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Sports & Fitness vocabulary · Sports Science & Performance

Anaerobic

Meaning in sports & fitness, with examples

/ˌænəˈroʊbɪk/adjectiveCommon term

In sports & fitness, anaerobic means: Describes short, very intense exercise in which the body produces energy mainly without oxygen, such as sprinting or heavy lifting.

In Turkish: anaerobik, oksijensiz

How it is used

Used in sports science and coaching, usually as the opposite of aerobic. Coaches talk about anaerobic capacity, anaerobic power and the anaerobic threshold. Efforts lasting from a few seconds to about two minutes rely heavily on anaerobic energy.

Example sentences

  1. A 400-metre race is extremely demanding on the anaerobic system.

  2. These short sprints are designed to build anaerobic power.

Common collocations

  • anaerobic capacity
  • anaerobic threshold
  • anaerobic exercise
  • anaerobic power
  • aerobicDescribes exercise or energy production that uses oxygen, usually steady activity you can keep up for a long time, like jogging or cycling.
  • HIITShort for high-intensity interval training: short bursts of very hard exercise alternating with brief recovery periods.
  • VO2 maxThe maximum amount of oxygen your body can take in and use during intense exercise, a key measure of aerobic fitness.
  • heart rateThe number of times your heart beats per minute (bpm), used to measure how hard the body is working during exercise and at rest.

More terms: Sports Science & Performance

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