Improving your physical fitness through exercise requires knowing how much to exert yourself and knowing when to rest. The Merck Manual of Medical Information reports that you shouldn't put too much stress on the same skeletal muscles on consecutive days. Consequently, formulating an exercise schedule that balances anaerobic and aerobic exercise is important. Consult your doctor before beginning any new fitness regimen.
Definitions
Aerobic exercises are continuous exercises that improve your cardiovascular fitness and endurance more than other exercises because they require you to increase your heart rate for longer periods of time. Raising your heart rate makes your body accustomed to pumping more blood per heartbeat and, thus, increases what your body can accomplish per heartbeat and lowers your resting heart rate. Bicycling, running, swimming and walking are examples of aerobic exercises. Anaerobic exercises are stop-and-go exercises such as baseball and golf. The best anaerobic exercises, including weightlifting, improve your strength. They have a relatively limited direct impact on your cardiovascular fitness, but they also improve your cardiovascular fitness indirectly by making your arms and legs stronger so you can improve your performance of aerobic exercises.
Aerobic Recommendations
There's no definition of how long continuous exercise must be before becoming aerobic, but "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease" reports that your aerobic energy system is "turned on" after about one minute, the point when a higher amount of blood reaches your muscles. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends spending 20 to 60 minutes three to five days weekly on aerobic workouts. Daily workouts can be performed in one session or a few 10-minute sessions. The ACSM recommends exerting yourself enough so your heart rate is 55 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate, which is 220 beats each minute minus your age. Because your heart, but not your skeletal muscles, can handle intense stress on consecutive days, swimming on Mondays, bicycling on Tuesdays and running on Wednesdays is preferable to the same exercise on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Anaerobic Recommendations
Resistance exercises are preferable anaerobic exercises to more time-consuming sports such as baseball and golf, according to the ACSM. Resistance exercises such as weightlifting, pullups, pushups and situps should be performed two or three days weekly. "An Invitation to Health," a college textbook, recommends they be performed at "a controlled speed and through a full range of motions." The ACSM's suggested strength-training routine is a minimum of eight to 12 repetitions of about 10 different exercises. The Merck Manual warns that failing to rest your skeletal muscles for one day after resistance exercises causes them to break down. "When the muscles heal, they are stronger," the encyclopedia reports.
Other Recommendations
Your schedule of aerobic and anaerobic exercises should include short pre-exercise warm-up and post-exercise cool-down exercises. Dr. Kenneth Cooper, a prominent exercise expert, recommends a warm-up of three to five minutes of stretching, including slow toe-touching and side-to-side bending and a cool-down of at least five minutes that should include slow walking. "Invitation" author Dianne Hales writes that people who lack time for the ACSM's exercise program should walk briskly 30 minutes daily a few days per week.
References
- The Merck Manual of Medical Information; 2003
- "Swim, Bike, Run"; Glenn Town and Todd Kearney; 1994
- "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease"; Dr. Dean Ornish; 1996
- American College of Sports Medicine: The Recommended Quantity and Quality of Exercise
- "An Invitation to Health"; Dianne Hales; 2010
- "Controlling Cholesterol The Natural Way"; Dr. Kenneth Cooper and William Proctor; 1999
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