Positive Effects of Exercise on the Cardiovascular System

While most people consider muscle gain and fat loss the primary positive effects of exercise, other systems of the body benefit as well. The cardiovascular system is one of the primary beneficiaries. The cardiovascular system is responsible for shuttling blood and nutrients to tissues in a timely fashion. Thus, providing training for the cardiovascular system through exercise can be just as important a goal as improving body composition.

  1. Efficiency

    • When performing exercise, the cardiovascular system kicks into high gear to supply the body with the nutrients required to fuel activity. Constant "training" of the cardiovascular system in this fashion results in increased efficiency throughout the entire system. Increasing cardiovascular efficiency improves the rate at which your body provides blood and nutrients to the tissues of your body, increasing your endurance and tolerance for training.

    Stress Reduction

    • As the cardiovascular system becomes more efficient at performing its tasks, overall stress on the entire system decreases. Thus, over time, during both resting and active states, your heart needs to beat fewer times per minute to pump the same amount of blood through the body. This reduces overall stress and increases longevity of the system.

    Cholesterol Flushing

    • According to the people at ehealthMD, exercise has another great benefit on your cardiovascular system's health--a reduction in cholesterol levels. Through the increased activity and bloodflow promoted by exercise, your cardiovascular system effectively "flushes" bad cholesterol from the bloodstream, increasing HDL levels (the "good" cholesterol), while decreasing LDL levels (the "bad" cholesterol).

    Decreased Risk of Disease

    • Another benefit that exercise provides to the cardiovascular system is a decreased chance of catastrophic failure (i.e. cardiac disease). The more efficient and stress-free the cardiovascular system, the less chance that it will experience incidents, such as heart attacks or strokes. Thus, keeping your cardiovascular system in shape can increase your quality of life as you age.

    Considerations

    • To achieve maximum benefits, the experts at ehealthMD recommend that you engage in at least 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise per day. A mix of traditional cardiovascular training and resistance training produces the best results Note that if you are unable to devote a full 30 minute block to exercise, you can fulfill your daily requirements with several shorter stints of training.