Cardio Exercises & Effects On Respiration

Cardiovascular, or aerobic, exercise, by definition, involves the use of oxygen. When you engage in aerobic exercise, your muscles make energy through a metabolic pathway that uses oxygen. Respiration is important during cardio exercises because it provides your body with the means to produce an excess of energy. Cardio exercise increases your respiration and affects the way your body uses oxygen.

Acute Effects

Cardio exercise causes you to breathe more rapidly and to move more air with each breath. Your "tidal volume" is a figure that represents the amount of air you move per breath. A normal and healthy resting tidal volume is around 0.5 liters of air per breath. With maximal exercise in a healthy male, this can increase to 4 l per breath. Women have smaller lungs and 20 percent to 25 percent less maximal tidal volume than men. Therefore, their maximum would be about 3 l per breath. Frequency can increase from 12 breaths per minute to 48 breaths per minute with maximal exercise.

Muscular Effects

Cardio exercise increases respiratory muscle activity. When you breathe at rest, inhaling is the only active part of respiration and is facilitated by your diaphragm and intercostal muscles. During exercise, inhalation is also achieved by the work of your trapezius, sternocleidomastoid and scalenes muscles, which are known as accessory inspiratory muscles. In addition, exhalation becomes forceful work as well. During exercise, your abdominal muscles and diaphragm work to push air out of your lungs.

Peripheral Effects

The way your body handles air inflow changes with cardio exercise. When you take in oxygen, it is delivered to your body to produce energy. The "arteriovenous oxygen difference" measures the amount of oxygen your body is using from your bloodstream. With regular exercise training and cardio exercise, your body takes in larger amounts of oxygen, increasing your arteriovenous oxygen difference.

Considerations

In general, what matters in your ability to participate in and train for an activity is how your body handles the oxygen that is given to it. Your lungs can move 32 times more air per minute during exercise than at rest, according to the 2005 book "Exercise Physiology: Human Bioenergetics and Its Applications." In this respect, your lungs are not forced to adapt if they are not challenged. In a healthy and fit person, the lungs do not receive sufficient stress stimulus to change and adapt to exercise. Exercise can be useful, however, for improving respiration in those with lung problems and diseases and those who need better cardiovascular conditioning.