IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS

Cardiovascular fitness is very important in maintaining a healthy life. Most cardiovascular diseases are related to sedentary lifestyle and unhealthy eating habits.

Sedentary poor lifestyle will not only make you unfit but it leads to obesity, making you more prone to chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, osteoporosis, colon and breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and even death due to coronary artery disease.

High blood pressure is a major lifestyle risk factor most of the people face today. It is also known as the “silent killer” as it is a symptom less disease which kills the person slowly without knowing. It makes your heart work harder, making the heart muscles and the arteries weak and less elastic which obstructs the blood flow, in time High blood pressure also increases the risk of coronary arthrosclerosis which leads to heart attack (myocardial infarction), stroke (angina pectoris), damage to eyes, kidney and finally to heart failure. High blood pressure with other lifestyle risk factors such as smoking, obesity, high blood cholesterol or diabetes will make the person highly prone to a heart attack or stroke. All these can be improved by regular exercise and healthy eating habits.

Improving cardiovascular fitness increases the amount of oxygen delivery from the heart to the working muscles which allows us to perform for longer duration without fatigue. The fitter you are the more ability you will have to consume oxygen and provide it to the working muscles and exercise more intensely. A person with a well conditioned heart will be able to carry out any aerobic activity very hard without getting tired. This means that as our cardiovascular system gets stronger our resting heart rate becomes less; which mean the heart doesn’t have to work harder to pump blood.

Cardio fitness can be only improved by regular exercise. For effective improvement, aerobic training should be done 3 -5 times a week for at least 20 -30 minutes. The heart rate should be raised up to 70% of maximum heart rate. But heart rate and intensity can be increased according to your needs.