1. Cardiorespiratory Endurance Facts
L E S S O N 1
Cardiorespiratory Endurance Facts
Lesson 1

2. Can You . . .
. . . describe the health and wellness benefits of cardiorespiratory endurance?
. . . explain how physical activity benefits the cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscle systems?
. . . describe some methods for assessing your cardiorespiratory endurance?
. . . calculate maximal heart rate and heart rate reserve?

3. What is cardiorespiratory endurance?

4. Cardiorespiratory Endurance
Cardiovascular system involves the heart, blood vessels, and blood.
Respiratory system involves the lungs and air passages that bring air, including oxygen, to your lungs from outside of your body.
Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability to sustain physical effort, which hinges on fitness of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems.

5. Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems

6. What are the health and wellness benefits from having good cardiorespiratory endurance?

7. Health and Wellness Benefits of Good Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Have a chance at a longer life.
Look your best.
Feel your best.
Reduce your risk of hypokinetic diseases.
Meet emergencies effectively.
Learn better.

8. How does physical activity benefit the cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscular systems?

9. Regular Physical Activity
Leads to good cardiorespiratory endurance and develops these aspects:
Healthy heart muscle
Healthy lungs
Healthy blood
Healthy arteries
Healthy veins
Healthy muscle cells

10. Healthy Heart The heart is a muscle.
Your heart muscle develops to pump blood more efficiently.
Bigger left ventricle allows it to fill up with more oxygenated blood and push more oxygenated blood to your body cells.

11. The Exercised Heart
(continued)

12. The Exercised Heart (continued)

13. Healthy Lungs Transfer oxygen easily to the blood.
Have efficient respiratory muscles (e.g., diaphragm).
Hold more air than unhealthy lungs.
(continued)

14. Healthy Lungs (continued)

15. Healthy Blood Higher HDL (good cholesterol)
Lower LDL (bad cholesterol)
Lower fibrin
Reduced inflammation in the arteries

16. Healthy Arteries
More branching of the arteries in people with higher CRE
More muscular arteries
More flexible arteries
(continued)

17. Healthy Arteries (continued)

18. Healthy Veins
Physical activity helps squeeze venous (deoxygenated) blood back to the heart
Efficient valves

19. Healthy Muscle Cells More efficient at using oxygen
More efficient at eliminating metabolic waste
More efficient at using sugar to produce energy

20. What is the difference between a laboratory test and a field test?

21. Laboratory Tests vs. Field Tests
Laboratory tests take place in well- controlled environments and require expensive equipment and extensive technical expertise.
Field tests take place outside the lab in gyms or on fields.
Field tests usually require much less equipment and technical expertise.

22. What are some strengths and weaknesses of laboratory and field tests?

23. Laboratory Tests
Strengths: accurate, can monitor body function more closely (e.g., heart rate, oxygen consumption)
Weaknesses: expensive, requires a lot of equipment and expertise, time consuming (i.e., usually can perform only one test at a time)

24. Field Tests
Strengths: require less equipment, less expertise, less time (can perform multiple field tests at once), less expensive
Weaknesses: can estimate only cardiorespiratory endurance, less accurate, test administration may make it hard to compare results

25. Science in Action: Aerobic Capacity
Aerobic capacity = V̇O2max, the maximum amount of oxygen your body can consume per minute.
Bigger people consume more oxygen because of the size of the body (lungs, circulatory system, muscular system).
Expressing V̇O2max in terms of the maximum amount of oxygen consumed per minute and per unit body weight is called relative V̇O2max (mL/kg/min).
Relative V̇O2max allows scientists to make comparisons of athletes’ aerobic capacity that differ in size.

26. What are some laboratory and field tests of cardiorespiratory endurance?

27. Tests of Cardiorespiratory Endurance
Laboratory
Maximal oxygen uptake test (V̇O2max)
Graded exercise test (medical problems can be detected)
Field
PACER
Walking test
One-mile run
Step test

28. How much cardiorespiratory endurance do you need?

29. How Much Cardiorespiratory Endurance Is Enough?
Health and wellness benefits from achieving the good fitness rating.
The risks of hypokinetic diseases are greatest for those in the low and marginal fitness zones.
Bottom line:
The higher your cardiorespiratory endurance, the lower your risk of disease.