The Best Combined Anaerobic & Aerobic Work Out

What's the Difference?

• Anaerobic respiration tends to be high-intensity in nature and does not require oxygen to produce energy. When you perform submaximal endurance exercise, such as sprinting and wrestling, your body needs energy quickly to feed your nervous system and muscles. Anaerobic respiration, in which your cells break down glucose for energy, is the quickest source.

  Aerobic exercise, on the other hand, relies on breathing to control the oxygen muscles need to burn fuel. During long-term endurance training, such as cycling and long-distance running, there is enough time for your body to tap into your fat tissues for energy, using oxygen and glucose primarily to initiate aerobic metabolism. All forms of workouts use various degrees of both respiration types.

Circuit Training

• Circuit training involves performing a series of exercises -- usually between five to 10 -- that work on different movement patterns without rest in between. The exercises usually last between 15 to 45 seconds, performing at 40 to 60 percent of your maximum heart rate. In fact, circuit training can provide the same aerobic benefits as typical cardiovascular exercises. In a 2004 study published in "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research," subjects had a significantly higher heart rate while performing circuit resistance training than running on a treadmill while performing at the same exercise intensity. Therefore, circuit training can improve aerobic and anaerobic performance together and can be a beginner's program before progressing to higher intensity exercise modalities. For example, perform squats, pushups, pullups, clockwork lunges and medicine ball chops for 15 to 30 seconds without rest in between. After the set, rest for 30 seconds and repeat the circuit two to three more times.

Interval Training

• Interval training involves performing a bout of high-intensity exercise -- about 85 to 95 percent of your maximum heart rate -- followed by a period of lower-intensity exercise without rest in between. This requires your body to quickly transition from anaerobic respiration to aerobic respiration, and vice versa, while developing a higher resistance against lactate buildup and fatigue. You can use traditional aerobic modalities, such as running and cycling, or strength and power exercises, for interval training. A sample workout with a treadmill would be to perform 30 seconds of running at 90 percent of your maximum heart rate followed by three to five minutes of running at 60 to 70 percent of your maximum heart rate. This system is repeated for as long as you like -- six minutes, 10 minutes or 20 minutes. Interval training can be useful in conditioning for basketball, soccer and lacrosse.

Supersets

• In a superset system, you perform two exercises that work opposing muscle groups, such as chest and back, or non-opposing muscle groups, such as shoulders and legs. A sample superset would be performing a pushup and a pullup or a shoulder press and a squat without rest in between. Although you're using anaerobic respiration during the exercise, your body transitions to aerobic respiration between sets and after exercise. This is known as EPOC -- excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, which occurs after a bout of high-intensity exercise. In this state, the body repairs muscle tissues, cools body temperature and delivers nutrients to your cells. This can last between 15 minutes to 48 hours, depending your workout intensity and fitness level, says Len Kravitz, Ph.D., a fitness researcher with the University of New Mexico. In a 2010 study published in "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research," subjects who performed superset training had, on average, a 33-percent higher exercise afterburn rate than the traditional training group that did one exercise at a time. Average lactate levels in the superset group was about 50 percent higher than the other group.