What Are The Best Sports For Cardio Vascular Fitness?

For those of you who dont know CV (cardio vascular) fitness refers to the ability of the heart and lungs to provide the body with enough nutrients (mainly oxygen) for it to function during activity and remove waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid also. The more efficient and well trained the CV system is, the greater the intensity or duration of exercise can be. Sports like sprinting and discus do not work the CV system very much at all, as muscles do not use oxygen in fast powerful events. However, there are a good few sports that require the CV system to be working well. Below we look at three of the best sports for developing CV fitness.

Skiing. It has been proven that cross-country skiing demands more of the cardio vascular system than any other sport. The is partly due to the cold air reducing the amount of oxygen that can be absorbed by the lungs (forcing them to be even more efficient), but also races take place over many miles and difficult terrain. Also, cross country skiing uses nearly every single muscle in the body which means energy demands on the heart and lungs is very high. So if youre looking to build your CV system, switch your snowboards for skis next time youre on the slopes.

Cycling. Racing bikes at high level puts vast amounts of pressure of the heart and lungs due to the large muscle groups that are required to work. The 7 time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong is testament to that, having one of the highest VO2 max scores of any athlete. This refers to the amount of 02 that the body can take in and the muscles can use in 1 minute. Based on that evidence, if youre thinking about getting rid of your old cycling machine or mountain bikes, you might want to think again.

Kayaking. Although kayaking does not use the lower body as much as other sports do, it still punishes the heart and lungs more than most. This is because during middle to long distance races, the upper body and torso work so hard that incredible amounts of oxygen are required to keep going and muscle waste products are also produced in bucket loads. For second hand kayaks and extreme sports equipment check out EST.

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