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Fitness Focus: Cardiovascular Fitness Cardiovascular fitness is the body’s ability to continuously provide oxygen to the muscles while exercise is being performed over a long period of time. Cardiovascular fitness includes the circulatory system and the respiratory system. The circulatory system includes the heart, blood, and blood vessels. The respiratory system includes the lungs and air passages. Both systems will improve drastically with exercise; however, both systems will also become less efficient with lack of exercise or laziness. No matter how strong you might look, if your circulatory and respiratory systems cannot meet your muscles’ demand for oxygen, you cannot continue physical activity for a long period of time. Oxygen is required for all cells of the body to live. We cannot live without oxygen more than a few minutes. People often take oxygen for granted and never think of it as a fuel for the body. The fact is, the more oxygen your muscles receive, the more energy they can produce and the longer you can exercise without tiring. Blood vessels – includes the arteries, veins, and capillaries. Arteries carry blood with oxygen to the body’s cells, while veins carry blood without oxygen back to the heart and lungs. Capillaries are the small vessels that connect arteries to veins. A person has 60,000 miles of blood vessels in their body that reaches trillions of living cells. Why do some people have lower resting heart rates than others? Slow heart = Strong Body! Ever hit a nail with a hammer? A strong arm is a great advantage because you have to hit the nail only once or twice to drive it into the wood. In contrast, a weak arm has to hit the nail five to six times before it is driven in wood, which will cause the arm to tire out more easily. Therefore a strong arm is more efficient than a weak arm. The same analogy is true for a strong heart! When your heart is strong and efficient, it has what is called a high stroke volume. Stroke volume is the amount of blood pumped by the heart with each beat. The more blood you pump with each beat, the more oxygen and nutrients the cells and muscles of your body will receive. If you have a high stroke volume, your heart is efficient and your resting heart rate will be ideal and low. Therefore, a person can measure their stroke volume by their resting heart rate. If your resting heart rate increases, your stroke volume has increased! Likewise, if your resting heart rate increases, your stroke volume will have decreased! The stroke volume of an average person is 70-80 ml per beat. The average heart pumps 5.5 liters of blood each minute. Also, it takes one minute for a drop of blood to go through the whole blood circulation pathway of the body. Why do some of your classmates breathe hard when they are exercising and some do not? It is not because your lungs cannot handle the exercise. Lungs take in plenty of oxygen to complete most tasks, no matter how strenuous the exercise. The problem is getting that oxygen to the muscles and that is the job of the heart! As we learned previously, blood carries oxygen through the body, but a weak heart with a low stroke volume pumps less blood insufficiently. The body has to have oxygen; because of this your body reacts and causes you to breathe more rapidly and harder in order to receive more oxygen for the cells and muscles. Therefore, some of your classmates breathe more heavily when they run around the track because they have a lower stroke volume and low aerobic capacity. How do I increase my stroke volume and aerobic capacity? The heart is a muscle, therefore with continuous aerobic exercise, it will get bigger, stronger, and more efficient. Just like your biceps muscle, if you do continuous dumbbell curls they will grow larger and more powerful. Your heart is no different! When your heart becomes more powerful and efficient, it will pump out more blood with each beat it takes. It is recommended that in order to increase your stroke volume and aerobic capacity, an individual must be working in their target heart rate zone for 15 – 30 minutes of continuous aerobic activity. CA State Standard: 4.2 Identify physical activities that are effective in improving each of the health-related physical fitness components. Name __________________________________________ Period ______ Cardiovascular Fitness – 7th grade Directions: Use the article to answer the questions below. The answers must be in your own words to show understanding, not just a word for word recitation of what you read. If you cannot answer a question from lack of information, use the internet or a dictionary to help. Answers must be in complete sentences. 1. What exactly is cardiovascular fitness? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 2. How does oxygen help your muscles? Be specific. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 3. Why do some people have a lower resting heart rate than others? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 4. Why do some people breathe harder than others when exercising? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 5. How can you increase your aerobic capacity? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 6. What are some physical activities that will improve your cardiovascular fitness? Name at least four. ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 7. What is a physical activity that you enjoy that would increase your cardiovascular fitness? ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ 4.2 Identify physical activities that are effective in improving each of the health-related physical fitness components.