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Aerobic Exercise - What It Is 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. Next Article: Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Exercise |