You probably already know that to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable fashion, you need both cardiovascular and strength training in your routine. But do you need both aerobic and anaerobic workouts to hit your goal? FitClub breaks down the science and explains why both workouts have a special place in your weight loss journey.
Remembering the difference between the two types of cardio workouts is as easy as breathing. Literally. An aerobic workout is one that you can maintain for a long period of time and breathe relatively easily. Your body is making energy with oxygen. For example, an easy cruise on the elliptical machine, a walk on the treadmill, even a steady run at a pace slow enough to hold a basic conversation are all aerobic workouts. Even if you breathe slightly faster than normal or have trouble saying more than a few sentences at a time, you can breathe. Anaerobic exercise is the opposite. You can expect to be very out of breath and your body is creating energy without oxygen. These are exercises you can do only for a very short amount of time without rest. HIIT classes, for example, are anaerobic workouts. When you work out as hard as you possibly can for twenty to forty seconds before desperately needing that ten second break you are in an anaerobic workout.
What do you need to hit your weight loss goals? Aerobic or anaerobic?
You probably already know that at a place as all encompassing as FitClub the answer is both! You can’t lose weight and keep it off without keeping both types of cardiovascular workouts in your schedule. Aerobic exercise burns fat, improves your heart function, and can even improve the way your body gets and holds oxygen. These exercises are great for building a fitness base and improving your overall health. It’s when you need to bust through a plateau or burn more calories more quickly (and who doesn’t need that?) that you want to start incorporating anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise helps you build muscle, which burns more calories even when your workout is over.
In short, aerobic exercise burns calories and improves your health making it easier to exercise more often, more intensely and for longer periods. Anaerobic exercise burns more calories and builds muscle which helps your body continue to burn more calories. Sounds like the perfect combination.
Fortunately, FitClub has everything you need to knock out both types of workouts conveniently. You can even modify your existing aerobic workouts to add anaerobic exercise by throwing in short bursts of intense speed or intensity. Adding twenty to thirty second all-out sprints or a steep incline to your treadmill run, for example, combines both aerobic and anaerobic workouts in one session. Have you tried a CycleFit class? This class uses the same concept with periods of rest and steady state cardio interspersed with periods of all out, sweat-producing burn for the anaerobic effect.
