Aerobic Exercise – Types, Benefits, and Weight Loss

What is Aerobic Exercise?

Aerobic exercise is a moderately intense physical activity, which improves your cardio respiratory fitness and your overall health. Aerobic exercise counts as a stipulated physical activity that causes you to breathe hard and sweat. This exercises has a continuous beat or rhythm to it which indulges all your large muscle groups.
Generally, aerobic exercise will make you feel slightly out of breath. However, you can maintain the activity for lengthy periods without feeling the need to sit down and catch your breath. The most popular forms of aerobic exercise include swimming, running, and walking. You can do aerobic exercise for weight loss at home as well, by doing physical activities such as spot marching, spot jogging,skipping, dancing, or by following an aerobic exercise video for weight loss.

Table of Contents

• What is aerobic exercise?
• Types of aerobic exercise
• Benefits of aerobic exercise
• Aerobic exercise for weight loss
• Aerobic exercise at home
• Summary

Types of Aerobic Exercise

There are various types of aerobic exercises, which range in difficulty and time.

The list of aerobic exercises includes funk, hip-hop, kickbox, boot camp, and cardio, among others. Classes for cardio are rated as beginner, intermediate, and advanced.

Be sure to choose the level that suits your lifestyle and mode of exercise.

1. Low-Impact Classes

These classes are optimal for beginners and moderate-level exercisers. One foot is always on the ground.

2. High-Impact Classes

Both feet leave the ground. There are a lot of balancing and jumping acts, for which you will need peak physical form. If you are concerned about injuries or suffer from arthritis or back problems, you should stick to low-impact classes.

Health Benefits of Aerobic Exercise

There are many benefits of aerobic exercise for those who practice daily. Your cardiovascular and respiratory muscles become stronger, resulting in increased blood circulation throughout your body. Aerobic exercises have benefits that include:

1. Greater Stroke Volume

The amount of blood your heart beats with every pump is known as stroke volume.

Regular cardio strengthens your heart and improves the stroke volume. The size of your heart increases in mass, which results in more blood being pumped through the organ.

2. Increased Endurance

With regular cardio, your muscles can absorb an increased amount of oxygen. You gain more endurance, and you do not get tired easily.

This happens because your muscles can pull more oxygen from your blood as compared to an average person.

Aerobic Exercise for Weight Loss

Aerobic exercises are a perfect remedy for weight loss. These exercises not only reduce your fat, but also help increase your muscular endurance.

Additionally, your body requires an increased flow of oxygen to lose weight- this is why aerobics exercise is the most beneficial way of losing excess fat. It allows you to lose weight by moving for long periods without tiring out.

Your current weight will certainly impact the amount of weight you lose. A heavier person will certainly lose more weight doing aerobics as compared to someone of normal weight.

Aerobic Exercise at Home

Aerobic exercises can be easily done at home with little to no equipment. Doing these exercises are perfect for people who do not have the time to go to exercise classes every day. Aerobic exercises for weight loss at home include the following:

1. Jump rope

Jumping rope for 15 to 25 minutes every day helps increase your body awareness, hand-foot coordination, and agility. 

2. Aerobic strength circuit

The aerobic circuit is a series of five exercises, including squats, lunges, dips, push-ups, and torso twists.

Aerobic strength circuits are designed to get your heart rate up. These exercises focus on all your major muscle groups. Your whole body gets toned as a result, and your cardiovascular functions increase drastically.

These exercises are of moderate-intensity, so they should not be too difficult for you. However, if you find that you are constantly stopping for rest, you should opt for low-density workouts instead. The circuit finishes with a minute of spot-jogging exercises. Ideally, one session of exercising should include 2 to 3 circuits.

3. Running

Running is one of the best aerobic exercises. It can uplift your mood, reduce fat drastically, improve the health of your heart, and give you a toned, athletic body in a matter of months, to name a few.

Despite its advantages, running is very difficult for the average sedentary individual. Once you get in the groove of things, running becomes the best exercise for you, not only physically, but also mentally.

This is why running ranks among the top of the list of aerobic exercises. To remain free from injuries such as sprains, be sure to (warm up properly before exercise and) stretch after the exercise.

4. Walking

If running seems too difficult for you, you can always start your exercises off with walking daily.

Walking vigorously is deemed to be as healthy as running when it comes to reducing heart disease and obesity. When pursuing this exercise, make sure that you wear shoes with good ankle support to decrease injuries.

One of the best ways to walk is to use a fitness tracker alongside. Ideally, you should walk 10,000 steps a day. The best way to do this is by adding an extra 1000 steps to your daily goal every week.

Summary

It is recommends that every person should exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes every day to remain healthy.

Aerobic exercise is the best way you can achieve this goal at one go. However, if you are new to this form, you should consult your doctor to ensure that this is the correct exercise for you.

Not all exercises suit a person. For some, relaxed stretching such as yoga or meditation,might be helpful. Yet for others, heavy workouts are necessary to achieve the same goal. When weight loss is your primary goal, you should find the exercise that is best for you and stick to it, along with a diet that works to further your goal.