Splitting your aerobic-anaerobic exercise 80-20 is better for your health

Why do you exercise?
Is it to stay healthy, to get fit, to beat your previous best times?

When someone says the word aerobic, do you associate it with breathing or oxygen,
do you think it’s connected with “cardio,” aerobic dance or other workouts?

Our aerobic system is where most fat-burning occurs. When this system is faulty, it leads to an aerobic deficiency — poor fat-burning and increased fat storage.

Any workout — running, biking, walking — can become anaerobic when the intensity is too high.
While these efforts may burn more sugar calories, the process does not train the body to burn more stored fat calories.

The aerobic system has a feedback loop with the body’s natural stress response.
Tough workouts lead to the body secreting stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol
to increase our heart rate and allow the anaerobic mechanism to kick in.

The old-fashioned trainers and coaches who told you “no pain, no gain” aren’t helping you.
and then when you also add in the huge consumption of junk food full of refined carbs. 
Aerobic function has been impaired for most people.

Dr Phil Maffetone calls this
The Aerobic Deficiency Syndrome – ADS
Do you ever get chronic fatigue? This usually occurs due to poor fat- burning.
So the body gets more energy from sugar than is normal or healthy.
ADS also results in increased body fat: because fatigue reduces fat-burning activity,
less fat is used for energy and more remains stored throughout the body.
Worse still, excess body fat also promotes chronic inflammation,
which triggers pain, injuries, chronic diseases, and increase the risk for infectious disease.

The main body muscles are primarily aerobic ones.
The lack of good aerobic function is a common cause of injury.
The most frequently injured areas include the low back, knee, ankle and foot.

Aerobic deficiency means the anaerobic system is working harder.
Elevated exercise heart rates lead to high levels of the stress hormone cortisol.

Many types of easy aerobic workouts can provide benefits that will build the aerobic system in the long term.
Activities such as running, biking, swimming and walking can accomplish this as long as the intensity, the heart rate,
of these workouts is not too high.
Your heart rate is an accurate indicator of intensity —
lower heart rate exercise tends to be aerobic, while performing the same workout with a higher heart rate could be anaerobic.

When you’ve finished each workout, you should feel great — not tired or sore, and certainly not ready to collapse on the couch.
Nor should you crave sugar or other carbs: aerobic workouts program your body to burn stored fat, not sugar.
Craving sugar during or after a workout may indicate it’s anaerobic.
If you’re not getting the benefits you want from working out, it’s possible that your aerobic system is not being properly developed.

Many people don’t want to check their heart rate and/or wear sports wearables such as The Fitbit, Oura ring, or Whoop strap.
So a crude rule of thumb.
When you’re gasping for breath, you’re in the anaerobic zone.
When you can exercise comfortably with no pain and easy breathing you’re more than likely in the aerobic zone.
For many people it is advised to spend 80% of training within the aerobic zone and no more than 20% in the anaerobic zone.