Benefits of Cardiovascular Fitness

SkyView Physical Education Department

What are some Aerobic Activities?

What is Aerobic Conditioning?

One’s ability to take in, deliver and use oxygen

Improvement occurs when your body is exposed to a prolonged increase in oxygen uptake

Important to work at a high level to stimulate body

Workouts must be made increasingly harder to force further improvement

Progression and Overload is key

Cardiovascular Effects

Increase’s the diameter of blood vessels Allows blood to move

through blood vessels more easily

Decreases blood pressure during rest

Decreases chances for blood clots to completely block blood flow

Increases in Cardiovascular Output

Increases amount of blood output from the heart with each beat More oxygen and nutrients into cells throughout

body

Increase in blood flow to muscles Up to 88% of blood flows to muscles during high

intensity aerobic activity

Increases strength of contraction of heart muscle Heart doesn’t have to work as hard to do the same

amount of work

Resting Heart Rate

Decreases resting heart rate as much as 10 beats per minute (bpm)

If you decrease your heart rate by 10 bpm, your heart beats 5,226,00 fewer beats during one year Adds up to 262,800,000 beats saved the next 50 years

Maximum Heart Rate (MHR)

You can use your heart rate as a guide to the intensity of your effort

Each person has a specific MHR that can be reached through a certain amount of effort

Factors such as genetics, age, and to a certain extent, conditioning can effect this

Difficult to measure without sophisticated equipment but can be estimated

What’s your Max Heart Rate

Using this formula you can estimate what your max heart rate is

Maximum Heart Rate = 220 – Your Age

Max Heart Rate cont.

In order to stimulate an aerobic conditioning effect, you must keep your heart rate at 70 to 85% of MHR

This must be sustained for 20 to 30 minutes at a time

The harder you work, the greater the results will be

Heart Output

Cardiovascular conditioning increases cardiac output but decreases heart rate Heart doesn’t work as hard to do same amount of work

at all levels of intensity

Increases the size of the chambers of the heart This means your heart is stronger

Increase stroke volume which is characterized by by decrease in the heart rate and an increase in strength of heart contraction Heart doesn’t work as hard to do the same amount of

work

Abnormal Heartbeats

Decreases the vulnerability of dysrhythmias (abnormal heart beats)

Aids in a stable electrical conduction in the heart Able to beat more normally

Decreases in peripheral resistance of veins/arteries Raises the number of red blood cells

This provides more oxygen carrying capacity to the cells

Red blood cells deliver the oxygen through the blood from the lungs to all the cells

Lowers blood pressure Decreases resting systolic, diastolic,

and mean blood pressure Decrease in both mean and diastolic

pressure during maximum workouts

Effect on Blood

Your Capillaries

Increases capillarization which increases the surface area within capillaries Improves

transportation of nutrients and oxygen to pass out of the blood into cells

More efficient capillaries and surface area means more places for nutrients to pass out of the blood into cells

Effects on Blood cont.

Help’s blood vessels retain flexibility Tends to keep BP (blood pressure low)

Enhances clotting and anti-clotting mechanisms Exercising allows blood to clots faster, and almost

contradictory, blood also un-clots faster Result is reduced risk of Atherosclerosis (also called

hardening of the arteries, occurs when fat, cholesterol, and other substances build up in the walls of arteries)

Increases plasminogen which aids in dissolving blood clots

Blood cont.

Increases blood hemoglobin which aids in Oxygen transportation to muscles and Carbon Dioxide to lungs More efficient use of

inhaled air, you can do more with your oxygen without getting tired

Blood cont.

Increase efficiency in blood coagulation Injuries and cuts will heal sooner

Increase in total blood volume (up to 25%) More blood means more oxygen carried to cells,

organs and muscles

Reduces risk of hypertension (high blood pressure)

Increases the amount of blood that goes to the brain Exercisers have reported being more alert and

engaged in studies compared to non-exercisers

Effects on Strength Cardiovascular fitness

increases respiratory strength and muscle endurance Helps asthmatics

Increase in capillary density near skeletal/cardiac muscles

More capillaries means more mitochondria (powerhouse cell) delivered to muscles Allows oxygen to be absorbed

into muscle cells Transport of nutrients to tissue Permits greater levels of

aerobic workout

Heart Disease?

Being in good cardiovascular shape helps to prevent and survive heart attacks The more you exercise and take care of yourself, the more

efficient and easier your blood flows, allowing your heart to not work as hard

This may save your life some day!