Maximizing Cardiorespiratory Fitness

1. MaximizingCardiorespiratoryFitness

2. Thenumberonereasonpeoplebeginexercisingistoimprovetheirphysical appearance—to decreasebodyfatanddevelopfirm, well-tonedmuscles. • Theyfindthatthesebenefitsareonlythebeginning. Cardiorespiratoryenduranceplaysanimportantroleindevelopingphysicalfitnessandwellness. • Thereare a numberofphysiological (cardiorespiratory, bodycomposition, andmetabolic) andpsychological (mentalandemotional) healthbenefitsthatareyoursinreturnfor a smallinvestmentoftimeandeffort.

3. A varietyofexerciseprogramsandrecreationalactivitiescanenhancehealthandfitness. Nearlyeveryonecanfindoneortwoactivitiesthataresatisfyingandenjoyable. We will focusedonthemanybenefitsthatcanbegainedfromcardiorespiratoryendurance, theprescriptionfactorsforfitness, andinformationabout a varietyoflifetimeexerciseactivitiestogetyoustartedonthepathto a richlyenjoyablehealthspan.

4. CARDIORESPIRATORY ENDURANCE AND MAXIMAL OXYGEN UPTAKE • Cardiorespiratory endurance often is expressed in terms of your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max or aerobic capacity), the greatest amount of oxygen that can be used by the body during intense exercise. • Energy for physical activity and body processes is produced by burning fuel in the presence of oxygen. • During exercise, the ability of the body to utilize oxygen and remove waste products depends on the efficient functioning of the cardiorespiratory system, which includes the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and muscles. • When a person exercises, the working muscles demand more oxygen and nutrients and the heart must work harder to keep up with the demand.

5. CARDIORESPIRATORY ENDURANCE AND MAXIMAL OXYGEN UPTAKE • The demand for oxygen increases in direct proportion to the intensity of exercise. VO2max is determined partly by genetics and partly by training. • As fitness improves, many factors contribute to greater VO2max. The heart is a muscle and, like any muscle, grows stronger with training. • A fit, trained heart can pump more oxygenated blood to exercising muscles than an unfit heart can. • Cardiorespiratory training increases both stroke volume, the volume of blood pumped per heartbeat, and cardiacoutput, the volume of blood pumped per minute. Similarly, trained skeletal muscles can utilize oxygen and nutrients delivered by the blood to produce energy more efficiently than untrained muscles can. • Ventilation and blood flow to the lungs improve. Blood flow of the muscles improves. Muscle cells become more efficient at extracting oxygen and producing energy for muscular contraction. • Waste products are removed more efficiently. VO2max determines how intensely and how long you can perform aerobic exercise and is considered one of the best overall indicators of physiological well-being. • While natural cardiorespiratory endowment may vary among individuals, with training, maximal oxygen uptake can improve 20 to 30 percent, depending on pretraining status and the frequency, intensity, and duration of training.

6. Beneficial physiological changes persist as long as aerobic training continues, but inactivity produces physical decline. • If training stops, VO2max returns to pretraining levels within a few months. • With aging, aerobic capacity decreases about 1 percent per year after age 25. • This decline is related closely to decreasing levels of activity rather than to simply growing older. • Declines in VO2max may be slowed dramatically by those who exercise across the lifetime.

7. Benefits of Aerobic Exercise • Cardiorespiratory Benefits: • 1. Lower resting heart rate • 2. Increased stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped out of the heart with each beat), improving heart efficiency. • 3. Increased rest for the heart between beats due to slower resting heart rate and increased stroke volume • 4. Increased oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood due to the greater supply of red blood cells and hemoglobin; greater endurance in exercising muscles due to increased energy and improved elimination of waste products • 5. Improved exercise performance on timed tests due to more efficient use of oxygen • 6. Possible reduction in blood pressure • 7. Improved blood lipid profile by increasing the number of protective high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) • 8. Quicker recovery to resting heart rate after vigorous exercise due to improved cardiac efficiency • 9. Possible regression of atherosclerosis • 10. Fewer illnesses and deaths due to coronary hear disease • Body Composition/Physical Appearance Benefits: • 1. Reduced body fat percentage • 2. Increased lean body mass • 3. Firmer, more toned muscles

8. Psychological Benefits: • 1. Enhanced sense of well-being and self-esteem, resulting in increased energy, alertness, and vitality • 2. Increased sense of self-discipline due to the determination needed to stick to an exercise program • 3. Reduced state of anxiety and mental tension, thereby increasing stress coping ability • 4. Improved quality of sleep; sleep soundly and wake up refreshed • 5. Decreased level of mild to moderate depression • 6. Improved mental acuity, learning, and memory • 7. Feeling of relaxation • The psychological benefits are very rewarding and are often the main reason people keep exercising. More detail on these and other benefits of cardiorespiratory fitness follows.

9. Improved Mental Health • People who exercise regularly report improved mood, higher self-confidence and self-esteem, and less stress compared with nonexercisers. • Research indicates that aerobic exercise also can enhance psychological well-being by reducing depression and anxiety. • The best results were obtained after several weeks of regular exercise, with more vigorous exercise, and in those who were high in anxiety or depression to begin with. • While it may not work for everyone and we can't say exactly how much exercise is

10. Improved Cognitive Function • The human brain gradually loses tissue from age 30 onward, and this is reflected in gradual declines in cognitive function. Cardiorespiratory fitness has been associated with preservation of cognitive function in healthy adults. • One study that followed subjects for 10 years indicated that middle-aged aerobic exercisers compared with sedentary individuals have a significantly slower rate of memory decline and better memory performance. In subjects over 55, the positive effect of exercise was greatest on the "executive control" functions of judgment, planning, and the coordination of actions to achieve a goal. • In elderly subjects age 60 to 76, 2 months of aerobic training significantly improved cognitive test scores, and the effect was equal to 2 months of mental training.

11. Improved Cognitive Function • While we do not know exactly how this occurs, exercise does increase blood flow to the brain, which in turn can promote brain cell growth. • Studies from the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia suggest that exercise can increase levels of brain growth factors, stimulate neuron growth, and maintain brain function and plasticity, thus improving learning and mental performance.

12. Improved Sleep • Many studies support the positive effects of exercise on sleep. In studies of individuals who exercised aerobically, exercisers went to sleep more quickly, slept longer, and had a more restful sleep than did those who did not exercise

13. Immune System Function • Those who participate in regular moderate exercise enjoy enhanced levels of well-being, including fewer colds and minor respiratory infections compared with sedentary peers. • Avoid overtraining, however, as exercising to exhaustion can weaken immune system function.

14. Improved Body Composition and Weight Management • Regular endurance exercise burns excess calories and can help maintain muscle mass and reduce excess body fat. • Increasing levels of overweight and obesity in the world at all age levels may be due as much to decreased physical activity as to increased caloric intake. • For this reason, 60 minutes of vigorous physical activity daily is recommended for weight management. • Even if exercise does not reduce body fat significantly, research indicates that those who exercise regularly significantly reduce the risk of chronic diseases compared with sedentary individuals.

15. Reduced Risk of Chronic Diseases • Cardiorespiratory fitness can reduce the risk of developing several chronic diseases. For those who already have one of these diseases, a carefully monitored aerobic program is often recommended as a part of treatment to improve health and physiological resilience. • Cardiovascular Disease Cardiorespiratory exercise reduces the risk of having cardiovascular disease and the risk of dying from it. • Cardiovascular disease does not develop suddenly in middle age. It begins much earlier, in the teens and twenties, and continues to progress silently for many years. • Young adults can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by developing a habit of regular exercise and managing the other risk factors. • High Blood Pressure Exercise prevents or delays the development of high blood pressure, which is associated with the risk of stroke, kidney failure, and coronary heart disease.

16. Type 2 Diabetes • Regular aerobic exercise is associated with a lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. • Type 2 diabetes is associated with the risk of several chronic diseases that can make one's life miserable and shorten one's life span. • Exercise helps prevent obesity, which is related to the onset of diabetes. • It burns excess blood sugar and increases cells' sensitivity to insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. • For those with diabetes, exercise is an important adjunct to other treatments.

17. Cancer • Exercise is associated with a lower risk of certain types of cancer. This may be due to increased intestinal motility, which decreases contact time between potential carcinogens and the intestinal wall. It also may be due in part to improved immune system function.

18. Osteoarthritis. • Osteoarthritis is most common at weight bearing joints such as the hips, knees, and ankles and is exacerbated by increased weight on those joints. • Exercise maintains the strength of the muscles that surround and support the joints and helps maintain normal joint function. • For those who have osteoarthritis, regular exercise such as walking is recommended for maintenance of normal joint function and reduction of excess body fat. • Osteoporosis is another disease that has its beginning in the teens and twenties with inadequate exercise and eating habits. • Weight-bearing exercise such as running, walking, and aerobics can decrease the risk of osteoporosis by building optimal bone mass in young adults and in slowing its loss with age.

19. The benefits of aerobic fitness can enhance health and well-being across the life span. They can be gained by following the FITT prescription for cardiorespiratory fitness.

20. THE FITT PRESCRIPTION FOR CARDIORESPIRATORY FITNESS • Cardiorespiratory fitness development involves four FITT factors: • Frequency, • Intensity, • Time, • Type of exercise

21. Intensity of effort is directly reflected by exercise pulse rate and is perhaps the most important factor in gaining training effect benefits from your exercise program. • You must put in enough effort to force the body to adapt and produce fitness improvements.

22. There are three ways to judge intensity: target heart rate, rate of perceived exertion, and the talk test. • Target Heart Rate: Karvonen Equation • To determine your target heart rate (THR) range for cardiorespiratory exercise, we will use the Karvonen equation, which takes into account your age and resting heart rate (RHR) • Karvonen, a Finnish researcher, discovered that the heart rate during exercise must be raised by at least 60 percent of the difference between resting and maximal heart rates (called the heart rate reserve, HRR) to gain cardiorespiratory fitness. An adequate upper intensity is 80 percent of HRR.

24. Exercise heart rates differ by age. For most young adults, a THR is in the range of 140 to 170 beats per minute, but for older adults, a rate of 120 to 140 beats per minute may be adequate. Estimated target heart rate range (based on RHR of 70 bpm)

25. How Long Before Results Become Apparent? • This varies with the individual. Within the first few exercise sessions, many people report that they feel better. • Measurable differences such as decreased heart rate and improved aerobic fitness can occur within 8 to 12 weeks. • The key is staying with the exercise program. Studies indicate that over 50 percent of adults who start an exercise program quit within the fits 3 to 6 months. • Regular exercisers focus on the positive benefits of exercise, reminding themselves how good they feel after exercise, and pat themselves on the back for making progress. • So how do you stay with an exercise program long enough to experience the benefits of the training effect?

26. Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) • This method uses a scale developed by Gunnar Borg. • Borg discovered that exercisers are able to "sense" their exercise intensity levels. • He found that the RPE scale correlated with heart rate. Borg found that the descriptive words in the right column closely paralleled the heart rate of the exerciser, which is illustrated by the numbers in the left column. • To develop fitness, exercisers should feel the effort is "Somewhat hard" to "Hard," or 12 to 16 on the Borg Scale. • It is helpful to cross-check your heart rate with your perceived rating when you first begin to use this method. • Experienced exercisers can use RPE to determine if they are in their target HR zone and adjust the exercise intensity accordingly. • This is a safe and accurate way to monitor exercise intensity anywhere, anytime without using a stopwatch.

27. Target Heart Rate: Percentage of Maximal Heart Rate • An old method of determining the target heart rate used a straight percentage of the maximal heart rate. The ACSM recommends using 70 to 90 percent of an individual's maximal heart rate to set exercise intensity. For example, if a person's estimated maximal pulse was 200, the target heart rate range would be 140 (200 X .7) to 180 (200 X .90) beats per minute. Its advantage is that it is simple to compute. The drawback of this method is that is does not take resting pulse into account.

28. LIFETIME EXERCISE ACTIVITIES TOP LIST

29. Aerobic dance • (Including Step Aerobics, Slide Training,and Spinning) • Slide Training • Spinning (or Fit Ride) • Fitness swimming • Fitness walking • indoor exercise equipment • (Including Stationary Bikes, Steppers, Treadmills, Ski Machines, Rowing Machines, and Elliptical Trainers)

30. Step Aerobics • Bicycling

31. IN-LINE SKATING • JOGGING • WATER EXERCISE/AQUA AEROBICS

32. Thank you for attention