Pam Strand (00:02):
How should I be exercising? What should I be doing to keep my body limber and pain-free? What about my mental health? Are there things I should be doing to keep my mind and mental wellbeing going strong? and sleep? Any way to improve that? I just want to make sure that I have all the energy, strength, and health I need to do all of the great things I have planned for my life now and well into the future. If you're asking yourself these questions, then you're in the right place. The Longevity Gym is all about helping you answer these questions and to learn more about this thing we call aging. Hello, my name is Pam Strand. I'm your podcast host and welcome to the Longevity Gym. I want to continue the conversation about exercise that I started in my previous episode, episode 12, where I spoke to strength training, how to structure a workout, and what exercises to include.
(01:03):
In today's episode, I want to explore cardiovascular exercise. It works hand in hand with strength training. We really do need both to stay healthy and strong. Let's take a look at what cardiovascular exercise does for us in our bodies and how to organize our cardio workouts. I'm going to devote two episodes to this topic. Today's episode, we'll dive into what cardiovascular training does for us in our bodies, and I will also share some general and what I think are helpful guidelines for designing and planning your cardio workouts. Then in the next episode, episode 14, I will talk in more detail about intensity levels and metrics of success, or in other words, how do you know if your cardiovascular fitness is progressing? That's the game plan for these two episodes. First, as the name implies, cardiovascular exercise targets the cardiovascular system, which includes the heart, lungs, blood vessels, arteries and veins.
(02:10):
Cardiovascular exercise when done consistently lowers the risk factors of several diseases such as heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, type two diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, certain cancers such as colon cancer and breast cancer, depression and anxiety, osteoporosis and overall mortality. Cardiovascular exercise is a huge contributor for the better to living a longer, stronger and healthier life. But let's go a little deeper. I think it's helpful to understand what's going on inside our bodies as a means of making us more powerful in our fitness journeys. Cardiovascular exercise when done consistently makes our hearts healthier and makes them work more efficiently. With consistent exercise, our hearts are able to pump more blood with each stroke or beat. As a result, they have an easier time circulating those five to six liters of blood we have in our bodies and we end up with better overall circulation, which keeps the nutrients flowing to our cells and tissues and the waste moving out of our systems.
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We breathe better as a result of cardiovascular exercise. Our lungs are more efficient in getting air in and out of our bodies and it improves the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide in our lungs. It also strengthens the muscles responsible for our breath, mainly the diaphragm and the muscles around our ribs called the intercostal muscles. As a result, we have more oxygen in our blood, delivering this vital nutrient to our cells and tissues. Doing our cardio keeps our blood vessels, arteries and veins healthy. It helps dilate our blood vessels. It reduces the resistance, it improves the function of the tissues lining these vessels. It enhances the flexibility and elasticity of our arteries, and because cardio exercise improves the blood flow back to our heart, it reduces the risk of issues in our veins. From our vital sign perspective, Cardiovascular exercise lowers our resting heart rate, lowers our blood pressure, lowers LDL or bad cholesterol while increasing our HDL or good cholesterol.
(04:47):
It also helps us maintain healthy blood sugar levels by improving blood sugar regulation and insulin sensitivity. Doing this type of exercise that raises our heart rate helps boost our metabolism, so it's also a calorie burner and aids in weight management. It also improves the energy production in our cells. The mitochondria that I spoke about in episode three, which is titled Four Ways to Make Your Cells Happy. Cardiovascular Exercise just makes us feel better, our moods are better. It is shown to help regulate our nervous system. It improves our sense of mental wellbeing and it keeps our brains healthy. We simply have more energy and stamina as a result of cardiovascular exercise and that really helps give us a great life.
(05:45):
The benefits to our physiology and our lives are vast. Remember, physiology matters at any age, but especially when we get into our middle years and beyond. Knowing about it as we get older is something I believe is absolutely vital. It simply makes us more powerful in our journeys. The easiest way to start planning your cardiovascular exercise is to anchor your plan in how many minutes and at what intensity for the week. There isn't a great deal of information on what the optimal number of minutes are at specific intensities, but there are two pieces of information that show up most often in the research and the literature that I'm aware of. One, there is the American Heart Association guidelines of 150 minutes each week of moderate intensity or 75 minutes each week of high or higher intensity. The second piece of information is a general guidance of targeting to get at least 20 to 30 minutes of cardio exercise each day of the week. This is similar to what I was taught in my personal training curriculum- to exercise 30 minutes most days a week. I have always translated that to at least five days a week. And if you do the math, this guideline equates to 140 to 210 minutes a week.
(07:16):
From my perspective, if you're going to be exercising at moderate levels, then you want to plan for 150 minutes a week. If your fitness level allows you to work out at higher intensities, then you can work out closer to the 75 minutes each week. When it comes to intensity though, and I'll speak about this detail in a moment, you really do want to train your body at different levels of intensity and different lengths of time for greater fitness results. It also keeps things interesting and engaging not only for the body but for the mind as well. These guidelines are just that guidelines. They do tend however to be correlated with lower risk of chronic diseases. With exercise though a little helps a lot and more helps more. A good starting point is always to meet your body where it's at in the present moment, address any health or orthopedic limitations, and consider your current fitness levels. The long-term goal would be to progress towards your "more" as your fitness levels increase. With this big picture in mind, you can then go into more detail of what happens each day of the week, and to do that I find the FITT principle one of the best ways to plan. FITT being F I T T and that stands for F is for frequency. How many times a week will you work out? I is for intensity at what levels of intensity or effort?
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The first T is for time, how long will each session be, and the second T is for type, what type of exercise will you do? Let's look at each of these, recognizing that they are somewhat interrelated. First up is frequency. This answers how often and on what days will you work out. It is important to know that cardio exercise is cumulative, which means smaller doses of exercise can be added together to reach the overall goal, so two bouts of 10 minutes in one day adds up to 20 minutes for that day. The process here is very easy. You look at your calendar and decide how you're going to break up your total number of weekly minutes. You may have some short sessions mixed in with longer sessions. Here's how I currently break up my week for cardio. Thought maybe it would give you some ideas.
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I plan for a 15 or 20 minute walk with my dog every day, which varies between low and moderate intensity because of how often my dog likes to stop and check things out along the way. But I try to think about if he stops, then I'm going to work really or walk as fast as I can until the next time he stops, so I get a little interval training in. Then I plan for at least one and if the weather cooperates 2- 45 to 60 minute brisk walks outdoors with a friend, which I consider moderate to moderate high intensity depending upon the trail we pick. It's a great way to exercise and spend time with a friend. I then augment this with five to 10 minutes of a high intensity at the end of my strength training workout. This happens twice a week. Back to the FITT principle.
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The second letter is I intensity. The intensity of cardio exercise is measured by how high your heart rate is elevated during your workout session. There are two ways to measure your heart rate. One is a very subjective measure. How hard do you perceive your exertion or effort? You could think about how fast is your heart pumping and how hard is it to breathe. Both of those are good measures. You can rate your perceived level of exertion on a scale of one to 10, 10 being the highest, which is I'm about ready to pass out, one being the lowest, which is pretty much no effort at all. I would say below four is light intensity, four to six would be moderate or maybe moderate to high. Then when you get to seven to 10, that is high to very high intensity. The second way to measure intensity is by measuring your actual heart rate, and you can do that one of two ways.
(11:49):
If you have a device like a heart rate monitor or fitness tracker like a Fitbit or Apple Watch, you could use those or you can measure it yourself using your fingers on your wrist or your neck. You could gently press your index finger and your middle finger on the thumb side of your wrist or along the side of your neck. Gentle pressure is all you need. I will speak in more detail about target heart rate levels in the next episode, episode 14, but for purposes of completeness here, I want to give you the five, or excuse me, four typical ranges of target heart rate levels that measure low to very high intensity. Below 40% of your maximum target heart rate is considered low intensity. This is a very easy level of intensity. Typically seeing when you're taking a nice walk or little stroll, moving around your office or home or beginning a warmup for exercise.
(12:51):
Then we move into 40 to 59% and that's considered moderate intensity. This is a good place for beginners or if you've kind of been laid off for a little while with exercise, this would be a good place to get back into the game. 60 to 85% is considered moderate high to high intensity, and then 86 to a hundred percent is very high intensity. Remember, I will go into using these and calculating these in more detail in the next episode. The third variable of the FITT principle is T for time. How long will your sessions be? If you're exercising at a low or moderate level of intensity, longer sessions will be necessary to get your total weekly minutes. If you're exercising at higher intensities, then your sessions can be shorter. Mixing up the time is a way to train the body differently, so go ahead and do it. And if endurance is part of your goal, you would want longer sessions at moderate levels. If you want speed and stamina, then shorter sessions at the higher intensity would be your game plan.
(14:12):
The fourth and final variable is another T. This time it's T for type. What type of exercise do you want to do? Think about what interests you and what you feel your body is best suited for. Walking, running, riding a bike, swimming are great types of cardiovascular exercise. Using a treadmill, elliptical, stationary bike or a rowing machine are also great ways. Calisthenics or maybe you run or do quick steps in place, punch in the air. Taking a cardio fitness class like going to Zumba or going to a class at your local gym that promises to be cardio. There are a lot of options on types of cardio exercise. It is actually kind of a fun area to play with and maybe that's my own perspective, but you get to use your creativity here. Maybe you like to dance. I have a friend who turns the music on and dances. That's how she gets her cardio in. Pick one or two that you like and that will fit into your schedule and that are convenient for you. I always struggle with swimming. It takes a lot of time because you got to get dressed to get in the pool and then you got to get out and dry yourself off, get dressed again to go back out into the world, and that takes a lot of time, so that's another thing that you want to think about is how convenient are things for you.
(15:39):
I'm going to end this part of the conversation here. I think this gives you some things to think about and maybe to play with in your own exercise programming and during the week. Remember, always exercise at a level that is safe and healthy for you. If you have any questions, be sure to check in with your doctor and follow any guidelines that they give you. And it bears repeating. Meet yourself where you and your body are at the moment and progress from there. If you are just starting out, focus on building endurance with length of time in each session and total weekly minutes. And once you have a foundation of endurance, begin to challenge yourself with higher levels of intensity. If you're already pretty fit, challenge yourself with new intensities or mix up types of exercise. Your body and mind do best with novel challenges. That's a wrap. I hope you tune into the next episode to learn more about target heart rate zones and how to measure your success with cardiovascular exercise. If you have any questions or comments, please email me. I'd love to hear from you and I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. My email address is pam@strandfitnessonline.com, or you can contact me via my website, which is www.strandfitnessonline.com, and my email address is listed at the bottom of my homepage. Thank you for tuning in and I will see you soon.