What Is Cardiovascular Fitness?

Dr. Ruth Heidrich is a six-time Ironman Triathlon finisher, and holder of more than 700 gold medals from 100 meter dashes to ultramarathons. She holds the world's fitness record for women in her age group as determined by the famed Cooper Clinic in Dallas, Texas. Heidrich shares her passion for cardiovascular fitness and running with Veggie Life readers.

How long and how well we live depends on the quality of the decisions we make. Unfortunately, too many of us are not making very good health decisions. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 60 percent of Americans say they get little or no exercise. That's a whole lot of people jeopardizing the quantity and quality of their lives. There are many reasons to attain cardio fitness. Besides general health benefits, you lower your risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, depression, and more.

What is Cardio Fitness?

Cardiovascular fitness is the ability to physically do what you need and want to do for as long as you want to do it. With the advent of modern industrialized society, we no longer depend on prime cardiovascular fitness to outrun wild beasts, lug heavy containers of water over miles of plains, or work the fields from dawn to dusk.

While "cardio" means "heart," cardio fitness encompasses a number of factors. The heart is a muscle and all muscles need regular, vigorous exercise or they atrophy-literally, shrink. If you've ever had an arm or a leg in a cast, you've seen muscles shrink before your eyes. Muscles need tone. Even at rest, muscles are in a state of partial contraction, a state of readiness or receptivity to a stimulus. Exercise increases that receptivity.

Muscles need oxygen to fuel muscle fiber contractions. That oxygen is supplied by your lungs. The demand for oxygen goes up as muscles increase the frequency and intensity of contractions. With that increasing demand, the lungs get more efficient in several ways: lung volume may increase; more oxygen is extracted in the alveoli (the little lung sacs where the oxygen exchange takes place); and the red blood corpuscles start to carry more oxygen. Without enough oxygen, muscles quit contracting.

Muscles need calories, too. In a complicated biochemical process called the Krebs cycle, mitochondria, the little energy factories in cells, create the energy muscles use to produce contractions. Without enough calories, muscles quit. The heart contracts, on the average, 72 beats per minute, or over 37 million times a year. Over how many years? That depends a great deal on your level of fitness.

What qualifies as cardiovascular exercise? There are two types of exercise: aerobic and anaerobic, meaning with and without oxygen. While both are important in life and in sports, it is aerobic exercise that increases cardio fitness. To meet the criteria, you need movement of the major muscle groups for at least 20 minutes with your breathing supplying adequate oxygen.

The criteria I use are: Am I sweating? Am I breathing hard (but not panting)? Is my heart rate (beats per minute) in the target range of 70 to 80 percent of maximum for optimal fitness? (To figure your maximum heart rate, subtract your age from 220. Then take 70 and 80 percent of that number to find your training range.) If these criteria are not met, you're not working hard enough to get the most benefit of your exercise time.

Choosing Your Weapon

In selecting your method of exercise, find one that is effective, efficient, and enjoyable. According to Kenneth Cooper, MD, "father" of aerobic exercise, the most effective exercises are in descending order: cross-country skiing, running, cycling, swimming, and walking. They also hold the same ranking for efficiency-getting the most exercise in the least amount of time.

Cross-country skiing tops the list for the most effective and efficient form of exercise, but it could present a problem for people who live in snow-free climates. If you do enjoy cross-country skiing, there are home exercise machines that provide the same motion and simulate that activity very closely.

Running is right up there in effectiveness and efficiency, but a lot of non-runners think that it is not enjoyable, or that it's too hard on your joints. Joint impact in running has been given a bad rap; running actually increases the circulation in joints through its pumping action. The best way to keep your joints healthy is to use them frequently and in their full range of motion.

Cycling and swimming are a little less effective and efficient because they take longer to get the heart rate up and they burn fewer calories. They may, however, be more enjoyable for many people. Stationary bicycles are a safe alternative to road biking. If you don't own a pool, it is possible to purchase swim simulators or join a local YWCA or public pool for lap swimming.

Walking is touted as the "perfect" exercise, but it frequently does not meet the effective or efficient criteria for cardiovascular exercise. As your fitness level increases, you may not be getting your heart rate up into the training zone. Walking burns only half the calories as running (300 vs. 600 average calories per mile) and may not provide enough impact on the bones to prevent osteoporosis. Walking is a good place to start, however, if you've never exercised before.

What it really boils down to, though, is choosing the exercise you'll enjoy doing the most-increasing fitness may not be rewarding enough in itself at first. For me, running races, which draw hundreds and even thousands of people, is the best exercise I know. Participants cross the finish line with big, happy smiles and arms raised triumphantly. People cheer as you come down the final stretch, feeding you bananas and oranges, and if you're fast enough, they call you up on stage and thrust a trophy in your hands to the sounds of more applause. I've received more than 700 trophies in my 15 years of racing, and I have to admit that I love it. I also love the companionship and the stimulation of competition, pushing myself to greater heights.

Setting Up Your Fitness Program

The most successful fitness programs are those that are done in the morning. Research shows that after a year, 75 percent of morning exercisers are still sticking to their program, as compared to 50 percent of the noon exercisers, and only 25 percent of evening exercisers. Make exercise a daily habit. Choose more than one method, so that you don't get bored, or get an overuse injury.

One strategy is to block out your calendar for the first hour of the day. If that doesn't give you enough time, get up an hour earlier. Your body will soon adapt and you'll find you require less sleep. You'll also have more energy and be more productive. So, even though you've now added an hour of exercise to your day, you'll find that you've more than made up the time. You'll also be adding years to your life! Fit smokers statistically outlive sedentary non-smokers, illustrating how important exercise is.

Giving Your Body The Fuel It Needs

My recommendation for the perfect fuel is a vegan (animal product-free) diet composed of 80 percent carbohydrate, 10 percent protein, and 10 percent fat. A well-balanced vegan diet provides all the nutrition and calories your body needs. (With the exception of vitamin B12, available in fortified vegan foods and supplements).

The body's primary fuel for exercise is carbohydrates, and glucose (blood sugar) is a carbohydrate. Fat and protein do provide limited amounts of fuel, but the working muscles definitely prefer carbs. Fat is much harder to metabolize, and protein is used only in very small amounts, primarily for maintenance and repair of tissues. Believe me, most people do not exercise hard enough to require much muscle repair. A diet rich in vegetables, whole grains, and fruit is one that will provide all the energy you need and will keep your body fat percentage low.

Fitness Saves Money, Too

Fitness increases wellness, avoids disease, and adds up to thousands of dollars saved every year! Fit people who eat an optimal vegetarian diet will reduce the likelihood of coronary bypass surgery or balloon angioplasty; and generally avoid many of the medications that are so routinely prescribed to aging people: blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar lowering drugs; antacids; laxatives; anti-depressants; sleep aids; and on and on.

Does it really make sense to pay big bucks to watch someone else exercise? That's what we do when we attend baseball or football games. Why not do a triathlon and have people come watch you! Going out for a run is very inexpensive, primarily just the cost of good running shoes. Also consider the use of exercise "toys." Treadmills, stationary cycles, and stair climbers are good investments as long as you use them. Keep a set of weights handy to lift in spare moments.

Your Lifetime Fitness Plan

With exercise, there's good news and bad news. The good news is that you can get all the exercise you need in an hour a day. The bad news is that you have to do it the rest of your life! If you compared this, however, to having to brush your teeth for the rest of your life, it's not a big deal. Exercise can be so much of a habit that there is never a question about "if" or "when." You just do it.

Avoiding Fitness Pitfalls: Excuses, excuses, excuses!

Excuse: "I'm getting too old for this."
Truth: The older you get, the more important it is to exercise.

Excuse: "Heart disease (or cancer, or diabetes, whatever) runs in my family so why bother."
Truth: 70 percent of all deaths in this country are lifestyle-related-from eating the wrong diet and not getting enough exercise.

Excuse: "I have back (or joint, or knee) problems."
Truth: Lack of exercise and poor diet are the primary causes of back, knee, and joint problems.

Excuse: "It's too cold, (or windy, or hot)."
Truth: No such thing as bad weather, only poor clothing.

Excuse: "I HATE exercise!"
Truth: As fitness increases, so does the enjoyment.

And the #1 excuse for not exercising:
"I don't have the time."
Truth: If we don't make the time, how are we going to find the time for a hospital stay while recovering from a heart attack, stroke, broken hip, cancer surgery, etc.? Think about that one!