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Weight lifting, sprinting, and doing pushups are anaerobic exercises, which require a lot of energy, depleting the body's oxygen reserves. The oxygen debt requires rapid deep breathing to restore a...

Weight lifting, sprinting, and doing pushups are anaerobic exercises, which require a lot of energy, depleting the body's oxygen reserves. The oxygen debt requires rapid deep breathing to restore a proper oxygen level to muscle cells. Repeated exercise causes related muscle fibers to enlarge. If more oxygen is required than is available during your workout, your muscles obtain energy using a rapid, inefficient process called anaerobic metabolism. This process creates lactic acid, a waste product that causes muscle soreness. By contrast, if you run long distances and exercise regularly, your cardiovascular and respiratory systems adapt and are able to continue using a process called aerobic metabolism for much longer. While you run, your body can supply adequate oxygen to meet your energy requirements and you do not produce lactic acid, which spares you soreness.

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