The Cardiorespiratory System
Cardiorespiratory Endurance
Ok, here we are, another day another component of fitness, the cardiorespiratory endurance!
Cardiorespiratory endurance is another crucial aspect of your health. When looking at issues with the heart and blood pressure such as hypertension (high blood pressure), coronary heart disease, and stroke just to name a few, this is the component that we can take initiative on to lower the risk of any of the diseases mentioned before. You can work to prevent the percentage of any of the diseases mentioned above with an improvement in your cardiorespiratory endurance. Of course, if there's a predisposed condition, your chances will go up for any disease. That’s why it’s crucial to stay ahead of it by getting and staying in shape.
What makes up the cardiorespiratory system?
The cardiorespiratory system consists of the heart, the blood vessels (veins, arteries, venules & arterioles) working in unison with the lungs and airways when performing activities at varying intensities to carry oxygen to the muscles and organs and remove waste such as carbon dioxide via respiration. Making this process efficient allows you to have a lower heart rate (at rest and during exercise) and lower blood pressure (at rest and during exercise) because you’ve leveled up your conditioning of the systems. Nonetheless, when doing exercise, you will have an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure, yet depending on the intensity, your heart rate and blood pressure will be lower than if you were not conditioned.
Some of the other functions of the system are:
Protect the body from infection and blood loss
Help the body maintain a constant body temperature
Help maintain fluid balance within the body (ptdirect.com).
Why is it important to work on this?
The importance of having a highly efficient cardiorespiratory system is that we take approximately 20,000 breaths per day (webmd.com). I can’t name another thing that I do as much as that in a day. Actually, maybe blink... MAYBE. The point is, if we are breathing 20,000 times in a day, we should make sure that the system works well. I want to be able to maximize my blood flow to send as much oxygen as possible to the muscles and remove carbon dioxide well. The only way to be great at anything is consistency, repetition, and pushing your limits at the appropriate time. A great benefit here is that you will improve your recovery time between training sessions, between sets and it will add a mental edge well because your body will be able to go further for longer. This carries over to other aspects of your personal life and career.
What is cardiorespiratory endurance?
Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and to remove wastes, over sustained periods of time. It is the ability to allow your body to perform that process efficiently for a specific amount of time of at least 2 minutes' worth of work. The longer you’re able to go while running, jogging, or doing any type of activity over a prolonged period of time will tell you a lot about where your cardiorespiratory endurance fitness is.
Definitions To know
Below are definitions of some of the factors mentioned above and below.
Resting Heart Rate
The speed of the heartbeat is measured by the number of contractions of the heart per minute.
Normal RHR: Between 60-100 BPM
Heart Rate Max (HRM)
The maximum number of beats made by your heart in 1 minute of effort.
Heart Rate Reserve (HRR)
The difference between measured heart rate or the predicted maximum heart rate & the resting heart rate in a person.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
The variability between each heartbeat within a given amount of time. It is controlled by autonomic nervous system (ANS).
Cardio Training Intensities
There are various types of methods to train the complex cardiorespiratory system to be able to perform well at low, moderate, and high intensities. It’s important to be well trained at all these intensities because you never know what situation will require you to perform well in any of the given intensities mentioned. Each intensity improves an aspect of fitness and benefits the heart in one way or another. This will be saved for another article because of the detail that it requires regarding explaining. Let’s get back to training intensities.
How Do I know I’m Training in the Proper Training Intensity?
This will require some brain power or a calculator. Let’s get to talking about a couple of factors. Some of the factors, that are specific to the individual, are finding out your heart rate max & your training heart rate max, which will give you the heart rate ranges to train properly at any given intensity. The intensity will be expressed as a percentage. Think work smarter, not harder.
RPE Scales
In the two photos below, you will see two RPE scales. RPE stands for the rate of perceived exertion. There's a 1-10 scale that’s mainly used during exercises and weight lifting. There's a 6-20 scale that’s used for cardio exercises. The reason it goes from 6-20 is to mimic the heart rate. Add a zero to the end of the number and see how it can be similar (60-200 bpm).
Regarding the percentages, I’ve placed them underneath the 6-20 scale so that you can use them for the equation below. For the 1-10 scale, it’s self-explanatory. Add a zero to the number and you have your RPE scale and training intensity. In a later article, I’ll go over training intensity and set and rep totals.
One major key here is the higher the intensity, to shorter the time that you can do it in a manner that your form is still intact and you’re actually improving fitness. For example, you can perform light, moderate & vigorous activity (based off on your fitness level) for a prolonged period of time (30-2 hours). It’s definitely possible to do, what you will notice is that something will have to give. You will have to slow down your tempo as you fatigue so that your heart rate can stay in the proper heart rate range.
With that being said, let’s get to calculate your heart rate range for your exercises.
Looking at the chart above you can see different ranges and what component of fitness you’re improving on.
How do I figure out my heart rate max & training heart rate max?
Heart Rate Max
Simple Method of finding out Heart Rate Max
The simple way of finding out your heart rate max and for our purposes, we can use the formula 220- your age.
Here’s an example:
220 – Your Age= Heart Rate Max
220 – 22 = 200
Heart Rate Max = 200 BPM
Heart Rate Reserve
HRMax - RHR = HRR
200 – 55= 145 BPM
Determining Your Target Heart Rate Zone
So now that we have the HRR we can start doing more calculation to know where to have our heart rate depending on the type of activity that we want to do. Let’s stick to the 6-20 scale since this is about cardiorespiratory endurance. I’m looking to do an activity for 45 minutes that’s moderate intensity. Where would I want to keep me heart rate in between?
HRR *(Intensity %) + RHR = Target Heart Rate
145 * (60%) +55 = Target Heart Rate
87 + 55 = 142
Target Heart Rate = 142 BPM
145 * (70%) + 55 = Target Heart Rate
101.5 + 55 = 156.5 BPM
Target Heart Rate = 156.5 BPM
Alright, now that we have to numbers what does this mean? When doing a cardiovascular exercise, to get the benefit that comes with that particular range, you want to keep your heart rate between 142-156.5 BPM. This is an average and if you are in great cardiovascular shape, you can definitely allow your heart rate to go higher.
Training Zones
When training cardio and performing various forms of cardio workouts, you can train within different training zones.
There are three training zones (Recovery Zone/ Conditioning Zone/ Threshold Zone). Depending on your age, readiness level, rest, fitness level, cardiovascular conditioning, will depend on YOUR target heart rate ranges for each of the training zones. Generally, there are 5 heart rate zones based on percentages of your heart rate max.
Heart Rate Zones
Zone 1 (Very Light): 50-60% | Great for Recovery, warming up, and cooling down
Zone 2 (Light): 60-70% | Improves general base of fitness / improves recovery and boosts metabolism
Zone 3 (Moderate): 70-80% | Enhances general training pace
Zone 4 (Hard): 80-90% | Improves ability to sustain high-speed endurance
Zone 5 (Maximal): 90-100% | Mamixmal or near-maximal effort
Training Zones (& training methods)
Recovery Zone (Zones 1-2)
Conditioning Zone (Zones 2-3/4)
Threshold Zone (Zone 4-5)
As you see in the training zones above, some of the heart rate zones overlap in the training zones. Your training zones will be affected daily by your age, readiness level, sleep, and cardiovascular training condition. If you’re new to cardiovascular training, you’d like to start on the low end of the spectrum for each training zone. If you’ve been training cardiovascularly, you can definitely be near the higher percentages of the heart rate zones when choosing the right training zone you’d like to work on.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)
When talking about your readiness for your cardio workout, a great way to know what heart rate range you should be in is by understanding heart rate variability. HRV reflects how the brain is regulating the heart based on some of the conditions mentioned above (rest, stress, etc.)(How to Manage Your Conditioning Program, Part 2 | Breaking Muscle) HRV is a way to identify imbalances in the Autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is subdivided into two large components, the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems, also known as the fight or flight mechanism and the relaxation response. (Heart rate variability: A new way to track well-being - Harvard Health)
To simplify this, HRV is used to identify if the body is doing a good job staying balanced from the fight or flight mechanism and the relaxation response by measuring the time between each heartbeat. HRV can identify any ANS balance or imbalance.
Let's stay your heart rate is at 55 beats per minute for a minute, the time between the beats varies. There can be a 0.5-second interval between one set of heartbeats and then a 1.2-second interval between another pain.
Why is HRV important and relevant?
HRV is important because the following factors will affect your HRV metrics:
Respiration
Exercise volume and intensity
Rest and recovery from workouts
Hormones
Metabolism
Chronic health conditions
Stress
Sleep habits and quality of sleep
Diet
Age and gender
Genetics
Heart Rate Variability (HRV): Everything You Need to Know | Polar Blog
With the right tools, you can measure your HRV, have your readiness level and exact training zones based on all the factors mentioned above. Y0u will never overtrain again!
I personally use several tools. I am not affiliated with any company. My recommendations are for tools and resources that I use daily. Feel free to invest in them as well.
HRV Tracker: measures HRV and syncs with apple health for sleep, workouts & steps, Morpheus Home - in stock - (trainwithmorpheus.com)
Polar Heart Rate Sensor: Syncs with polar beat app on phone, Bluetooth sync with several cardio machinesPolar H10 | Heart rate monitor chest strap | Polar USA
How often should I use these tools?
Every day. The Morpheus HRV tracker should be used every morning the first five minutes you wake up.
The polar H10 heart rate monitor should be used for all of your cardio sessions and weight lifting sessions.
Basic Heart Rate Cardiorespiratory enduran Workout Templates
Out of the 2-3 cardio training sessions in a week, you can use the templates below for 1-2 of those sessions. These sessions below will be for active recovery and conditioning.
Active Recovery Training Zone
Perform any activity for 20-45 minutes that will keep your heart rate in the Recovery Zone (Heart Rate zones 1-2 | 50% - 65% of HR Max). This active recovery day will aid in your body’s recovery. With every workout you do, I highly advise bringing your heart up during your warm-up to around 50-60% of your HRM to warm up your body’s core temperature.
Cardio Exercises:
biking
walking
rowing
weight lifting
Conditioning Training Zone
Perform any activity below for 20-45 minutes that will keep your heart rate in the Conditioning Zone (Heart Rate zones 2-3/4 | 60% -85% of HR Max). You are free to do activities longer than that depending on any of your hobbies, activities, and/or demands of your life/goal/sports.
Cardio Exercises:
biking
walking
jogging
rowing
weight lifting
etc.
Threshold Training Zone
Perform any activity below for 20-45 minutes that will keep your heart rate in the Threshold Zone (Heart Rate zones 4-5 | 80% -100% of HR Max).
Cardio Exercises:
biking
walking
jogging
rowing
weight lifting
etc.
Training for Maximal Fat Loss
For this article, we will focus on the conditioning training zone. To improve your endurance, look to perform a cardio workout for 20 minutes to 45 minutes in the conditioning zone. Maximal fat oxidation occurs at low to moderate intensity (between 25% and 60% of maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max) (Horowitz & Klein 2000).We are looking to be in the low to moderate intensity to benefit from this and have a high percentage of total calories burned during a conditioning zone training session,come from fat in the body.
The Ideal Aerobic Exercise
When it comes to the ideal cardio exercise for you to perform to get in shape and to train in any of the training zones, would be to train on a piece of equipment that's accessible, does not cause you pain while the whole duration of the activity.
Cardiorespiratory Endurance Takeaway
Cardiorespiratory endurance is the ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients to tissues and to remove wastes, over sustained periods of time. This occurs when the cardiovascular and respiratory systems work together. Cardiorespiratory endurance can be trained at low, moderate, and high intensities. The RPE scale of choice to use for the cardiorespiratory training is a 6-20 scale. Training this system will decrease your resting heart rate, blood pressure & recovery. Find out your heart rate max, Heart rate reserve, resting heart rate, and plug it into the formula above with the proper percentage of the intensity you’re looking to improve on. Perform any cardiovascular activity below for 20-45 minutes that will keep your heart rate in the Conditioning Zone (Heart Rate zones 2-3/4 | 60% -85% of HR Max).
