How to Breathe Easier Building Your Cardiorespiratory Endurance

How can you improve your cardiorespiratory endurance ("CRE") effectively? By improving your body's consumption of oxygen.



CRE otherwise known as aerobic fitness involves performing exercise at a moderate level of intensity for an extended period of time. Starting with a warming up of the muscles, followed by exercise of at least 20 minutes and finishing with a cooling down period to return the heart to its resting rate.

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise is different than anaerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise is "with oxygen" and typically involves activities such as running, jogging, bicycling or even speed walking because all of these activities get your heart rate up since they use larger muscle groups (e.g., quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes).

The process goes something like this: your increase your breathing as your heart rate climbs and that causes you to fill your lungs and take in more oxygen. This oxygen is then filtered through bronchioles first and then heads to the alveoli (tiny sacs in the lungs that resemble bunches of grapes) where the oxygen is diffused into the blood. From there the oxygen goes straight to your heart. The heart then circulates the blood along with the oxygen and other nutrients throughout your body. Once the oxygen is inside your muscles it burns fat and carbohydrates for fuel. And the more fuel the muscles use the more fit we become and the longer we can exercise.

The Process

Anaerobic and aerobic exercise differ mainly by the duration and intensity of muscular contractions involved, as well as by how energy is generated within the muscle.

When you begin jogging the glycogen is broken down to produce glucose (sugar), which is then broken down using oxygen to generate energy. Glucose or sugar comes from the food we eat. Carbohydrates such as fruit, bread pasta and cereals are common sources of glucose. These foods are broken down into sugar in our stomachs, and then absorbed into the bloodstream so that we can read a book, remember names or jog a mile.



In the absence of these carbohydrates, fat metabolism is initiated instead. This is exactly what most of us want who are trying to burn fat and lose weight.

It's best to exercise for 30-60 minutes or more at a moderate intensity since the body begins to metabolize fat after 30 minutes of aerobic activity. The body recognizes that it needs to burn fat if its going to keep going. This is terrific since you then know to burn fat means jogging beyond 30 minutes so you can get the benefit of your body initiating its fat metabolism mechanism. Regular aerobic activity will improve your body's consumption of oxygen.

Anaerobic Exercise

Anaerobic exercise, in contrast, refers to the initial phase of exercise, or to any short burst of intense exertion, in which the glycogen or sugar is consumed "without oxygen". This is generally what happens to body builders and sprinters because they have conditioned their bodies to perform at this level of exertion.

You can build your cardiorespiratory endurance effectively by jogging most days of the week. Improving your cardiorespiratory endurance will help you burn fat, reduce your blood pressure and reduce stress.

Cardiorespiratory Endurance Back to Jogging101

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