Do You Need to do Aerobic Exercise?

I know there are some people who don’t believe you need to do aerobic exercise, because lions, tigers, and bears don’t do aerobic training.

do you need to do aerobic exerciseThey’ll say they do “Anaerobic,” or interval, burst training, as they hunt for their food, which is correct.  However, these same lions, tigers, and bears spend hours getting their aerobic benefits from walking as they move about securing their territory and hunting.

So, if your daily lifestyle give you the opportunity to walk about for an hour or so….you probably don’t need to include aerobic exercise into your training schedule.  But if NOT, and you Don’t get any aerobic activity in your normal daily activities?  You probably should include 20-40 minutes of aerobic training 2-3 times a week for better overall health and fitness, as well as, better fat-burning the other 23 hours of the day, you aren’t working out.

Keep in mind aerobic training is something everyone has been doing since the beginning of man-kind, up until the invention of the automobile, TV and Xbox.

How much and how often depends on your health and fitness goals, along with your current level of health and fitness.  You can divide your aerobic to anaerobic training 50 – 50; or 30 – 70; 60 – 40….whatever, it depends on your current level of health and fitness and your goals.the best book on fitness mistakes

Workout Mistake #1

Aerobic training is supposed to be low to moderately low intensity.  The biggest mistake so many patients and clients make is they do their aerobic training at too fast of a pace for their current level of fitness.  This causes their body to activate Anaerobic Metabolism – Not Aerobic Metabolism, which adds more stress to the body and doesn’t truly help them increase their aerobic threshold.

So don’t make the most common fitness mistake of doing your aerobic exercise too fast and losing all the benefits you are hoping to find.  Grab a heart rate monitor and keep your aerobic activity between 60-75% of your maximum heart rate.

I know there are a lot of you who are going to say that’s too slow or too easy.  It’s supposed to be!  That’s what aerobic training is and that is what will keep you in your fat-burning zone 23/7.

Only well conditioned and elite marathoners and tri-athletes can train at 80-85% of their maximum heart rate and still be aerobic.  Everyone else will be anaerobic and not expanding their aerobic threshold or aerobic base. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big believer in anaerobic, high intensity, interval training – look at the workouts I recommend with My WorkHorse.  But most people probably need to add some type of aerobic training for overall health and fitness into their weekly routine.

I hope this enlightens some of you who have been negligent in performing aerobic exercise and opens some of the eyes to all those who might be doing their workout wrong.  

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