Aerobic: What Is Aerobic Exercise?

Aerobic
What is Aerobic Exercise?

Aerobic exercise is the type of moderate-intensity physical activity that you can
sustain for more than just a few minutes with the objective of improving your
cardiorespiratory fitness and your health.
"Aerobic" means "in the presence of, or with, oxygen."
You know you're doing aerobic exercise when your heart's thumping and you're
breathing faster than you do at rest but you can sustain the activity for extended
periods of time. I recommend the cue "warm and slightly out of breath" to
determine if your activity level is aerobic.
Walking, jogging, biking, dancing, and swimming are examples of activities that
can be performed aerobically.
Anaerobic, on the other hand, means "the absence of, or without, oxygen."
Anaerobic exercise is performed at an intensity that causes you to get out of
breath quickly and can be sustained for only a few moments. Weight lifting and
sprinting are examples of anaerobic exercise.
Aerobic exercise facts
 Aerobic exercise is sometimes known as "cardio"- exercise that requires
pumping of oxygenated blood by the heart to deliver oxygen to working
muscles.
 Aerobic exercise stimulates the heart rate and breathing rate to increase in
a way that can be sustained for the exercise session. In
contrast, anaerobic ("without oxygen") exercise is activity that causes you
to be quickly out of breath, like sprinting or lifting a heavy weight.
 Examples of aerobic exercises include cardio machines,
spinning, running, swimming, walking, hiking, aerobics classes, dancing,
cross country skiing, and kickboxing. There are many other types.
 Aerobic exercises can become anaerobic exercises if performed at a level of
intensity that is too high.
 Aerobic exercise not only improves fitness; it also has known benefits for
both physical and emotional health.
 Aerobic exercise can help prevent or reduce the chance of developing some
cancers, diabetes,depression, cardiovascular disease, andosteoporosis.
 An aerobic exercise plan should be simple, practical, and realistic. Specific
equipment (such as cardio machines) may be used but is not necessary for
successful aerobic exercise
What is the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise?

A single activity can include elements of both aerobic and anaerobic exercise. For
example, interval training, where you alternate cycles of low-intensity (aerobic)
and high-intensity (anaerobic) work during the same workout, has elements of
both. So does a game of tennis where you might sprint at one moment
(anaerobic) and then move less aggressively for several minutes (aerobic) as you
hit ground strokes from the baseline.
Most activities can be performed aerobically or anaerobically. For example, you
could walk briskly on the treadmill at 3.5 miles per hour and feel warm and
slightly out of breath (aerobic), or you could walk very briskly at 4.5 miles per
hour and feel very out of breath (anaerobic). The same is true for biking,
swimming, dancing, or virtually any other activity. The intensity of the workout
determines whether an activity is aerobic or anaerobic, and all you need to do is
pace yourself to elicit the type of training you desire.
Biologic Basis of Aerobic Exercise
A. Oxygen Delivery
Breathing increases during aerobic exercise to bring oxygen into your body. Once
inside your body the oxygen is (1) processed by the lungs, (2) transferred to the
bloodstream where it is carried by red blood cells to the heart, and then (3)
pumped by the heart to the exercising muscles via the circulatory system, where
it is used by the muscle to produce energy.
B. Oxygen Consumption
"Oxygen consumption" describes the process of muscles extracting, or
consuming, oxygen from the blood. Conditioned individuals have higher levels of
oxygen consumption than deconditioned individuals ("couch potatoes") due to
biological changes in the muscles from chronic exercise training. For example, a
deconditioned individual might have a maximal oxygen consumption of 35
milliliters (ml) of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min),
whereas an elite athlete may have a maximal oxygen consumption up to 92
ml/kg/min! Values like this are expressed as VO2 (volume of oxygen consumed)
and can be measured with special equipment in a laboratory.
C. Burning Fat
A higher percentage of fat is burned during aerobic exercise than during
anaerobic exercise. Here's why. Fat is denser than carbohydrate (fat has nine
calories per gram and carbohydrate has four), and so it takes more oxygen
to burn it. During aerobic exercise, more oxygen is delivered to the muscles than
during anaerobic exercise, and so it follows that a higher percentage of fat is
burned during aerobic exercise when more oxygen is available. When less oxygen
is present, like during anaerobic exercise, a higher percentage of carbohydrate is
burned.
Keep in mind that both fuels are almost always burned simultaneously, except
during the most intense, short-term bursts of energy, like sprinting and
weightlifting. It's the percentage of fat and carbohydrate burned that changes
during a workout depending on the intensity, but you almost never burn just one
exclusively. You burn fat while you're at rest, and you burn it during virtually
every moment of exercise. It's a myth to think that it takes 20-30 minutes of
exercise before your muscles start burning fat

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What is Aerobic Exercise?

What is the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise?

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