Exercises that elevate your heart rate are collectively known as aerobic exercises. They also increase the rate and depth of your breathing as a way to draw extra oxygen into your body. Aerobic exercises come in levels of intensity that range from light to heavy, with corresponding effects on your heart rate and lung function.
Aerobic Exercise
The heart and lung changes associated with aerobic exercise occur when repetitive use of the large muscles in your body increases your need for oxygen. To draw more oxygen into your respiratory system, your body reflexively increases your breathing rate and makes each individual breath deeper than usual. The oxygen you pull in passes to your circulatory system through tiny blood vessels in your lungs called capillaries. To get this extra oxygen to your muscles as quickly as possible, your heart rate increases and you pump oxygen-bearing blood throughout your body at a faster per-minute pace.
Varying Intensities
Light activities such as using a washing machine, cooking and shopping produce little or minor heart rate elevation and don't count as exercise. Activities such as walking briskly, cutting your lawn and riding a bicycle on relatively level ground produce moderate elevations in your heart rate and lung function while still allowing you to carry on a conversation with another person. Activities such as swimming laps, jogging, running and riding a bike on hilly ground produce higher elevations in your heart rate and make it difficult for you to speak with another person without stopping to catch your breath.
Choosing Exercises
Most people, especially beginning exercisers, use moderate-intensity activities to meet their aerobic exercise needs. Current accepted guidelines recommend at least 150 of these activities each week to fulfill the aerobic component of a beneficial physical fitness routine. More experienced exercisers, whose bodies are used to the stresses of heavier activity, can also meet aerobic recommendations with at least 75 minutes of high-intensity activities each week. Instead of getting all of this exercise at once, exercisers typically spread it out over four or more separate days.
Considerations
In addition to using aerobic exercises to meet basic fitness guidelines, you can use them as part of a weight-control program. Typically, the amount of aerobic exercise required to help with weight control is slightly less than the amount required for general fitness. However, you may need to perform greater amounts of exercise to meet your specific weight-loss goals. To meet your fitness requirements, you will also need to regularly perform different exercises that build up and tone your muscles. You will also benefit from adding muscle-building exercises to your weight-control efforts. Consult your doctor for more information on heart rate-elevating exercises.
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