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The benefits of aerobics are well known. When you exercise aerobically you strengthen your heart muscle as well as your entire cardiovascular system. Muscle building workouts fine tune the body and make it better able to function and burn away fat.

There are two types of muscle building workouts that will either allow you to gain muscle mass or tone your existing muscle. The goal of a low rep, high weight muscle building workout is to increase muscle mass, or plump up the muscle to its greatest volume. Lifting heavy weight causes the muscle fibers to swell and you will notice a significant increase in the mass of muscle under your skin. The goal of high rep, low weight muscle building workouts is to tone the muscle and make it stronger without a significant noticeable change in mass. Women often perform toning workouts in order to sculpt their muscles and make them appear more defined and bodybuilders select programs that allow them to increase mass.

When people begin new muscle building workouts they expect results quickly. This is fine if your body is lean to begin with. But if you have a high ratio of body fat to lean muscle, you will have to do aerobic cardiovascular exercises to burn off fat in combination with muscle building workouts to build muscle in order to see the desired results. Eating a low fat diet composed of lean proteins and low carbohydrates is also helpful in building muscle and reducing fat.

One of the benefits of muscle building workouts, aside from larger and more toned muscles, is an increase in your body's ability to burn fat. Even when you are not exercising, your muscles continue to burn fat more effectively when you perform a regular fitness program that includes muscle building workouts. Aerobic exercise strengthens your heart and improves the function of the cardiovascular system which is important in delivering blood to your muscles. But to continuously burn fat you need a combination of both aerobic training and muscle building.

It is a misconception that by working out you are actually building additional muscle tissue. We are born with the highest number of muscle fibers we will ever have and that will never change. What you are trying to change through muscle building workouts is the appearance of the muscle tissue, bulking it up and making the fibers larger and more defined.

Anaerobic And Aerobic Exercise

Aerobics (long, steady state sub-maximal cardio) aren't much good for many health or fat loss related benefits. I've already done a post on why aerobics suck for fat loss. And then I went over the health benefits of interval training versus steady-state aerobics in my interval training for fat loss article.

Though I should admit aerobic exercise has its place. It can be a beneficial tool in getting rid of stubborn body fat in the areas males get it most (the abs) and females (butt, hips and thighs) But only if you do it on one of these two occasions (and I'll explain why as well!):

Time No. 1 You Have To Do Aerobics: After Interval Workout

To start with, let's look at what intervals and aerobics do in your body

Steady state go after heart rate cardio (aerobics). Utilizes fat for energy, but the problem is it takes a long time to exercise for the body to start making use of fat as energy for this kind of cardio.

High intensity interval training. Burns glycogen and releases fatty acids into the blood stream, but it doesn't use those fatty acids for energy, which means they get redeposited into the fat cells.

Here's how you obtain the both of best worlds:

1. Execute your 12 minutes or less of interval training

2. Hang around 5 minutes

3. Do 20 (maximum 30) minutes of steady state cardio (aerobics)

When you do it this way, the HIIT followed by 5 minutes rest guarantees a large release of fatty acids into the blood stream, which means you're guaranteed to be burning fat as fuel when you do your aerobics! Neat huh?

Time Number 2 You Must Do Aerobics: Once you're done lifting weights

Intense weight lifting is very similar to Hight Intensity Interval Training in the effects that it has on your body, the fuel it uses, etc. So the only other time you should do aerobic cardio is after your weight lifting.

I recommend 20-30 mins of low-medium intensity steady state cardio after weight lifting.

Why You Have To Know This

CNS overload: If you're lifting intensly, focusing on strength, doing low reps with heavy weights 3x per week, you're working your central nervous system to increase your strength (primarily). Interval training on your "off" days may be overload for some people, steady state aerobics after weights is a good option if that's you.

Stubborn fat: If you're already around 10-12% body fat (males) or 15-17% body fat (females) and you need to get SUPER ripped, then you must put to use the HIIT followed with aerobics in this case. It will help chuck out those last stubborn pounds.

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Vita V. has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cars, Web Development and Allergies. Click Here to Get an Effective Method to Burn Your Fat while Feeding Your Muscles!Article Source:. Vita V.'s top article generates over 135000 views. Bookmark Vita V. to your Favourites.

Caleb Lee has sinced written about articles on various topics from Aerobics, Health and Balanced Diet. Visit the experts website for more about deadlift technique and. Caleb Lee's top article generates over 4400 views. Bookmark Caleb Lee to your Favourites.

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