What are the Benefits of Aerobic Exercise?

Exercise can be broken down into two categories: aerobic and anaerobic. These differ in the ways in which your muscles contract during the exercise and how energy is generated within the muscles. Examples of anaerobic exercises include weight training or strength training, and with aerobic exercises, even the well-built bodybuilder will not be able to run, swim, etc for long periods of time.

Aerobic exercises have many benefits. The word aerobic means 'with oxygen', when you are performing aerobic exercises your body increases the blood and oxygen supply. This improves your body muscles condition and you are operating at a much faster rate.

Aerobic exercises prevent certain type of cancers, increase the quality or your sleep, improves cholesterol level and reduces fat on your body. Always keep this rule in mind that when you are planning to start an exercise always do some warm ups. This will prevent you from any injury that may occur later one. Spend at least 10 minutes for warming up before starting the exercise.

Exercising helps you achieve or maintain a healthy weight by utilizing and burning the extra calories. And if you exercise, your body works harder and needs more fuel. Even after you stop exercising, your body continues to burn calories at a modestly increased rate for a few hours. The more intensely you workout, the more calories you burn. By burning more calories than you take in, you can reduce body fat, giving you a healthier body composition. Losing body fat can make you look and feel better and can reduce your risk of obesity.

Fat burners, diet pills, nutritional supplements – you know who gets the most out of these products? The manufacturers and sellers. Some of this stuff is extracted from foods and has a role in nutrition, but it’s not a substitute for eating right. And much of the “miracle” drugs you see advertised are exceedingly dangerous to you. Don’t believe me? The next time you see an advertisement in a weight loss magazine for one of these “miracle” products – or if you see a commercial on TV for one – read or listen to the disclaimers and warnings that accompany these ads. A lot of this stuff is dangerous and it has no place in a healthy, permanent weight loss and fitness lifestyle.

The benefit of cardiovascular exercise increases as the time you put into it increases. In fact, the time factor is more important than the intensity. Studies carried out have shown that the body does not start to use fat stores until you have done your exercise for between 25 to 30 minutes during an exercise session. Increasing intensity will cause your body to burn glycogen rather than stored fat.

Your heart is a muscle. The heart needs conditioning and strengthening just like any other muscle. Any kind of stress to the heart can impair its function. Aerobic exercise will lower your number of heartbeats per minute. This is good because as the heart is strengthened each heartbeat will push more blood. The heart becomes more efficient. Elite athletes have very low resting heart rates.