What effect does having better cardio have on the body?

[Ninja This]

Increased Strength:
You tear muscle fibers and they grow back bigger- easy to see what's going on there

Increased Cardio:

...I'm not sure what the physical change occurs when someone works on their cardio

Something involving the heart or lungs?

 

[Origins]

I don't understand, are you asking how the body adapts to cardiovascular exercise? There are a host of adaptations that vary by type of activity.

Examples: Aerobic exercise increases the size of the left ventricle of the heart and causes more capillaries to form in order to improve blood flow to muscles. There are a variety of anaerobic energy systems and a variety of adaptations that occur from training these energy systems.

Is this what you are asking?

 

[PowerHungry]

Heart pumps more blood per beat. (Increased stroke volume)
Heart is more efficient. (Decreased resting and active heart rate)
Lungs inhale and exhale more air with each breath. (Increased tidal volume)
Lungs are more efficient. (Reduce breathing frequencing with rest and activity)

These are just some of the big ones. There are numerous other neural and muscular adaptation in relation to performance, muscle fibers, enzyme activity, metabolic energy stroes, body composition, connective tissue, etc.

 

[Tosa]

Here: Aerobic exercise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And for anaerobic exercise, it gets into biochemistry type stuff, but let's just say that you have more of the necessary enzymes, and chemicals present, and your body gets more efficient at processing waste products.

 

[RuDOWN4It]

I've always wondered, is there a way to workout to maintain a healthy heart without burning as much calories?

I think when I bike, it raises the heart rate higher compared to running, while sweating less. Does that mean it's burning less calories?

 

[DrBdan]

I've always wondered, is there a way to workout to maintain a healthy heart without burning as much calories?

I think when I bike, it raises the heart rate higher compared to running, while sweating less. Does that mean it's burning less calories?

Sweating isn't a great indication of calories burned since sweating's main function is to keep you cool. You will sweat more if you go for a walk on a hot, humid day than if you went for a jog in the middle of winter but the jog will burn more calories.

The reason you sweat less on the bike is probably because the increased speed means more air is passing over your skin which helps dissipate heat better, like putting a fan on low vs. putting a fan on high.

 

[Cardio King]

An increase in the amount of mitochondria within the muscle cell.

 

[Tosa]

I've always wondered, is there a way to workout to maintain a healthy heart without burning as much calories?

First, why are you concerned about burning less calories? It's unusual.

Second, you'd look for quick, efficient workouts. They'd be brutally hard, but short so you'd burn less calories. For example, the Tabata protocol. And I mean doing it correctly, with each work period being at 170% aerobic capcity, which is incredibly hard, non of this "tabata squats" or "tabata sledgehamer work" nonsense. And then you'd experiment and find the minumum frequency you could do the workout to keep your resting HR and blood pressure healthy.

 

[Ninja This]

I've always loved how the training section is a total change of pace from the heavies

My curiosity is appeased

Thanks guys ^_^

 

[RuDOWN4It]

First, why are you concerned about burning less calories? It's unusual.

Second, you'd look for quick, efficient workouts. They'd be brutally hard, but short so you'd burn less calories. For example, the Tabata protocol. And I mean doing it correctly, with each work period being at 170% aerobic capcity, which is incredibly hard, non of this "tabata squats" or "tabata sledgehamer work" nonsense. And then you'd experiment and find the minumum frequency you could do the workout to keep your resting HR and blood pressure healthy.

Didn't read your response until now.

I want to burn less calories for bulking up and lifting weights, which has a higher priority now due to my available for working out, timing, injuries, other circumstances, etc. I don't have enough time to cook food, eat, etc.

How often should I check my resting HR and blood pressure? What's ideal HR for long term health?

 

[paolo27th]

Aerobic exercise makes your muslces better at producing energy aerobically.

 

[Tosa]

Didn't read your response until now.

I want to burn less calories for bulking up and lifting weights, which has a higher priority now due to my available for working out, timing, injuries, other circumstances, etc. I don't have enough time to cook food, eat, etc.

How often should I check my resting HR and blood pressure? What's ideal HR for long term health?

A healthy blood pressure is a systolic of 90-120, and diastolic of 60-80. Ideally you probably want your resting heart rate to be 60 BPM or lower, but 70 or lower would be alright. One thing to keep in mind is that to a degree these are just arbitary numbers.

Like you said, it's a matter of long term health, so you don't need to measure your blood pressure or RHR all that often. Unless your blood pressure or RHR is of particular concern (I.e. you suffered from hypertension in the past, or you use it as a way to monitor whether you're over training) once every couple or few months should be fine. Unless you have the money & inclination to buy a machine that measures BP and RHR (I forgot the name of the machine), then you can measure as often as you like.

But on to what's really imporant: don't make excuses about diet. You can always eat more, even if it's just simple things like steak, milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs, smoothies (a blender, protein powder, milk, some kind of frozen fruit, some ice cubes, maybe peanut butter, and you've got something good), almonds and peanutbutter. A person could live off (and be quite healthy) what's listed above, and never spend more than 10 minutes cooking (Steak takes the longest, but you only need to sear the outside of a steak.

You just don't want to be doing ridiculous amounts of cardio while trying to gain weight. Try a couple steady state workouts a week of about 30 minutes with moderate intensity. It can be whatever you like, running, swimming, cycling, doesn't matter, as long as the time and intensity is appropriate. In addition add 1-2 higher intensity workouts, either more steady state or some kind of intervals. The intervals can be done with the same sort of exercises you do for steady state, or can be stuff like prowler work, barbell circuits, strongman type stuff etc.