Drug Medical Information

MAKING THE RIGHT EXERCISE CHOICES: AEROBIC CHOICES

The ideal, complete exercise program should have four components: aerobics, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility. The aerobic component will provide the health-related benefits in addition to controlling and maintaining body weight and fat. A sound weight-training program will improve muscle tone, strength, and endurance; prevent the loss of lean muscle mass; add muscle mass; and help control body weight and fat by increasing metabolism. Stretching exercises will help maintain and improve your range of motion and prevent joint stiffness.
Aerobic Choices
It is important to select a program that is effective in developing the cardiorespiratory system and is compatible with your training objectives, amount of time available, and interests. It is a good idea to sample different approaches to help you find activities you enjoy for use in cross training later.
As you are now aware, the term aerobic means with oxygen and describes extended vigorous exercise that stimulates heart and lung activity enough to produce a training effect. This occurs when your target heart rate is reached and maintained at that level for 20 minutes or more. Many sports are more anaerobic than aerobic and fail to improve heart-lung endurance or provide the health benefits you desire.
Anaerobic means without oxygen and describes short, all-out exercise efforts such as the 100-, 200-, or 400-meter dash and sports such as football and baseball. Anaerobic metabolism is the immediate energy source of all muscle work at the beginning of any type of exercise. This energy source, called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), is formed in the muscles primarily through the metabolism of carbohydrates. Every muscle needs ATP to perform its work. The process is anaerobic because ATP is metabolized without the need for oxygen. For short sprints and all-out efforts, the heart and lungs cannot deliver atmospheric oxygen to the muscles fast enough; anaerobic energy sources therefore must provide the fuel. The very instant that the amount of oxygen breathed in is not enough to supply active muscles, oxygen debt occurs and you begin to breathe heavily. After you stop exercising, oxygen debt is repaid and normal breathing returns. Unfortunately, anaerobic activities cannot be sustained for long periods of time, burn fewer calories, and fail to provide some important health benefits. It is difficult to improve your aerobic fitness through mere participation in a sport, and we recommend that you supplement such participation with a minimum of two aerobic workouts weekly.
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