Download Cardio Study Guide 10

CARDIO-RESPIRATORY ENDURANCE
Individual Sports
Columbus North Physical Education
Cardio-respiratory Endurance is the fitness of the heart, lungs, and blood vessels.
“Cardio” is another word for the heart, and vascular refers to blood vessels. Respiratory refers
to the lungs and the exchange of gases.
Exercise that promotes cardiovascular fitness improves your body’s circulation so your
heart, lungs, and other organs work together more efficiently. Cardiovascular endurance also
may give a person the ability to meet physical and emotional demands more readily. To develop
and maintain good health, a person needs to strengthen the heart muscle. If you have good
physical fitness, you will improve your ability to face the problems of everyday living, such as
stress.
The American Heart Association’s (AHA) scientific position is that moderate exercise 5
times per week totaling 30 minutes a session or vigorous exercise 3 times a week totaling 20
minutes each session reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease. The Center for Disease
Control joins the AHA’s position and adds that exercise reduces the risk for many other
diseases such as diabetes, certain cancers, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and depression. Some
symptoms of heart disease start to develop when people are in their teens. For this reason, it is
important to develop and maintain cardiovascular fitness early in life.
The heart is a muscle and it gets stronger with the right types of exercise. The heart acts
as a pump to supply blood to your working muscles. Your heart rate is the number of times the
heartbeats per minute to pump blood through the body. The resting heart rate is taken when a
person is at rest. The average resting heart rate is approximately 72 beats per minute for an
adult. The resting rate for a person who is fit may be as low as 50 beats per minute. The more fit
the person, the lower the heart rate because the heart pumps more blood per beat. The amount
of blood pumped with each beat is called its stroke volume. Regular activity reduces the
workload of the heart by increasing its stroke volume. In this way more oxygen is carried to the
muscles at work with less effort.
There are many places on your body where you can find a pulse. The two that are
commonly used to find a pulse during exercise are the CAROTID artery in the neck and the
RADIAL artery in the wrist. To locate the carotid artery, place the pads of the fingers (not the
thumb) on the Adam’s apple (the front part of the throat) and slide them to the side about 1 ½
inches/ Use a light touch and hold. Do not press to hard or you will stop the blood flow through
the artery. To find your radial pulse, place your fingers just above the wrist on the inside of the
arm on the thumb side. You can do this on either the right or the left on both the carotid and the
radial arteries.
CARDIO-RESPIRATORY ENDURANCE
Aerobic training improves the condition and efficiency of breathing muscles, allowing
greater use of the lungs capacity. Training also enhances the efficiency of respiration, so you
need fewer breaths to move the same volume of air.
AEROBIC exercise involves increased breathing and an elevated heart rate over an extended
period of time. It uses the large muscles rhythmically and continuously, building endurance in
the muscles involved in circulation and breathing. Aerobic means “with oxygen.” Energy is
produced aerobically as long as enough oxygen is supplied to the exercising muscles by the
cardiovascular system. Aerobic exercise requires a steady intake of oxygen over an extended
period of time. The exercises should be long and slow with less resistance. Examples of aerobic
exercises include walking, jogging, bicycling, rowing, aerobic dance, roller-blading, and step
aerobics, jumping rope, swimming, and hiking.
Much research has been devoted to determining the amount of exercise needed for a
reasonable gain in physical fitness. It is agreed that physical conditioning always involves four
factors: frequency, intensity, time, and type. This is known as the FITT principle.
FREQUENCY - Regular adherence to a vigorous exercise program is necessary if you are to
reach and maintain an adequate level of physical fitness. Daily activity, though desirable, is not
necessary to improve one’s cardiovascular fitness. Above average physical fitness can be
attained with regular workouts 3 times per week if vigorous exercise and 5 times per week if the
exercise is moderate. Frequency then is the number of times per week you exercise.
INTENSITY - In order to improve cardiovascular endurance a “ vigorous overload” is
necessary in all conditioning. During exercise the heart rate increases with the energy
requirement. The exercise heart rate has been used as a simple measure for estimating
physiological stress on the body. To make appreciable gains in cardiovascular endurance, the
heart rate during exercise must be raised by approximately 60% of the difference between the
resting and maximal heart rates. This will give us the lower end of the target heart rate zone.
80% is used to find the higher end of the zone. Intensity then is how hard you work during your
workout.
TIME - The duration of exercise is directly related to the intensity of the activity. You will
need to learn to pace yourself so that you will be able to spread the workout session over a
longer period of time. Existing research suggests that an exercise session of 30 minutes, if
exercise is moderate or 20 minutes if the exercise is vigorous is sufficient to produce significant
fitness changes. At the start, you should limit your workout to 10-15 minute sessions and
gradually build up your time to 20-30 minutes. When you are starting a new program you
should include brief 30-60 second recovery intervals, consisting of brisk walking, between
heavier segments of activity. Time, then is the total number of minutes that you exercise per
session and should be a minimum of 20 minutes if the exercise is vigorous.
TYPE - The activities should be vigorous, rhythmic, and continuous. It includes activities that
accelerate respiration and maintain a heart rate in the Target Range.