... reasons. Reasons include, to improve the way we look, to increase self confidence, and for social factors. The main reason however is usually to improve ones fitness. Fitness can be defined by using vo2 max, which in turn can be defined as 'The maximum rate at which oxygen is consumed during a progressive exercise test to exhaustion.' (Davis, Bull, Roscoe 2000) Individual's vo2 max can vary significantly. A trained individual's oxygen consumption will be much less than that of an untrained individual if they both did the same exercise. An individual's vo2 max depends on the capacity of that particular person's cardiovascular system. Therefore, it is said that the cardiovascular capacity determines vo2 max, which in turn determines fitness. All individual's and groups of people will have different fitness levels. Two different groups which generally have great physiological differences are men and women. At a young age girls mature earlier than boys, ...

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