In the world of exercise, there are 2 main types of activities: aerobic exercise and anaerobic exercise. The prefix 'aero' is actually a Greek word meaning air. Aerodynamics and aerobatics are words that have to do with air. Aerobic is an adjective that has describes the involvement of air. The 'an' in anaerobic is a negative, so anaerobic is an adjective that describes something that doesn't involve air. You are probably thinking, "How can exercise be anaerobic if all exercise involves air?" Well, let me explain. When tagged with exercise, aerobic refers to the use of oxygen in the body's metabolic or energy-generating process. Conversely, anaerobic exercise is exercise that uses energy resident in the muscle tissues and does not involve oxygen in the generation process.
There are basically two ways in which energy is stored in the body: glycogen and fat. The majority of a body's glycogen stores are in the liver while some small amounts of glycogen are stored directly in the muscle fibers and other organs. Once the body's glycogen stores are "full", any remaining energy is stored as fat. Initially, during aerobic exercise, glycogen is broken down to produce glucose; which then reacts with oxygen, producing carbon dioxide and water, and releasing energy. As glycogen stores are used up, fat metabolism is initiated instead. Fat metabloism is a much slower process than glycogen metabolism. The sensation of running out of glycogen and switching over completely to fat as an energy source is known by runners as "hitting the wall." In anaerobic exercise, the glycogen within the muscle fibers is burned without reacting with oxygen. That process burns up muscle glycogen rather quickly, therefore anaerobic exercise can not be sustained for very long. Operating anaerobically, an untrained 400 meter sprinter may "hit the wall" before even completing the full 400 meters.
Not only can understanding the differences between aerobic and anaerobic exercise help with our physical training, it can also help us become much more efficient spiritual athletes as well. In a previous blog post (Run to Win: Fuel), I talked about how the physical food that we eat symbolizes the spiritual food that we consume. The same is true of the basic components of the metabolism process. Basically the food that we eat is the Word of God: Rhema words and Logos Word. Those words are stored within us... in our heart, in our psyche, in our spirit:
"I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11 - New Living TranslationThe stored Rhema words are similar to glycogen stores: readily available and efficient stores of energy. When we remember and/or rehearse those specific, spoken, pulsating-with-life words that we have receive from the Lord, we are using our glycogen stores. The large chunks of the Bible that we memorize - verses like John 3:16-17, Psalm 23, Psalm 24, Psalm 133, Proverbs 3:5-7, Matthew 5:3-16, Matthew 6:9-15, and Hebrews 12:1-3, to name a few - are like our fat stores. They may not be as dynamic as our remembered and rehearsed Rhema words, but they are long lasting and fuel us when all other fuels have run dry. Just as we can either exercise aerobically or anaerobically (and one is much more efficient than the other), we can also choose to walk according to the Spirit or according to the flesh:
"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die (or at least seriously "hit the wall"); but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God." Romans 8:12-14
"I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." Galatians 5:16
In order to strengthen our bodies' aerobic abilities (both physically and spiritually), we need to train. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "all athletes are disciplined in their training." When training to win, there are three general types of running exercises that are employed to improve the body's aerobic capacity and overall fitness: Aerobic Base Training, Lactate Threshold Training, and VO2Max Training. The first two are aerobic exercises, while the third is an anaerobic exercise. Over the next few weeks, I want to spend some time talking about each of the three. This week, I want to focus on the first and most fundamental part of endurance training: Aerobic Base Training.
In order to improve your body's aerobic fitness, you need to see improvements in oxygen delivery, energy production and utilization, and fat metabolism. Since oxygen is transported from your lungs to your body in red blood cells by way of the circulatory system, you need to see improvements in blood circulation and heart efficiency as well. Aerobic base training works on all of those. Prolonged aerobic base training produces muscular adaptations that improve oxygen transport to the muscles and increases energy production and utilization. These adaptations occur slowly over time. Over the course of a base period your body learns to break down and utilize fat as an energy source more efficiently. As an added bonus, this adaptation helps post-exercise fat metabolism as well. The fat we have stored in our bodies can actually provide enough energy to perform many distance events back to back. Glycogen depletion can occur in as little as one hour. The less muscle glycogen you utilize, the more efficient you are. Other adaptations of aerobic base training include increased stroke volume of the heart and capillary density. Stroke volume increase simply means that your heart pumps more blood per beat. Increasing capillary density means that the body actually builds additional capillary vessels to effectively transport more blood to the working muscles. The process of building capillaries occurs gradually. Because high-stress training actually breaks down capillaries, base training is best for allowing the slow growth of capillaries.
For aerobic base training to be effective, it must be long, consistent, and performed a low to moderate levels of effort. The hard part of base training is having the discipline to train at these low intensities. It may mean running very slowly or even walking. It may mean laying aside what you are capable of doing to embrace what you need to do for a season. It may actually require you to lay aside the pride that you have in your accomplishments and instead, humble yourself to undergo the transformation/adaptation process that is needed to take you to the next level (sound familiar?). I can tell you from my own experience, aerobic base training was initially one of the most frustrating things that I have ever undertaken on my own accord... but it ended up becomming one of the most rewarding.
The best way to insure that you stay within the aerobic base training zone is to use a heart rate monitor. Your heart rate is probably the best measure of actual effort. Many times, you may feel that you are running at a relaxed pace, only to find out that your heart is racing along near it's max. If you don't have a heart rate monitor, you can judge your effort level based on how long your conversations are. If you can carry on a lengthy conversation with your running partner, then chances are that you are at a good relaxed aerobic effort level. If your sentences morph into one and two word replies, then you have stepped out of the aerobic zone. Also, when you are in the aerobic zone, you are fully aware of your surroundings. As you creep into the anaerobic zone, your peripheral vision goes away and you get tunnel vision, where the only things you can see clearly are directly in front of you. If you do have a heart rate monitor, the aerobic base zone is typically between 55% - 75% of your maximum heart rate. Initially, when I began aerobic base training with my heart rate monitor, staying in the aerobic base zone meant that I couldn't exceed a 12:30 pace without driving my heart rate up... and it also meant that I had to, at times, walk up hills. For me, someone that was used to running at 9:00 - 8:30 pace, and at one time could rattle off mile after mile at 8:00 pace, that was extremely frustrating. What I soon found out, was that I was not as aerobically fit as I thought I was.
I can honestly say that there were many times that I just wanted to scrap the whole idea of aerobic base training. In fact, there were a few times when I did. The sound of my heart rate alert going off everytime I began going up even the slightest incline drove me crazy... crazy enough that to keep from yelling at my watch, I just turned my alarm off and forgot about monitoring my effort for the rest of the run. What kept me hanging in there and staying with the training plan was the word of many seasoned coaches that testified to the effectiveness of that type of training. Then, lo and behold, as I stayed true to the training, I began to see improvement. My 12:30 pace, soon became 12:00... then 11:00... then 10:00. By the time my training period had ended, I was able to maintain a 9:30 pace for 15+ miles without exceeding the the 75% of Max threshold. And because I was running at an easy effort, I was able to log more miles per week than I ever had in my 8 years of running... which translated into another great benefit: 10 pounds of weight loss. Aerobic Base Training works and it should be, if you are serious about improving your fitness and your performance, the foundation of any training program you undertake.
How many times do you become frustrated at the spiritual course you are on. Do you ever feel like the pace you are running is far to slow... That you are capable of so much more... but feeling like no one knows how gifted you are... no one knows the calling you have on your life... feeling like you are hidden and held back from really letting things loose and getting after the things God has called you to? Sometimes the most difficult part of walking in the Spirit is having the discipline to hold back when He is saying to hold back. Many times there are things that the Lord wants to develop in you so that you can go the distance with Him and not burn out after a month or two. If God has called you to something, you can be assured that as long as you stay true to His training plan, He will bring it to pass. Just like I ultimately had to trust in the word of the proven running coaches - even though I wasn't seeing any results and experiencing nothing but frustration; we all have to trust in the Word and words from our Lord. He knows what we need and He knows the exercises that will work into and work out of us the adaptations and transformations that we need. I love this scripture that King David wrote. I think it summarizes this post perfectly:
"I will run the course of Your commandments, For You shall enlarge my heart." Psalm 119:32Sounds like aerobic base training to me.
Let's run the race, remembering that slow and steady... well... wins the race.
Beautifully written! I always enjoy how you tie running and spiritual training together!
ReplyDelete