Your Heart Will Love Aerobic Exercise

Your Heart Will Love Aerobic Exercise

Aerobics was the first wave of the big late-twentieth-century boom in intensive exercise. The word aerobic is such a part of the English language that it’s hard to believe it has been around only since the 1960s. That’s when Dr. Kenneth Cooper, the creator of a new and energetic style of exercise and the founder of the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, coined the word to describe activities intense enough to get the heart and lungs pumping. These encompass a range of sports that involve running, pedaling, swimming, or ascending a steep hill, as well as gym activities, such as aerobics or energetic dance classes and the use of cardio apparatus.
In other words, aerobics encompasses all activities in which the body requires additional oxygen to enable the muscles to continue working, thereby strengthening the lungs and the heart. Dr. Cooper gave a name to the types of activities that get the heart pumping and the lungs working hard, and he created an indoor fitness activity designed to make that happen. Dr. Cooper’s aerobics and its derivatives as we know them today are among the workouts discussed in Chapter 15, “Specialized Aerobics Programs.”
Today, the definition has been expanded. Aerobic, as an adjective, describes any steady and repetitive activity that challenges the cardiorespiratory system and that makes the heart and lungs stronger. Aerobics, as a noun, has come to describe fitness routines based on dance and performed to music. These routines are done intensely enough to elevate the heart rate and thereby condition the cardiorespiratory system.