Greetings and welcome to my blog. Am glad to be a part of this learning challenge targeted towards making us develop love for our body and taking proper care of it through adequate exercising.
This weeks exercise is on cardiovascular exercises. Before I delve into my personal tasks, lets see a little about cardiovascular exercises and the importance.
Cardiovascular exercises
Cardiovascular exercises are also called aerobic exercises and it works on the cardiovascular system of our body. Our cardiovascular system involves the health of our heart and how it absorbs and transports oxygen thereby using it for energy production.
Cardiovascular exercises helps to build the endurance needed for our heart to carry out its oxygen absorbtion and transportation through the body.
Importance of cardiovascular exercises
- Cardiovascular exercises helps to reduce health issues associated with the heart such as issues associated with blood pressure, heart failure, stroke etc
- Cardiovascular exercises comes in handy when embarking on weight loss exercises
- These exercises makes for a healthier life and longevity
- Reduces anxiety, improved our mood, makes for better sleep and improves one’s mental health
- Helps for blood circulation and release of harmful waste products from the body through sweating
Examples of cardiovascular exercises
There are many cardiovascular exercises that are good for the body and mental health and they includes running, skipping, jogging on the spot, jumping jacks, air boxing etc but for this weeks task, we are focused on running in place and aerobic dance.
Task documentation table
| Programs | duration | rest period | repetition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Running in place | 1 min | 10 seconds | 1 min |
| Aerobic dance | 2 min, 50 sec. | non stop | no rep |
For running in place, I did it for one minute, rested for ten seconds and then repeated the running in place for another minute.
Video
For the aerobic dance, I did a straight dance steps for about two minutes fifty seconds and joined the entire video to make up a five minutes video.
Running in place
Unlike the actual running where we move our legs and hands in a rhythmic pattern while we run at a particular speed, for this exercise, we do the same hand and leg movements but instead of moving, we do this on the spot.
Aerobic dance
This is a soft exercise version where the excercises are carried out in a rhythmic pattern usually accompanied by a beat. I did the different dancing exercises as shown by the teacher.
What is your overall feelings as you carried out the programs. Did it build more endurance in you? Explain
I must say that these excercises are really great for building endurance. When I started the running in place, after the first lap, I noticed I was getting tried but I had to breathe through my mouth to help my heart and the ten seconds rest helped a lot. I picked up and on the second lap at about 30seconds into it, I was getting tired but I had to push until I finished.
When I finished the exercise the first time, I didn’t know that I didn’t press the record button on my phone and hence had to start the exercises afresh. I was glad I was able to push through it and it was awesome. I was sweating through the whole excercise. My endurance increased.
How did this programs impact your mental health?
When I knew that cardiovascular exercise helps us to sleep better and affects our mental health, I decided to do these exercises in the night before I sleep as you can see in the video. I had a busy day and I wanted to have a good uninterrupted sleep.
After the exercises, my mood improved significantly and I had my bath, ate and slept. I had a very lovely good night sleep. I didn’t want to wake up in the morning because my body felt very relieved and light. It’s a good antidote for relieving the days stress and having a good sleep.
Thanks for reading through. Your thoughts on this are welcomed.