Get Fit Basics: Aerobics

We all know that aerobics is good for overall health and fitness. A calorie burning activity? A slimming schedule? An activity that makes your heart strong and increases your stamina? All true but do you know what exactly happens when you do aerobics. The word "aerobic" means "with oxygen" and oxygen is something that you need for almost everything.

Your energy store

Let's start from the beginning: whatever your lifestyle and daily schedule, from a simple housewife to a busy executive you eat food. When you eat, energy comes into your body and gets stored in a chemical form. Much of this energy is stored in the fat cells of your body and remains there until you (your body) need it.

How much oxygen you need

Although the energy reserve that you have is real but just because this energy source is present in your body doesn't mean it can be used involuntarily. Remember this energy cannot be consumed automatically when your body needs it. You actually need one more thing to release this energy? You need oxygen. The more energy your body uses, more the oxygen it needs. During energetic physical activities such as running or rowing your body may need 15-20 times more oxygen than the rest. That's the reason why your aerobic fitness is so vital. It is basically improving your ability to process and deliver as much oxygen as you can. In other words, the more fit you are the more oxygen your body can take in.

Your working systems

Any aerobic activity actually activates your cardiovascular and respiratory system (heart, lungs and blood vessels). These systems are responsible for processing and delivery of oxygen and are benefited more than any other system of the body. You can feel that these systems are actually working during and after an aerobic activity.

Improve the systems

To get the best out of your cardiovascular and respiratory systems you have to make them strong and efficient. Your heart and lungs, the key players of these systems, improve if you put them to hard work. However, you have to keep them working at the higher rate for at least 20 minutes. To deliver more oxygen and make the system strong you can do various activities like cross-country skiing, running, skating, cycling, rowing, brisk walking and swimming. Your heart, lungs and blood vessels all get involved to meet the demands of greater oxygen and in the process all of them become strong. The greatest benefit of aerobics is in the improvement of your heart muscle. It becomes stronger and pumps more blood with each heart beat.

In a nutshell then, it is very important to increase your aerobic capacity (the amount of oxygen your body can deliver to your active / working muscle) as this has a direct impact on your total energy activities and fitness.

Get Fit Basics: Aerobics

Ever felt dissatisfied with the way you feel, look and carry yourself? Do those with firm, fit and lean bodies make you yearn for the same? Then it's time to know more about Aerobics, the programme which can promise you these results. Although, fitness experts keep jumping at you from TV channels and magazine covers, it is important that you know the proper way to go about it. Aerobics is a programme designed at improving and relaxing both your mind and body. But before you get started, note the following instructions.

Get a two-part testing procedure done for yourself.First, a complete physical examination by a medical doctor to confirm whether aerobics is suitable for you or not. Second, a stress test by a psychologist. This will give you an idea of the personal risks involved in following a rigorous aerobics programme.

Exercise at the recommended frequency, three to five times a week. Either excessive or infrequent schedules put undue stress on your health. Some people exercise more frequently to reduce body fat, stress or to satisfy professional commitments. But even they take rest in order to rebuild tissue and avoid psychological burnout. On the other hand, exercising once a week has a bad effect on the heart's functioning. Try not to skip more than three days at a go, or you will lose some of the gains you have made.

If you miss a session, don't push yourself too hard at the next one to make up for the time lost. Aim for a whole lifestyle change instead of just a temporary weight loss. Your goal should be to try and gain knowledge of your own body's potential and limitations. Exercise is all about recognizing the need for adaptation to everyday demands as well as about balance and flexibility.

Monitor the intensity of your workout, set your own limits and never exceed them. Your fitness instructor can only recognize some external symptoms of overexertion. You need to yourself monitor the intensity of your body' s response to the exercise, by measuring your heart rate. Your training intensity should be between 60 to 90 per cent of your heart rate. Any more than this and your body will go into the anaerobic mode, preventing any further benefits. The intensity of your exercise should be less if your fitness levels are low, and vice versa. To avoid soreness, injuries or a burnout, and in order to integrate aerobics into your lifestyle, you must pursue a regular and moderate exercise programme.

Keep the duration of your workout between 15 to 60 minutes. You will derive similar cardiovascular benefits from a low intensity, longer duration workout as from a high intensity, shorter duration workout, provided in both the energy expenditure is the same. Beginners are advised to pursue moderate exercise programmes, gradually increasing the duration. Initially, the entire duration should be of 30 minutes, with 15-20 minutes of aerobic phase and 10 minutes devoted to warming up and cooling down.