Cardiovascular Endurance and Walking !

CARDIOVASCULAR ENDURANCE and WALKING !

** Cardiovascular Endurance. What is it? How do you improve it?

It is the ability of the heart and lungs to supply oxygen to the working muscles during continuous exercise and is measured in ‘Vo2 max’. VO2 max is defined by Wilmore et al. (1994) as “the highest rate of oxygen consumption attainable during maximal or exhaustive exercise. It’s improved by increasing the intensity of the exercise.

A regular comment and query from circuit participants is “I walk a couple of times a week. Is it beneficial, or how beneficial is it”. ?

Walking a couple of times a week will have a cardiovascular  benefit for the first few weeks of the start of an exercise programme. However, if you are walking at the same pace after a number of weeks, then you are unlikely to improve your fitness levels, and the cardiovascular benefits will be negligible or non-existent

Walking on hilly ground or breaking into a jog from time to time will increase your heart rate and will improve your cardiovascular endurance as will any controlled physical activity, or participation in an exercise class that moves from Low to Medium to High intensity and back, causing your heart rate to rise and fall in a controlled way during the activity.