In a world that celebrates high intensity, no days off, and hacks, aerobic fitness rarely gets the attention it deserves. It’s not flashy and takes time to develop. It’s boring. And yet aerobic fitness is the keystone for both performance and health. Without it, our health and sports performance would collapse.
Whether you’re a runner or a triathlete, aerobic fitness is the foundation that supports speed, strength, and longevity. It’s not something that you build up once and keep forever. It’s trainable, meaning it can be improved, but can also be detrained, so it needs to be maintained.
The Foundation of Longevity
Aerobic fitness is a well established predictor of long term health. It not only helps increase your life span, but also improves how well you live. It supports your ability to train and race, work, and engage fully with life without fatigue and weakness. This is why aerobic fitness is important for athletes whose goals aren’t purely endurance based Strength, power, and speed all rely of a good base of aerobic fitness.
How is Aerobic Fitness Built?
The simplest way to build aerobic fitness for both performance and health is through easy workouts. They should be appropriately paced to allow the body to adapt without excessive strain. If you’re a beginner, this could be just a very easy workout followed by some stretching. For intermediate to advanced athletes, either the entire workout could be easy or you might include some easy/moderate intervals that are still within the aerobic range.
Aerobic, Speed & Strength
Building aerobic fitness requires consistency and patience. Together with speed workouts, hills, and strength sessions, it makes a complete and competitive athlete. And combining all of these training aspects at the right time is what brings us to our A races in peak fitness.
Every type of workout has an aerobic aspect it. A speed session at the track, a hill workout on the bike, or drills in the pool. All contribute to aerobic fitness. So remember that all workouts will complement your aerobic fitness. But they can’t replace your long run leading up to a marathon or a long bike before an Ironman. They work in conjunction and support different aspect of training.
And when you’re building a base, either after an extended time off or if you’re a beginner, nothing can replace those base workouts that develop endurance.
A Lifetime Investment
Aerobic fitness is more than just chasing a single race or season. Rather than cycling between quick build ups and long layoffs that prevent long term improvements, consistent fitness helps supports a body that becomes resilient and healthy. When you build a solid aerobic base, you can remain healthier long term, easily remain consistent, and enjoy your sport for a longer time.
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