A person who has aerobic (cardio vascular) fitness can persist in physical exercise for long periods of time without undue fatigue. So fitness is largely about improving your ability to take in as much oxygen as possible so that your muscles can utilise it and continue working over enduring training periods.
The term used to measure this ability is VO2 max - this is the maximum amount of oxygen your muscles can extract from your blood during maximal or exhaustive exercise. The point during exercise at which your oxygen consumption plateaus defines VO2 max. Therefore VO2 max is the best indicator of cardio vascular endurance or aerobic fitness.
So to improve your aerobic fitness, you want to improve your VO2 max.
How do we do this?
With suitable training, your body can make adaptions to improve its oxygen delivery and utilisation.
How can we ensure that we are training to improve VO2 max?
1.Frequency
2.Intensity
3.Time
That is - 30mins, 3 times per week at a 75% heart rate zone.
How do we know what 75% of our heart rate could be?
In order to calculate your target heart rates, you must first find your MHR - maximum heart rate. There is a standard formula commonly used -
MHR = 220- your age.
Therefore MHR x 75% = target HR for aerobic training zone.
How do you measure your heart rate zone while exercising?
Wear a heart rate monitor. As you exercise your heart rate monitor will display you current heart rate. If you've calculated your MHR and what 75% of this figure is, from the information your HR monitor displays, you will know whether you are working enough, too hard or need to step up your efforts.
