To Live Longer, Improve Your Cardiorespiratory Fitness: Know What It Is And Exercises For Improving Cardiorespiratory Fitness

Cardiorespiratory fitness can reduce long-term mortality: study

Exercise, exercise, exercise! It can never be said enough number of times that exercising is important for people of all age groups. Being physically active and including multiple fitness routines in your workout regime can give health benefits beyond you can imagine. And now, a new study has found that cardiorespiratory fitness can lower risk of death. The large-scale research, published in Journal of American Medical Association, found that risk of death is especially low in people with high level of fitness.

The study was conducted by researchers at Cleveland Clinic in USA and included around 1,22,007 participants. All of these participants underwent exercises on treadmill for finding association between cardiorespiratory fitness and all-cause mortality.

Also read: A Sneak Peek Into Gym God John Abraham's Fitness Mantra

Factors like weight, body mass index, height, smoking status and history of diseases of existing diseases were taken into consideration. Participants were checked for history of diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. It was found that cardiorespiratory fitness had a direct association with reduced long-term mortality.

Cardiorespiratory fitness is referred to a measure of how well your body is able to transport oxygen to your muscles while exercising. A person's level of cardiovascular fitness tells how capable your muscles are in terms of absorbing oxygen.

Thus, transporting oxygen to muscles and the capability of your muscles to absorb oxygen are the two main components of cardiorespiratory fitness.

Skipping rope is a great exercise for improving your cardiorespiratory fitness
Photo Credit: iStock

Also read: Super Flexible Kangana Ranaut's Fitness Secrets Revealed!

How to improve your cardiorespiratory fitness?

Doing any prolonged exercise which recruits your aerobic energy system can help in improving your cardiorespiratory fitness. Exercises which get your heart rate up and keeps it going for a long period of time qualifies as a legitimate cardiorespiratory exercise - which is beneficial for your aerobic fitness. The effectiveness of your cardiorespiratory training is dependent on the type of activity you do, its frequency, intensity and duration.

Exercises which are good for your cardiorespiratory fitness include running, cycling, jogging, walking, skipping rope, aerobic dance, Zumba, rowing, skating and stair climbing. Playing sports like basketball and volleyball can also be great for your cardiorespiratory fitness.

After deciding which form of exercise you want to include in your fitness regime, you need to work on the duration, frequency and intensity. The overload principle is considered to be great for improving your cardiorespiratory fitness. According to the overload principle, you need to push yourself out from your comfort zone. This applies for all form of exercises. Your cardiorespiratory system needs to be subjected to overload for it to be able to improve.

You can include jogging or running in your fitness routine for improving your cardiorespiratory fitness
Photo Credit: iStock

Also read: Hate Going To The Gym? These Fitness Apps May Help You

The intensity of your exercise can be determined by your heart rate. The faster your heart beats, the better is the intensity of your exercise. To improve duration, give yourself targets. Start with exercising for half an hour and then increase 5 or 10 minutes every day after a week or so. The frequency of your exercise is simply the measure of how often you perform cardiorespiratory exercises.

While ensuring that your cardiorespiratory fitness regime works for you, make sure that you enjoy it as well. Enjoying the exercise is the key to continue it and achieve maximum benefits from it.

Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.