How Do Anaerobic Exercise Benefit?

Before you start an exercise program, you need to be at least somewhat clear about what you want to achieve or maintain. If you want to lose weight, aerobic exercise is a viable option. If, on the other hand, you want to gain more strength and power, you may want to turn to anaerobic exercise. In this article, we will explain how anaerobic exercise benefits.

Studies have shown that aerobic and anaerobic exercises complement each other, as the former provides the necessary energy for the latter. Let’s find out what these exercises are all about!

What are anaerobic exercises?

During exercise, muscles do work, and as each of us knows, all work requires energy. Anaerobic exercises are high-intensity and short-term exercises that require the body to provide efficient and fast fuel.

This fuel is obtained from immediate sources: muscle ATP (also called energy currency), phosphocreatine (PC), and glucose.

Anaerobic exercises are usually sprinkled between aerobic sets. For example, while walking, you can take a quick 10 second to 1 minute run and then continue walking to regain strength.

The explosive effort typical of static, strength, and anaerobic exercises ranges in time from one minute to 120 seconds.

In this exercise, two energy mechanisms are activated. During the first 10 seconds, the body uses creatine phosphate (phosphocreatine), especially during short-term and hard-working exercises. When the duration is longer, the body uses glucose as its energy substrate, which produces lactic acid.

If this activity is continued – for 20 to 120 seconds – lactic acidosis will occur, which will create the conditions for fatigue to appear.

How do anaerobic exercises benefit?

While dynamic exercises benefit in many ways, regular static exercise increases muscle strength and power. It also improves endurance and metabolism.

A proper walk provides immediate benefits, while anaerobic exercises require time and perseverance to get results. Their benefits begin to show after three months at the earliest.

Anaerobic exercise prevents disease

Anaerobic exercise strengthens the immune system and helps prevent diseases such as type 2 diabetes. They also reduce cardiovascular disease, arthritis and back pain.

Strengthening of muscle mass and bones

You can gain more muscle mass by using dumbbells or equipment. Muscles and bones are involved in weight lifting, which is why anaerobic exercise increases bone density, reducing the risk of osteoporosis.

To prevent injury, you should pay attention to how much weight you can lift in each type of exercise.

Anaerobic exercise improves quality of life

Anaerobic exercises strengthen the structure of the musculoskeletal system, leading to a better balance of movements and greater self-confidence and independence in everyday tasks.

Faster metabolism

Aerobic exercise is recommended for weight loss, but anaerobic exercise also works well for this purpose through increasing muscle mass.

By increasing muscle mass, anaerobic exercises reduce the amount of fat in the body, leading to relative weight loss. In other words, aerobic exercise burns fat, while anaerobic exercise increases the amount of lean tissue in the body.

This stimulates the metabolism of the basal body, ie the metabolism of rest, which means that the body needs more energy for its basic organ functions.

The factor most closely related to resting metabolism is lean mass. This can be increased by lifting weights, which reinforces the hypothesis that anaerobic exercise is beneficial in the treatment of obesity.

Increased durability and strength

Anaerobic exercises are meant to build endurance. When you work out, there comes a moment when your hands and feet just can’t take it anymore. This happens when the level of lactic acid in the blood rises to a level that the body cannot remove it immediately. This leads to muscle acidification, fatigue and decreased performance.

Raising this threshold higher and higher is part of anaerobic training for athletes trying to improve their endurance. Such an exercise program includes strength exercises that work on slow muscle cells. This reduces the workload from slow muscle fibers that accumulate more lactic acid.

Examples of anaerobic exercises

There are two types of strength exercises: isometric, where muscle contraction stays constant for a long time against permanent resistance (for example, a wall), and isotonic, where muscle contraction overcomes resistance (weight lifting):

• Weightlifting : Here the meat is processed to its maximum capacity at short intervals, without oxygen. This increases power, strength and endurance, leading to muscle growth.
• Sprinting: This consists of very effective and short running bumps, such as a 100-meter run, and develops strength and speed in the lower limbs and upper body.
• Abdominal Cramps: This movement can cause muscle endurance to reach its exhaustion point as the number of repetitions in sets increases more and more.
• Bars and Leaning Bars:  Isometric exercises include bars and leaning bars that train using the athlete’s own weight. In these, the muscles need the kind of energy storage that allows their body to be lifted repeatedly.

• Squats: These also use the body’s own weight, just like in push-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups. In squats, the weight of the upper body falls directly over the thighs, and the arms are extended forward or behind the neck.
• Weightlifting:  These movements utilize gravity resistance. Just like in rods, but face toward the floor, in this movement, the arms increase body weight.

Tips for anaerobic exercise

Anaerobic exercise should not be started without first going to a medical examination, especially if you suffer from an illness. Overweight and beginners should also not do direct anaerobic exercise. The same goes for pregnant women.

Before starting, aerobic warm-up should be done to prepare the body for movement. This raises the heart rate and stimulates blood circulation, preventing stiffness.

Aerobic exercise should also include stretching, which prepares the body for the demands of anaerobic exercise.

Anaerobic movements require strength, which is why  we recommend omitting complex movements initially and gradually increasing the level of difficulty.

Anaerobic exercises require professional training

Anaerobic exercises are very demanding movements, and if they are not treated with caution, it can lead to injury. For example, it is important to know that there is an anaerobic threshold, i.e., the maximum training power to which the body can be exposed without extreme exhaustion.

Above this threshold, training depends on many factors: the type of training, muscle composition, diet, and environment. Generally, the body needs to get used to different levels, which succeeds without hurting itself below this threshold.

Exceeding this threshold requires professional training and supervision, in which case the goal may be mainly top sports.