Anaerobic Exercise – Examples, Types and

Benefits
by Dr. Sanjiv Khanse | Fitness

The anaerobic training exercise is an exercise of high-intensity bursts, performed for a short
duration of time lasting from a few seconds to two or three minutes.
This type of exercise is also called strength-training exercise and it is mostly done to build
up strength, power, and speed and by weight lifters to increase the strength and endurance
of the muscles.
Besides building up the power and endurance of the muscles, strength training exercises
impart some unexpected benefits not only in males but also in females.
These benefits start to incur over the short term and extend over the long term. They are
explained later in this post.
Energy for Anaerobic Exercise
The main difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise is the intensity at which you
exercise.
The intensity of the anaerobic exercise is so high that the heart is unable to deliver the
required amount of oxygen to your muscles. That is why this type of exercise is of short
duration.
 Anaerobic exercise is so-called because the energy required for this exercise is not derived
from the oxygen of the air but through metabolism, which occurs without air or without
oxygen (anaerobically). This metabolism is called anaerobic metabolism.
Being a high-intensity exercise, the body is unable to provide a high oxygen requirement for
the energy of this exercise. The oxygen supply gets depleted very fast and the body then
provides this energy through anaerobic metabolism.
A process called glycolysis in which glucose is converted to adenosine triphosphate (ATP)
is the main source of energy for cellular reactions, produces anaerobic energy.
Lactic acid is produced at a fast rate during anaerobic exercise. When it builds up above the
lactate threshold or the anaerobic threshold, there is muscle fatigue.
Does anaerobic exercise burn fats and calories?
Theoretically, because anaerobic exercise is a highly intensive exercise, it should burn
more fats than aerobic exercise. But, this does not happen because of the lack of oxygen,
which is required to burn fat. Instead, the muscle cells burn more carbohydrates, which do
not require oxygen.
Anaerobic exercises are not as effective as aerobic exercises in burning fat. But, since
anaerobic exercise increases metabolism, this indirectly helps to burn fat.
The increased muscle activity due to this exercise requires more energy and this is derived
by the burning of more calories. The increased metabolism and muscle mass, therefore,
help in consuming more calories without gaining weight.
Examples of Anaerobic Training Exercises
If you are a beginner, you shouldn’t start with anaerobic training. It could put you at risk of
injury. It is always better to start with aerobic training of mild to moderate intensity. Don’t
forget to do stretching exercises before and after the aerobic activity.
Start with anaerobic exercises gradually increasing the intensity over a period. You can,
however, do most of these exercises at home.
You can even join a gym for a more well-planned anaerobic program. Once your gym
trainer has set a program, follow it at the gym, and then you could continue it at home.
Examples include
 Sit-ups
 Push-ups
 Pull-ups
 Squats
 Weight lifting and
 Sprinting
The anaerobic exercise targets a particular group of muscles during a workout. In addition,
being a strenuous exercise, it is always advisable to do some stretching before starting this
exercise workout.
These exercises must be accompanied by intervals of recovery periods. This will help to
replenish the depleted oxygen and build up the energy, which is spent during this anaerobic
activity.
When starting on with this type of exercise, you should always start gradually with time and
intensity. Initially, exercise periods should be short and you should gradually build up the
intensity.
 Do not hold your breath but breathe rhythmically. Learn how to breathe during this exercise.
This will help prevent injury.
Types of anaerobic exercises
There are three types of anaerobic exercises:
1. Isotonic
2. Isometric
3. Calisthenics
Isotonic exercises
Isotonic exercises are designed for specific muscles. They put the muscles through a full
range of motion against resistance causing the muscle length to change. These exercises
also include mobilization of those muscle joints.
Examples include weight lifting with dumbbells, using resistance springs or bands, pushups,
squats, sit-ups, and curls.  The resistance or tension remains constant so that equal muscle
force is maintained throughout the exercise.
Isometric exercises
During isometric exercise, on the other hand, the muscles contract, there is no change in
muscle length and the joints are not put through motion. Secondly, the resistance is
immovable such as a wall.
This exercise increases the strength of the muscle or the muscle group that you exercise.
Examples include carrying a heavy object or pushing against a wall with force or holding up
your body with hands extended during a push up for 8 to 10 seconds and then repeating it.
Calisthenics
These are exercises, which consist of rhythmical movements usually without the use of any
equipment.  In calisthenics, bodyweight is used as a resistance force. Examples include
jumping, bending, kicking, and twisting. They increase muscle strength, cardiovascular
fitness, agility, and coordination.
Health benefits of anaerobic exercises
Having discussed the benefits of exercise in general, here we dwell on the specific benefits
and advantages that regular anaerobic exercise provides.
Athletes regularly indulge in anaerobic exercise to improve performance. Non-athletes too
can benefit from this type of training.
High-level training can increase your anaerobic threshold allowing you to work at a harder
intensity for a longer period. It also helps to prevent weight gain because you burn more
calories.
1) Prevents certain health conditions
Regular anaerobic exercise helps to prevent diabetes type 2, cardiovascular
disease, arthritis, back pain.
2) Builds muscle and bone strength
A sedentary life results in loss of lean muscle as early as during the ages of 20’s. Regular
anaerobic physical activity builds up the strength and mass of the muscle giving your body a
better appearance. It also increases bone density and thereby your bony strength. This
helps prevent osteoporosis that you commonly see with advanced age.
3) Boosts Metabolism
An increase in lean muscle increases your metabolic rate. A heightened metabolism keeps
your overall health good and prevents weakness.
Proper digestion is assured and gastrointestinal problems like constipation and indigestion
are prevented. Lifting weights can boost your metabolism by about 15%.
4) Decreases body fat
The more your metabolic rate, the more calories you burn because the energy for
metabolism is derived by the burning of calories. This reduces your body fat.
4) Better personality
This exercise is the most effective way to build muscle. The increased muscle mass gives
your body a better look, enhances your personality, increases self-esteem and you feel
more self-confident.
5) Makes a better sportsman and athlete
Anaerobic exercise increases your endurance and your energy reserves. Your stamina
increases, which improves your performance in competitive sports and games.
This is because anaerobic exercise increases your capacity to tolerate the building up of
wastes such as lactic acid in your body and getting rid of them.
This is an important factor in building up your stamina. This improves your cardio respiratory
fitness and performance.
6) Improves VO2 max
Regular anaerobic training improves your VO2 max.  VO2 max is the highest volume of
oxygen you can consume while exercising at maximal capacity.  This improves your
capacity to perform sustained aerobic activity.

Aerobic Exercise Definition, Examples, Lasting

Benefits
by Dr. Sanjiv Khanse | Fitness
What is Aerobic Exercise? Definition
Aerobic exercise is sustained and rhythmic physical activity of a relatively low to moderate
intensity involving a large group of muscles for a prolonged duration.
This exercise is also referred to as cardiovascular exercise or just “cardio” because it
improves pulmonary and cardiovascular function and blood flow throughout the body.
This type of exercise bestows the best benefits on the body besides being the most
effective exercise for weight loss, to lose belly fat, and to control health conditions such
as hypertension, diabetes, and more.
 There are varieties of these exercises that are effective and which you can do at home
without having to go to a gym. A whole list explains them and some more for which you may
have to venture outdoors.
It is recommended that you warm-up, cool-down and do some stretching exercises before
and after your aerobic exercise session.
What happens when you do aerobic exercise? Why is
it so-called?
The word “aerobic” means: requiring oxygen (air) or depending on oxygen. In this type of
exercise, you repeatedly move the large group of muscles of your arms, legs, and hips such
as in running or swimming. This exercise is performed with moderate intensity over a long
period.
For example, you run for a long time, which qualifies as an aerobic activity, while you sprint
over a short time, which therefore does not qualify as an aerobic activity but classifies into
the anaerobic type.
As the aerobic exercise progresses, you start breathing faster and more deeply. Your body
depends on that oxygen, which you breathe in for energy to perform these aerobic
exercises.
You take in more oxygen, which enriches your blood and this gets carried to all parts of the
body including the minutest of body cells. The word “aerobic” refers to the use of oxygen to
meet the additional demand of the body during aerobic exercises.
Examples (list) of aerobic exercises for men and
women at home and outdoors
Aerobic exercises can be done indoor at home or in a gym and outdoors.
The following is the list of aerobic exercises and you can always switch from one to another
if you get particularly bored with doing just one type of exercise.
You could even combine these aerobic exercises in your daily exercise routine, doing either
two or three of them, which you enjoy.
Some you can do at home, while for some you will have to visit the gym or the boat club.
Aerobic exercises you can do at home or at the health club
(gym):
 Jump rope
 Aerobic dancing
 Stair climbing
 Step aerobics – stepping to the music
 Aerobic DVDs – aerobic dancing to DVD music
 Circuit training
Aerobic exercise you can do at the boat club:
 Skiing
 Rowing
 Swimming
 Aerobic exercises you can do outdoors
 Walking
 Jogging
 Running
 Biking
Aerobics you can do at the martial art studio
 Kickboxing
 Best Aerobic Exercise
People often question: Which is the best aerobic exercise?
You or anyone for that matter cannot pinpoint any particular aerobic exercise to be the best.
All of them bestow benefits that are similar.
Just choose the exercise, which suits you and which you enjoy. This will help you stay at it
consistently and you will perform the exercise every day which will give the best benefits.
Changes in the body during aerobic exercise
During aerobic physical activity, you breathe in faster and more deeply enriching your blood
with more oxygen.
Your heart beats more rapidly thereby increasing blood flow through the now-widened blood
vessels to all parts of the body including the minute body cells. Wastes such as carbon
dioxide and lactic acid are also carried away more efficiently.
Regular aerobic activity improves the strength and functioning of the heart and lungs as
these organs get more developed because they have to work more during these workouts.
Your body also releases endorphins when you exercise, which gives a feeling of well-being.
How much and how often should you do aerobic
exercise?
How often should you do aerobic exercise workouts? Here are two recommendations for
this query.
1) The Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health (United States)
recommends that all adults should accumulate 30 minutes of moderate-intensive activity on
most, if not all days of the week.  What this means is that these minutes of aerobic activity
need not be done at one sitting but can be spaced out throughout the day in two or three
sessions.
2) The American College of Sports Medicine recommends 20-60 minutes of continuous
aerobic activity three to five times a week, at 60%-90% of maximum heart rate, and two to
three days of resistance training. This means that activities such as swimming, walking,
running, dancing should be done in one session.
Both these recommendations will give good results and you could follow anyone, which
suits you. But, the fact remains that to derive more benefits, you require to be more active –
whether it is longer less frequent workouts or shorter more frequent ones.
Benefits of aerobic exercise
The functions and the benefits of regular aerobic exercise on the body are multi-systemic,
meaning; they have a positive health effect on the many systems of our body.
Improves cardiovascular condition and function
The term “cardiovascular” means the heart (cardio) and the network of blood vessels
(vascular). Regular aerobic activity makes the cardiovascular system more efficient to carry
nutrients and oxygen to the various tissues of the body and remove carbon dioxide and
other wastes from them.
Improves lung capacity and function
Improved lung capacity leads to a better exchange of gases in the lungs and a richer supply
of oxygen to the organs and tissue of the body.
Lowers blood pressure
Regular aerobic exercise makes a strong heart, which then can pump more blood with a
lesser effort. When your heart has to work less the force of the blood being pumped out also
lessens thereby lowering your blood pressure.
According to the American Heart Association (AHA), in normal non-hypertensive people,
regular exercise reduced systolic blood pressure by 3 to 5 mm of Hg and diastolic pressure
by 2 to 3 mm of Hg. In hypertensive people, the systolic pressure reduced by 7 mm of Hg,
while the diastolic by 5 mm of Hg.
Increases HDL the good cholesterol
Besides boosting the levels of High-Density Cholesterol (HDL), aerobic activities like brisk
walking increased HDL’s anti-inflammatory activity.
Helps to better control blood sugar
When you exercise, your heart beats faster and you breathe more rapidly to fulfill the
requirement of your body muscles that are being exercised.
The body requires energy for any physical activity and it gets this energy by taking the
glucose from the blood and converting it into energy for the physical activity.
This is better facilitated because aerobic exercise increases insulin sensitivity so that the
cells of the muscles are better able to uptake the glucose from the blood.
This is how regular aerobic exercise can help control your excess blood sugar.
Help in weight loss and weight maintenance
Daily aerobic workouts burn huge amounts of calories from your body. If done in an
intensive manner, aerobics can burn more calories than any other type of exercise in one
session.
To maintain weight, calories burnt must equal calorie intake. To lose weight, you must burn
more calories than you consume.
You need to burn a certain amount of calories to knock off one pound of body weight.
Regular aerobic activity decreases the risk of heart disease
As mentioned above, regular aerobic exercise controls as well as reduces the risk of many
comorbidities that include high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and more.
It improves lung function thereby providing your body organs including the heart and tissues
with better oxygen circulation.
It improves your lipid profile by improving your HDL (good cholesterol) levels and flushing
out the LDL (bad cholesterol) artery-clogging cholesterol out of your system. This helps to
maintain clear flowing blood vessels and good blood circulation to all parts of the body
including the heart.
It improves cardiovascular condition and function, keeps your heart healthy, and reduces
the risk of heart attack and other heart conditions.
Benefits on the brain
By maintaining a good oxygen-rich circulation to the brain through a healthier heart and
better lung function, regular endurance aerobic activity improves brain health, enhances
cognitive performance, and significantly reduces the risk of developing dementia.
It also helps to reduce the symptoms of depression and anxiety if they are present.