What are the benefits of aerobic and anaerobic exercise?

Author: CCA Date: Jun 7, 2017 Back Care Tips, Blog, Chiropractic Expertise, Healthcare, Healthy Aging, Low Back Pain

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  • What are the benefits of aerobic and anaerobic exercise?

What are the benefits of aerobic and anaerobic exercise?
This past Saturday was National Health and Fitness Day, which is an initiative to make Canada “the fittest nation on earth!”1 It’s a great reminder of the importance of fitness every day, all year round!

Today we’re letting you know about two different but equally important types of exercise to keep your fitness routine well-rounded: aerobic and anaerobic. There are a lot of benefits to both types of exercises that are worth considering. 

How are these types of exercises different?

  1. How they use oxygen: By definition, aerobic means “with oxygen” and anaerobic means “without oxygen.” Aerobic exercises require oxygen for fuel; they cause you to breathe faster and more deeply, maximizing the amount of oxygen you can take in. Anaerobic exercises do not rely on oxygen for fuel and do not last as long. With short and intense periods of exercise you can’t take in as much oxygen, so the body ends up producing lactic acid and muscles fatigue more quickly. However, the benefits of anaerobic exercise don’t rely on endurance, so this response isn’t a bad thing.
  1. How long it takes: Aerobic exercises are typically endurance-type exercises that rely on keeping your heart rate steadily elevated over an extended period of time. Anaerobic exercises are typically more intense and involve bursts of energy over short intervals of time.
  1. The rate of your heartbeat: Both exercises get your heart rate up, the difference lies in how high and how steadily. Typically, aerobic exercises have a steady, elevated heart rate that is between 70% and 80% of your maximum heart rate. You will be out of breath, but not so much that you cannot keep up. By contrast, anaerobic exercises can take you up to 80–90% of your maximum heart rate—an intense zone that can only be sustained for shorter periods of time. The higher end of anaerobic training can take you up to 100% of your maximum heart rate. The benefits of this exercise come from what you can accomplish in those bursts of intensity.
  1. How your energy is spent: With aerobic activities, your body uses oxygen to break down carbohydrates and fats for energy. If you have enough fuel and oxygen, at an aerobic intensity you can continue to use your muscles over an extended period of time, and your muscles can continue to contract without needing rest. By contrast, during anaerobic exercises, the body cannot intake enough oxygen to give your body the energy it needs to keep up with the intensity. As you might remember from #1: lactic acid builds up in the muscles, they become fatigued, and you’re left out of breath.
  1. How they benefit you: Aerobic exercises are great for your cardiovascular health. They also serve to improve your mood, mental health, flexibility, weight control, and reduce the risk of diseases. Anaerobic exercises, by contrast, are great for building lean muscle mass and increasing bone density. Being strong at anaerobic exercises helps strengthen the body for aerobic workouts, and vice versa. Both types of exercises are needed for a well-rounded fitness plan for your overall physical and mental health and well-being.

Why should I do both?

It’s important to incorporate both aerobic and anaerobic exercises into your fitness routine in order to strengthen both your cardiovascular system and your spine, muscle, and nervous system. According to the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, people between the ages of 18 and 64 should be getting 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity aerobic exercise per week, along with muscle and bone strengthening activities at least two days out of the week.2 

What types of exercises can I do?

  • Aerobic Exercises: A few simple aerobic exercises that might be familiar to you are running, cycling, brisk walking, dancing, and most fitness classes at your local gym.
  • Anaerobic Exercises: Some common anaerobic exercises that are sure to get your muscles pumping include sprinting, lifting weights, exercising with resistance bands, and interval training.

To better understand what exercises are right for you, contact your family chiropractor.

References

What are the benefits of aerobic and anaerobic exercise?

First things first, establishing the difference between aerobic and anaerobic. Aerobic means “ with oxygen”. Oxygen is carried to muscles through your breath, giving the muscles energy to do  exercise. Anaerobic means “without oxygen”. Think of all of the high intensity exercises such as sprinting.

Aerobic exercise

The intent of aerobic exercise is to increase stamina and endurance. Having a steady pace is important as to maintain endurance for a long period of time. This type of exercising improves your cardiovascular endurance. Aerobic exercise can improve circulation and burn more fat than aerobic. Although, only focusing on aerobic exercises/workouts may lead to a decrease in muscular power and strength.

Anaerobic exercise

Anaerobic workouts add stress to the body in order to improve endurance, strength, and speed. You can view this site for more information. A key benefit to anaerobic exercises raise your metabolic rate higher than aerobic exercises, and it also increases muscle mass.

What are the benefits of aerobic and anaerobic exercise?

Combining the Two

High intensity interval training is an anaerobic conditioning program that stresses the body in order to improve speed, strength, and endurance. By alternating between short bursts of high intensity activities with short cool down periods, interval training pushes the body, but does not give it the opportunity to recover entirely. This type of training program can improve an athletes’ ability to tolerate and utilize the increased concentrations of lactic acid that form during anaerobic activities. Although interval training focuses predominately on anaerobic training, it also improves cardiovascular endurance, notes the Mayo Clinic. With the availability of delta 8 near me, it is easy to monitor the daily progress in the workout that the person does.

Combining anaerobic and aerobic training can significantly improve cardiovascular fitness, strength, speed, and overall health. With both, you can maintain muscle, improve bone density, optimizes your cardiovascular system and gain the fat burning benefit of both. The more muscle fibers you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day as your body works to repair muscle fibers. At the end of the day, for optimal health both anaerobic and aerobic exercises are best when combined.

If you want advice for how to best combine these forms of exercise, ask one of our trained staff at Studio Element!

Written by: Ashley LaPointe

Aerobic exercise provides cardiovascular conditioning. The term aerobic actually means "with oxygen," which means that breathing controls the amount of oxygen that can make it to the muscles to help them burn fuel and move.

Benefits of aerobic exercise

  • Improves cardiovascular conditioning.
  • Decreases risk of heart disease.
  • Lowers blood pressure.
  • Increases HDL or "good" cholesterol.
  • Helps to better control blood sugar.
  • Assists in weight management and/or weight loss.
  • Improves lung function.
  • Decreases resting heart rate.

Exercise safety

It is recommended that you talk with your physician before you start an exercise program. Ask what, if any, limitations you may have. People who suffer from diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, arthritis, pulmonary conditions, or other health conditions may need additional safety guidelines for exercise.

Note: If you develop symptoms during exercise including, but not limited to, unusual shortness of breath; tightness in the chest; chest, shoulder, or jaw pain; lightheadedness; dizziness; confusion; or joint pain, you should stop exercising immediately and contact your physician.

What are some examples of aerobic exercise?

Lower impact aerobic exercise includes:

  • Swimming.
  • Cycling.
  • Using an elliptical trainer.
  • Walking.
  • Rowing.
  • Using an upper body ergometer (a piece of equipment that provides a cardiovascular workout that targets the upper body only).

Higher impact aerobic exercise includes:

  • Running.
  • Jumping rope.
  • Performing high impact routines or step aerobics.

How often and for how long should I do these exercises?

The American Heart Association recommends that everyone reach a minimum of 30 minutes of some form of cardiovascular exercise 5 to 7 days per week. This can be broken up into 10-minute time periods. This means that taking 3 walks of 10 minutes each would let you reach the recommended minimum guideline for reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. You would also burn the same number of calories as you would if you walked for the full 30 minutes at 1 time.

The American College of Sports Medicine recommends a minimum of 3 sessions of 30 minutes of the total should be made up of moderate to vigorous exercise to improve cardio-respiratory fitness and help manage weight.

It is appropriate to do aerobic exercise every day. There is no need to rest in between sessions unless you are at an extreme level of training, such as preparing for a marathon, or if you experience reoccurring joint pain. If joint pain is a limiting factor, it would be appropriate to alternate less painful exercises with those that may cause joint pain or discontinue the painful exercise altogether.

Explanation of intensity

The intensity is determined by how hard you are working. The intensity of the exercise is determined by what your goals are, what limitations you have, and your current fitness level.

Heart rate and exercise

Your heart rate increases in direct correlation with the intensity of the exercise. Heart rate levels can vary significantly from one person to another based on fitness level, genetics, environment, and exercise tolerance. If you wish to train based on heart rate, contact your health care provider to determine what the appropriate range is for you. Some medications, most often blood pressure drugs, control heart rate, making it impossible to determine exercise intensity in this way. Ask your physician to determine if you are on any of these medications.

Monitoring intensity in other ways

How can you know if you are working at the right intensity? Using an RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) chart can help you to determine the appropriate intensity. The scale uses a 1 to 10 rating system. One is very light, such as walking to the refrigerator for a glass of milk. Ten would be a very significant level, representing maximal exercise. Ten would be indicative of not being able to take another step without fear of collapse. It is not recommended for anyone to work at a rate of 10 without strict supervision by a healthcare provider. Moderate intensity is the level of exercise that is most recommended, and can be determined by a rating between a 3 and a 5.

Warming up and cooling down

Every session of aerobic exercise should include a warm-up and cool-down. The warm-up period should not include static stretching, but should instead be a gradual increase in pace and intensity of the exercise. This allows the body to increase blood flow to the muscles and decreases the likelihood of a muscle or joint injury. The warm-up should last between 5 and 10 minutes. The cool-down session should last a similar amount of time as the warm-up, with the pace gradually decreasing. Stretching exercises would be appropriate after aerobic exercise.

Progression of aerobic exercise

Progression to higher intensities of exercise should be based on individual exercise tolerance. There are 3 methods for challenging aerobic fitness:

  • Increase speed.
  • Increase the resistance.
  • Increase the duration.

Any of these methods, or a combination of these methods, will improve aerobic fitness. Increasing intensity should be done very gradually. You should challenge yourself for only a few minutes at a time.