Understanding different types of exercise

What is physical activity and exercise?

Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure. A wide range of activities can be included in this category: from getting out of bed and walking to the train, to assembling our home furniture or taking a nice walk outside.

Exercise is a subset of physical activity that is performed in a planned, structured, and repetitive manner. Exercise is performed during leisure time with the intent of improving physical fitness. Examples of this are following an exercise plan to help us improve our running or lift heavier weights.

Aerobic and endurance exercise or anaerobic and resistance exercise? What are the differences?

Exercise can be broadly classified as aerobic or anaerobic, depending on the predominant energy systems that are used to support the activity.

Aerobic or endurance exercise involves repeated and continuous stimulation of muscle fibers that mainly rely on aerobic energy-producing systems. Examples of aerobic activities are walking, jogging, running, cycling, and swimming.

Anaerobic or resistance exercise involves brief periods of vigorous muscle stimulation that mainly rely on anaerobic energy-producing systems. Weightlifting is an example.

Some activities require a mixture of both aerobic and anaerobic energy-producing systems. For instance, some types of interval training involve brief high-intensity efforts mixed with slower aerobic phases. Team sports such as football are examples where some aerobic running across the field is mixed with bursts of anaerobic sprint running to reach the ball or the goal.