The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that healthy adults get at least 30 minutes of physical activity on a daily basis. Unfortunately, when you have trouble getting those 30 minutes every day, the recommendation often feels more like an insurmountable task. The CDC recommends walking as an excellent form of exercise, but if you tire quickly when just walking, it's time to explore some of the reasons why your body is fatiguing so soon and how to increase your aerobic endurance for daily fitness.
Aerobic Activity
Just like the muscles in your body, your heart needs exercise to become stronger. As you participate in daily aerobic exercise, your heart learns to pump more efficiently to deliver oxygenated blood to your working muscles. Walking is such an effective form of aerobic activity because it raises your heart rate while having a low impact on your bones and joints. If your heart isn't working properly, however, even walking renders you tired and fatigued after only a few minutes.
Causes
A variety of causes can contribute to your lack of aerobic endurance and all steam from the condition and efficiency of your heart. Anything that affects the way your heart works and pumps can result in reduced endurance. For instance, being overweight places strain on the heart as it labors to pump blood through your body, reducing your endurance. Smokers usually have reduced endurance because they have reduced lung capacity and replace the oxygen in their blood with carbon monoxide, which is then pumped through the body. Even people who look physically fit can have low endurance if they don't exercise regularly, because their hearts aren't strengthened through workout and must labor to pump blood during the occasional aerobic workout, such as walking.
Treatment
If you feel tired after only a few minutes of walking, consider your lifestyle and how if affects your overall endurance. It helps to take a short break and rehydrate your body when you feel fatigued, since both dehydration and fatigue make it difficult to exercise. In the future, structure your walking so you're able to build up to longer distances by walking short distances on a daily basis, slowly increasing the amount of time you walk as your heart strengthens and your cardiovascular endurance improves.
Prevention
That tired and fatigued feeling you experience while walking is preventable by making the proper choices. If you're a smoker, stop. Smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in your blood and even reduces the affect exercise has on your body. If you're overweight, schedule an appointment and talk to your doctor about beginning a weight-loss regimen, complete with daily exercise and a healthy diet. As you rectify your poor lifestyle choices, your heart will thank you with increased endurance so you're able to walk daily and fulfill your physical fitness requirements.
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