Get Moving with Aerobic Exercise: Definition, Benefits, and Tips

Get Moving with Aerobic Exercise: Definition, Benefits, and Tips

Aerobic exercise provides a host of health benefits, from improving cardiovascular health to managing diabetes. But what exactly is aerobic exercise? And how much should you aim to do each week? This comprehensive guide defines aerobic exercise, details its many benefits, and offers tips to safely get started.

What Is Aerobic Exercise?

Aerobic exercise is any sustained activity that uses large muscle groups and challenges your heart and lungs. As you engage in rhythmic, continuous movement, your breathing and heart rate increase. However, the activity isn’t so intense that you can’t carry on a conversation.

During aerobic activity, your body takes in extra oxygen to fuel your working muscles. “Aerobic” means “with oxygen,” so these types of workouts depend on ample oxygen availability. Examples of aerobic exercise include walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing, and playing sports like basketball or tennis.

On the other hand, “anaerobic” exercise is fueled by energy sources that don’t require oxygen. Weight training, sprinting, and plyometrics are anaerobic activities. They involve quick bursts of intense effort, causing you to quickly become winded.

Types of Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic workouts span a range of intensities, allowing you to tailor your training to your fitness level:

• Low-intensity: Approximately 60-70% of maximum heart rate. You can carry on a full conversation.
• Moderate-intensity: Approximately 70-80% of maximum heart rate. You can talk but not sing.
• High-intensity: Approximately 80-90% of maximum heart rate. You can say a few words before needing to take a breath.

Popular Aerobic Activities

From cycling to dancing, many types of exercise can provide an aerobic workout if performed at the right intensity. Popular options include:

• Cycling/spinning: Ride a bike outdoors or take indoor spinning classes. Cycling works your glutes, quads, hamstrings, and core.
• Dancing: Try high-energy styles like hip hop, jazz, Zumba, or aerobic dance classes to torch calories while having fun. Dancing builds coordination, balance, and flexibility.
• Jogging/running: On trails or treadmills, running is a go-to cardio workout that strengthens lower-body muscles. Build up your endurance with regular jogs.
• Racquet sports: Tennis, badminton, squash, and racquetball require constant movement and swinging, providing great aerobic conditioning. They build hand-eye coordination and fast reaction times.
• Step aerobics: Step up and down on a bench to high-energy music in this classic cardio class. Step aerobics sculpts legs, glutes, and core.
• Swimming: Doing laps in the pool works nearly all muscles for a total-body workout. The water provides gentle resistance too. Swimming boosts endurance, flexibility, and lung capacity.
• Walking/hiking: Among the simplest yet effective forms of aerobic exercise, walking briskly or hiking uphill delivers cardiovascular and muscular conditioning. Increase inclines or speeds to reach target heart rates.

Sample At-Home Aerobic Routine

Don't want to leave the house? No problem! This 30-minute living room workout delivers an effective aerobic challenge using just bodyweight exercises:

Warm-up

• High knees - 30 seconds
• Butt kickers - 30 seconds
• Jumping jacks - 1 minute

Workout Circuit (Repeat for 5 rounds)

• Mountain climbers - 30 seconds
• Walking lunges - 30 seconds per leg
• Squats - 30 seconds
• High skips - 30 seconds
• Lateral hops - 30 seconds per side
• Push-ups - 30 seconds

Minimal rest between exercises. Work at a moderate intensity, breathing heavily but able to speak in short phrases.

Cool-down

• Calf raises - 30 seconds
• Quad stretches - 30 seconds per leg
• Shoulder rolls - 1 minute

Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

Regular aerobic workouts (at least 150 minutes per week) deliver remarkable perks:

• Improved cardiovascular health: Aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure, cholesterol, and resting heart rate while increasing stroke volume and oxygen uptake. Your heart grows stronger and more efficient.
• Weight/fat loss: The combination of elevated heart rate and using large muscle groups burns major calories. Regular aerobic workouts are extremely effective for shedding excess body fat.
• Better blood sugar regulation: Aerobic training helps your body use insulin more effectively, controlling blood glucose levels. This effect helps manage and prevent type 2 diabetes.
• Reduced disease risk: Aerobic fitness protects against obesity, heart disease, certain cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and premature death from all causes. What a profound preventative effect!
• Increased longevity: Studies confirm that aerobically active people live several years longer on average than sedentary peers. The fountain-of-youth benefits relate to better circulation, organ function, hormone balance, and lowered inflammation.
• Improved cognitive abilities: Aerobic exercise benefits brainpower too! Regular workouts sharpen focus, elevate mood, boost memory, and enhance learning. The brain loves oxygen!

This list just skims the surface when it comes to why aerobic exercise is so vital for health. Don’t underestimate the power of elevating your heart rate a few times a week!

Is Aerobic Exercise Safe? Considerations

Aerobic exercise is very safe for most healthy adults. However, some people should check with a doctor before significantly intensifying activity levels, including:

• Those with heart conditions or other chronic diseases
• Pregnant women
• People who are very overweight or obese
• Smokers
• Older adults who are sedentary

When amping up your workouts, begin slowly and build duration gradually. This allows your cardiovascular system to adapt without overly straining.

Further safety tips:

• Warm up and cool down for 5-10 minutes
• Stay hydrated and fuel up appropriately
• Listen to warning signs from your body and avoid overexertion
• Choose activities you enjoy and can sustain rhythmically
• Exercise with a partner for motivation and safety

Getting Started with Aerobic Exercise

If you currently live a sedentary lifestyle, aerobic exercise will dramatically elevate your health and wellbeing. But where to begin? Use these steps to establish an enjoyable, sustainable fitness habit:

1. Assess your current activity level

Determine how much aerobic exercise you currently perform, if any. Be honest! This benchmark allows you to track meaningful progress.

2. Set SMART goals

Let the CDC’s recommendation of 150 weekly minutes of moderate activity guide your goal-setting. Applying the SMART formula, strive for goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

For example: “I will walk briskly for 30 minutes, 5 days per week for the next 3 months.”

3. Start slow

When beginning an aerobic workout regimen, allow your body time to adapt to the new demands. Start with lighter intensity for shorter durations and increase gradually. Doing too much too soon raises injury risk.

4. Schedule workouts

Treat exercise appointments with the same importance as other commitments by pre-planning sessions in your calendar. This strategy vastly increases follow-through.

5. Form new habits

Habits require repetition to cement. After 6-8 weeks of consistent aerobic training, it will start to feel automatic. Help the process by exercising at the same time daily.

Aerobic exercise promotes healthy aging, disease prevention, and an energized lifestyle. Reap the rewards by making regular, rhythmic movement a lifelong habit!

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I do aerobic exercise? Aim for 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, which breaks down to 30 minutes of activity 5 days per week. Or you can perform 75 minutes of vigorous activity spread over 3 days.

What’s the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise? Aerobic exercise is lower intensity, allowing usage of oxygen for energy. You can sustain the activity for a prolonged time. Anaerobic exercise is fueled by systems not requiring oxygen, so you quickly accumulate lactate acid and have to stop.

How can I measure workout intensity? Use the “talk test” to gauge intensity level. During moderate exercise, you should be able to carry on a conversation. Vigorous exercise only enables speaking a few words before needing to catch your breath. Heart rate monitors also provide helpful feedback.