What is the difference between cardiovascular exercise and aerobic exercise?

Today all of us has realized the importance of having a healthy and fit body and therefore we all want to practice some kind of exercise on a daily basis. However, while choosing an exercise form we end up getting confused about the type of exercise to choose.

Cardiovascular and Aerobic exercise are two very famous form of exercise and is practiced by many people. Both of these exercise forms are very effective when it comes to losing weight or maintaining a healthy body. Most people consider both the forms of exercise to be similar as they are having a common effect and is often addressed as endurance training. Therefore, we can understand that these exercises help in increasing our endurance. When both exercise forms are practiced simultaneously, our body endurance gradually increases.

However, both cardiovascular and aerobic exercise is different from one another in some form. Today we are discussing their differences.

How cardiovascular exercise and aerobic exercise differs based on their terminology?

What are the advantages of aerobic exercises

The basic difference between cardiovascular and aerobic exercise is based on their terminology. Speaking about their differences, let’s focus on the difference between their terminology to get a clear understanding of their meaning. The word ‘Cardiovascular’ starts with cardio which stands for heart. The word ‘Cardio’ is derived from a Greek word ‘Kardia’. Therefore, we can clearly understand that cardiovascular exercise helps in increasing our heart rate. However, the word ‘Aerobic’ is taken from a Latin word and means ‘with oxygen’. Therefore we can understand that aerobic exercises focus on improving the intake of oxygen.

How cardiovascular exercise and aerobic exercise differs based on their definition?

The main aim of practicing cardiovascular exercises is to achieve a healthy heart i.e. increasing the pumping capacity of our heart. A healthy and fit heart is able to pump more blood which enables our body to perform perfectly. Whereas as mentioned earlier, aerobic exercises focus on increasing the oxygen intake which helps in maintaining greater aerobic fitness. This also involves having an improved metabolic pathway.

Cardiovascular fitness and Aerobic fitness – Which is better?

Though people generally consider both exercise forms to have a similar result however when a detailed report is taken into consideration, we find some differences. Apart from increasing our endurance capacity, cardiovascular exercises enable our body to perform short intensity workouts in addition to weight training, whereas, aerobic exercises increases the body’s ability to practice regular long low-intensity moves with ease.

But in general sense, both exercise forms are similar and helps in increasing our fitness by improving our oxygen intake and heart rate at the same time. When we increase our respiratory rate by moving large muscles present in our body, our heart pumps blood much faster and harder. We can also say that both the terms ‘cardiovascular’ and ‘aerobics’ are synonyms.

Some exercises, for instance, running, swimming, jogging, bicycling, dancing and playing tennis are considered as aerobic exercise and cardiovascular exercises at the same time. All these exercises are having the capacity of increasing our oxygen intake and also helps our heart in pumping more blood. These exercises help in increasing our strength and ability to perform any activity for a longer period of time. They help in improving our overall body health, which is a good thing. Cardiovascular and aerobic exercises differ from anaerobic exercises as they do not involve the use of oxygen. Anaerobic exercises involve speed training and strength training.

Exercises to lose belly fat

If you are looking for some exercises which will help you in maintaining your overall health and fitness then we suggest you go for a combination of both aerobics and cardiovascular exercises. Both these exercise forms can be categorized into primary exercises and secondary exercises. Primary exercises will include jogging, swimming, cycling and much more. Whereas secondary exercises help in improving your cardio and aerobic fitness but it is very different from the primary form of exercise. Secondary exercises will include circuit weight training. A combination of both primary and secondary exercise will give you a healthy and fit body within no time.

To conclude we would like to say that no matter what form you choose – cardiovascular or aerobic exercise, you must stay motivated to workout and reach your fitness goals.