Aerobic Exercise and Weight Loss

Typically, people will associate running, biking, swimming, walking, dancing and other
similar activities as aerobic. On the flipside, they refer to any weightlifting exercise as
being anaerobic. While this is true for the most part, what many people don’t understand
is that these very same activities can fall into each exercise category. What? How can that
be? Well, let me explain.

Whether a particular exercise is aerobic or anaerobic is dependent on the intensity of the
exercise. To use running as an example, if you were out on the road jogging at your usual
rate and doing this for your usual 30-45 minutes, you would be doing an aerobic exercise.
On the other, if you went out running sprints with the world record holder of the 200
meter dash, you will in all likelihood find yourself engaged in what could now be called an anaerobic exercise. You also will find it is somewhat physically more uncomfortable to do this type of exercise (this would be the understatement of the year). With anaerobic exercise (anaerobic means “without oxygen), you are out of breath within a very short period of time and you are unable to sustain the activity for more that a brief interval.

In contrast, an aerobic exercise is one which increases heart rate and breathing, but not so
much that you can’t keep going on with what you are doing for upwards to an hour or
more. Likewise, there are some “anaerobic” exercises that can be turned into aerobic
exercises by decreasing the intensity level and performing the exercise over a sustained
period of time.

As you can see, running, biking, swimming, and the other activities mentioned above are
all great aerobic activities and will lead to better fitness. I hope you also can see that these
same activities can quickly be turned into anaerobic exercises by simply increasing the
intensity. Keep in mind that if you are doing any kind of high intensity form of exercise,
pay careful attention to what you body is telling you and by all means, get a physical
before you engage in any kind of training like this.

The best exercise program for diabetics is a combination of aerobic exercise and resistance strength training.  A study conducted by the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Utah.  Fifteen diabetics participated in a four month training program in which one group received aerobic training only and another group doing eccentric resistance training in addition to the aerobic workouts.  Both groups made improvements in glucose control but the group doing the resistance training saw greater increases in BMI (Body Mass Index) and in leg strength.

This study reinforces the belief that diabetics should be including both workouts into their exercise programs.  The increased metabolism rate, protein reserve, functional mobility, and exercise tolerance produces overall health benefits that improve a diabetics ability to maintain optimum health.

Source:  Science Daily

Aerobic exercise should be a main part of almost everyone’s exercise regimen.
What exactly is aerobic exercise? Well, that is pretty simple actually. Anytime you
find yourself involved in a physical activity that gets you breathing harder , has your
heart beating faster, and your body sweating, for at least a few minutes, can be
classified as aerobic exercise. Just about any exercise that puts your heart, lungs
and muscles into a higher gear is an aerobic exercise and carry tremendous physical
and health benefits for you.

The nice thing about aerobic exercise is that it typically gets everything to working
hard. As you start exerting more effort and energy, your heart begins beating faster
and your body starts letting you know that it needs more oxygen to fuel what it is
doing. Your lungs of course are the supplier of oxygen. Taking air in (which by the
way is about 20% oxygen), the bronchioles carry that air to the alveoli, which are
tiny little grape-like sacs in the lungs where the oxygen enters the blood stream.
From there, if you will pardon the pun, it heads for the heart of the matter.

Because you are working harder, your heart needs an increased supply of oxygen
in order to meet the demands being made upon it. The heart basically uses what it
needs of the fresh supply it has just gotten from the lungs and passes the remainder
on for the rest of the body to use. How fast should your heart beat? Well, that
depends upon your age and your physical condition. But typically, it has been
recommended that in an aerobic exercise, you try to get your heart rate up to 80%
of it’s capacity. What that capacity is, again, dependent upon your age and you
over all state of physical health.

As far as our muscles are concerned, their job is to provide motion and carry out
whatever tasks you happen to be asking your body to do. Muscles are fueled by
fat and carbohydrates - it is their “gasoline”, so to speak. The remaining oxygen,
that the heart so generously passed along, is needed by the muscles to burn both
fats and carbohydrates for fuel to keep your engine running at the speed you need.

Now, if you keep it up and do some aerobic exercise on a consistent basis, what
happens is that the heart, lungs, and muscles become more efficient at using that
oxygen supply that they are getting. Pretty soon you start to realize that you are in
better shape, your muscles respond better, your not huffin’ and puffin’ like you were
in the beginning, and your body is starting feel like it is in shape. Hey, how about
that!! You start feeling a whole lot better about yourself and life looks grand.
Simple isn’t it.