What is Cardiovascular Training?
Cardiovascular exercise is a term that is used a lot in the gym and so many of you are probably comfortable with its meaning. However as it is used so much it can be sometimes a little embarrassing to actually ask someone to explain it. Thanks to the internet you can now peruse at your will with no embarrassment at all.
The Science
The word ‘cardiovascular’ actually refers to your body’s organs that are in charge of moving gases, nutrients and any waste products to and from cells. It is the whole transport system that is happening all the time in our bodies that keeps us alive. The organs used, if you hadn’t guessed already, are the heart and lungs. The heart being the pump to get the blood (which carries the nutrients etc.) through your body and the lungs for receiving and expelling the gases.
And the Exercise?
After that explanation you would be forgiven for not completely understanding how it all relates to exercise. If cardiovascular relates to the very regular task of keeping us alive then surely everything we do is cardiovascular, whether it is sleeping or running a marathon. Whilst this is true, the exercise and fitness world has taken the meaning and developed it for its own purpose to help distinguish between two different styles of training. Aerobic training (with oxygen) and anaerobic training (without oxygen).
What is Aerobic Training?
Cardiovascular training is in fact the same as aerobic training and refers to the use of oxygen in the process to create energy for the muscles being exercised. It also uses the body’s glucose (sugar) stores as energy and once these have been used it then turns to the body’s fat stores. It is a long process and so there is a natural decline in the body’s peak performance. However it is very efficient and allows the body to maintain this level of exertion for long periods. I would also say that during aerobic training the heart rate must increase to at least 60% of your maximum heart rate and to the most about 80% and that this level must be maintained for at least 1 minute. Obviously 1 minute would be quite a pathetic workout on its own, but this is the minimum you would need for that energy system to engage. If you want to get the most from your training then the combined time of aerobic exercise should add up to at least 20 minutes with the heart rate maintained at that higher level.
What is Anaerobic Training?
I am not going to go into great detail about this as that can wait for another post, but it is safe to say that it is the complete opposite of aerobic training and does not use oxygen. It gives you the body’s peak performance as the energy release is immediate but the whole thing is over in less than 30 seconds as it is not very efficient and as you can imagine the body cannot survive at any level without oxygen for long. The best example of this is a Sprinter who uses maximum power to complete the distance but could not maintain that level for long periods.
Cardiovascular Training Examples
If we take the rather brief description I have given for aerobic training then you should be able to tell that this will encompass quite a lot of different training techniques and machines. So we will start with the most obvious and they are referred to as the cardiovascular machines. This is the big group of machines that you should recognise in most gyms, they include:
- Treadmills (running machines)
- Stationary Bikes
- Rowing Machines
- Steppers
- Cross Trainers
- Elliptical Trainers
There are many others but these are the main ones. It will also cover any machines that require you to put in constant effort over a prolonged amount of time. Therefore it will also include nearly all exercise classes, for example:
- Circuit Training
- Boxercise
- Aerobics (not just a clever name – Beeble)
It will also cover nearly all sports to some degree, for example:
- Long distance running (anything over 400m)
- Football (English or soccer if you prefer – Beeble)
- Rugby
- Hockey
- Basketball
- Cycling
- Skiing
It should be noted that with a lot of sports that there is a fine line between aerobic and anaerobic. Whilst there is no doubt that a lot of sports need some level of cardiovascular fitness there are some sports that rely more on explosive anaerobic power. For example American football (or to the Americans it is called football – Beeble). A long distance runner who has immense aerobic fitness would not last long on the field that is because the average footballer is trained for intense immediate power which focuses on anaerobic exercise. Combine that with the stop-start nature of the game and you can see that it really isn’t an aerobic sport. Anyway I digress.
Free Weights and Machine Weights
It has long been considered that any form of exercise performed with weights of any sort is not a cardiovascular exercise. Nonsense! If you apply the same rules that I have explained earlier then all you have to do is add more repetition/time to the exercise and reduce the amount of rest time to as near to zero as you can so as to maintain your heart rate then it is certainly a cardiovascular exercise. To achieve full benefit I would go for a minimum repetition of 15 and a rest period of no longer than 10 seconds. If you maintain that for say 20 minutes with as many different exercises as you like you would have yourself a very good cardiovascular workout.
Adding it to your workout
I would recommend that you always have some form of cardiovascular training in your workout and it should be at least 20 minutes 3 times per week to help you gain real health benefits from it. I would also generally add it to the start of your workout, although there are arguments that support putting it at the end of your training.
Summary
Cardiovascular training is considered the ultimate style of training to help people lose weight. This is partly true as our body’s fat reserves are used in the process, however going on a treadmill for 45 minutes will help you lose fat during those 45 minutes. If you include some strength training as well you will increase your muscle size. An increased muscle mass will increase your metabolic rate which will help burn stored energy (fat) even when you are not exercising. Imagine that, being able to reduce your fat when not even exercising!
Whilst cardiovascular training is important for your health you would be wise not to ignore your other muscles and improve your muscle tone. I hope this will help you understand what cardiovascular training is, why it is good for you and most importantly that by itself it does not offer the full package.
Good luck with all your exercising and if we can answer any of your questions please do not be too embarrassed to ask us.
November 27th, 2007 at 12:51 pm
I’m getting a little older now and don’t like to be outside in the winter. i love jogging and was thinking about buying a york fitness
treadmill. can you advise me if they are good value for money or not? i would set it up at home, now that i’ve just turned 65 i thought it would be a good investerment. i like your blog. Thanks.