They’re not the same.
Health is what’s inside of us, where the SYSTEMS of the body are working in an optimal way (nervous, muscular, skeletal, circulatory, digestive, lymphatic)
Fitness is the outside – our physical ability to perform a specific activity
Too many people focus on fitness and not on health.
said in a similar way – too many people focus on power and not endurance
And that’s the biggest difference between health and fitness – understanding the difference between endurance and power aka aerobic (endurance) and anaerobic (power)
Aerobic is moderate exercise sustained over a period of time and benefits our heart, lungs, and blood vessels. Aerobic exercises use oxygen as their fuel source.
Anaerobic exercise is a short-burst type of exercise and benefits our human growth hormone – stimulating muscle, bone, and organ growth. Anaerobic exercises use glycogen and sugars as fuel.
Workouts can be either aerobic or anaerobic depending on the intensity of the workout, which relates to how many beats per minute our heart is pumping.
A lower heart rate is aerobic, higher heart rate is anaerobic. So running for example could be either aerobic or anaerobic, just not both at the same time.
Most people live in an anaerobic state and this causes a serious chain of events that affects our quality of life because while we’re in an anaerobic state, our body is using all of our blood sugars that are stored, which could be used for other tasks like keeping us cool, calm, and collected vs us snapping at the drop of a pin because we’re anxious.
If you have constant headaches, fatigue, injuries, anxiety, low blood sugar patterns, and stiff joints… maybe it’s time to switch the style of your workouts or if not, start working out aerobically, regularly.
See, health and fitness can work together.
Start by building up your aerobic base. Use the formula 180 – your age (30 ish?) so that would be 150. This is what your max heart rate should be while exercising aerobically and over time this is going to give us tons of energy and endurance. It’s a long game, that’s not always sexy, but always works. A good rule of thumb to tell if you are in an aerobic state while working out is to see if you can hold a conversation during the workout. If we’re in an aerobic state our breathing would be steady, clear; and not too winded. A heart rate monitor may be the best investment you make. I use the Polar H10 that i got for 80$ and hooks right up to my phone. Sometimes you can get it as low as $65 like if you wait until black Friday.
Do this aerobic base-building period for 2-8 months, and keep anaerobic exercise to once per week max.
After the base build; began to introduce anaerobic exercise 2-3 times per week.
This is how we become better athletes, burn stubborn fat, not get sick, get healthier, and give us more energy.
But what do most people do?
Hit the gym or a workout as hard as they can… you know how that story goes.
This is what I used to do too! No pain no gain right? Wrong. It’s dangerous because the compound effect of being in a constant anaerobic state is bringing weakness, damage, and destruction to our bodies.
The reality is, that we only got one body, it’s not like we get a do-over.
So the key to healthy living is to operate in that aerobic state, we need to train our bodies to burn fat instead of burning sugar. Sugars can be used for other things like keeping us focused.
And anyone can achieve this healthy living thing; just decide to.
That’s the only thing holding you back.
Working out is a start, but working out aerobically from the start? even better. It’s a combination of what you do and how you do it.
The best time to plant a tree was yesterday, the second best time is right now.
What do you think?
Joe DiAndrea 