Anaerobic exercise refers to the ‘force’ component of fitness, meaning essentially strength and explosive power as opposed to endurance which is known as aerobic exercise. This power and strength also translates as muscle, tone, size and speed making it incredibly handy for a range of activities. All activities really come down to how well you can do something and how long you can maintain that performance. Anaerobic then is the first part of that equation. The other important distinction to make here is in the type of energy used for the movement. In aerobic training that energy comes from oxygen being pumped around the body, hence it is also known as the cardiovascular system. In shorter and sharper bursts of strength however the body can call on more immediate sources of energy. The first is the phosphogen system – in which the body relies on supplies of ATP (andenosine triphosphate) and creatine within the muscles to get its energy (by breaking the high energy bonds that bond the three phosphates that give ATP the ‘tri’ in its name).

ATP can also be extracted from the carbohydrate glycogen, though this is a slightly longer process, through what’s known as the glycogen lactic acid system. Here, glycogen stored in the muscle tissue is split down into glucose, which is in turn split further to release four ATP molecules. This provides roughly one point five minutes of extra energy (on top of the initial eight seconds supplied by the phosphogen system), although it is at lower power than the phosphogen system and also produces the unwanted byproduct of lactic acid. The glycogen lactic acid system is used in activities such as swimming or the 400 metre sprint and is 'anaerobic' as it does not use oxygen. Any exercise that lasts longer than one minute fifty eight seconds however will require oxidative energy meaning that it becomes aerobic rather than anaerobic exercise.

Anaerobic training programs aim to improve muscle mass, increase strength and fortify the body – either on their own or all together. Examples of anaerobic activities include throwing, punching, running (to begin with), jumping, lifting and pushing – and the main way to train these things is through resistance training.

Resistance training is the main form of anaerobic exercise, and its goal is to develop a balanced increase in strength across all the muscle groups. The way this works is to perform the above actions (throwing, punching, running, jumping, lifting and pushing), but with greater resistance on the movement in order to force the body to generate more power to push through the movement and eventually adapt to the point where it has this kind of power constantly at its disposal. As the body pushes through these movements the tiny muscle fibres that do the work become torn (these tears are known as microtears). When the body rests later, these torn microfibrils (that make up the muscle fibres) are re-built to be thicker and stronger which is how the process of adaptation works.

I read an annoying article just now that claimed that anaerobic exercise was exclusive to sportsmen and that bodybuilding fell into a different category because it was ‘narcissistic’ and only for show. The guy’s actual exact words were that bodybuilding was to be shown off in ‘the disco’… what a douch! Anyway, this is actually just kind of strange and bodybuilding is actually probably the most obvious example of anaerobic exercise. Bodybuilders simply train all their muscles equally instead of training for only one type of movement. If that makes it more narcissistic then so be it.

Within these resistance movements there are further distinctions and variations. The most common form of resistance training, and by extension the most common form of anaerobic exercise, is ‘dynamic resistance’. In dynamic resistance the idea is that the limb and muscles move through a certain trajectory with resistance being applied at all points equally (e.g. a bicep curl). This means the entire muscle is trained for the entire movement.

Another type however is ‘plyometric training’, which is training aimed at using just the phosphogen system and engaging the fast twitch muscle fibres. Such anaerobic training is ‘explosive’ meaning it requires a short sharp burst of energy for a jump, clapping press up, or lift for example rather than a controlled movement. Here the resistance is only really at the start of the movement with momentum usually carrying the athlete through the rest of the action. This works the fast twitch muscle fibres which are those used for explosive power but really does nothing for endurance or slow twitch fibres.

Finally, the third type of resistance training is ‘isometric training’. Here there is no movement at all, just one position to hold that in itself supplies heavy resistance. This could use bodyweight – such as holding a handstand or simply hanging from a bar – or free weights – such as holding a barbell above ones chest. This works the slow twitch muscle fibres but still generally is an anaerobic exercise (if you can hold the position for longer than one and a half minutes you should increase the weight). This also trains the smaller supporting muscles in the body and the core stability improving balance and various elements of general health.

Mack LeMouse

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