Aerobic exercise produces

The essence of aerobic exercise is that the human body uses the aerobic metabolic system as the core to provide energy when the body is fully supplied with oxygen. It lasts no less than 10 minutes and involves large muscle groups. The concept of aerobic exercise was born in the exercise physiology research in the 1960s. However, its underlying exercise logic is a natural ability engraved in human evolutionary genes and is not a product created by man.

When I was taking practical classes at a fitness college in my early years, the instructor threw away a green book with a fluffy cover in the first class. It was "Aerobics" published by Cooper in 1968. Many people now think that aerobics is synonymous with running circles and jumping exercises. In fact, the earliest concept was used by the U.S. Air Force to supplement physical shortcomings. At that time, Cooper discovered that many pilots had well-trained muscles but collapsed when doing long-distance endurance tests, so he slowly sorted out the quantitative standards of "maximum oxygen uptake" and "aerobic energy supply threshold". For the first time, he separated this low-intensity, long-term exercise mode from the general "exercise" and gave a clear definition.

It's interesting to say that there is still another completely different voice in the academic circles: there is no "invention of aerobic exercise" at all, this is the instinct engraved in human genes. In order to track prey, Homo sapiens in the Paleolithic era could walk continuously for four or five hours at a speed of 5 kilometers per hour. The energy supply mode fully meets the current aerobic standards. Cooper only quantified and named this movement mode that has existed for hundreds of thousands of years. I went on a business trip to a pastoral area in Inner Mongolia two years ago. The local herdsmen rode horses and drove sheep for dozens of kilometers every day. If you asked them if they knew about aerobic exercise, they had never heard of it. Wearing a heart rate monitor to measure it, the heart rate throughout the day was basically stuck in the 60%-70% range of the maximum heart rate, which is much better than many people who run with heart rate in the gym.

How do you know in practice that you have really "produced" an aerobic exercise state? When I teach novice students, I never let them get stuck on the heart rate monitor numbers. The only criterion is: can you chat normally with the people around you while exercising, without gasping for breath and jumping around words. If you can't even say a complete sentence, then it's most likely that you've reached the mixed-oxygen or even anaerobic range, and it's not considered pure aerobic. Last week, I took a friend to walk 10 kilometers in Ossen. She insisted on slowing down the pace at the beginning. After walking 2 kilometers, she stopped and squatted on the side of the road. I asked her to lower her cadence to about 110 steps per minute. After walking for half an hour, she was able to hum. When I took off the watch, I saw that the heart rate was just stuck at 65% of the maximum heart rate. She was in a proper aerobic state. That night, she went to bed an hour and a half earlier than usual. This is the most intuitive value of aerobic.

There are a lot of controversies about aerobic in the fitness circle nowadays. One group claims that "aerobic is omnipotent" and can cure everything from fat loss, lowering blood pressure, and improving mood. The other group claims that "aerobic is useless" and claims that it will damage the muscles and hurt the knees. In fact, my friend who is a sports rehabilitation practitioner said that these two statements are quite extreme. As long as the intensity is controlled within a reasonable range, 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week will cause far less wear and tear on the joints than sitting for long periods of time and moving less. The combination of strength training and aerobic exercise is more effective in reducing fat and preserving muscle than doing either alone. Even the aerobic determination threshold is not yet unified. The American College of Sports Medicine believes that moderate intensity aerobic training must be 64% of the maximum heart rate. Many scholars have also suggested that for people who have been sedentary all year round, even if they only walk slowly to 55% of the maximum heart rate, as long as it lasts for more than 10 minutes, it can produce the effect of aerobic training. There is no need to be so stuck.

To put it bluntly, this thing is originally born out of people's daily needs. How can there be so many thresholds? Go for an afternoon ride in a country park on the weekend, do aerobics for half an hour while following a video, or even visit the botanical garden for two hours with the elderly at home. As long as you feel a little tired but can still talk normally and last long enough, it is all solid aerobic exercise. After all, the earliest aerobic exercise was originally developed by humans in order to survive. Now it is a natural thing to use it to make our lives more comfortable.