Aerobic vs Anaerobic Training

Merry Christmas!!!  I hope everyone got what they wanted from Santa and enjoyed some nice Paleo-friendly meals and snacks like honey-glazed ham, Mac & Cheese and cina-buns!!!

I wanted to talk about one of the underlying physiologicial reasons as to why CrossFit works.  Its called E.P.O.C.: excess post-exercise oxygen consumption.  Simply stated, its the number of calories burned after your workout above your normal resting rate due to the workout.  Its more commonly known as the "after-burn" effect.  Studies have shown that this after-burn effect could last anywhere from a few hours up to 48 hours post-workout!  In other words, if you normally WOD on M/W/F, when you show up on Wednesday, you could quite possibly still be burning calories from Monday's WOD!  

For example, lets say that my resting metabolic rate (number of calories I need to ingest just to stay alive) is 2,000 calories/day.  After a typical WOD, that rate could increase up to 2,300 calories.  Now my body is burning more calories at rest.  However, the body's response isn't the same with every type of exercise modality.  

Even with my personal clients, I hear people say that they need to get "cardio" in.  If done properly, anaerobic training IS your cardio, while throwing, squatting, lifting and jumping all at the same time.  Here's the kicker: even though both aerobic (running) and anaerobic (CrossFit) elicit an E.P.O.C. response, anaerobic exercise, especially high-intensity exercises with weights elicits not only a much greater response, but the after-burn effect lasts for much longer!

Am I saying to stop doing aerobic exercise?  If you're performing the same number of aerobic sessions as anaerobic sessions, yes.  You're actually doing more harm than good.  You're stunting your strength gains, muscle growth and some other very cool physiological improvements.  Aerobic exercise is great as an active recovery (bike, run, row).  However, there's much more of a benefit from anaerobic training with weights in addition to the carry-over effect.

Happy exercising!