Keep Moving to Improve Cardiovascular Endurance

Cardiovascular endurance is a measure of your physical fitness. Good endurance makes everyday activities such as climbing stairs or carrying groceries easier and less tiring. Cardiovascular endurance can be improved through regular exercise.

Cardiovascular endurance is a measure of the heart and blood vessels’ abilities to endure regular physical activity. Regular physical activity improves cardiovascular endurance, benefitting the entire body.

Building endurance strengthens the heart, increasing its ability to pump blood to the lungs and throughout the body. A strong heart and lungs bring more blood to the muscles, which increases blood oxygen levels. Tiny blood vessels, known as capillaries, also widen to improve blood flow to the entire body and remove waste products.

In this article, you will learn the difference between cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory endurance, the benefits of cardiovascular endurance, tests to determine the level of endurance, five exercises to improve cardiovascular endurance, and how to adapt exercise if you have metabolic disorders.

Defining Cardiovascular vs. Cardiorespiratory Endurance 

Cardiovascular endurance refers to the heart and blood vessels’ strength and ability to work under continuous physical activity. Cardiorespiratory endurance, also known as cardiorespiratory fitness, is the ability of the circulatory and respiratory systems to supply oxygenated blood to the skeletal muscles during physical activity.

Though cardiovascular endurance and cardiorespiratory endurance technically refer to two separate things, they are closely related and often used synonymously.

When your cardiovascular endurance improves, so does cardiorespiratory endurance. By increasing the strength and endurance of the heart and lungs, their ability to provide oxygen to the muscles during activity also increases.

Benefits

Cardiovascular endurance is improved through exercise. Having strong cardiovascular endurance has many benefits, which include but are not limited to:

For people with cardiovascular disease, exercise is often recommended as part of the treatment plan.

Tests

The gold standard for determining cardiovascular endurance assesses maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max). This test looks at the body’s oxygen capacity and how efficiently the muscles use oxygen while exercising.

Testing for VO2max is done with specialized equipment that measures heart rate and oxygen intake during physical activity. This is often done in a medical setting. The person being tested is monitored while performing an activity such as walking or running on a treadmill.

Other tests that can give quick results of VO2max measure the heart rate before, during, and after an exercise. Complicated equations can estimate the VO2max based on these numbers.

Other indicators of physical fitness can also be observed. People with good endurance can exercise or perform physical activities for longer periods of time without becoming exhausted. They are less likely to feel out of breath when doing physically demanding work.

When performing intense exercise, their heart rate recovers, or lowers, quicker, and their resting heart rate is low.

Cardiovascular Endurance Examples 

Activities that increase heart rate and oxygen consumption are good for building cardiovascular endurance. In other words, anything that gets the body moving, the heart pumping, and the lungs working can improve physical fitness.

Overall, you should aim for 150 minutes a week of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of intense exercise to improve and maintain cardiovascular endurance.

Aerobic exercises such as biking, swimming, and running are all good examples of activities that are good for building cardiovascular endurance. Other less strenuous examples include walking and yoga.

Anaerobic exercises such as high-intensity interval training, powerlifting, and sprinting also have positive effects on cardiovascular endurance.

At any age or any physical ability, there is an exercise that can work to improve cardiovascular endurance.

Workouts to Improve Cardiovascular Endurance: Walking

Walking is one of the most easily accessible activities. It doesn’t require equipment, can be done almost anywhere, and can be easily added to your day.

When starting a walking program, begin with small goals. Perhaps the goal for one week is to walk 10 minutes a day. The next week, it’s 20 minutes daily, and 30 the following.

As your endurance increases, you might find that a 30-minute walk feels easy, and your heart rate doesn’t increase much.

To continue improving endurance, you’ll need to change the workout to get your heart working harder. Try walking faster or on an incline—this can be done on a hill or by increasing the incline on a treadmill.

Biking

Biking can be done outdoors on a regular bike or indoors on a stationary bike.

For indoor workouts, consider spinning classes. They are available at most gyms or fitness studios and led by instructors who can guide you through a workout.

If you’re biking outdoors, make it fun. Pick a destination a few miles away and bike there, or explore new areas of your town or city on a bike.

Swimming

Swimming is a low-impact exercise with a variety of benefits. It improves cardiovascular endurance and also improves muscle strength.

To start a swimming workout, choose a stroke that you feel comfortable doing—freestyle, breaststroke, side stroke, or any other.

Begin with one lap, then take a rest. Take frequent rests if needed until you reach 10 minutes of swimming. Every week try to add five more minutes to your routine until you can get to 30 to 60 minutes.

If swimming laps doesn’t work for your body, you can also try walking laps in the pool. This is especially beneficial for people with joint pain or people who have trouble walking.

Social Sports

One study found that social sports, activities that involve a partner or team to compete, had beneficial effects on overall fitness, mental health, and longevity.

Examples of these activities are tennis, pickleball, golf, soccer, volleyball, and softball. The social aspect of these activities also creates a fun environment and accountability. Having someone to answer to can help motivate you to stay in a routine of regular physical activity.

High-Intensity Interval Training

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an anaerobic activity that can produce results in shorter periods of time. Interval training involves short bouts of fast, all-out activity followed by short periods of rest.

One easy way to do HIIT without equipment is to start with an easy jog, then begin intervals. Intervals can be determined based on your current level of fitness.

If you’re just beginning, try a sprint for 30 seconds then walk for a minute. Try to repeat this circuit until you reach 15 minutes.

You will notice that your heart rate will increase during the sprint and then decrease while walking. As you get used to this type of training, you may be able to increase the time of the sprints and decrease the amount of rest.

 

Exercise Adaptations for People With Metabolic Disease 

Exercise positively affects metabolic disease and is often used to help treat some factors that contribute to the disease, such as insulin resistance (when muscle, fat, and liver cells don’t respond well to insulin and have difficulty taking up glucose from your blood, creating a need for more insulin) and having obesity.

If you are new to exercise, talk to your healthcare provider to ensure your chosen activity is safe for you.

Take it slow. If you are starting an exercise routine to help with metabolic disease, there is no need to overhaul your life all at once completely. Going all out often causes injuries and makes people feel defeated and resort to their old ways.

Try to add a little bit of exercise to your daily routine at a time so that it doesn’t become overwhelming and instead becomes a lifelong habit.

Summary

Cardiovascular endurance is a measure of physical fitness and is important for overall health. Regular exercise and physical activity improve cardiovascular endurance and have other benefits as well such as lower blood pressure, improved quality of life and less risk of cardiovascular disease.

Measuring VO2max is the gold standard for testing endurance and the strength of the heart and lungs.

Activities like walking, biking, swimming, and group sports like pickleball and volleyball are great places to start when looking for ways to move consistently.

To start a routine, start slow and work up to longer workouts. There is no need to feel overwhelmed, remember, anything you can do to get your body moving and heart pumping will help improve endurance.