Which of the following fitness components is primarily improved by anaerobic training?

Anaerobic training primarily targets activities that require short bursts of intense effort, typically lasting from just a few seconds up to about two minutes. These activities engage the glycolytic energy system, which relies on stored ATP and carbohydrates without the need for prolonged oxygen availability. As a result, this type of training is highly effective for improving muscular strength.

Muscular strength refers to the amount of force that a muscle or group of muscles can exert. Anaerobic training often involves heavy weightlifting, sprinting, or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), all of which greatly contribute to increases in muscular strength by promoting muscle hypertrophy, improving neuromuscular efficiency, and stimulating structural adaptations in the muscle fibers.

In contrast, other fitness components like muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility either rely on aerobic pathways or involve different types of training. For instance, muscular endurance focuses on the ability of muscles to sustain prolonged exercise, cardiovascular endurance pertains to the efficiency of the heart and lungs in delivering oxygen during extended physical activity, and flexibility emphasizes the range of motion in joints. Thus, anaerobic training is most aligned with improvements in muscular strength, making it the correct choice in this context.