Anaerobic vs Aerobic Training: What’s the Difference?

In the world of fancy training terms, two that you’ll see get thrown around include aerobic & anaerobic training.

While these aren’t terms whose definitions are easily deducible from looking at them, understanding them can have a big impact on how you view & approach your training.

So, in this article, I aim to provide you with the their general definitions and practical applications.

If you have any questions that you feel go unanswered in this article, don’t hesitate to comment below and I’ll get back to you as early as I can.

As usual, definitions first

The term aerobic refers to any metabolic process that requires oxygen to occur.

The term anaerobic refers to any metabolic process that does not require oxygen to occur.

From a simple definitions standpoint, that’s about all there is to say.

In regard to what this means for your training, though, there is a bit more to say.

Aerobic versus anaerobic energy production

There are a number of different ways that your body turns food into the energy that fuels movement (and everything else that happens in your body for that matter).

These different energy systems can broadly be categorized as either aerobic (oxygen demanding) or anaerobic (without oxygen).

Your aerobic and anaerobic energy systems fuel very different types of movement.

Typically, any form of exercise that lasts ~4 minutes or longer is going to be fueled primarily by aerobic energy development.

Conversely, anything that lasts less than this is going to fueled primarily by anaerobic energy development.

Do note, though, that this 4-minute mark isn’t perfectly true for everyone and the number you’ll see will vary source to source. However, around 4 minutes is a good enough ballpark.

A key point is that these specific energy systems can be trained.

In other words, your body’s ability to turn food into fuel using these energy systems is something that can be improved.

That said, typically you will structure a training to target aerobic energy development or anaerobic energy development.

This is the essence of what conditioning means as a form of training.

The big difference between the aerobic versus anaerobic energy systems is how much energy they can produce and how fast they can produce it.

Your anaerobic energy systems can produce energy very quickly, but they cannot do so for very long and cannot produce high amounts of it.

Your aerobic energy systems can produce a ton of energy and they can do so for a long time, but they cannot do it quickly.

This has implications for which energy systems predominate in any form of exercise.

Examples of aerobic training could include a 10 minute run for max distance or a 45-minute easy run.

Examples of anaerobic training could include strength training, power training, sprinting, running a half mile as fast as possible, or high intensity interval training (HIIT).

More on aerobic training

As we’ve noted, aerobic energy production requires oxygen.

So, the limiting factor for this form of exercise is how much oxygen you can get out of the air and into your muscles.

Similarly, the primary point of improvement with aerobic training is an increase in how much oxygen you can get out of the air and into your muscles.

There are four main limiting points to this use of oxygen, and therefore four main points of improvement. These include:

• Stroke volume

  • This is how much blood your heart pumps with every heart beat

  • As your aerobic fitness improves, your blood is able to pump more blood with each heart beat

• Muscle capillary density

  • These are the exit ramps from your main blood supply into your muscles

  • The more of these exit ramps there are, the easier it is for blood (and therefore oxygen) to get into your muscles

  • As your aerobic fitness improves, the density of these capillaries in your muscles increases

• Mitochondrial density

  • Mitochondria are called the ‘powerhouse of the cell’ because they are were aerobic energy production occurs

  • The more mitochondria there are in your cell, the more room there is for aerobic energy production

  • As your aerobic fitness improves, the amount & density of mitochondria in your muscles increases

• Lipolytic (fat burning) enzyme production

  • fats can only be turned into energy aerobically (carbs can be burned aerobically or anaerobically)

  • The more of these fat burning enzymes you have, the easier it is for your body to use fats for fuel

  • As your aerobic fitness improves, the amount of lipolytic enzymes your body produces increases

More on anaerobic training

An exercise can be classified as anaerobic if the primary system fueling it is an anaerobic energy system.

Groundbreaking stuff, I know.

My point in saying that is to say that this simple definition can encompass a wide variety of different training types.

Plus, there are two distinct anaerobic energy systems that you may seek to train:

• The phosphocreatine system

• The fast glycolytic system

  • There’s a slow glycolytic system too, but it contributes more to aerobic exercise

The phosphocreatine system contributes more to exercise lasting 0-30 seconds.

The fast glycolytic system contributes more to exercise lasting 30-240 seconds.

Again, though, these numbers aren’t perfect and the exact numbers you’ll see will vary source to source. However, the real answer for you will be somewhere around this.

In the same way that you can distinctly choose to train either your aerobic or anaerobic energy system development, you can also target one of these two different anaerobic energy systems with training.

An example of an exercise that trains your phosphocreatine energy system would be a 10-second all-out sprint (which can be done sprinting on a track or with 10-seconds of max effort on any cardio machine).

An example of an exercise that trains your fast glycolytic system would be 2 minutes of easy running, 2 minutes of max effort running, repeated 3-5x (again, this can also be done on any cardio machine).

Exercises such as plyometrics, olympic lifting, strength training, or calisthenics are also dependent on your anaerobic energy systems for fuel, and are therefore considered anaerobic training, but they won’t improve your anaerobic energy production as much as more standard conditioning work.

The reason for this is that there are other factors, such as neural input or force production, that are likely to be limiting factors to the exercise.

For your anaerobic energy systems to be trained and improved, then the energy systems themselves must be the limiting factor to the exercise.

A small piece of nuance this is, but an important one if you want to see maximum results.

Conclusion

Any good program should include some amount of aerobic and anaerobic training.

They are highly complementary to one another, and they both uniquely contribute to your health & longevity.

The exact balance of them depends on your goals and current fitness level, but they should be there in some form nonetheless.

If you want specific help setting this up for yourself, I’d encourage you to consider 1:1 coaching.

If you have any questions you feel went unanswered, do NOT hesitate to comment below- I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.