Aerobic Exercise Study Guide

Transcription

1 Aerobic Exercise Study Guide The term aerobics was coined to refer to a variety of exercises that strengthens the cardiovascular respiratory system by boosting the body s consumption of oxygen. The use of oxygen is very important since it determines whether or not stored fat can be used as an energy source or not. If the activity is aerobic meaning using oxygen, then fat can be used as an energy source. If the activity is anaerobic, meaning without oxygen, the amount of oxygen taken in is insufficient to meet the requirement of the work; there is an oxygen deficit that must be made up later. Aerobic exercise works the body strenuously without pushing to the point of breathlessness. Aerobics is a continuous activity that uses the largest muscles of the thigh and hip regions. Various dance and callisthenic steps are performed to music. This makes the activity fun as well as effective. Each day the instructor will lead the class warm-up with slow, large movements to get the blood flowing and prepare the body for activity. During the latter portions of the warm-ups phase, flexibility exercise in the form of stretching will be performed. Then the movements will gradually speed up and become more intense. This level of activity will be maintained for approximately 20 minutes before reducing the pace for a cool down phase. Floor work exercises or muscle toning exercises will be intermixed with the cardiovascular fitness exercises. This will give the body a chance to increase strength as well as improve the capacity of the cardiovascular system. SKILLS TO BE LEARNED Taking a heart rate this skill will be used each day to determine what level the student is working at. PROPER STRETCHING The proper technique of stretching will be stressed to avoid injury and it is expected that students adhere to these techniques when leading a class or working out on their won. CALCULATION OF TARGET HEART RATE The target heart rate is used to determine what the student s optimum level of exercise is without going into an anaerobic state. The largest heart rate zone lies between 60% of Maximum Heart rate (MHR) and 80% of Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). TARGET HEART RATE FORMULA [(220 Age) (Resting Heart Rate)] X 60% + (Resting Heart Rate) = Target Heart Rate 60% = lowest Target Heart Rate 80% = highest Target Heart Rate BASIC RULES: Try to keep up with the class, but if you are having trouble, decrease the level of intensity by lowering the arms and bringing the feet down to an easy jog or marching. This will lower the heart rate and allow you to regain your breath. Be Patient! It takes approximately two weeks for most people to gain some confidence in aerobic exercises and to feel comfortable about what they are doing and what they are trying to achieve. Take the attitude that you are learning a new sport. Few people expect to be able to play tennis after only one lesson. The same holds true for aerobics. You may feel like you are moving with two left feet at times, but your body commands improves with each workout, as will your coordination with the music. Avoid too much too soon! You want your fitness to keep pace with your exertion level so you will always feel great after each workout. In other words, you want to increase your level of fitness at the same fate as your level of coordination both take time. If it took you two years to get out of shape, it will take about one year to get back into shape.

2 Who Needs Cardiovascular Fitness? Cardiovascular fitness is important to everyone. A person with good cardiovascular fitness can work harder and longer with less effort and without tiring quickly. If your cardiovascular fitness is good, you may have improved your ability to meet the problems you face daily. If you find yourself unable to swim, walk, run, or bicycle as far as you would like to or as far as others who are fit, you may want to start looking at your own cardiovascular fitness level. Cardiovascular Fitness and Good Health In order to develop and maintain good health, a person needs to strengthen the heart muscle and also improve the other parts of the cardiovascular system. The person who exercises will have a stronger heart muscle than one who does very little exercise. Also, as people exercise, they increase the fitness of other parts of their cardiovascular system, such as the blood vessels and the blood. Scientific studies have shown that active people have less heart disease and are less likely to die from heart attacks than the inactive people. Some symptoms of heart disease start to develop when people are in their teens. For this reason, it is important to develop and maintain cardiovascular fitness early in life. Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems Before learning about the effects of fitness on the cardiovascular and respiratory systems, you should understand how these systems work. The respiratory system is made u of the air passages and lungs. The cardiovascular system is composed of the heart, arteries, blood, and veins. These two systems work together. As air is breathed in, the blood picks up oxygen from the lungs. The blood carries the oxygen to the heart. The heart pumps this blood to the arteries and on to the muscle and other body cells. Muscle cells need oxygen to keep working. Waste products are given off by the working muscle cells and are then removed by the blood. The veins return the blood containing wastes back to the heart. The heart pumps this returning blood to the lings where wastes are exchanged for more oxygen, and the process begins again. Effects of Exercise on Cardiovascular and Respiratory Systems How does exercise affect the parts of these two important body systems? Heart: The heart is a muscle. Just like any other muscle in the body, the heart gets stronger through the right kind of exercise, such as jogging, swimming, or hiking long distances. The heart acts as a pump to supply blood to your working muscles. The heart rate is the number of times the heartbeats per minute to pump blood through your body. Resting heart rate is taken when a person is stiff. Someone who exercises regularly may have a resting heart rate of 55 to 60 beats per minute. The heart of a fit person with a resting rate of 50 beats 9,512, 000 times less each year than an average person s heart with a resting heart rate of 70. The heart of the active person pumps more blood with fewer beats, thus working more efficiently. When you exercise hard, the muscles need more oxygen. More oxygen is supplied to the muscles when the heart pumps more blood. The heart has two ways to get more blood to the muscles by beating faster or by sending a greater amount of blood with each beat. If the muscles do not get enough oxygen and waste produced in the muscles is not removed, the muscles cannot work. As a result, the ability of the muscles to move will be reduced. Your muscles then will be tired. As you can see, the heart s ability to pump blood is very important in doing exercise, especially exercise that lasts for a very long time. Lungs: To have good cardiovascular fitness you must also have healthy lungs. In the lungs the blood picks up oxygen that is carried to the muscles. If the lungs are not healthy, your blood cannot pick up oxygen efficiently. Without enough oxygen, you will be able to do extremely active exercises for long periods of time. Because smoking hinders the proper working of the lings, smoking is discouraged for people who have good cardiovascular fitness. Arteries: the arteries are blood vessels pipelines that carry the blood from the heart to other parts of the body. Blood is forced through the arteries by the beating of the heart.

3 You can find your heart rate by counting your pulse. Pulse is the movement of blood in your arteries caused by the heart beating. You can feel the pulse where the arteries are close to the skin at the neck, the upper arm, and the wrist. The pulse can be counted for any length of time, but usually is referred to in beats per minute. Strong heart and healthy lungs will not do you much good if your arteries are not clear and open. Deposits inside the artery wall may partially close the artery and reduce flow of blood. When this happens, you have atherosclerosis. Many scientists think that people who exercise regularly have cleaner arteries and less chance of having atherosclerosis. However, exercise is only one factor related to atherosclerosis. While exercise may have benefits, it may not prevent atherosclerosis. One of the causes of atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases is too much of certain fats in the blood. Generally speaking, saturated fats and fatty substance called cholesterol are potentially harmful to your cardiovascular system; unsaturated fats are not. Saturated fats are what most people commonly think of when they hear fat in red meat. Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in meats, dairy products, and egg yolks. Unsaturated fats are found in many kinds of oils, such as olive oil, peanut oil, corn oil, and sunflower oil. Clear arteries are especially important in the heart muscle. Scientists have found that those people who do regular exercise may develop extra arteries in the heart muscle. The importance of these arteries can be shown in this example. When astronaut Ed White died in a fire at Cape Canaveral, an autopsy was made. The doctors found that one of his heart s major arteries had completely closed due to atherosclerosis. It is believed because of all the physical training astronauts must do, he had developed extra arteries in the heart muscle so that he did not die of a heart attach when a main artery closed. He had been able to do a high level of physical fitness training without any signs of heart trouble. Although your body needs a certain amount of fat and cholesterol, excessive amounts trigger formation of the fatty deposits along artery walls. Cholesterol can be especially dangerous partly because high levels can build in your body without you noticing it, even a thin person could have a high cholesterol level. Research has shown that cholesterol is carried through the bloodstream by articles called lipoproteins. One kind is High- Density Lipoprotein (HDL). KDL is often referred to as good cholesterol because HDLs carry excess cholesterol out of the bloodstream and into the liver for elimination form the body. Therefore, HDLs appear to help prevent atherosclerosis. However, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) is often referred to as bad cholesterol because LDLs carry cholesterol that is most likely to stay in the body and contribute to atherosclerosis. Most people have a large degree of control over their cardiovascular fitness. The best approach is to cut down on dietary cholesterol and saturated fats and to get regular aerobic exercise. Cutting down on cholesterol and saturated fats helps reduce LDL levels in the blood. A helpful change in a person s eating habits does not have to be drastic. The American Heart Association recommends these guidelines: Select lean cuts of meat: trim off visible fat before cooking. Remove skin from poultry before cooking. Eat more fish. Avoid frying foods. Bake, steam, roast, boil, or broil foods. Drink low fat or skim milk rather than whole milk. Use seasonings instead of butter and sauces to flavor food. Try fruit and plain cookies for desserts. Limit egg consumption to no more than three per week. Regular exercise helps improve your cardiovascular fitness in several ways. First, it reduces LDL levels. Second, exercise is thought to increase HDL levels. Third, exercise can help prevent blood clots from forming by reducing the amount of fibrin in the blood. Fibrin is a substance involved in making the blood clot. Therefore, high amounts of fibrin might contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. Regular exercise has still other benefits. Scientists have found that people who exercise regularly might develop more branching of the arteries in the heart. The importance of this richer network is valuable if the

4 person has any blockage due to atherosclerosis. The new branching of arteries caused by exercise will perform the duties of the blocked arteries. Veins: The veins carry the blood filled with waste products from the muscle cells back to the heart. Valves in the veins help keep the blood form flowing backward. The muscles squeeze the veins to pump the blood back to the heart. To make the muscles squeeze the veins you must exercise or move around. If you do not exercise, you may cause the valves in the veins especially in the legs, to stop working efficiently, and the blood flow will then be slowed in the legs. You should exercise regularly to keep the veins working properly. Helping the Cardiovascular System Work Before and after exercise, you can help the cardiovascular system work more efficiently by warming up and cooling down. Warm-up: Research studies tell us that it is important for you to warm up before beginning long, hard exercise. Warm-up is a brief amount of mild exercise to prepare you for more vigorous exercises. Before doing cardiovascular fitness exercise. It is important to warm up first. The warm-up should last at least two minutes and consist of walking and slow jogging. The warm-up gets the blood flowing so that vigorous exercise does not come as such a shock to your cardiovascular system. There are also different kinds of warm-ups that are helpful for other parts of fitness. For example, flexibility warm-ups include muscle stretching. Cool-down: After exercise, it is important to cool down or exercise slower. Cool-down means to continue moving around a few minutes after hard activity. If exercise is ended suddenly, the heart still pumps extra blood to the muscles, but the muscles do not squeeze the veins and return the blood. Thus, extra blood collects in the limbs. The flow of blood may be reduced to other parts of the body. Achieving Cardiovascular Fitness and (F.I.T. Formula) Frequency = Exercise at least 3 days a week. For best results, exercise 3-5 days a week. Intensity = Raise your heart rate to your target heart rate zone. Time = Keep your heart rate in target zone for at least 15 to 20 minutes. Terminology Aerobic exercise: Anaerobic exercise: Arteries: Atherosclerosis: Ballistic Stretch: Calorie: Carbohydrates: Cardiovascular fitness: Cholesterol: exercise which necessary oxygen is supplied to muscles at all times. exercises which the muscles do not have needed oxygen at all times and frequent rest is necessary. Blood vessels that carry blood away from the heart to other body parts. a disease in which the arteries become dangerously clogged with cholesterol. The deposits harden called hardening of the arteries. an active flexibility exercise whereby the muscle is violently stretched by a series of quick, bouncing motions. a heat unit that refers to the energy available in food. nutrients, especially sugars and starches that furnish energy. ability to exercise for long periods of time because you have a strong heart, healthy lungs, and clear blood vessels. a fat-like substance found in animal cells and in some foods, such as dairy products and egg yolks.

5 Flexibility: the ability to use your joints fully through a full range of motion. Heart rate: the number of times your heart beats per minute. High-Density Lipoproteins (HDL): Good Cholesterol that carries excess cholesterol out of the bloodstream. Low-Density Lipoproteins (LDL): Bad cholesterol that remains in the bloodstream. Muscular endurance: ability to use your muscles many times without tiring. Saturated fats: a nutrient found in dairy products and animal fats, a source of (LDL). Skin fold: a fold of skin and underlying fat which, when measured with calipers, indicate the percentage of body fat. Static stretch: a passive flexibility exercise whereby the muscle is slowly stretched as far as possible without pain, and then held in the stretch for several seconds. Target Heart Rate: the right amount of exercise to build cardiovascular fitness. Unsaturated fat: nutrient found in many oils, such as olive oil or vegetable oil. Vein: a blood vessel that carries blood to the heart. Warm-up: the first stage of an exercise program, usually consisting of a muscle and heart warm-up, and stretch.