Aerobic and anaerobic activities use energy in different ways. Aerobic exercise involves low- to moderate-intensity activity that raises your heart rate and keeps it elevated throughout a workout. This is terrific for your heart and burns fat at an accelerated pace. Anaerobic exercise involves intense bursts of activity that burn glycogen stores in muscles for energy. Both types of exercise have their place in fitness and weight-control programs.
Aerobic Benefits
Aerobic exercise works the heart and lungs, improving blood flow and oxygenating the body. It helps with losing weight, increases endurance, builds up the immune system, lowers the risks for heart disease, high blood pressure, strokes, obesity, diabetes and some cancers. Aerobic exercise boosts good cholesterol and lowers bad cholesterol, improves the circulation and strengthens the cardiovascular system.
Good Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic exercise lasts a long time at a low rate of intensity — excellent for fat-burning. Aerobic activities include running, jogging, fast walking, swimming, cycling, using elliptical machines, indoor cycling classes and cross-country skiing. These exercises may have moments of intense stress, but they are overall even in energy requirements. Housework and gardening, when approached with vigor, can provide healthy aerobic activity.
Anaerobic Benefits
Anaerobic exercise builds muscle and dissolves body fat. Strength training is designed to increase muscle mass and bone density, create endurance and increase aerobic capacity. Using short, intense bursts of motion followed by recovery periods boosts metabolism so your body uses more fat even when you are not exercising. Anaerobic activity releases a hormone, HGH, that encourages muscle gain and fat loss. And, like aerobic exercise, anaerobic activities improve the cardiovascular system.
Typical Anaerobic Exercise
Anaerobic activity is brief, but tough. Although it doesn’t last long, it requires a high level of intensity to perform. Typical anaerobic activities include squash, racquetball, weightlifting, soccer, American football, snowboarding, downhill skiing, surfing, sprinting, baseball, competitive diving and jumping, and kickboxing.
The Case for Interval Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is the best of both worlds. Columbia University’s health service calls it a “fat-buster” and it works by varying the speed and intensity while performing an exercise. Substitute a one-minute sprint and a two minute jog with 10 repetitions for a 30-minute run to burn more fat. Scientists think this may happen because it teaches the cells’ energy centers to choose fat calories over carb calories as a default. One way to create an HIIT program might be to mix strength training with aerobic exercise during gym workouts. Another could be to select sports and other movement-based activities, like dance, that allow for varying intensity.
Member Comments