Cardiovascular Fitness

Exercise 4: Cardiovascular Fitness

This exercise describes three assessments designed to help you estimate the present level of your cardiovascular fitness. The term “cardiovascular” refers to both the heart and blood vessels. Since the health of the respiratory system is so closely linked to that of the blood circulation, fitness of both will be referred to as “cardiorespiratory”.

During your fitness assessment, stop any test immediately if you begin to feel any pain, faintness, or dizziness. If you notice any other disturbing sensations such as headache or inability to get enough air, do not complete the test.

DETERMINING TARGET HEART RATE ZONE

If your heart rate becomes faster during physical activity, that exercise would be described as aerobic. These activities, when performed often enough and at long enough durations, result in increased efficiency of the circulatory and respiratory systems. The noted improvements are described as the training effect. The training effect has occurred if the heart rate is lower for a given type of exercise or if it takes more resistance to achieve the same heart rate.

In order to experience the training effect and improved cardiorespiratory health, the exercise duration should exceed twenty continuous minutes and the heart rate should be within the target heart rate zone.

There are numerous formulae that have been developed to determine an individual’s target heart rate. The range should ensure sufficient stress to result in improvement, yet not exceed what would be safe. The formula that follows is based on age and resting heart rate.

Resting heart rate is a simple way to assess current level of cardiorespiratory fitness. The average resting heart rate for healthy adults is 75, and ranges from 60-100 BPM (beats per minute). Well-conditioned endurance athletes have resting rates in the 30s and individuals with poor fitness would exhibit resting rates that are much higher. Powerful hearts and lungs circulate more oxygen per beat and can maintain the body at rest with fewer beats per minute.

True resting heart rate is a value that stays constant for days, weeks, and longer, unless cardiovascular changes take place. When measuring HR for these exercises, make sure to record it when you are truly at rest. This will be the lowest value that you record.

Use the calculations in Figure 5.1 as a guide to determine your personal target heart rate zone. Your heart rate should be within these limits whenever you participate in aerobic activities. Calculations should be revisited from time to time as resting heart rate will change with advancing age and, more frequently, due to effects of lifestyle changes.

Minimum Maximum

Maximum heart rate in healthy adult: 220 220

Subtract your age -20 -20

200 200

Subtract resting heart rate – 60 – 60

140 140

Multiply by

Lower and upper limit % .70 .85

98 119

Add back resting heart rate +60 +60

Target heart rate zone (BPM) 158 179

Figure 4.1. Target heart rate zone calculations for a 20 year old with a RHR of 60 BPM.

You will be measuring your heart rate by taking your pulse with your fingers. There are

multiple locations on the surface of the body that can be used as pulse sites. The most commonly used arteries are the carotid and radial.

Pulse sites, also known as pressure points, are depicted in Figure 5.2. Pulse is recorded by gently pressing on the arterial wall with fingers.

Figure 4.2. Pulse sites.

ASSESSMENT #1 – EXERCISE RECOVERY RATE

1. Sit quietly for 10 minutes and measure your resting heart rate.

2. Jog in place or perform another aerobic exercise until your heart rate reaches the minimum target heart rate 5 beats.

3. Continue to exercise at the same stress level for 3 minutes. Don’t allow your heart rate to drop below the lower target heart rate or exceed the maximum target heart rate 5 beats.

4. Measure your heart rate during the last 15 seconds of exercising.

5. Measure your heart rate at 1-minute intervals until the rate is below 100 bpm. This is your recovery rate. If your recovery rate exceeds 5 minutes, your cardiovascular fitness is considered below average.

ASSESSMENT #2 – HARVARD STEP TEST

1. Step on a step first with one foot and then with the other foot until you are standing with the knees unbent. Then step down with one foot followed by the other foot to return to the starting position.

2. Step at a pace that results in approximately 30 times per minute for a 5-minute period.

3. Sit down and rest. Measure your heart rate 1 minute after exercising. Remain sitting and measure your heart rate at the 2-minute and 3-minute intervals after exercising.

4. Calculate the sum of the 3 heart rate values. Use this formula to calculate a fitness index:

Fitness Index = 30,000

Sum of the Three Heart Rates

Fitness Index	Rating
<55	Poor
55 – 64	Low average
65 – 69	Average
70 – 79	High average
80 – 89	Good
90 and above	Excellent

Figure 4.3. Harvard step test fitness index.

ASSESSMENT #3 – THREE-MINUTE SIT-AND-STAND TEST

1. Sit quietly for 10 minutes and measure your resting heart rate.

2. Starting from a sitting position with arms folded across your chest, stand up and sit down at a rapid but comfortable pace. Do this for three minutes. Your legs must be straight before you sit down and you must sit down completely. Do not use a chair with wheels.

3. Measure your heart rate during the last 15 seconds of exercising

4. Sit down and rest. Measure your heart rate at 30 seconds, 1 minute, and 2 minutes after you sit down.

5. Circle your resting, exercise, and 3 post-exercise heart rates in Table 5.1. Record the corresponding values written in bold in the first column of the table.

	Resting	Exercise	30 Sec	1 Min	2 Min
20	44	80	64	56	56
19	48	84	68	60	60
18	52	88	72	64	64
17	56	92	76	68	68
16	60	96	80	72	72
15	62	100	84	76	76
14	64	104	88	80	80
13	66	108	92	84	84
12	68	112	96	88	88
11	70	116	100	92	92
10	72	120	104	96	96
9	74	124	108	100	100
8	76	128	112	104	104
7	78	132	116	108	108
6	80	136	120	112	112
5	84	140	124	116	116
4	88	144	128	120	120
3	92	148	132	124	124
2	96	152	136	128	128
1	100	156	140	132	132

Table 4.1. Three-minute sit-and-stand fitness rating.

6. Calculate the sum of the values for the 5 heart rates. If the sum is 0 – 35, your cardiovascular fitness is considered to be dangerously poor. Your cardiovascular fitness is average when the sum is 36 – 70. When the sum exceeds 70, your cardiovascular fitness is excellent.

Lab Report

Report the results of all three assessments. These can be done on yourself or any adult subject who volunteers. However, all three assessments should be done for the same individual.

Your report should include (1) calculations for the subject’s target heart rate zone, (2) recorded heart rates as indicated in all charts and tables, (3) verbal (in sentence form) fitness descriptions for all three assessments, and (4) a general discussion of the results.

Are the results consistent among the tests? Can you draw any conclusions based on relationships between fitness and other lifestyle parameters? Is the subject a smoker, overweight, or an active, fit person?

A minimum of two photographs is required . These should depict the general appearance of your subject and the subject engaged in at least one of the fitness assessments. Your HCC Hawk Card or some other form of photo ID needs to be within every image. The ID should be on or near the subject when you take the picture.

The chair used for the sit-and-stand test needs to be sturdy and not upholstered, on casters (wheels) or a folding chair.

Assessments should be completed either on different days or with a minimum of an hour between tests. This is necessary to remove fatigue as a possible explanation for diminished performance.

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