Aerobic vs. anaerobic?

[bestoutwest]

For those of you with lots of experience with Cathe's cardio/step workouts, which do you find to be aerobic and which anearobic? I'm trying to figure out if I need to be spending more time in my aerobic zone for fat burning, or if all of the anaerobic work is ok, since it burns more calories??? This has been something that has confused me for some time now! Obviously the blasts in Imax's and SB are anaerobic, but what about the other general workouts? I'm not sure if I am just in really poor shape (I don't think I am!), but I find my heart rate is up in the anaerobic zone more than aerobic. I puff, pant, and sweat like a maniac during most of these workouts, but I don't know how to lower the intensity to make it more of an aerobic workout. (or if I even need to worry about it!)

 

[midnight]

Don't worry about it. Your body is using oxygen for energy when you are in your aerobic zone and when you go anaerobic you are using creatine phosphate and glycogen for an energy source because you aren't taking in enough oxygen to generate energy. That's what aerobic means. Your body will switch in and out of these on its own and everyone's anaerobic threshold is different. In general, the anaerobic system is used for work that is short-term and intense (i.e. blasts). Either way, you are burning the same number of calories. Just do your workouts and don't worry about what zone you are in.

My guess is that any workout without the blasts or plyometrics will keep you in your aerobic zone.


--Lois

"Don't forget to breathe!"

 

[CurlyQ]

I was actually a test dummy last week in one of my exercise science courses for this very topic. I was tested at 60% my max heart rate for 5 mins and then 85% my HR max. The test measured my oxygen use as the main variable - so I had an oxygen mouth piece and my nose was plugged...it's not fun to run w/ your nose plugged, and I couldn't swallow because the mouth piece was so big. It showed that I burned 4.34 calories/min at 60% and 8.63 calories at 85%, the percentage of fat being use was higher at 60% than 85% but the truth is calories are calories, it doesn't matter where they come from.

Keep up with the interval style workouts and your aerobic capacity will improve. At 85% (165 bpm) I wasn't working that hard at all - not compared to when I do bootcamp or Imax 3, lol.

 

[midnight]

Interesting!! I didn't realize this because I was speculating rather than dealing with real information. Thank you so much for clearing this up!! Sounds like it wasn't at lot of fun to be a test dummy...

--Lois

"Don't forget to breathe!"

 

[Logos]

In the book: Ready, Set, Go, Phil Campbell explains the benefits of both aerobic and anaerobics.

Anaerobics without air: Stimulates the growth hormone and it keeps burning fat 2 to 3 hours afterwards. You get much more than just the calories burned during training. You should not do it on consecutive days because is very tough on your heart. Imax 2 or 3 are anaerobic.

Aerobics with air: Burns the most fat during training, if you keep the heart rate in the training zone. C&W, KPC are aerobics

We need both methods of training along with weight training and stretching for ultimate results.

I posted the get lean rotation including all these principles, is listed under rotations. Is a lot of cardio is for people that want to lose fat and tone, not bulk up.

 

[Author]

Great response! Thanks!

 

[lorajc]

Is your heartrate supposed to go from 60 to 85% when working out? Is topping off at your anaerobic threshold mean at 85%. I always wonder about this cuz generally when doing all of my Cathe aerobics, my heartrate goes between 70-85% on my heartrate monitor. It doesn't usually go past that point no matter how hard I push. Should I be pushing harder or am I good?

 

[CurlyQ]

No, anaerobic threshold is different for everyone. At 85% I was working at a nice pace and was not anaerobic. It depends on resting heart rate and, mostly, aerobic fitness. The best way to tell if you're anaerobic is to do a talk test, if you can only manage a couple of words then your probably pretty close to threshold. There is no on/off switch for the 2 zones so it's not really something you should focus on too much, just keep it challenging.