Aerobic Exercise and The Heart: Discussing Doses

The recent and exciting images of the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio will be forever imprinted in our minds. Hundreds of world, Olympic, continental and national records were conquered with a combination of discipline, resilience, competitiveness and overcoming challenges. Overcoming them in every sense – a result of thousands of hours of training that ensure exceptional aerobic performance from athletes with powerful and extremely healthy hearts. The theme of aerobic exercise and the heart has never been so in evidence. Thus, in the perspective of this Olympic legacy, it is very appropriate to address the relation between aerobic exercise and the heart in the Brazilian Archives of Cardiology. More specifically, it is important to discuss the most suitable posology or dosage of exercise for adults in the context of primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Succinctly, the objective of this viewpoint to discuss and delimit the therapeutic range of the aerobic exercise dose for the heart and make suggestions about how this dose can be individualized according to certain criteria and objectives.