‘Aerobic’ and ‘Anaerobic’ – we often hear and use interchangeably when it comes to fitness workouts, right! But, many of them are really unaware of the terms and the difference among them.
Aerobic and anaerobic are the latest forms of exercises that are gaining more and more popularity among all.
To speak exactly, the terms ‘aerobic’ and ‘anaerobic’ refers to the presence and absence of oxygen.
In terms of physical workouts, aerobic exercises are the exercises with moderate-intensity and that carry out continuously for at least thirty minutes so that the stress on the heart significantly raises the need for oxygen.
Good examples of aerobic exercises are swimming, jogging, brisk walking, skiing, and cycling.
You should note that any activity can measure as aerobic only when it involves large muscle groups and that carries out for longer time at moderate intensity.
On the other hand, anaerobic exercises are the exercises with intensive exertion of muscles in short burst and follow repetitions with little recovery time in between. Good examples of anaerobic exercises are heavy weight lifting, strength training workouts, and sprinting.
So, anaerobic exercises are contrary to aerobic exercises. In other words, aerobic exercise makes your body to use oxygen for energy formation whereas anaerobic exercise carry out the opposite—makes the body to form energy without oxygen.
Benefits and limitations of aerobic exercises
In aerobic exercises, except for a short early stage, fat metabolism takes place to converge the energy requirement of the muscles, which involves in the exercise.
As fat metabolizes in the presence of oxygen, these exercises make the muscles of the heart work too hard and get strengthen in the process. That is the reason why these exercises are known as cardio workouts.
Aerobic exercises also reward you in several ways – lowers body fat percent, gives better stamina and energy, tones body muscles especially the muscles that help in respiration, increase the ability of the muscles in using body fat rather than glycogen during intense exertion, and recovers the muscle fatigue speedily.
However, with aerobic exercises you don’t directly build muscle mass, strength, and power that one desires to gain. In fact, you may go through an undesirable loss in muscle mass, strength and power accompanied by the desired fat loss in the body.
Benefits and limitations of anaerobic exercises
As said earlier, anaerobic exercises are fast and involve high intense exertion. As intense exertion increases, the muscles involved in the intense exertion needs more and more energy, which aerobic exercises cannot provide. So, use a fast anaerobic activity having creatine-phosphate–ATP conversion in the early stages and glycogen breakdown to meet the requirements of the muscles involved in intense exertion.
However, anaerobic exercises may result in muscle fatigue due to the accumulation of the by-product called ‘lactic acid’. So, during recuperation process, remove lactic acid and prepare the muscles for another exercise session.
Anaerobic exercises reward you with body fat reduction, build up muscle mass, and provide muscle strength and power directly. However, to begin anaerobic exercise, you need to have a strong aerobic fitness base.
