Aerobic exercise can help your heart and lungs function more efficiently and reduce your risk for serious diseases, including stroke, heart attack and blood pressure disorders. It is also an extremely broad exercise category, with many potential options. With a little effort, anyone who is serious about becoming more active can find an aerobic exercise to enjoy and participate in for the long term.
Definition
Aerobic exercise primarily strengthens your heart and lungs, so cardio exercise is synonymous with aerobic exercise. Cardio elevates your heart rate during the exercise session. Anaerobic exercise, on the other hand, is designed to strengthen or enlarge your muscles. Most weight training and resistance exercises fall into the anaerobic category. In many cases, a workout that is primarily aerobic will also be somewhat anaerobic, and vice versa.
Running
When it comes to aerobic exercise, many people think of running first. If you've chosen running as your main aerobic exercise, you may sometimes feel like you spend all your free time on a treadmill or the track, but see little progress toward your weight loss or fitness goals. This may happen if the pace you have set is too slow to sufficiently elevate your heart rate. Invest in a heart rate monitor, which can help ensure that you are working hard enough to make your runs worthwhile.
Swimming
Swimming may be a less convenient aerobic workout than running. You need a pool for swimming, while you can run almost anywhere. However, swimming has a number of certain advantages that make it worth the extra effort. Swimming gives you a total body workout, whereas running primarily works the muscles of the lower body. Some find running difficult or impossible because of its constant impact on the joints, especially the knees, which can lead to injury. Swimming is such a low impact aerobic exercise that it is frequently used as part of rehab routines for injury recovery, yet you can burn a lot of calories with a vigorous swim.
Other Aerobic Exercises
There are nearly limitless choices of aerobic exercise. Just about any activity that significantly elevates your heart and breathing rates can work. Mountain biking, martial arts, jumping rope, aerobic exercise classes, dancing, boxing, hiking, gymnastics and tumbling are just a few ideas, but there are plenty of others. Finding and sticking with an aerobic activity you enjoy will help keep you in good shape and good health.
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