Will Concept 10 10 improve my heart and lung endurance ?
When people first hear that aerobics doesn´t really strengthen the heart and lungs – when they hear that it only makes their muscles a little stronger and that it just seems like their hearts and lungs work better – and when they are told that 20 minutes a week doing a Concept 10 10 workout will give them as much endurance as three hours of jogging, they hardly believe it !
However, this unlikely claim is true ! The Concept 10 10 workout will give you greater cardiopulmonary fitness and endurance than running. The endurance you get from running along for miles every week comes not from any cardiovascular conditioning but from the strength that such a routine ultimately develops, as well as from the sport-specific training effects that occur.
The heart and lungs don't get much stronger, if at all. The muscles in general, and in the legs and hips in particular, become stronger, and this increased muscular strength brings about the changes we call ”getting in shape”.
Running and other forms of “aerobic” exercise strengthen the muscles. Stronger muscles working more efficiently to draw oxygen from the blood reduce the demand on the heart and lungs, which gives the impression of improved cardiovascular or cardiopulmonary fitness.
You have the heart and lungs that you were born with. Each of these organs has a limited performance capacity, and as long as you are working within that capacity, they seem to work just fine. When you exceed that capacity, however, the perception is that your heart and /or lungs are out of shape. As you age and lose muscle mass, activities you used to do with ease when you were stronger now become difficult, you pant and puff and your heart pounds when you try to do them. But that isn´t because your heart and lungs have gotten weaker – your muscles have, and as a result, their inefficiency makes you exceed the comfort level and capacity of your cardiopulmonary system. You don´t need to strengthen your heart and lungs; in fact, you can´t. You need to strengthen your muscles so that they can once again function easily within the capacity of your heart and lungs.