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For those of you who don’t know CV (cardio vascular) fitness refers to the ability of the heart and lungs to provide the body with enough nutrients (mainly oxygen) for it to function during activity and remove waste products such as carbon dioxide and lactic acid also. The more efficient and well trained the CV system is, the greater the intensity or duration of exercise can be. Some sports such as weight lifting don’t develop the CV system very well as very little oxygen is required by the muscles. Some sports however do ask a lot of the CV system. Below we look at three of the best sports for developing CV fitness.

Skiing. It has been proven that cross-country skiing demands more of the cardio vascular system than any other sport. This is because competitive events usually take place over very long distances and skiers encounter lots of different inclines to conquer. On top of this, there isn’t a muscle in the body that is not required during the action of cross country skiing, meaning that the CV system needs to work overtime to provide them all with fuel. So if you’re looking to build your CV system, switch your snowboards for skis next time you’re on the slopes.

Cycling. Racing bikes at high level puts vast amounts of pressure of the heart and lungs due to the large muscle groups that are required to work. The 7 time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong is testament to that, having one of the highest VO2 max scores of any athlete. VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen that can be delivered and used by muscles in one minute. Based on that evidence, if you’re thinking about getting rid of your old cycling machine or second hand bikes, you might want to think again.

Kayaking. Although kayaking does not use the lower body as much as other sports do, it still punishes the heart and lungs more than most. This is largely down to the fact that kayakers use their upper-bodies a vast amount and there are hundreds of smaller muscles here demanding the large supply of oxygen and removal of lots of carbon dioxide. For second hand kayaks and extreme sports equipment check out EST.

Technorati Tags: CV fitness, cycling, kayaking, skiing, sports

Tags: CV fitness, cycling, kayaking, skiing, sports

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 9:41 am and is filed under Ski Poles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.