FITNESS FAQ 3 - All About Physical Fitness
By Dr. Myles H. Bader

WHAT IS HYPERVENTILATION?

In hyperventilation the lung ventilation rate is greater than is needed for the existing metabolic rate. This increased rate has some important side effects. The most important is hypocarpia, which is a lowered value of blood carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is the direct waste product of metabolism in the tissues. A misconception is that through hyperventilation a person gets more oxygen in his blood because he finds that only “one minute of hyperventilation more than doubled the average breath—holding time.”

Many attribute this trait to the fad that he has more oxygen to utilize, but this is not the case, because the blood is virtually saturated with oxygen when it leaves the lungs. Hyperventilation washes out the lungs of carbon dioxide that would ordinarily remain in the residual volume. So, in order to increase a person’s breath-holding time, they hyperventilate. Hyperventilation; is best performed by increasing the depth instead of the rate of breathing. Breathing rapidly does not necessitate getting the carbon dioxide out of the small area in the deep recesses of the lungs.

WHAT IS THE OVERLOAD PRINCIPAL OF FITNESS?

The overload principal states that “when the body is regularly stimulated by a greater than normal exercise load, it responds by an increased capacity to perform physical work.” Certain key points should be noted: the exercise must be regular. Any kind of extensive program covering less than three days a week may actually do more harm than good. Enough time should occur between the exercising so that the tissues have a chance to repair and build up; but not so much time between exercising that one loses whatever is gained. Another fact is that the body must be stimulated.

For the average person, walking a mile in an hour does little for fitness. The exercise should be greater than normal. Your heart has built up to its present condition because what you are doing is normal. In order to raise the condition of the heart, a person must raise what is normal. Not only is the cardiovascular system improved with the overload principle, but also strength and muscular endurance. Improvement can occur only when the system involved is challenged.

With a good regular program, a person need not concentrate on strength separate from muscular endurance or vice versa. Generally, suitable overload training can be expected to bring about improvement in strength and muscular endurance together. The question arises, why build your system up to a level greater than what is normal, when you appear to be quite satisfied with it? Through exercising regularly and gaining in the training effect, you can adapt your body to the demands that might be placed on it. The more the body can adapt to the demands of exercise the better its capacity to respond to sudden stress and that could mean the difference between life and death.

Through the training effect we are building into our bodies a sort of margin of error in a loose sense, meaning that we are expanding our range of responses to various stimuli with which our bodies can cope.