During sports sessions, we often hear the terms “aerobic” and “anaerobic” without really knowing what they mean.
In this article you will understand their differences and how it affects your breathing, muscles and metabolism and how to maintain your tolerance threshold in either form of exercise.
AEROBIC EXERCISE
Aerobic training is a low-intensity type of exercise that can be sustained for an extended period of time. It is very effective in developing your endurance and strengthening your heart and lungs.
To train within your aerobic threshold, you need to keep your heart rate in Zones 2 and 3 , which is around 60-80% of your maximum heart rate . The easiest way to do this is to use your Polar watch and use Target Zones.
ANAEROBIC EXERCISE
On the contrary, anaerobic training allows your body to produce energy with very little oxygen. This happens when we train at a high intensity for short bursts of exercise, pushing ourselves outside our comfort zone, making us feel like we’re ‘out of breath’. Anaerobic exercise is an excellent way to improve your physical condition in addition to developing your aerobic capacity
To train within your anaerobic threshold, you need to keep your heart rate in Zones 4 and 5 , which is around 80-90% of your maximum heart rate . Your Polar watch will tell you when you are in these zones and alert you when you start to fall back into zone 3.
AEROBIC VS ANAEROBIC RUNNING
Your breathing frequency and the intensity of the effort make it possible to differentiate between the different energies: aerobic and anaerobic.
By breathing, your body receives this oxygen and uses it to produce energy and fuel your muscles to keep functioning. It is also capable of evacuating waste products such as water and carbon dioxide with each exhalation.
Anaerobic training is illustrated during short, intense and difficult efforts. When we run anaerobically, our breathing is difficult to regulate, which creates an “oxygen debt” in our body.
Without the level of oxygen required to produce the level of energy needed, your muscles begin to break down sugar (glucose). This means that in addition to water and carbon dioxide, your body produces an additional waste product, lactic acid (used as fuel by the heart).
Unfortunately, lactic acid is much harder for your body to eliminate, especially without oxygen. Lactate therefore begins to build up, which makes our muscles feel like they are burning.
SO, WHAT TRAINING INTENSITY TO CHOOSE?
It depends on your goals. Anaerobic training is perfect for providing a short but intense effort, such as a sprint or interval training.
On the other hand, if you have a marathon as a goal, you have to mix the training sessions and work more on the aerobic exercises.
For long endurance races, like a marathon, you need to make sure you stay within your aerobic threshold most of the time. Learning to pace yourself is an essential part of running a successful marathon – and that’s where tracking your heart rate zones can help.
AEROBIC VS ANAEROBIC METABOLISM
Metabolism is the chemical process that takes place inside your body to allow your organs to function efficiently and therefore to keep you healthy. In other words, it’s how your body converts everything you eat and drink into energy .
When we exercise, we speed up our metabolism because our body is suddenly more demanding. We breathe faster, we sweat more and we increase our heart rate to allow our body to supply more nutrients to our muscles and to our circulatory and respiratory systems
It will transform the fats or sugars that you have been able to store into energy , to allow you to work on endurance and maintain a long effort for longer.
