Cardiovascular Endurance: Importance, Tests and Comparison

This paper discusses the importance of physical fitness, particularly cardiovascular endurance, in maintaining good health. It explores different tests to measure cardiovascular endurance, including Vo2 Max, Mile run or walk, and Pacer. The paper also compares the endurance of elite athletes, general population, and individuals with health conditions.

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SPORTS EXERCISE SCIENCE AND HEALTH
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Sports Exercise Science and Health
Ideally, the importance of physical activities that enhances as well as maintains physical
fitness has no doubt gain traction in recent times especially with the emergence of various
lifestyle-related illnesses. Consequently, physical fitness is performed for different reasons, first
to strengthen muscles and the overall cardiovascular system, to hone the athletic skills in a
person, and weight loss or rather maintenance. In this light, continuous physical exercise tends to
boost an individual’s immune system as well as helping prevent the influences of various
diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and the risk of type-2-diabetes (Gröpel, Urner,
Pruessner, and Quirin, 2018). Moreover, physical exercise helps to improve mental health and
promoting a positive self-esteem. This paper, therefore, proposes to discuss in detail
cardiovascular endurance or the aerobic exercise. The paper will achieve this by looking closely
at how different protocols are adapted depending on the population groups particularly test the
endurance of elite athletes and compare the general population and an individual with a health
condition.
Primarily, cardiovascular endurance is considered as the overall ability of a person to be
in a position of performing large-muscle dynamic, moderate-to-high intensity exercises in a
rather prolonged period of time. In this light, this type of exercise ensures that an individual’s
body is exposed to a level at which the heart, lungs, as well as muscles, are working together at
the time of exercise for an extended period (Alvarez, Griffin, and Taft, 2017). Consequently, this
tends to showcase how efficient the body cardiorespiratory systems works and the overall
indicator of the way physical fit and healthy a person is. It is important for a person to
understand his or her cardiovascular endurance since it can signify is one is healthy or instead it
can show that one may need to improve his or her level of fitness. This allows the lung and the

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heart to use the oxygen in a better way and thus exercising for longer periods without getting
tired.
Cardiovascular endurance can be tested in many ways during a fitness session. In this
light, there are various types of standardized that have been developed by professionals with an
aim of testing cardiovascular endurance. As a result, there is a need for specialized equipment for
the test to be performed in a proper and accurate manner (Kaur, 2017). Nonetheless, there are
those tests that can be performed with the use of minimal equipment or rather outside the
available resources that often gives an accurate measurement of a person’s cardiovascular
endurance. Some the cardiovascular test endurances include Vo2 Max, Mile run or walk, and
Pacer.
Vo2 Max
In essence, Vo2 Max or rather the maximal consumption of oxygen is considered as the
maximal amount of oxygen that a particular person is in a position to use during exercise. In fact,
this is considered as one of the most valid indexes of aerobic aptness. The measurement of this
index is often expensive and therefore requires as rather trained and skilled personnel to perform
it. This endurance test requires an individual to exercise the exhaustion mostly on a treadmill or
even a cycle ergometer. During the overall session of the test, the consumption of oxygen,
production of carbon dioxide as well as the overall volume of the air is measured using special
equipment (Ng et al., 2018). Notably, this type of cardiovascular test is often useful for those
people who at a risk of getting cardiovascular diseases because it helps a person to lose weight.
The introduction of such test was based on the all-cause mortality as well as the mortality rates
that often stem from various types of cancers.

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Mile Run/Walk
Ideally, this type of test does not require any type of extra equipment. The main goal of
this particular test is to make sure that an individual covers one-mile distance as quick as
possible. As a result, this type of test is considered as the maximum effort test and is required to
be performed by healthy individuals. For one to perform this type of test, one is required to
measure the overall time that it is taken to complete a one-mile distant run. Apparently, this
should always be recorded or rather noted and, therefore, compared by the use of tables as well
as statistics. As a result, this will give a person the overall measure of their cardiovascular
endurance results (Cho et al., 2017). The overall expenditures for a moderate walking as well as
vigorous running exercises are often considered to produce a similar reduction of risk for a
various type of illness such as hypertension, diabetes, and hypercholesterolemia despite the fact
that there is limited literature supporting this claim.
PACER
PACER is considered as the overall multistage 20-meter shuttle run. In this light, one is
required to run one side to the other in a 20-meter distance for as many times as possible. The
pace that one is required to run is often set on a rather CD while the interval gets faster as time
continues so that one cannot eventually be in a position to maintain the pace and thus cannot
keep on running (Hashim, bin Syed Ambon, Hamid, and Razak, 2017). The total repletion that
one performs is always recorded to come up with a statistic of an individual cardiovascular
endurance test. In this light, one can assess the health risks that are related to weight. One of the
benefits of this test is that one can be able to achieve a lower risk of cardiovascular illness.

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Cardiovascular Endurance Test for Elite Athleticism
Testing the overall endurance of elite athletes is no doubt an important part of their
training session. There are several key physiological as well as training variables that directly
correlates with elite endurance performance, these variables include VO2max, running economy,
and various training characteristics (Jabbal and Baxter-Jones, 2017). While there are various
endurances test those athletes take, VO2max is among the best cardiovascular test to keep an
athlete on par with the oxygen uptake. Most of the runners of the elite marathon have virtually a
VO2max value that ranges from 70 to about 85 mL/kg/min. in this light, an athlete is considered
to work progressively harder particularly on the treadmill or cycle until one is unable to continue
(Andrades, Barton, Moxley, and Vigo, 2017). The expired air of an athlete is analysed during the
test as the main statement of aerobic capacity is calculated as oxygen consumption. On the other
hand, athletes can as well undertake a 12-minute run. In this case, a team is required to run
around a particular track for as long as they can in 12 minutes. This process is easy as an athlete
only requires a stopwatch as well as people counting the laps.
It is true that physically fit people are as well healthier. In this light, they are in a position
of maintaining their most optimum weight and are therefore not prone to cardiac as well as other
illnesses. A person is therefore required to perform the physical exercise to be in a position to
maintain a relaxed state of mind (Felder, Mitchell, Hogan, Kovacs, and Brewer, 2018).
Additionally, people who are physically fit and mentally strong are able to face many ups and
downs and thus maintaining a good health state.
In conclusion, the importance of fitness in overall health of an individual can never be
underestimated. In this light, conducting fitness test is of essential not only to the athletes but
also to the overall population to maintain a healthy state and reduce various risks such as obesity,

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heart illness, and type 2 diabetes. There are various types of cardiovascular test that one can take.
Some of the main endurance tests that are performed in include the Vo2 Max, Mile run or walk,
and Pacer. While there is another aptitude test that one can take, rigorous and progressive
exercise is in no doubt helpful in achieving a good health state.

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References List
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