Explaining Aerobic Exercise
Aerobic implies “with oxygen.” Basically, the word aerobic is comprised of two Greek words – ‘Aero’ meaning air and ‘Bios’ meaning life. Therefore, aerobic exercise is considered sufficiently vigorous in increasing the body’s requirement for oxygen in addition to intake of air as well as the breathing rate. Aerobic exercises are, however, performed at a tempo to allow sufficient oxygen supply to the muscles during work outs. An individual is considered to exercise aerobically if you are able to keep going with a conversation or hum to the inner self. Above all, aerobic exercises can be performed for 20-45minutes and that too without getting exhausted.
Types of Aerobic Exercise for Women
Aerobic exercises involve the repeated use of large muscle groups for a continuous time period. Furthermore, the best thing related to aerobics is that it is enjoyable even if carried out for extended time periods. There are numerable types of aerobic exercise which can be carried out for various benefits. The most common ones, however, include aerobic dance, rowing machine, bicycling, fitness walking, stair climbing, running, in-line skating and swimming.
Learn about different types of aerobic exercises for women discussed below in detail.
Aerobic dance
Dancing is a hobby of a large proportion of women. However, many of them are not able to use this hobby to their benefit. Aerobic dance is quite helpful maintaining the overall fitness besides being a delightful and enjoyable experience. Hip-hop dance for is the most common form that can be included as an aerobic exercise. The basic reason for this tends to lie in the amazing cardio benefits provided during the exercise.
Rowing machine
Rowing machine can be the best option that can be explored while working out on muscle group areas in the body like buttocks, legs, abdominals, back, and arms. Rowing helps women in burning numerous calories as compared to any other form of exercise for it involves the whole body into the act.
Cycling
It’s time to come over the thought of considering cycling as an activity for kids. Cycling is one of the best aerobic exercises that proffer excellent cardiovascular benefits. Moreover, it doesn’t put any sort of mechanical stress to your hips, back, ankles, and knees. However, those who cannot ride a bicycle may opt going for the stationary ones.
Fitness walk
If you are fed up of the sedentary lifestyle, it would be a good option to go for a routine fitness walk. It is really beneficial to go for a walk for an hour or half. Women who are overweight or obese will find it really beneficial. Furthermore, walking proves beneficial even for pregnant ladies to keep themselves and the baby healthy.
Running
This is another good aerobic exercise for women. It is, however, essential to have a good pair of shoes for running. This is indeed one of the simplest forms of aerobic exercises for women. Moreover, it is also the most effective one in burning extra calories. But, the exercise can prove to be somewhat taxing for beginners.
Treadmill
For those who don’t wish to go out in the open, going to a gym and exercising on a treadmill is a good option. Moreover, another benefit of working out on a treadmill is that it provides sustained feedback about the electronic consoles like speed, time, distance, and heart rate as well.
Swimming
If you know swimming, there’s nothing like it! It is one of the most ideal aerobic exercises for women. To add to your knowledge, swimming doesn’t put any extra strain or stress to your joints thus making the exercise to be really entertaining and enjoyable. A good and effective way of burning extra calories is swimming in laps. Moreover, it is a good way to beat the summer heat as well.
Benefits of Aerobic Exercise for Women
Whether it is a man, or a woman, or a child, it is advantageous for every individual to exercise regularly. In addition to achieving apposite body weight, exercising is also helpful in improving your general health thus making you completely fit. Performing aerobic exercises has formed the latest trend amongst the aged as well as the youth. Moreover, aerobics has proved to come up as perfectly right option in the fast-paced world. This is probably because of moderate intensity exercises being extended over a specific time period as well as being responsible for overloading the lungs and heart thus enabling them to work harder as contrasted to the rest.
To reveal the fact, aerobic exercise draws its benefits from the augmented but uniform intake of oxygen by muscles as well as other tissues working for calorie expenditure in a controlled and sustained manner. It involves a combination of stretching along with strength training exercises with an aim of perking up every aspect of fitness that includes muscular strength, cardiovascular strength, and flexibility.
Some of the most general advantages of aerobic exercise include:
- Improved consumption of oxygen
- Improved cardio/cardiovascular system, focusing primarily on strengthening of the heart muscles thus perking up the cardiac competence in addition to mitigating the resting heart rate reduced levels of blood pressure and cholesterol
- Strengthening of respiratory muscles thus improving the respiration process
- Good amount of endorphins released during aerobic workouts creates a mood stirring effect which aids in reducing stress and thus the prevalence of depression
- Most importantly, intense aerobic exercise stimulates bone growth thus avoiding the disorders of bone weakness, like osteoporosis and osteomalacia, which becomes very coon with growing age in women
- Aerobic exercise is considered to be safe in pregnancy period as well as helpful in normal labor
- Better supply of blood to the muscles and improved capability to use oxygen
- Lower blood pressure and heart rate at any level of sub-maximal work out
- Improved verge for lactic acid accretion
- lower sustained diastolic and systolic blood pressure in those suffering from high blood pressure
- Improved HDL cholesterol
- Decrease in blood triglycerides
- Reduction in body fat in addition to better weight management
- Better glucose tolerance plus lesser resistance to insulin
Some more effective benefits of aerobic exercise for women are:
- Strengthening of muscles which are indulged in respiration, to provide the air flow in and out from the lungs
- Strengthening and enlargement of the heart muscle for better pumping capability and reduced resting rate
- Toning of muscles all through the body to improve the entire circulation process and reduced blood pressure
- Increase in the red blood cells count in body to aid transport of oxygen all through the bodY.
- Besides the aforesaid health benefits, aerobic exercise also facilitates some performance benefits like:
- Better retention of energy molecules like carbohydrates and fats within the muscles to provide better endurance
- Increased metabolism rate thus leading to higher amount of energy required for intensive exercise
- Improvement in the capability of muscles to utilize fats during workouts thus conserving intramuscular glycogen
- Additionally, aerobic exercise also produces positive effect on the brain activities. It helps women in maintaining the emotional health in addition to facilitating anti-aging effects. Let’s see how.
Emotional Health
Performing regular aerobic exercise is helpful for women in maintaining their emotional health. Moreover, aerobics also helps in staying away from depression and anxiety. The underlying fact is that exercise aids in relieving depression by producing feel-good neurotransmitters along with endorphins which help in mood regulation. Doing regular aerobic exercise also aids in relieving depression through increased self confidence as well as social interaction in addition to being helpful in coping with different problems in a constructive manner. Although depression can be relieved by any kind of exercise, aerobic exercise can be taken as a good option for women to relieve depression.
Anti-aging Effects
Who would not wish to stay young even with growing age? Aerobic exercise facilitates dramatic effects on mental health in aging populations. Studies have revealed that aerobic exercise leads to considerable changes in gray as well as white matter in senior adults. This growth, however, leads to memory improvement, enhanced capability to switch in-between tasks, and similar other benefits. Since the size of brain starts decreasing when you reach 30s, doing regular aerobic exercise is potentially beneficial in counteracting this effect, especially in women.
Looking at the benefits of aerobic exercise, it becomes important for us to follow an effective work out regime to stay healthy and fit. However, it would be wise to go for an exercise stress test by a qualified physician to avoid any kind of possible health risks. This test becomes even more important if, in case, you have been inactive or a patient to high cholesterol over a significant period of time. The test is also important for those who are regular smokers or have crossed the age of 45.
This stress test enables the physician to check the capability level of your heart to handle workout load and it would, thus, become easier for him to provide you with specific guidelines related to the type and level of exercise you can perform.
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