Aerobic Exercises and Adaptations

 Aerobic Exercises and Adaptations

As much as I would love to go in depth to muscle physiology and talk even more about metabolism, I have decided to keep this article more on the practical side. I will be discussing precisely what the title states; examples of aerobic activities, and the adaptations that type of exercise has on your body. The intent is to highlight some options for people wanting to participate in some healthy aerobic exercise based on their goals and current capabilities. So let’s get right into it.

There are many reasons to start doing aerobic exercise, and I probably can’t even think of them all, but here are three big ones at least:

Exercising for fat loss

Exercising for competition or performance

Exercising for cardiovascular health

These are simplified and broad. While there will be similarities in what you would be doing for each type of training, it’s the how that will differ and lead to your desired goals and adaptations. 

As a quick aside, and mild reference back to metabolism and science terms, an important aspect of physiology to keep note of in aerobic exercise is the Anaerobic Threshold (AT). It is the point at which your body changes over from aerobic metabolism to anaerobic metabolism. Obviously if you are wanting aerobic adaptations, staying within aerobic metabolism is key. 

There is actually research showing that certain levels, and specific calculated anaerobic interval training will lead to aerobic adaptations, but I will save that for another article, as it requires much more than a small mention.

The path leading to cardiovascular health and fat loss will be roughly similar, you want to prioritize safety over anything else. The first step when these are your goals is to carefully dip your toes into the training, plan ahead, set small achievable goals, and seek out help when you need it. 

When training people in this camp, this is the moment that I will insert my opinions on High-Intensity training (HIT). I am a huge proponent of HIT, BUT only when your body is ready for it; if we’re starting off on square one, lower intensity will be on the docket.

Aerobic training for fat loss

Everyone’s body burns fat and carbs at different rates and at varying intensities; however, doing low impact cardio [treadmill, stationary bike, elliptical, etc.] at lower speeds for longer durations will promote stored fat burning. This process is certainly not a quick one, but it allows your body to adapt better for stored fat burning. You can gradually increase the duration or the speed, based on improvements, to increase the intensity at which your body burns stored fat.

Aerobic training for cardiovascular health

For this training, the goal to shoot for is positive chronic adaptations to your cardiovascular system. What can actually change? 

• Increase in heart size (heart muscle wall thickness, causing stronger contractions)

• Increase in stroke volume (bigger heart = more blood moving in and out at once)

• Increase in cardiac output (higher stroke volume and output during exercise = more oxygen, more waste removal >> better performance)

• Lower resting heart rate (HR lowers to balance out the increased stroke volume, long-term reduced physical stress on heart muscle)

• Normalized blood pressure (less pressure and stress on smooth muscle in blood vessel walls)

(Iwasaki et al., 2003)

Getting into the logistics of this training, what should you actually do? Similar to aerobic exercise for fat loss, if you are a position where you are training for health reasons, the best course of action is to find a professional to work with; either consult a physician or trainer. Start off slow and easy.

If you are already somewhat trained and are wanting to just improve your cardiovascular function, or set your heart up well for the future, a good way to train would be gradual increases in difficulty or interval training. 

Quick note for if you are already a well-trained individual; High-Intensity Interval Training is incredible at improving cardiovascular fitness and health BUT only if you are capable of doing the exercises for extended periods of time.

Word of warning: exercise works by causing small amounts of damage to muscles that can then be repaired to be stronger. Too much damage is not good, sometimes non-reversible. An untrained individual doing overly intense exercise, especially intense cardio, is not advisable, quite dangerous in fact (Rognmo et al, 2012).

Now that I’ve sufficiently scared everyone out of doing any exercise ever… go and give it a shot.

R. Andrew Paxton,  B.S., M.S. Kinesiology

Head Coach & Trainer, Coeur Ninja

e: robertpaxton11@gmail.com

p: (615) 424-3239

CITATIONS

Iwasaki, K., Zhang, R., Zuckerman, J. H., Levine, B. D. (2003). Dose-response relationship of the cardiovascular adaptation to endurance training in healthy adults: how much training for what benefit? J Appl Physiol 95: 1575–1583

Øivind Rognmo, PhD; Trine Moholdt, PhD; Hilde Bakken, BSc; Torstein Hole, MD, PhD; Per Mølstad, MD, PhD; Nils Erling Myhr, BSc; Jostein Grimsmo, MD, PhD; Ulrik Wisløff, PhD. (2012). Cardiovascular Risk of High- Versus Moderate-Intensity Aerobic Exercise in Coronary Heart Disease Patients. American Heart Association.