MEASURING CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS HOW TO

You can also play sports including: soccer, hockey and basketball. Endurance exercises like jump rope, running, swimming, dancing, and mountain biking are all great aerobic activities. It may also help improve lung capacity, meaning you’ll increase your VO2 max over time.Īerobic exercise is different from anaerobic exercises, which involve short bursts of energy and include activities like weight training programs, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and sprints. This can help increase your heart’s stroke volume, so your heart will become more efficient in pumping oxygenated blood to muscles with every beat. While all types of exercise can improve endurance, some are more effective than others.Īerobic activity is particularly useful as it involves sustaining high output for extended periods of time. The best way to improve your endurance levels is to increase the volume and intensity of your exercise. The good news is that cardiovascular endurance can be improved with small changes to daily movement and exercise. Additionally, you may experience improved sleep, decreased stress and improved immune system. Focusing on improving cardiovascular endurance can also be beneficial to maintaining a healthy body composition, due to performing higher levels of aerobic activity. Increasing cardiovascular endurance has a positive impact on overall health and fitness.

This is important not just in the gym, but for performing daily tasks in everyday life. Having high cardiovascular endurance means you can perform strenuous activities for longer periods of time. VO2 Max tests are generally expensive and performed by a clinician or exercise physiologist. The test is performed while an individual performs graded maximal exercise on a treadmill or a bike, while wearing a mask measuring oxygen consumption as well as a heart rate monitor. This test measures the maximum amount of oxygen your body consumes during sustained and exhaustive exercise. The second test measures your VO2 Max, which is also known as maximal oxygen uptake. These MET scores can be derived from a stress test using a treadmill or stationary bike, usually performed at a medical facility or sports clinic. The number of METs you use up during exercise indicates how much harder you are working. One MET is the calculation of how much energy, measured in calories, you expend while at rest. Metabolic equivalent (MET) is a ratio of the amount of oxygen consumed while at rest compared to the amount of energy expended when you’re exercising. There are two metrics used to provide insight into the health of your cardiorespiratory system: METs and VO2 Max.

MEASURING CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS HOW TO

How To Measure Cardiovascular EnduranceĬardiovascular endurance involves measuring the amount of oxygen your body uses during intense exercise. If you have poor cardiovascular endurance, you won’t get enough oxygen to your muscles and you may feel light-headed or start to experience fatigue. This means your cardiovascular system works harder than normal to move oxygenated blood to your working muscles. When you engage in strenuous physical activity, your muscles need more oxygen than when you’re resting. This oxygen-rich blood then travels to the heart where it’s pumped out to your muscles, cells, and organs through the circulatory system. Some of this oxygen helps you continue breathing while other oxygen atoms are transferred into the bloodstream.

Here’s the science behind it: When you inhale, your body draws in oxygen from the outside world, filling your lungs. If you have high cardiovascular endurance, you’ll be able to perform intense exercises and workouts longer than someone who has low cardiovascular endurance. This makes cardiovascular endurance a direct indicator of heart function, lung capacity, and muscle function. It is a measurement of your body’s ability to remove carbon dioxide and pump oxygen-rich blood to your organs. What Is Cardiovascular Endurance?Ĭardiovascular endurance is a measure of how well you can perform large-muscle, dynamic exercises at moderate to high intensity for an extended period of time (typically over 20 to 30 minutes). We’ll touch on what cardiovascular endurance is, how to measure it and how to improve it. Understanding cardiovascular endurance is the first step to being able to improve it. Whether you are training for a marathon, hiking up a mountain, or climbing the stairs to your bedroom, there is one thing you will need for all three activities: cardiovascular endurance.

Measuring cardiovascular fitness