Aerobic exercise became popular during the 1980s after the release of Jane Fonda’s exercise videos. What is aerobic exercise? ‘Aerobic’ relates to, involves or requires oxygen. Aerobic exercise is exercise that gets your heart rate up, and makes you breathe harder.
It includes
- Rhythmic movement
- Involving large muscle groups
- At least moderate intensity
Aerobic exercise sessions consist of 4 phases –
1. Warm-up
- to prepare your body for the conditioning phase
- minimum of 5-10 minutes
- light to moderate intensity aerobic and muscular endurance activity
2. Conditioning
- this is the ‘actual’ exercise
- at least 20-60 minutes of aerobic, resistance, neuromotor and /or
sports activities - can be broken up into bouts of 10 minutes if one can accumulate at least 20-60 minutes of daily aerobic exercise
3. Cool-down
- at least 5-10 minutes of light to moderate intensity aerobic and muscular endurance activities
4. Stretching
- at least 10 minutes of stretching exercises performed after the warm-up or cool-down phase.
Frequency—How often should
I exercise?
- Moderate exercise 5 days per week
- Vigorous exercise 3 days per week (not recommended for most sedentary adults because of the risk of injury and complications)
- A combination of the above
Intensity—How hard should I work out?
According to the CDC, moderate intensity aerobic activities are those activities that cause you to break a sweat and raise your heart rate. To illustrate, you should be able to talk, but not sing. These activities include:
- Walking fast
- Doing water aerobics
- Riding a bike on level ground or with few hills
- Playing doubles tennis
- Pushing a lawn mower
Vigorous intensity aerobic activity will cause you to breathe hard and fast and will increase your heart rate quite a bit. Talking will be difficult. Some of these activities include:
- Jogging or running
- Swimming laps
- Riding a bike fast or on hills
- Playing singles tennis
- Playing basketball
Once again, if you are unaccustomed to exercising, do not participate in vigorous exercise until you have consulted with your doctor and have slowly built up your ability and strength.
Check out my post on Exercise Recommendations. Let me know in the comments how you are making time to exercise.
No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.