Question 023: TKD and aerobic exercise

Reply

Do not mistake sweating for aerobic exercise. Sweating means your body is too hot and is trying to cool itself. Sweating is more the result of the ambient temperature and humidity than it is a result of ‘hard work” by the person. It is much easier to sweat while performing Taekwondo in small, confined room with a group of other sweating people than it is to sweat while jogging down a country road one evening.

Sweating is stressful to the body, since it is losing vital minerals. It is also a waste of energy since the sweat is conducting heat and energy away from the body instead of keeping it within the body where it may be used to perform work. If you perform continuously for an hour at a level where you only maintain a sheen of perspiration on your body, you will be able to perform more “work” with your body than you would if you were profusely sweating the entire time, even if you were drinking water periodically throughout the hour.

If you want to be fit, you need to perform aerobic (with oxygen) exercises. When you jog, swim, cycle, or jump rope at a steady pace you are expending energy constantly and evenly so the body may take in and use all the oxygen it needs to produce the energy efficiently. When you jog, swim, cycle, or jump rope and you stop the movements, such as when you stop pedaling or jumping, you have stopped the exercise. For example, when both your feet are NOT off the ground at the same time, you are no longer running—you are walking. When you run for an hour, you are performing the running motion for the entire hour without stopping.