Most people know that they should workout, but just why is cardiovascular fitness so important?

Before you can answer the question why is cardiovascular fitness important? you must understand its meaning.  Often called aerobic exercise, there are two factors that distinguish cardiovascular fitness from other types of exercise: (1) it enhances the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen—rich blood to the working muscles and (2) it adds to the muscle’s ability to use this oxygen to supply adequate energy for movement.

Aerobic exercise can enhance cardiovascular fitness and the term defines any type of rhythmic, continuous activity that involves the simultaneous use of multiple large muscle groups.  These type of activities challenge the heart and lungs, thereby causing them to work harder.  When performing cardiovascular fitness activities, your pulse must be in a target heart range, which is usually calculated by subtracting your age from the number 220 and then calculating 60—85% of that number.  Cardiovascular fitness doesn’t just happen though and there are a number of ways to make sure that your cardiovascular system is fit and healthy. Examples of aerobic exercises range from running, jogging or powerwalking to cycling, stairclimbing or, aerobics classes, interval training and even certain types of yoga.

Why Cardiovascular Fitness Important
As one of the integral components that should never be left out of a fitness plan, improving your cardiovascular fitness can reduce your risk of advancing heart disease by developing the efficiency of your heart, lungs and blood vessels.  In simple terms, the easier it is to pump blood through your body, the less taxing it is on your heart.  Additionally, it also boosts your muscle’s ability to utilise the oxygen, thereby boosting your metabolism and providing an adequate energy supply to fuel movement.

Cardiovascular exercise is any activity that involves the large muscles of the body and is rhythmic and continuous in nature and, challenges your heart and lungs to work harder.

Cardiovascular exercise also aids in maintaining a healthy body composition.  Aerobic and anaerobic exercise, especially at higher intensities, contributes to a healthy calorific burn.  The fat you store on your body is reserved for periods of prolonged or intense activity.  Training the cardiovascular system through high intensity intervals increases the activity of certain hormones, such as testosterone and growth hormone, that stoke fat burning.  While low—intensity, steady—state cardio burns a higher percentage of fat, high intensity exercise results in greater total calories burned, and speeds up the enzymes associated with burning fat.

As you get fitter, for example after an extended period of performing regular aerobic exercise, your body makes numerous adaptations that result in improved cardiovascular fitness.  The muscles involved in respiration (intercostals and diaphragm) get stronger and more efficient.  The capillaries in your alveoli (the tiny blood vessels that supply the air sacs deep in your lungs) increase in number.  In short, you become better able to take in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

Measuring Cardiovascular Fitness
To really understand your level of fitness, you need to measure it.  One method is to track your own workouts for example, keeping note of the activity you do, how long you do it and how hard you're working etc.  More complex tests which are commonly used to test the aerobic endurance, or cardiovascular fitness, of athletes before and at the end of a training cycle, or people who like to compete in races, can give you an accurate calculation of indices such as your VO2 max.

Measured in milliliters of oxygen consumed in one minute per kilogram of body weight (mL/kg/min), VO2 max is the maximum volume (V) of oxygen (O2) your body can process.  In essence, it’s a measure of the capacity your body has to use oxygen when exercising and, knowing your current VO2 max is key to understanding and improving your fitness.  VO2 max has 3 major components—

Lung Capacity and Heart Volume
The more oxygen your lungs can intake and the more oxygenated blood your heart can pump, the higher your VO2 score.

Capillary Delivery
The more oxygenated blood your circulatory system can transport to your muscles, the higher your VO2 score.

Muscle Efficiency
The more your muscles can extract and use oxygen from your blood, the higher your VO2 score.

Measuring Your V02 Max
Typically conducted in holistic health clinics or a sports performance lab such as Precision Athletica, Australia who help athletes realise their full potential, to measure your VO2 max you wear a mask and heart rate monitor hooked up to a treadmill, such as the Intenza 550 Series, or stationary bike.  The mask is connected to a machine that collects and measures the volume of oxygen you inhale, and the amount of air you exhale, and you'll slowly increase exercise intensity, getting faster and/or adding more resistance, until your oxygen consumption remains steady despite an increase in intensity.

 

 

VO2 max is reached when your oxygen consumption remains at a steady state despite an increase in the workload.  It is at this plateau that the athlete moves from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism.  From there, it is usually not long before muscle fatigue sets in and forces the athlete to stop exercising.

Understanding VO2 Max
Generally speaking, a higher VO2 max is better than a lower VO2 max although, there’s no one good VO2 max that every single person should aim for.  A higher VO2 max means that your body is better at taking oxygen from the air and delivering it to your muscles.  The more oxygen your muscles can get, the more nutrients you can aerobically transform into the molecular fuel (ATP) that your muscles use to contract and perform.  This is important because your aerobic metabolic pathways are by far your most efficient source of energy for your body.  The table below offers some averages based on gender and activity levels that you can use for reference.

 

 

VO2 max is a good benchmark for measuring your aerobic fitness levels because it literally tells you how well your body is using oxygen but it’s important to note that VO2 max values are not inherently linked to sports excellence.  It can contribute to your success, particularly with endurance sports, there are other factors that arguably play a larger role, including skills training, psychological preparation, lactate threshold training as well as nutrition.

When A Little Means A Lot
According to the Physical Activity Guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services at least 150 minutes per week of moderate intensity physical activity is recommended for all adults including the elderly and differently’abled.  However, you don't have to do all 30 minutes in a single daily session.  In fact, the newest guidelines allow you to count all moderate intensity physical exertion throughout the day, even if it's just a few minutes at a time.  To reach your goal why not consider exercise snacking in 10—15 minute blocks throughout the day?

You might even consider exercising during working hours to help pump up your cardiovascular performance.  Researchers conducting a 2008 study in the UK found that more than 200 employees who had access to, and used, a company gym were more productive during the day, and went home feeling more satisfied on the days they exercised during regular work hours.

Having greater cardiovascular fitness means you can confidently complete activities that have a cardiovascular demand such as climbing stairs or cycling.  Being able to move through your day without feeling breathless can make a huge difference in your confidence and quality of life.  And, for those who also enjoy strength training, a good cardiovascular base allows you to train harder during sessions without feeling fatigued.

Please note that if you’re new to exercise be sure to start slow.  Your first step, as it is with any training program, is to consult your doctor or a qualified professional.  You can always build as your fitness level improves.  And, remember any movement is better than no movement at all!