Aerobic Exercise - Requires Oxygen Delivery to Your Muscles

The more you get up and go, the more you are doing for your body. Exercise can relieve depres-sion, stress and anxiety. It can also better your self esteem & generally improve your outlook on life.

John Travolta, move over! Did you know that vigorous dancing burns at least 400 calories an hour and elevates your heart rate as much as running? Even square dancing qualifies as aerobic activity.

Flexibility | Aerobics Exercise | Resistance Exercise

Aerobic means "with oxygen." Aerobic exercise is any large muscle activity that you can sustain for two to three minutes or longer, because exercising for prolonged periods requires a source of oxygen and its delivery to the muscles. Because aerobic exercise requires oxygen from the air to get to your muscles, the exercise can continue only when a source of oxygen is available. Your heart and lungs work together to supply oxygen to tissues in your body. Aerobic exercise forces the lungs and heart to work harder and, in so doing, strengthens and conditions them.

Aerobic activities include walking, gardening, raking or mowing the yard, hiking, bicycling, lap swimming, jogging, singles tennis, basketball and cross-country skiing.

A typical session lasts twenty to sixty minutes. The minute you start to exercise, your metabolic rate (the amount of energy you expend) immediately in-creases to some-where between five and 20 times what you expend sitting down. This change is very healthy when done on a regular basis. Again, the ability for the muscles to generate this energy is dependent on oxygen supply.

Regular aerobic exercise is also one of the most effective tools for lowering blood pressure and reducing body fat. Moderate daily exercise is also helpful for relieving feelings of stress and preventing or alleviating mental depression.

Spending three hours each week doing some form of aerobic exercise will strengthen your heart and make it more efficient and will increase the ability of muscles to use oxygen. Other benefits of aerobic exercise include lowering your risk of having a heart attack or of developing coronary artery disease; improving your cholesterol profile (which will also help to lower your risk of coronary artery disease); placing stress on your bones, which will help maintain or increase bone strength; increasing the kind of brain chemicals (called endorphin) that improve one's sense of well-being; increasing your endurance by one-third or more; and enhancing the blood flow to your limbs and organs.

Choosing An Aerobic Activity

For an activity to qualify as aerobic exercise, it must increase up your heart rate and use your major muscle groups. Walking, jogging, swimming laps, bicycling or riding an exercise bike, cross-country skiing (on skis or a skiing machine), rowing and using a stair climber all qualify. Singles tennis, soccer, racquetball or basketball can qualify as well, provided you're moving enough to increase the heart rate for a period of time. Slow-moving sports like bowling or croquet don't qualify - and neither do sports that mix short, hard sprints with long rest periods, like touch football.

You should pick an activity that you can do initially on a nonstop basis for at least 20 minutes, with an eventual goal of 60 minutes at a time. The most important factor in choosing a regular aerobic activity is to pick something you enjoy. More than half of all new exercisers end up quitting within a year, primarily because exercise becomes a chore.

You can get an effective aerobic workout and actually have fun. Just pick any activity you like, as long as you move at a steady, relaxed pace, breathing comfortably.
Aerobic exercise is an opportunity to enjoy the feeling of healthy movement, content in the knowledge that you're making your body healthier with every step.

To help choose your own activity, start by listing all the types of exercise or sports that you've enjoyed in the past, along with any new sports or activities you've always wanted to try. Then rank them on an "enjoyment scale" from one to 10. If you can't think of any, list the activities that you dislike the least. Take the top-ranked activities and try one for a few days (15 minutes at a time). You should be able to find at least one form of exercise that you like or can easily tolerate.

It's also essential to have access to a place where you can exercise. For walkers or runners, such places usually mean a park or recreation area, a neighborhood with good sidewalks or a covered shopping mall for the winter months. If you're a swimmer, you'll need to find a year-round pool where you can do your laps. For cycling, you'll want to map out a few low-traffic loops near your home. If you find you enjoy working out on stationary equipment such as an exercise bike, stair climber, rowing machine or treadmill, you'll need to find an area community center or an affordable health club that has the equipment you prefer.

Variety is important. It's best to choose a few different aerobic activities - this is referred to as cross-training. Mix it up - swim one day, run another, cycle another, etc. A variety of activities allows you to exercise different muscle groups at varying intensities, and it keeps your exercise routine fresh.

Whatever option you follow, take your time and choose with care: Your aerobic exercise program needs to be designed so it can last a lifetime!

Aerobic Activity

Moderate aerobic activities
Easy walking (20 minutes per mile), easy cycling (on a bicycle or exercise bike), gardening, a slow-paced tennis game, golf (using a hand cart or carrying your own clubs), downhill skiing, volleyball, touch football, basketball (shooting baskets), social dancing, pushing a stroller, raking leaves, washing and waxing your car, washing windows or floors

Vigorous aerobic activities:
Brisk walking (15 minutes per mile or faster), lap swimming, fast cycling (on a bicycle or exercise bike), jogging, a fast-paced game of singles tennis, rollerblading, competitive racquetball, aerobic dance, water aerobics, cross-country skiing (on snow or a stationary skiing machine), jumping rope, stairwalking (on a machine or actual steps), basketball (playing a competitive game), wheeling yourself in a wheelchair at a steady pace.

The heavier you are, the more calories you'll burn while exercising. For example, a 165-pound person burns six calories per minute walking at a brisk pace. On the other hand, a 220-pound person burns eight calories per minute at the same speed. See our calories calculator to see how many calories burned while jogging or see our chart of activities for how many calories you burn during normal activities or other exercises.

For optimal cardiovascular health and fitness benefits, your ultimate goal should be to exercise aerobically for 60 minutes, at least four or five days a week. You should work up to this goal gradually, however, over a period of eight to 10 to 12 weeks. This approach will give your tendons and bones a chance to adjust to the new workload, while at the same time gradually raising the fitness level of your heart and working muscles. Increasing the intensity or volume of a new exercise too rapidly is the main cause of injury, so go slowly and progress cautiously. If you are older than 40 or have had medical problems that could be worsened by exercise (for example, high blood pressure, heart disease or asthma), it is best to check with your doctor before beginning a new exercise program.

You can begin structuring your aerobic workout. Start with low intensity 20-minute sessions and then add five minutes to your workout every one to two weeks. By week nine, you'll have reached your goal of 45 minutes per workout.

Every workout should begin with five minutes of very easy movement, such as slow walking or cycling or, for swimmers, an easy breaststroke. The workout should also end with another five minutes of the same easy movement. This approach gives your body a chance to adapt to the higher cardiovascular demands of the workout and then slowly return to a lower work state when the workout is completed.

The rest of the workout should be done at a steady, comfortable pace - fast enough to slightly elevate your breathing, but not so fast that you find yourself panting for breath. As you become more fit, you may find yourself naturally moving at a somewhat faster pace than before. Occasionally, you may also want to pick up the pace slightly for several minutes at a time, to accelerate your cardiovascular improvement. Use the conversation rule to avoid going too fast: You should always be fresh enough to carry on a conversation with a training partner. If you're too winded to talk, you're exceeding your aerobic limit.

It is best to stretch five to 10 minutes into your warm-up. Extended stretching should be done at the end of the workout, immediately after your cool-down.

If your main concern is shedding some body fat, the key is to do longer, more frequent aerobic sessions at an easier pace. This approach has several advantages. It burns more calories. (Even though vigorous exercise burns more calories per minute than an easy effort, an extra 15 or 30 minutes of easy exercise will more than make up the difference.)

Longer bouts of exercise burn proportionally more fat. (Harder, but shorter exercise draws more on carbohydrates.) If you walk or do some other activity for more than an hour, your body will start to burn significantly more fat for the rest of the workout. The reason for this is that the carbohydrate stores in your muscles begin running low after an hour.