Public Health Nutrition and Care: The Most Important Element in Exercise

Whether you’re running for fitness, walking to strengthen your legs, swimming for power and stamina, or simply enjoying cycling or dancing just because you love being with your friends and exercise buddies; the most important part of physical fitness exercise is cardiovascular endurance.

What is cardiovascular endurance? It refers to the sustained ability of the heart, blood vessels, and blood to carry oxygen to the cells; the ability of the cells to process oxygen; and the ability of the blood, once again, to carry away waste products. Since each and every cell in the body requires oxygen to function, the basic and most important element of physical fitness is geared towards seeing that the heart, lungs, and circulatory system do their job. Cardiovascular endurance is built up through exercises that enhance the body’s ability to deliver large amounts of oxygen to working muscles.

Oxygen and aerobic exercises

Because of the important role played by oxygen in exercises, activities that produce increased or deliver large amounts of oxygen to the muscles and tissues of the body are called aerobic (from the Greek word meaning “with air”) activities. Aerobic activities include: brisk walking, running, swimming, cycling, rowing, rope skipping, and aerobic dance (including the recently popular Zumba).

What benefits can you get from aerobic exercises?

With regular aerobic exercise, your heart will eventually be able to pump more blood and thus deliver more oxygen with greater efficiency.

How do you train your heart?

The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) suggests the following:

1. Perform aerobic exercise sessions of fifteen to sixty minutes a day, three to five times a week.

2. Exercise at a level of intensity called your training heart rate. To compute for your training heart rate, apply this formula: 220 minus your age = your maximum heart rate (MHR) in aerobic exercise. Example: 220 – 60 (your age) = 160 (your MHR). Then take 60 percent and 80 percent of the number or the difference (That is: 160, in the above example). In other words, multiply the number by 0.6 and by 0.8. The products or results are the upper and lower end of your target heart rate zone. While you exercise, your heart rate should fall somewhere between these two numbers.

Don’t let computations and pulse-taking spoil your enjoyment in aerobic exercises. Once you become an experienced exerciser, you’ll simply “feel your training heart rate.”