Exercise Physiology Report: Aerobic and Anaerobic Terminology Usage

This report critically examines the use of 'aerobic' and 'anaerobic' terms in exercise physiology and sports medicine, aiming to unify their application among athletes and sport scientists. It highlights the misuse of these terms by authors, particularly in categorizing efforts as anaerobic lactic when other metabolic pathways are involved. The report emphasizes that the contribution of metabolic pathways depends on exercise duration and intensity. It clarifies that anaerobic metabolism doesn't function solely without oxygen but rather doesn't utilize it, suggesting 'oxygen-independent' or 'non-mitochondrial.' Alternative terms like 'phosphagen pathway' and 'oxidative phosphorylation' are proposed for better accuracy. The report concludes by recommending terminology based on exercise duration, such as explosive efforts for phosphagen pathways, high-intensity efforts for glycolytic pathways, and endurance efforts for oxidative phosphorylation. Desklib offers more resources on exercise physiology and related topics.

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Table of Contents
Aerobic’ and ‘Anaerobic’ terms used in exercise physiology: a critical terminology reflection, 2015.. 3
REFERENCES......................................................................................................................................4

Aerobic’ and ‘Anaerobic’ terms used in exercise physiology: a critical terminology reflection,
2015.
The main purpose of this report is to focus on the appropriate use of the terms both
aerobic as well as anaerobic exercises in the sport medicine, to try to unify their use across
the athlete as well as sport scientists. It is determined by the study that most of authors misuse
the aerobic as well as anaerobic terms. For example, they believe that it is quite mistaken to
categorize an effort as anaerobic lactic exercise when other metabolic pathways are also
concurrently tangled. It is also analysed that it has extensively been expressed that the
contribution of the metabolic pathways which are mainly depends on both the duration as
well as intensity of an exercise. In addition to this, it is essential to note about the anaerobic
metabolism, which is not a pathway that generally functions in the absence of oxygen but
rather it does not use oxygen. The anaerobic metabolism which usually transforms the
adenosine triphosphate as well as the phosphocreatine should therefore not be termed
anaerobic but rather independent of oxygen or non-mitochondrial. Instead of calling it the
anaerobic a-lactic pathway, it should be termed the phospagens pathway. Unlike the
glycolysis, it should simply replace the anaerobic lactic pathway, as again indirectly involved
in such pathways, oxygen is still available (DiMenna and Jones, 2018).
In this, for the third metabolic energy pathway the oxidative phosphorylation should
replace the term aerobic pathway. Furthermore, at lab, it attempts to quantify contributions
from anaerobic or aerobic metabolisms are bedevilled by technical as well as theoretical
challenges which have been addressed successfully by the several research groups. In
addition to this, the cellular respiration is generally a collection of three unique metabolic
pathways such as glycolysis, the citric acid cycle and the electron transport chain. It is
identified that during the resting state in humans, there is a less production of ATP in the
body. The resynthesis of the Adenosine triphosphate by the mitochondrial respiration that
usually arises in the mitochondria and consists the combustion of the fuel in the existence of
the sufficient oxygen. It is concluded that the field practitioners should use the terms for
maximal efforts that is based on the exercise duration such as explosive efforts ( the time
period up to 6 seconds) involves the predominance of the phosphagen pathways, the high
intensity efforts ( the efforts comprised in between less than 6 seconds to 1 minute) involves
the predominance of glycolytic pathways and an endurance intensive efforts (exercise about
longer than 1 minute) can involves the predominance of an oxidative phosphorylation
(Kenny, Notley and Gagnon, 2017).

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
DiMenna, F. J. and Jones, A. M., 2018. Aerobic performance assessment. In Performance
Assessment in Strength and Conditioning (pp. 212-239). Routledge.
Kenny, G. P., Notley, S. R. and Gagnon, D., 2017. Direct calorimetry: a brief historical
review of its use in the study of human metabolism and thermoregulation. European journal
of applied physiology, 117(9), pp.1765-1785.
Wooten, L. C and et. al., 2021. Role of Respiratory Buffering in the Relationship Between
Recovery and Performance Fatigability After Aerobic Exercise Training. Cardiopulmonary
Physical Therapy Journal, 32(1), pp.11-19.