Is cardio-fitness muscle specific?

[Adamo]

What I mean by this is.....because you exercise certain muscles exclusively and get yourself into shape does that mean that you are able to perform other aerobic exercises at a higher level because of it?

Example---if I am neither a runner or a cyclist and then I decide to train intensely on a bike for a long time and get to the point where I am very strong on the bike, because I am now 'cardiovascularly' fit because of my cycling, will I be a much better runner because of it? I know this is hard to quantify---but I'm trying to figure out what exactly is cardiovascular fitness and whether performing one type of exercise will help in others?

That's probably a very strange question and if anybody gets my drift and could add something to it I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

adam

[tooncesthecat]

Generally speaking, the answer to your question is "yes", cardiovascular endurance can be generalized from one activity to another. So if you do lots of biking, for example, your heart, lungs, oxygen carrying capacity of your blood, etc will all improve. So when you go running, your heart, lungs, etc will enable you to perform better than before you did your cycling.

Now as far as the conditioning of specific muscles, changes do take place (such as increased mitochondria) within the muscles needed for an activity. So if you do lots of rowing, you'll still improve you heart, lungs, O2 carrying capacity, etc, but the muscular changes (such as mitochondria density) will change in your upper body. Therefore, it wouldn't help your running as much as cycling would.

So the answer is clear as mud now, right?

[Adamo]

No, that cleared it up very well.

Thanks

Adam