Aerobics - What do you need to know!

Aerobic exercise contributes to our cardiovascular conditioning. The word aerobic literally means “living with oxygen”, which means that breathing controls the amount of oxygen that can make it to the muscles to help them burn fuel and move.

Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

• Improves cardiovascular conditioning
• Improves lung function
• Decreases risk of heart disease
• Lowers blood pressure
• Increases HDL or “good” cholesterol
• Helps control blood sugar
• Helps in weight loss and weight management
• Decreases resting heart rate

Examples of Aerobics Exercises

Aerobics are divided in different categories.

Lower impact aerobic exercise includes:

• Rowing
• Swimming
• Walking
• Cycling
• Using an elliptical trainer

Using an upper body ergo meter (it is a piece of gear that provides a cardiovascular workout that only targets your upper body)

Aerobic exercises with higher impacts are:

• Running
• Jumping rope
• Performing high impact routines or step aerobics

How you do Aerobics?

The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that everyone reach 30 minutes of some mode of cardiovascular exercise, 5 to 7 days a week. This can be divided into shorter time spans like three sets of 10-minute exercises. This will help reducing the risk of heart disease, blood pressure, diabetes, hypertension, and high cholesterol. The number of calories burned is same as if you would walk for the full 30 minutes at once. However, it is appropriate to do aerobics on a daily basis.