What is aerobic exercise?
Aerobic exercises help to improve the cardiorespiratory system (the heart, lungs and blood vessels) and has many recognised benefits including:
- Respiration improvement – the muscles used to help the flow of air in and out of thelungs are strengthened. The total number of red blood cells in the body are increased helping with transport of oxygen from the lungs to vital organs.
- Circulation improvement – the heart is strengthened and enlarged, helping circulation of blood, reducing blood pressure and reducing the resting heart rate.
- General muscle improvement – muscles throughout the body are strengthed.
- Body weight improvement – burning up of body fat, whilst building leaner muscle.
- Mental health improvement – includes reduction of stress and lowering the chances of depression
- Reducing the risk of diabetes.
Why do aerobics?
Low impact aerobics are ideal for people who just starting out or have some kind of injury that prevents higher intensity exercise. It is a great way to get fit and stay on top of weight management as it does not put your body under too much stress and it is easy to step up as you get fitter.
What exercises are aerobic?
Aerobic exercises include:
- walking
- swimming
- cycling
- dancing
- rowing
- using gym equipment such as treadmill, exercise bike, elliptic cross trainer, rowing machine etc.
- water aerobics
- ice skating
How long should you be exercising for?
You can start off with a minimum of 20 minutes building up to 1 hour. It is also important thing is to do this on a regular basis. A minimum of three times a week is essential, as is having at least one day off a week.
Always try to find something you enjoy doing as it otherwise it will be difficult to keep up this frequency.