The concept of aerobic and anaerobic resistance refers to the two types of effort that human beings are capable of: light intensity over a long period (such as a marathon), or high intensity in a short time (such as a sprint ).
If you practice sports, you are interested in knowing what the differences are between aerobic and anaerobic exercises, what benefits they bring to your health, and how you can measure your resistance for both types. Prepared? Let's go there!
Take care of your health with the right exercise for you
Exercise is key to enjoying good health, however, if we want to obtain all the benefits of its practice as well as avoid the appearance of injuries, we must adapt it to our personal characteristics, taking into account factors such as age, physical form or the presence of any disease.
Sports are classified into two large groups according to the type of force working: of aerobic and anaerobic endurance. The former is of the dynamic type and the latter is static or force. In the next section, we explain in detail what each type consists of, and what advantages they provide.
Difference between aerobic and anaerobic endurance sports
Aerobic-type exercise is commonly known as "cardio. " The sports that are included in this category are characterized by being of medium or low intensity and of long duration, such as running, swimming, cycling, or hiking.
When practiced, the body obtains the necessary energy from the burning of carbohydrates and fats, a process for which it needs oxygen. Hence the name of this type of exercise, because "aerobic" means "with oxygen." They are very beneficial for the cardiovascular system and suitable for weight loss.
In anaerobic exercise, also known as strength exercise, oxygen is not needed to obtain energy, since it comes from immediate sources such as glucose, muscle ATP (adenosine triphosphate), or PCR (creatine phosphate). Examples of “anaerobic” type exercises are all those that require intense effort in a short time, such as weightlifting or sprinting. These sports improve muscle and bone toning.
What do different types of exercise give me?
Aerobic and anaerobic sports provide different benefits to the body.
In aerobic sports, there is a great demand for oxygen in the blood, for this reason, our heart rate increases and we breathe faster and more deeply. Among the many advantages of aerobic sport are:
• Generalized improvement in physical conditions: they increase endurance and strength in the long term.
• Weight loss: due to the burning of fats and carbohydrates that takes place during your practice.
• Improvement of the immune system: performing moderate aerobic exercise activates both the immediate immune response, the body's first defense against external agents, and the adaptive response that is stimulated after contact with infectious agents to combat reinfections in a specific way.
• They help prevent metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular risk, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes.
• Heart Strengthening - A stronger heart beats slower and pumps blood more efficiently.
• Improves cholesterol: aerobic exercise increases what we know as ““ good ”cholesterol (HDL) and reduces the“ bad ”(LDL).
• Mood improvement: aerobic exercise encourages relaxation and improves sleep quality. In addition, in older people, it also helps protect memory and cognitive functions.
As for anaerobic exercise, which, as we have explained, consists of intense and short-term sports, it provides the following advantages:
• Increase in basal metabolism, that is, in the consumption of calories at rest. This is because the increase in muscle mass leads to greater energy expenditure, both when exercising and when not.
• Strengthening the bones: anaerobic resistance exercises are key to strengthening bones, which is why it is important to practice them after menopause, as they help prevent osteoporosis.
• Prevention of osteoarthritis: strengthened muscles better protect joints.
• Increased insulin sensitivity: this type of exercise helps cells respond appropriately to insulin, this improves blood glucose control, which is why it is very beneficial for people suffering from diabetes, especially type II.
• Improved quality of life: increasing muscle strength has benefits that favor the performance of everyday activities such as climbing stairs, lifting weights, walking, or holding your children. In general, you will have more energy to face your day-to-day.
• Injury prevention: the greater our muscle mass, the more work capacity and resistance it will have, being less likely contractures or sprains. If, for example, the muscles of the abdomen and lower back (core) are strengthened, the hips and spine maintain posture and balance much better, protecting the back from injury.
How is aerobic and anaerobic endurance measured?
Aerobic capacity
To measure aerobic capacity, VO 2 max must be determined, which is nothing more than the maximum amount of oxygen that a person's body can process during exercise.
VO 2 max is expressed as follows: ml/kg/min, that is, in milliliters of oxygen per body kilogram per minute. In general, the higher the VO 2 max, the more capacity you will have for tests lasting more than 4 or 5 minutes. Elite athletes usually have values between 70/80 ml/kg/min, while those of the general population are between 40-50 ml/kg/min with a margin of improvement of between 15 to 20%. To give some examples, Miguel Indurain had a VO 2 max of 88 ml/kg / min, Egan Bernal (winner of the 2019 Tour de France), 88.8 ml/kg/min, and Michael Phelps or Kilian Jornet reached 90 ml / Kg/min.
When a person performs exercises that exceed their maximum capacity to process oxygen, lactic acid is generated, which causes a decrease in the athlete's performance.
Anaerobic capacity
The Wingate test is used to measure anaerobic capacity. This test, which is normally done on an exercise bike, was created in the 70s and has since had several modifications and protocols. However, there are agreed guidelines on the following aspects:
• Duration of 30 seconds.
• Execution of all-out character: that is, the exercise must be carried out with maximum effort from the first moment to the end of the test.
• The load or force to overcome must be according to the weight of the individual.
In short, the athlete must make a maximum effort in 30 seconds, appropriate to their body weight.
The Wingate test allows you to measure:
• Maximum power: normally reached between 3 and 5 seconds after starting the test.
• Minimum power: it is recorded at the end of the test.
• Average power: it is the average of all the values during the 30 seconds that the test lasts.
• Fatigue index: this value, which is expressed in%, is the difference in power between the maximum (at the beginning of the test) and the minimum (at the end of the test) obtained. In other words, it indicates as a percentage the degree of power drop during the test.
All these metrics are expressed in an absolute way, according to the weight of the athlete and according to their muscle mass.
Genetic test to know which sport is best for you
Did you know that the predisposition to be better in endurance (aerobic) or strength (anaerobic) sports have a lot to do with your genes? Certain variations in your DNA may be related to greater ease in performing one type of exercise or another. In addition, genes can also make you more susceptible to more or fewer ligament injuries.
Today we have genetic tests such as the Veritas myGenome test that give you a lot of relevant information about your health in areas as important in the practice of sport as cardiovascular health, to be able to practice sports more safely. myGenome also provides information that can help us understand our genes better and make us more susceptible to injury or perform a certain type of exercise more effectively, so that we can reinforce or prioritize certain exercises.
In any case, and by way of conclusion, always taking into account the objectives to be achieved and the specific situation of the person, it is appropriate that you practice both aerobic and anaerobic exercises, since the benefits they bring to your body are different and complementary, and both are part of the foundation of good health.
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