Aerobic and anaerobic exercise – is one better than the other, or are they both important to reach your fitness goals? If you’re prioritizing your health, you may have come across these two terms. Understanding the difference between the two can transform the way you train and deliver distinct benefits.
Here’s a hint: neither one is superior, and complete fitness requires both in your routine; however, your goals will determine the exact right mix. Here’s what you need to know.
Understanding Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic exercise involves continuous, rhythmic movements that use oxygen to generate energy and burn carbohydrates and fats as fuel. It should be sustainable for extended periods, ranging from several minutes to hours.
Aerobic exercise is maintained at a moderate and steady-state intensity. Activities such as running or jogging, cycling, hiking, rowing, or swimming all count as aerobic movement.
During aerobic movement, your heart rate will elevate, but you should still be able to maintain conversation and breathe normally without exerting intensive effort. The more of this type of exercise you perform, the stronger your cardiovascular system will get over time. You’ll also enjoy benefits like stronger bones, longer-lasting endurance, controlled blood sugar, and lower blood pressure.
Understanding Anaerobic Exercise
Anaerobic exercise, on the other hand, involves short and intense bursts of activity that pull energy stored in the muscles. It does not require oxygen and instead uses a process called glycolysis to draw glucose from the muscles for energy.
These high-intensity bursts should only be sustainable for a few seconds to about two minutes. It should be too intense to maintain conversation and may require labored breathing. Any longer than that, and you’re likely transitioning into aerobic exercise.
One distinct feature of anaerobic exercise is the burning sensation you may feel in your muscles caused by a buildup of lactic acid. This should be a familiar feeling when sprinting, lifting heavy weights, performing high-intensity interval training (HIIT), or engaging in plyometrics such as jump squats.
Incorporating anaerobic exercise into your regimen helps build explosive power and strengthen the muscles.
Key Differences Between Aerobic and Anaerobic
What sets aerobic exercise apart from anaerobic exercise? It all comes down to their energy sources, duration, intensity, benefits, and recovery time.
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Energy Source: Aerobic uses oxygen to burn carbs and fats for energy, while anaerobic gets energy from stored glucose in the muscles without using oxygen.
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Intensity: Aerobic exercise involves moderate and sustainable efforts. On the other hand, anaerobic exercise requires your maximum effort and explosive movements. Think of it as the difference between steady state cardio (aerobic) and intervals (anaerobic).
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Duration: Aerobic movement should be sustainable for several minutes or even hours, but anaerobic exercise shouldn’t be sustainable for much longer than two minutes at a time.
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Primary Benefits: The primary benefits of aerobic exercise include improved cardiovascular endurance, increased calorie burn, and enhanced heart health. Anaerobic exercise provides you with improved power, speed, muscle strength, and a boost to your metabolism.
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Recovery: You’ll need minimal downtime between sessions of aerobic activity, but you will require a much longer recovery for anaerobic exercise due to the microtears created in your muscles and the resulting fatigue.
Health Benefits of Aerobic Exercise
These are the top advantages of incorporating aerobic exercise into your fitness routine.
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Heart Health: You will strengthen your heart muscles, which can lower your resting heart rate, reduce your blood pressure, and improve circulation. Overall, these benefits can significantly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
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Bone Health: Weight-bearing aerobic exercise can help maintain bone density, reducing your risk of developing osteoporosis and strengthening both your joints and connective tissue (tendons).
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Mood: Ever noticed how good you feel after an aerobic workout? That’s because it releases natural mood enhancers in the body called endorphins. It also reduces symptoms of anxiety or depression and relieves stress. The result is generally better mental well-being.
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Sleep: Aerobic workouts promote deeper and more restorative sleep, allowing you to wake up feeling more refreshed. It can also help you fall asleep more easily by regulating your internal circadian rhythm and reducing symptoms of insomnia. You’ll sleep longer and better, and feel the difference it makes during the day.
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Metabolic Health: Your metabolic health significantly impacts your blood sugar and weight levels, and engaging in aerobic activity can enhance your metabolism, helping to regulate blood sugar levels and maintain a healthy weight. It also improves insulin sensitivity and increases your overall calorie expenditure, which can help you lose or maintain your weight.
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Immune Health: When you regularly perform aerobic exercise, you strengthen your immune system’s function, reduce inflammation, and decrease the risk of chronic disease. You may even get minor illnesses less often!
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Longevity: Incorporating regular aerobic movement into one's lifestyle is associated with an increased lifespan. It reduces your all-cause mortality risk, slows down the aging process, and maintains longer functional independence.
4 Best Aerobic Exercises
Add these aerobic exercises to your routine and reap the incredible benefits.
Indoor Cycling
Indoor cycling on a stationary bike, such as the Speediance Velonix, is a low-impact cardio option ideal for a home workout. You can easily adjust the resistance and intensity, and it’s a good option for those who need to protect their joints. You can easily burn 400-600 calories per hour and find a guided workout that aligns with your fitness level.
Running or Jogging
Running or jogging either on a treadmill, road, or trail is a classic and easily accessible cardiovascular exercise. You need minimal equipment and can do it just about anywhere! You’ll also build leg strength and endurance while burning 600-800 calories per hour.
Swimming
Swimming is an amazing zero-impact cardio option that’s easy on the joints but recruits all major muscle groups. It’s also helpful for those looking to stay active while recovering from an injury.
Hiking
If the weather permits, hiking outdoors is excellent for both the body and mind, as it combines nature with physical activity. You can choose a terrain that suits you based on your coordination and balance, and scale it as you get stronger.
Explore the Health Benefits of Anaerobic Exercise
Anaerobic movement has a lot to offer as well!
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Muscle Mass: Increase your lean muscle tissue mass and fight against age-related muscle loss. You’ll improve your body composition and achieve a defined, toned physique.
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Strength: Anaerobic exercise helps you build functional strength for daily activities, making your everyday tasks easier. However, it also enhances your athletic performance, enabling you to lift heavier weights or push harder in your chosen specialty.
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Metabolism: You can boost your resting metabolic rate, even enjoying the benefits of calorie burn after your workout (the EPOC effect). By building muscle, you will burn more calories at rest, which helps with long-term weight management.
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Daily Stamina: Improve your energy levels throughout the day and reduce fatigue. The more you exercise, the more exercise you can do!
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Bone Density: Anaerobic movement stimulates bone formation and strength, protecting you against fractures as you age.
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Power and Endurance: You’ll develop explosive moment capabilities, faster speed, and better muscular endurance.
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Reduced Injury Risk: By strengthening your stabilizing muscles, you’ll enhance balance and coordination and protect against common injuries.
4 Best Anaerobic Exercises
Try out these anaerobic exercises to gain strength, endurance, and power.
Plyometric Exercises
Plyometrics are explosive movements that typically incorporate jumping, such as burpees, jump squats, or box jumps. They enhance fast-twitch muscle fibers and burn calories while building strength, requiring minimal equipment.
Heavy Weightlifting
Head to the gym or work out at home with the Speediance Gym Monster 2, which allows you to lift heavy weights through compound and isolated movements to maximize your strength and muscle gains. Using a progressive overload plan creates continuous improvement, and the machine’s digital weight adjustment allows for precise increments. It might be the only equipment needed for a home gym.
Resistance Training
Resistance training builds functional strength without weights, using resistance instead as an opposing force to challenge your muscles. You can use bands, cables, or even your body weight. The great thing about resistance training is that you can adjust the resistance to match your fitness level, and there’s a very low risk of injury because you’re using controlled movements.
HIIT
HIIT stands for high-intensity interval training and involves short, maximum-effort bursts of activity followed by brief periods of recovery. It’s a type of circuit training that combines the benefits of both aerobic and anaerobic training, maximizing calorie burn in a short period of time. You can adapt many exercises into a variation of HIIT training, such as cycling, running, or bodyweight movements. Simply make the movement harder and more intense for a short duration, and then recover before repeating.
How to Incorporate Aerobic & Anaerobic Training in Your Routine
To effectively incorporate both aerobic and anaerobic training into your routine, begin with a balanced and progressive approach. Aim for 2-3 days of aerobic exercise and 2-3 days of anaerobic exercise per week. Always allow your body at least one day per week for recovery, but listen to your body if it needs more recovery.
Start with shorter sessions, around 20-30 minutes each, and gradually increase the duration as your strength and stamina improve. For anaerobic training, consider using progressive overload to maintain improvements.
Your workout schedule might look like this: strength training (anaerobic) on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with Tuesday and Thursday reserved for cardio (aerobic), and rest days on Saturday and Sunday.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is It Better To Be Anaerobic or Aerobic?
Neither anaerobic nor aerobic is universally “better,” so it depends on your goals. Anaerobic exercise is best for building muscle, increasing power and strength, and boosting metabolism. Aerobic exercise is best for maintaining heart health, improving endurance, and sustaining calorie burn. You should ideally combine both for a comprehensive fitness regimen.
Which Burns Fat Faster, Aerobic or Anaerobic?
Aerobic exercise burns more fat during the workout, while anaerobic exercise burns more calories after the workout through excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). In the long term, anaerobic may have a slight advantage over aerobic due to its metabolic effects.
Is 3 Minutes Aerobic or Anaerobic?
Whether an exercise is aerobic or anaerobic depends on more than just the duration. It also depends on intensity. If you can sustain something for a full three minutes, it’s most likely aerobic. A low to moderate intensity for three minutes is aerobic, while a high-intensity or all-out effort for three minutes starts as anaerobic and likely transitions to aerobic.
Speediance Home Gym Equipment for Aerobic and Anaerobic Workouts
Combining both exercise types (aerobic and anaerobic) will give you the best health and fitness results. Many of these exercises can be done at the gym or at home with minimal equipment. Still, if you’re interested in enhancing your home gym setup, you can achieve a complete home fitness solution with help from Speediance. The Speediance Gym Monster 2 is an all-in-one strength training machine complete with digital resistance cables, while the Velonix stationary bike allows you to cruise through various terrains and workouts by selecting from our wide range of pre-made classes. Think of it as an investment in your entire family’s long-term health.
