Aerobic exercise is normally the first thing that comes to mind when people think about burning fat. While most people dread the thought of endless, boring hours working in the aerobic heart rate zone, it is normally what people turn to to lose fat. But the good news is, combining aerobic and anaerobic exercises is the best for burning fat.
But before I tell you why combining aerobic and anaerobic type exercise is better than aerobic exercise alone, lets talk about what “aerobic” and “anaerobic” means.
Aerobic means in the presence of oxygen. Any activity performed at a low to moderate intensity for more than 90 seconds, allowing oxygen to release energy through metabolism, is called an aerobic activity.
The benefits of aerobic activity are…
Increased Cardiovascular Function Decrease in Body Fat
But prolonged aerobic exercise has its negatives…
Decreased Muscle Mass Decreased Strength Decreased Power Decreased Speed Decreased Anaerobic Capacity
You should start realizing why combining aerobic activity and anaerobic activity is a better option.
Anaerobic means in the absence of oxygen. Any activity performed at a medium to high intensity for less than 2 minutes, where energy is derived without oxygen, is usually called an anaerobic activity.
The benefits of anaerobic type activities are…
Increased Cardiovascular Function Decrease in Body Fat Increased Muscle Mass Improved Strength Improved Power Improved Speed Increased Aerobic Capacity
And the negatives of anaerobic style activity are…
Anaerobic activity requires an aerobic foundation
As you can plainly see, anaerobic workouts are the better choice. And you might be asking, “Why do you say combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise is best? Why not just do anaerobic training?”
Combining aerobic and anaerobic training is necessary because it is impossible to exercise at the high intensity level of anaerobic exercise for the entire workout. Even if you try to work at such a high intensity, you eventually become fatigue and drift back into the aerobic zone. So, while it is possible to exercise in the aerobic zone for the entire workout, it is impossible to exercise exclusively at an anaerobic pace.
This is why combining aerobic and anaerobic style exercise is a must for an optimal fat loss workout!
Here is the bad news. Most people that want to lose fat and build a muscular body ARE combining aerobic and anaerobic type workouts. They are just combining them all WRONG!
The sad fact is, most workouts claiming to burn fat by combining aerobic and anaerobic exercise are doing “bodybuilding” style weight training followed by an aerobic activity. And unless you plan to spend hours a day in the gym (like bodybuilders do), then you won’t get the results they do.
Think of it this way. There should be two “types” of exercise you perform… resistance training and energy system training. And when you are combining aerobic activity and anaerobic training, it is not just in the energy system training portion. You should be intelligently combining aerobic and anaerobic activity during the entire workout.
So, combining aerobic exercise and anaerobic training is key to your fat loss success. But how you combine the two is even more important, If you’ve been combining these two styles of training with bodybuilding weight training followed by aerobic exercise and failed to get the fat loss results you wanted… you’re not alone.
Combining anaerobic and aerobic exercise is not enough… you need to combine both to get maximum fat loss results.
