Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Exercise

Typically, people will associate running, biking, swimming, walking, dancing and other

similar activities as aerobic. On the flip side, 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 no 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.