Aerobic exercise

Aer­o­bic exer­cise (also known as car­dio) is phys­i­cal exer­cise of low to high inten­si­ty that depends pri­mar­i­ly on the aer­o­bic ener­gy-gen­er­at­ing process. Aer­o­bic lit­er­al­ly means “relat­ing to, involv­ing, or requir­ing free oxy­gen”, and refers to the use of oxy­gen to ade­quate­ly meet ener­gy demands dur­ing exer­cise via aer­o­bic metab­o­lism. Gen­er­al­ly, light-to-mod­er­ate inten­si­ty activ­i­ties that are suf­fi­cient­ly sup­port­ed by aer­o­bic metab­o­lism can be per­formed for extend­ed peri­ods of time. When prac­ticed in this way, exam­ples of cardiovascular/aerobic exer­cise are medi­um to long dis­tance running/jogging, swim­ming, cycling, and walk­ing, accord­ing to the first exten­sive research on aer­o­bic exer­cise, con­duct­ed in the 1960s on over 5,000 U.S. Air Force per­son­nel by Dr. Ken­neth H. Cooper.