Get to know anaerobic fitness
You may be asking yourself, what in the world is Anaerobic exercise? It’s not an extremely common phrase so you may not have come across it just yet. To explain it simply, when we exercise we use two different forms of energy, one from oxygen, which is Aerobic exercise and one from breaking down glucose in our muscles, which is Anaerobic.
What is the difference between Anaerobic and Aerobic Exercise?
To explain it in clearer terms, when we do Aerobic exercise we’re producing energy using a supply of oxygen, this can look like cardio exercises like light jogging or cycling. It’s at an intensity level that your body can sustain without any other source of energy besides oxygen.
But when we turn up the intensity and the pace of our workouts our body demands more energy than can be supplied by oxygen alone, and this is where it starts to break down energy sources that are stored in our muscles. This can look like HIIT workouts, strength training and weight lifting or sprinting.
Benefits of Anaerobic workouts?
Working out in this way sounds strenuous right? It is and for this reason, it can really offer you a large number of fitness and health benefits including:
Increased strength
Better metabolism
Burns fat
Increased bone density and strength
Increased muscle development
Workouts
Let’s go over a few Anaerobic exercises you can look to integrate into your workout schedule.
Sprints
The rules are simple, go all out, at full speed for a short duration of time. You can choose a number of different types of sprints like running, cycling, or even swimming.
Weight training
With these workouts, load the bar with a comfortably hard weight and push yourself for a set period of time, a good starting point is 60 seconds. You could do squats or bench presses, but whatever you decide to do ensure you maintain form.
Plyometrics
These workouts are really going to work on building your power and getting your heart rate up. Some polymetric workouts you can try to build your anaerobic fitness could include box jumps, lunge jumps, or squat jumps.
Given the intensity of these workouts ensure you warm up before getting stuck into anaerobic work and make sure you allow yourself plenty of time to recover properly.
