Aerobic Conditioning

Aerobic conditioning is a process whereby one trains the heart and lungs to pump blood more efficiently, allowing more oxygen to get to muscles and organs.

Aerobic conditioning is a determining factor in performance in events with a duration greater than 2mins. On the athletics track this would relate to all events extending from the 800m.

Usually this is done through cardiovascular exercise, like running, swimming, aerobics, etc. A stronger heart does not pump blood faster but more thoroughly. Trained endurance athletes can have a heartbeat as low as the reported 28 beats per minute in people such as Miguel Indurain or 32 beats per minute of Lance Armstrong, both of whom were professional cyclists at the highest level.

Although exercising at lower intensities will improve aerobic conditioning, the most rapid gains are made when exercising close to an individual's anaerobic threshold. This is the intensity at which the heart and lungs can no longer provide to the demands of the working muscles and an oxygen debt begins to accrue or when the exercise moves from being aerobic to anaerobic. Aerobic training intensity for most individuals will be <85-92% of maximum heart rate.