Difference Between Aerobic And Anaerobic Training

Physical exercise is a great way to have a healthy body and mind. It is better to attend a class where you are trained by an expert coach. You must have seen high energy aerobic classes and also classes where they claim to tone your muscles into shape those are dependent on Aerobic and Anaerobic trainings to be specific. So, what is the difference between the two?

To answer in simple terms, aerobic exercises are those which are of low to high intensity, where the amount of oxygen intake is sufficient to sustain. Oxygen is carried to muscles in just about adequate quantity. Anaerobic exercises on the other hand, are intense activities, which are of high intensity, performed for shorter duration of time. There will not be enough supply of oxygen for muscles to sustain it for a longer duration of time. Sounds very confusing? Now let us get into some basics.

There are many forms of physical exercises. Any form of physical exercise is where energy is burnt doing some kind of bodily activity. Now, energy is produced in the body through carbohydrates and fats. Carbohydrates are nothing but sugar. When we eat, sugar is circulated in our blood. A type of hormone called Insulin is released by the body which helps to convert sugar into glycogen. Glycogen is a form of glucose, which can be stored in the body cells. Glycogens however, can be stored in limited quantity by the body.A small amount in liver and muscle cells. This forms the base for muscle based fuel, which can be burnt quickly to produce instantaneous energy.

Glucose is burnt when we do physical exercise. Glycogens reserves are burnt when we do intense exercises like running, weight lifting, climbing stairs etc. Burning glucose produces a lot of carbon dioxide, which is exhaled through breathing. When a lot of glucose is burnt instantaneously, which is what happens during an anaerobic exercise, there will lot of waste materials produced in the form of lactic acids. When all of glycogen in liver and muscle cells is used up, along with effects of these waste materials, you hit a state of conditions where muscles give up. This is called fatigue. This is the limit to which body muscles will work using all its glycogen that is stored. This is why an athlete like sprinter will hit the state of fatigue very quickly.

On the other hand, fat is burnt at slower rate. Fat is that reserve which is not mobilized and burnt for a quick requirement, but when glucose is released into blood during exercising, when glycogen reserves go down, fat metabolism increases. Hence, during aerobic exercising, that is when the low intensity exercises are performed, 40 to 60% of energy source is said to come from fat. This is in contrast to anaerobic exercises which burn only glycogen reserve hitting the fatigue state. This can be correlated to a marathon runner. When a marathon runner is running at a slow and steady pace, he will be using up combination of fat and glycogen. He would not hit the fatigue state until he has a little amount of glycogen left in his body. Also, he should be avoiding accumulation of lactate. When he comes to his final lap, he can afford to run at faster pace, which is balanced use of glycogen.

Aerobic exercising has benefits of its own. Since it helps in burning fats rather than glycogens, it helps in keeping the body in shape and loses weight. It is good to keep your heart and lungs in shape. Anaerobic exercises are important as well. They are helpful to lean your muscles, tone the body and increase your fitness levels. So, which one of them is good for you?

There is no right or wrong answer for this. It totally depends on your goal, what you need to achieve by attending the training. For an athlete, it is important to build high fitness levels and tolerance. Hence anaerobic exercises and training is advisable. For most of us, exercising is done with a goal to keep the body healthy and to lose weight. Aerobic exercises here helps by longer hours of working and burning extra fat and carbohydrates. It is also less stressful for people with joint and muscle problems. It helps for people with heart related problems and blood pressure.

There is a thin line between aerobic and anaerobic exercises. While walking is aerobic, brisk walking become anaerobic. As and when the demand for oxygen increases, it becomes anaerobic, though it is good to burn fat by low intensity activities, one need to also have good fitness. It is always a combination of both that is recommended by trainers. Most of them start with aerobic and move towards anaerobic trainings.

The post Difference Between Aerobic And Anaerobic Training appeared first on HIIT Guides.