Some Cardiovascular Info

[Curly Howard]

I've noticed a lot of questions about cardiovascular health and how to improve it. I did some research on it and thought I would share the info with you. Some of this will be in my words and some will be cut & pasted from other web sites. I didn't feel the need to rewrite the same information. I will use the quote function when the text is from another source. This is long so I broke it up in to sections.
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Cardio training for how we us it in sports and everyday life is basically getting your body used to doing work at a certain level and to improve the rate that oxygen is replaced in the body and waste (carbon dioxide) is removed.
An example is if you remember back when you first started working. Maybe you cut grass for a neighbor. The first few times you probably sweated a lot and got tired easy but after a while you got used to it. Actually what you did was build up your muscles and cardiovascular system to meet the needs of the task.
Say you still got tired and struggled with it. What you can do is over train your body for the task. Say your job was to carry 25 lbs. boxes for 8 hours a day. You couldn't do it 10 hours a day to over train your body. There just isn't enough time. So you would lift more weight in a shorter time and jog to over train for the walking involved. Also think of all the elements to a task you are training for. Then you can come up with an exercise for each part of it.
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When we talk about Cardio Training we of course are talking about the cardiovascular system of the body. Basically it is the way we get oxygen and nutrients to the muscles and the other parts of the body and the way we remove waste from the body.

From http://kosmoi.com The human circulatory system consists of the heart which acts as a pump, and the blood vessels in which the blood flows. We distinguish between arteries in which blood flows away from the heart, veins in which blood flows back to the heart, and capillaries which are very thin vessels where the actual oxygen and nutrient exchange takes place and which form the interface between arteries and veins.

The overall structure of the system is as follows. The heart consists of two separated pumps, the right and the left side (seen from the perspective of the heart's owner). The right side pumps blood into the lungs, where it passes through a capillary network, where the blood is brought into close proximity to air-filled alveoli, enabling the release of carbon dioxide and acquisition of oxygen from the air. The blood then moves back to the left side of the heart. The left side pumps it into all parts of the body. The progressively thinner arteries end in capillaries, where the blood flows very slowly and nutrients and oxygen are exchanged with the surrounding tissues. The capillaries turn into veins which return the blood to the right side of the heart.

There is one exception to this general picture: the capillaries in the intestines lead to the portal vein which, instead of going directly back to the heart, leads to another network of capillaries inside the liver. This allows the liver to take up the nutrients that were extracted by the intestines from food. The blood then moves from the liver back to the right side of the heart.

Some of the blood is pumped through the kidneys, which remove some wastes and water, which are excreted as urine.


In the capillaries, some of the blood plasma seeps into the tissues, turning into interstitial fluid. This fluid is returned to the bloodstream via the lymphatic system, which is a system of vessels separate from the circulatory system.

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Diet also plays a big roll. You can jog 10 miles a week and still not gain all the benafits if you don't eat right. Most of us know what a good diet it but I'll put this link up http://www.diet-and-health.com/html/...ar-health.php3
It has a lot of good info on it.
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Continued

[Curly Howard]

The biggest question is what is the best exercise to do. There isn't a "best". Any activity that gets your heart pumping and lungs working is good. What you are trying to do is do more work then what your body is used to doing so that you can develop your heart, lungs, and circulatory system so it can provide oxygen to your body and remove the waste fast enough to keep up with the demand. Before you start a cardio program you should get a physical. Even if you're in good health you should get checked out just in case there is some unseen problems. It could save your life.
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Parts of this was taken from different web sites.
Cardiovascular exercise is any continuous activity that gets your heart working and can be sustained from 15 to 60 minutes or beyond. It generally uses large muscle groups, such as the legs, hips and glutes, but some activities, including swimming and cross-country skiing, engage the entire body.

Common CV activities include walking, jogging, cycling and hiking. You don't need to belong to a health club to participate in CV activity, but sometimes the equipment there can give you even more options. These include stairclimbing, rowing and elliptical cross-training (a machine combining the motion of a stairclimber and a skier with your feet move in an elliptical shape). Aerobic classes generally provide lots of CV choices as well.

Two main differences exist among different CV exercises: whether they are weight-bearing and whether they engage the entire body.

Weight-bearing: With a weight-bearing exercise, your feet and legs support your body weight. Running, walking, jogging, dancing, stair climbing and rope jumping are examples. These types of exercise are great for strengthening your bones.

Non weight-bearing: Here, the body is supported during exercise, as in bicycling, rowing and swimming. Because these exercises are non-impact (you are not carrying your body weight), they tend to be easier on your back, knees and other joints. As a result, they can have a lower risk of injury than weight-bearing exercises.

Total-body: Clearly, exercises that use your entire body, including some elliptical cross-trainers, rowing, skiing and swimming, work more muscle groups than those that use the lower body only, such as running and cycling. One type isn't necessarily better than the other; they simply are different.

[Curly Howard]

Cardio training in fighting. Most of us here train for fighting so we want our workouts to be geared towards that.

Some good workouts for fighting include

Heavy bag
Shadow boxing
Running
Stair climbing
Sparing
Swimming
Weighted training (doing these exercises with arm and leg weight)
Rowing
Jumping rope
Aerobics (I know guys aren't crazy about this but it works)
Also the Bas Rutten MMA workout is an exellent way to work on cardio the same way aerobics does but without Richard Simmons screaming in the backround

Any activity will help improve your cardio but some work different parts or the body so that you get a muscle fitness workout while you help your cardio.

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[Curly Howard]

Some more advanced workouts include training in the mountains where there isn't as much oxygen in the air and training in extreme heat and cold. This should only be done by people who are in excellent health and condition.
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End

[wondermut]

I love you Carl!

[Curly Howard]

Awww shucks......what else was I going to do on a Saturday morning....besides sleep in and watch cartoons.....but I figured I would write this instead

[VulgarTheClown]

thanks!

[Curly Howard]

NP

[The Ensanity]

Good thread

[Kato]

I did 2 hours on the elliptical today, not all at once but in intervals of 1 hour with a 2 hrs rest. total caloric burn was at 1600...yeah baby