Aerobic exercise, also called cardiovascular, includes a variety of activities that activate the largest muscle areas of the body. This type of physical activity makes the heart and lungs work harder to oxygenate the muscles, a dynamic that not only contributes to calorie burning, but also improves cardiovascular health and lung function.
This is because the heart beats faster and more powerfully, which, in turn, increases the rate of breathing and improves overall oxygenation of the body.
Aerobic exercise, also called cardiovascular, includes a variety of activities that activate the largest muscle areas of the body.
This type of physical activity makes the heart and lungs work harder to oxygenate the muscles, a dynamic that not only contributes to calorie burning, but also improves cardiovascular health and lung function. This is because the heart beats faster and more powerfully, which, in turn, increases the rate of breathing and improves overall oxygenation of the body.
For the health agency, “regular physical activity is essential to prevent and help manage heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer, as well as to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, reduce cognitive decline, improve memory and enhance brain health.”
Meanwhile, the WHO “advises older adults (65 years and older) to add activities aimed at strengthening balance and coordination, as well as strengthening muscles, to help prevent falls and improve health” .
It should be remembered that some examples of aerobic exercise are cycling, swimming and running.
In that sense, recently, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States discovered that regular aerobic exercise (popularly known as cardio training), such as jogging, swimming or Riding a bicycle could reduce the risk of dying from influenza infection, and exercising at the gym could also help.
People who met guidelines for aerobic physical activity and muscle-strengthening activity had a 48% lower risk of death from pneumonia and influenza over an average of 9.2 years of follow-up compared with those who did neither, a team reported. of work led by Bryant Webber, a specialist in the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity of the CDC in Atlanta, in the United States.
“Given plausible biological mechanisms and consistency with previous studies, this protective association may justify additional clinical and public health efforts to decrease the prevalence of aerobic inactivity and inadequate muscle strengthening,” Webber said.
How cardiovascular exercise benefits
The researchers also found a benefit with aerobic activity at levels below guideline recommendations.
Adults who engaged in 10 to 149 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week experienced a significantly 21% lower risk of death from pneumonia and influenza compared to people who did not engage in physical activity.
This benefit peaked with a 50% risk reduction for those with 301 to 600 minutes of weekly activity, with no additional risk reduction for those doing more than 600 minutes of activity.