Breathing as exercise: The cardiovascular response to weaning from mechanical variation

Abstract

It is axiomatic that exercise increases oxygen (O2) demand if within the bounds of cardiovascular reserve, results in a proportional increase in whole body oxygen consumption (VO2). Exersice physiologists have long known that it does not really matter what form of exercise is performed, VO2 will increase in response to all forms of exercise, although the degree to which the incresed VO2 demand is met by increasing cardiac output and O2 extraction varies with conditioning and underlying diease[1]. Interestingly, the type of excercise also influecnes the efficiency and of the performance, defined as the ratio of external work performed to VO2.[2].