Aerobic vs Anaerobic Sports, Which Is Better?

Medical Video: AEROBIC vs ANAEROBIC DIFFERENCE

Exercise is an important habit to maintain overall body health and maintain a normal body weight. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, exercise has various benefits for the body, such as reducing the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, certain types of cancer, increasing muscle and bone strength, improving mental health and maintaining moods, reducing the risk of depression, and slow down the aging process.

Maybe you often hear aerobic exercise, but have you heard of anaerobic exercise? What's different from aerobics with anaerobic? Do both have the same benefits and effects for body health?

What is aerobic exercise?

Aerobic exercise that has been known by most people is that sports are held indoors, doing gymnastic movements, or even using sports equipment. But actually aerobic exercise is defined as a sport that requires a lot of oxygen and involves many large muscles. This type of exercise is carried out in low intensity and over a period of time.

Every physical activity, the body will form energy to be used as energy. When we do aerobic exercise, most of the body uses glycogen or muscle sugar and fat reserves as the basic ingredients of energy formation. This type of exercise is good for losing weight and maintaining heart health. Therefore, aerobic exercise is highly recommended for people who are overweight. By doing aerobic exercise, you can also reduce fat levels in the body, prevent you from experiencing stress, and reduce various risks of degenerative diseases.

This type of aerobic exercise is a sport that is comfortable to do, without making it difficult for you to breathe, such as walking, swimming, dancing, and cycling. Each type of aerobic exercise has a different duration. But the Cleveland Clinic recommends doing moderate intensity aerobic exercise, which is carried out for 30 minutes every day of the week.

What is Anaerobic Exercise?

In anaerobic conditions, the body does not use oxygen in the process of forming energy. Unlike aerobic exercise that uses almost all the muscles in the body, anaerobic exercise aims to strengthen certain muscle parts. The main fuel used to produce energy when doing anaerobic exercise is sugar in muscles or glycogen. Glycogen will run out about 2 hours after use.

During this exercise, the body will produce lactic acid, which is the result of burning glycogen into energy. Lactic acid, which is quite high in the body, can cause muscle cramps and excessive fatigue. Therefore, anaerobic exercise is only done in a short time to avoid any disruption of bodily functions that may arise.

If aerobic exercise is done to lose weight, then this anaerobic exercise serves to maintain body weight and form muscle mass. Actually, more calories will be burned by the body if the body has more muscle mass, therefore by doing anaerobic exercise more calories can be burned. Besides this exercise is also useful to train muscle and bone strength and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

The Cleveland Clinic recommends doing anaerobic exercise at least once or twice a week. Once you practice you can start by lifting a light weight by doing it repeatedly 12 to 20 times. Another type of anaerobic exercise is running sprint because it requires a lot of energy and causes fatigue after doing it.

Then, which sport should I choose?

First determine what your main goals and targets are. If you have excess weight or are obese, it's best to do aerobic exercise first. After you slowly lose weight, you must maintain weight and increase muscle and bone strength. This is what you get when you do anaerobic exercise. As for maximum results and maintaining health, you can combine aerobic exercise with anaerobic exercise.