Anaerobic Interval Training Except for the occasional intramural basketball game or a quick trip to the cafeteria before it closes the doors, most people have little to do with anaerobic activities. Most spend the majority of their day going up and down stairs, doing moderate tasks and enjoying a moderate aerobic workout. Despite this fact, since the people of this class are preparing to be coaches, athletic trainers, physical therapists or doctors, it is important to know and understand the benefits of anaerobic training. To understand why interval training is successful, an understanding must be found of how much energy is necessary to perform a certain amount of work. Whether this work is continuous or done intermittently is an important difference in how we use energy and how efficiently it is used. The key to these questions lies in the interaction between the ATP-PC system and the anaerobic glycolysis during intermittent exercise as compared to continuous exercise. During short-duration, intermittent exercise, the energy supplied by the anaerobic glycolysis is less than what it contributes during more continuous exercise. The ATP-PC system contributes more to energy production during intermittent exercise. Ultimately, there will be less lactic acid produced, greater lactic acid cleared, and less fatigue associated with the intermittent work. This remains to be true regardless of the intensity or duration of intermittent workouts. Even thought supplies of ATP-PC are exhausted after only a few seconds of all-out running, between each intermittent exercise there is a period of relief. During this recovery period ATP and PC supplies are replenished by the aerobic system and thus myoglobin stores are also restored and available as an energy source. Because of this anaerobic glycolysis is not used or called upon less to produce energy, which means that lactic acid will not accumulate as rapidly. If continuous exercise wou...
