How aerobic exercise affects your heart and body
Research conducted over 20 years has shown that aerobic exercise is one of the best ways to improve your health and well-being. It improves the efficiency of the heart, lungs and blood vessels, as well as of the enzymes that regulate how muscles use energy.
Only red blood cells carry oxygen to the muscles. When your muscles work during exercise, the heart has to pump more blood around the whole body to meet the increased demand for oxygen. This makes the lungs expand to supply the oxygen that red blood cells quickly distribute throughout the body.
Because muscles need more oxygen to produce energy, the body automatically increases the amount of oxygen you breathe in. Your heart rate rises as the heart pumps blood through the system faster to meet the oxygen demand of every muscle.
Increased circulation benefits the body twofold. First, a rich oxygen supply is delivered not only to the muscles but to every part of the system. Second, blood flows through the cleansing organs much faster, which clears waste products out of the body. Both are very important factors for your health.
Regular aerobic exercise affects the body as follows:
1) It improves heart strength and heart rate, allowing more blood to be pumped with each beat. As a result, oxygen, which the body needs to survive, is transported faster from the lungs to the heart and throughout the body.
2) It increases muscle tone throughout the body, thereby improving overall circulation and reducing blood pressure and the workload on the heart.
3) It increases circulation and raises the number of red blood cells and the amount of hemoglobin (hemoglobin carries oxygen to the tissues), making the blood a more efficient oxygen carrier.
4) Aerobic exercise raises your body’s level of high-density lipoproteins (HDL), which is your “good cholesterol”, and lowers your body’s level of low-density lipoproteins (LDL), which is “bad cholesterol”. It also improves blood circulation and boosts your heart’s activity.
Heart rate and physical fitness
A physically fit person is better able to handle physical challenges in everyday life, whereas someone who is not in good shape has to give up active pursuits because of fatigue.
During exercise you want to work hard enough (intensity) to bring your heart rate into the range of 140-170 beats per minute, i.e. to roughly double your heart rate compared with when you are resting. A person who is not in good shape reaches the target heart rate with very little effort, because their resting heart rate is fast (80/90 beats per minute) and the body lacks enough oxygen, so they tire relatively quickly. A physically fit person has to work harder to reach the target heart rate, because their resting heart rate is low (50 beats per minute).
Keep in mind that the heart becomes an even more efficient pump, supplying the necessary amount of oxygen at a lower heart rate.
The easiest way to monitor your heart rate is to use a heart rate monitor!
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