Womens Health
Get This: Strength Training Can Totally Count As Aerobic Exercise
Julia Sullivan, CPT – December 16, 2022
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From consuming fruits and veggies daily to flossing to remembering to mute (or block) toxic exes, there are a lot of healthy habits that doctors and officials urge pretty much everyone to follow.
At the top of that list: getting in aerobic exercise. But images of legwarmer-clad women in a pastel-colored workout class aside, what exactly is aerobic exercise?
Aerobic exercise is “any type of exercise that uses oxygen for the production of energy and work by the body,” explains Jason Machowsky, CSCS, exercise physiologist. In more simple terms, aerobic exercise is defined by muscle mechanics, which means any activity that uses large muscle groups (like the legs and core) in a continuous, rhythmic nature to keep the heart rate elevated.
Meet the experts: Jason Machowsky, CSCS, is a board certified sports dietitian and registered clinical exercise physiologist who specializes in working with clients post-rehab. Holly Roser, CPT, is a certified personal trainer and owner of Holly Roser Fitness Studio in San Mateo, California, where she and her team of trainers teach her signature H-Method in person and online.
As for what an “elevated” heart rate means, Holly Roser, CPT, says that number hovers anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate (which varies depending on individual fitness and how intensely you’re working).
Here’s what counts as aerobic exercise, the benefits of adding them to your routine, how to track progress, and more from the experts.
8 Aerobic Exercise Examples
If you’re thinking aerobic exercise sounds a lot like cardio, you’re spot on. “The term cardio is a shorthand phrase that represents steady-state aerobic exercise where the energy for the working muscles is predominantly coming from “aerobic” energy production, or oxygen, which is being shuttled to the working muscles by the heart and blood vessels, or the cardio system,” says Machowsky.
When you’re doing aerobic exercise, you’re working your cardiovascular system. Here are the most common forms of aerobic exercise to add to your routine:
1. Running And Jogging
Any exercise that utilizes large muscle groups in a sustained, submaximal way (meaning you’re not all-out sprinting or hitting your max RPE) over a prolonged period of time counts as aerobic exercise, Machowsky says—which makes running and jogging ideal candidates. That’s because the movement activates a wide swath of lower-body muscles at once—like the hamstrings, quads, calves, and glutes—as well as the core.
2. Walking
Although walking might seem like one of the more mundane, low-intensity movements a person can do, it sure-as-heck counts as aerobic exercise. Walking can lower a person’s blood pressure, improve mood, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events, studies show.
3. Swimming
Machowsky is a fan of swimming for aerobic exercise because it, like running, fires up a host of muscles—but with more upper-body involvement. It’s also low-impact and may be especially helpful for folks with chronic pain, arthritis, or other conditions that prevent more high-intensity forms of exercise.
4. Dancing
If you regularly take dance classes, or simply enjoy dropping it low in the kitchen while meal-prepping, you’re participating in aerobic exercise, says Roser. Bonus points: Following the choreography while dancing might also boost your brain function, as some studies show. (Spending all that time rehearsing TikTok dances is worth it.)
5. Rowing
Another low-impact movement, rowing (either on an indoor rowing machine or on an actual boat) is a killer form of aerobic exercise. It’s also a full-body exercise, as one study from the English Institute of Sport found that rowing could activate upwards of 86 percent of muscles in the body (when done with proper form). Rowing also torches serious calories.
6. Circuit Training
While strength training might not seem like an aerobic exercise, Machowsky says it definitely is—if you’re working in a fast-paced circuit style. He notes that you get an aerobic benefit when “strength training is spread across different muscle groups so your body has a raised heart rate to recover from one area working (i.e. legs) while another one is working (i.e. back).” The key, he says, is to keep rest periods to a minimum to ensure your heart rate stays high.
7. Hiking
Like running, jogging, and walking on flat surfaces, hiking or walking uphill activates most of the lower-body muscles, says Roser. In fact, some muscles might receive more activation with the incline than on flat surfaces, as one study found that muscle activation in the calves increased with a 6 percent grade.
8. Cycling (indoor or outdoor)
Whether you’re circling the local pond or tapping it back in spin class, cycling—no matter the form—keeps your heart rate high and lower-body muscles working, says Roser. Cycling in particular might be an effective sleep aid when performed roughly two hours prior to getting shut-eye, a 2021 study in Sleep Medicine Reviews found. (Healthy heart and sleep!)
What are the benefits of aerobic exercise?
1. Better endurance.
The primary benefit behind aerobic exercise, says Machowsky, is that your cardiovascular health will improve. “Aerobic exercise improves your endurance by ensuring a more effective transfer of oxygen into the body via the lungs and to the working muscles via the heart and blood vessels,” he explains.
2. Improved brain health.
Aerobic exercise has a direct tie to brain function, Machowsky says. “[Aerobic exercise] improves blood flow to the brain, leading to better cognitive function related to better blood flow and supply of oxygen to the brain,” he says.
A year of aerobic exercise—which included walking and light jogging—helped to increase blood flow to the brain in older adults, a 2022 study from the Journal of Applied Physiology found. Blood flow to the brain is directly tied to memory and decision-making skills, as well as serious disease like dementia.
3. Lower risk of serious disease.
Getting your heart pumping could save you years and make them healthier in the long run, science shows.
Engaging in regular high-intensity aerobic exercise could decrease a person’s chance for developing metastatic cancers, a recent review from the American Association for Cancer Research found. These findings were from data extending a 20-year period and had 2,734 participants. Other studies have noted that aerobic exercise can help stave off cardiovascular disease.
4. Boosted mood.
In addition to managing brain function years down the road, aerobic exercise can also provide an instant mental lift, says Machowsky. “Aerobic exercise can help boost your mood, fight depression, and reduce stress,” he notes. That runner’s high phenomenon has scientific proof.
For example, running for as little as 15 minutes per day, or walking for an hour per day, could help reduce the risk of developing depression, a 2019 study from JAMA Psychiatry found.
5. Better blood sugar management.
Aerobic exercise can help increase your body’s demand for glucose and receptiveness to insulin, Machowsky says. In other words, aerobic exercise can help your bod manage your blood sugar.
Moderate to intense aerobic exercise performed three times per week helped participants improve their insulin levels after an eight-week period, according to a 2015 study from the Global Journal of Health Science (a Canadian academic publication).
6. Balanced cholesterol levels.
Aerobic exercise helps stimulate enzymes that move LDL (or low-density lipoprotein, often referred to as “bad” cholesterol) from the blood to the liver to be cleared out, Machowsky says. Science backs it up, too. Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise can help reduce LDL cholesterol, according to studies.
How often should you do aerobic exercise?
Ideally you hit the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week that the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans (2nd Edition) recommends. You can also hit it with 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise each week.
Moving daily is the best way to divide that exercise time up throughout the week, Roser recommends. “Ideally, you would be able to get 30 minutes of aerobic exercise every day,” says Roser. “It doesn’t have to be all at once though. If possible, do 10-minute spurts of cardio at a time [three times per day], working up to a full 30 minutes.”
Aerobic exercise can be used as a tool in managing or losing weight, Machowksy and Roser both note. However, many studies conclude that aerobic exercise produces minimal weight loss on its own. Moreover, when exercise is tied directly to weight loss goals, it makes the individual much less likely to enjoy working out—and less likely to stick to a regular routine of movement, other studies have found.
So, if your goal is strictly to lose weight, relying only on aerobic exercise isn’t your best bet.
How To Progress Your Aerobic Exercise
There are three main ways to track your aerobic exercise progress, according to Machowsky. These variables include: frequency (how many times per week you’re working out), intensity (speed or similar measurement), and duration (how long each individual session is).
“Try to only increase one variable at a time so you don’t do too much too soon and increase your risk for injury,” he explains. For example, when running, maybe you boost your mileage each week (or duration) or, when engaging in circuit training, try to perform additional reps each week in the allotted workout timeframe (intensity).
Another key factor in tracking progress: writing it down. “Keeping a training log can allow you to gradually increase some of these variables so you can see your progress over time,” Machowsky says. “Some people find it satisfying to go to an older workout from a few months ago and repeat it to see how much better you feel doing it after a few months of training.” Dropping the intel in a basic spreadsheet can work.
It also helps to hone in on what kind of benefit you want to get out of aerobic training, as Machowsky says that a boosted mood can be felt in as few as one to two sessions, while improved blood sugar and cholesterol levels requires six to 12 weeks of regular aerobic exercise.