Sunlight, air, water and exercise are the sources of life and health. —Hippocrates, the father of medicine
August 8 is the country's 14th "National Fitness Day", and a wave of sports has been set off in various places, and various sports weeks have been held. Lack of movement has become one of the biggest public health problems of the 21st century. Studies at home and abroad have confirmed that regular exercise can effectively prevent diabetes, hypertension, cancer, gout and other diseases, eliminate sub-health, promote physical and mental pleasure, and is also one of the most appropriate and important ways to improve or maintain physical health.
Walking 7,000 steps a day reduces the risk of death by 70%!
The number of exercise steps per day is one of the more meaningful indicators to quantify the total amount of daily exercise. So, how many steps can exercise maximize the health benefits? In 2021, a new study published in JAMA Network Open showed that exercising 7,000 steps a day was enough to prevent serious heart disease and its complications and reduce the risk of death by 70 percent.
Exercise for 5 hours a week, and the risk of death is reduced by more than 30%!
The 2018 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Physical Activity Guidelines recommend that adults should do at least 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise per week, or 75-150 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise, or an equivalent combination of the two. In addition, it is best to do at least 2 more full-body strength training sessions of moderate intensity per week.
However, the Harvard team found that the above training does not seem to have tapped the maximum health potential. In July 2022, a team of researchers at Harvard University wrote in Circulation, the top journal in the cardiovascular field, that 300-600 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week, or 150-300 minutes of high-intensity exercise, can significantly reduce the risk of all-cause death.
Exercise intensity refers to the amount of exercise per unit of time, usually measured in metabolic equivalent of task (MET). If defined by calorie consumption, 1 MET = 1kcal/kg/hour (1 kcal per kilogram of body weight per hour); If defined by voke, 1 MET is equivalent to the oxygen uptake of a person in a resting state, about 3.5ml/kg/min (3.5 ml of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body weight). In general, the intensity of meditation is 1MET, the intensity of fast walking at 5 kilometers per hour is about 4 MET, and jogging tends to reach the intensity of 5MET or even 6MET.
Metabolic equivalent levels of moderate-intensity activities are 3-6 MET, including sweeping, brisk walking, relatively low-speed jogging, etc.; The MET value of high-intensity exercise is more than 6, and the stimulation of the heart and lungs is greater, such as jogging at a speed of more than 7 kilometers per hour. Study author Donghoon Lee of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and others analyzed data from 116221 adult participants in two longitudinal studies spanning 30 years (1988-2018) and concluded:
1. Participants who followed the 2018 edition of the guidelines and performed 150-300 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week reduced the risk of death for various causes by 20%-21%; Participants who performed 75-150 minutes of high-intensity exercise per week had a 19% lower risk of dying from various causes.
2. Participants who exercised 300-600 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week reduced the risk of all-cause death by 26%-31%; 150-300 minutes of high-intensity exercise per week reduced the risk of all-cause death by 21%-23%.
3. In addition, doing 10 hours of aerobic exercise per week is not harmful, but beyond this value, the benefit in reducing the risk of death no longer increases.
How to exercise scientifically and avoid sports injuries?
In general, exercise and the health brought by exercise can not only increase the length of life, but also increase the thickness of life. But it is also necessary to pay attention to maintaining regular, moderate, and scientific exercise.
1. Warm-up exercise is indispensable. In the body has not been fully stretched to start exercise, insufficient strength, poor body coordination, prone to strain and sprains, but also due to excessive movement during exercise, injuries to the ankles, knees or waist.
2. Strengthen self-protection in sports. To choose a suitable sports venue, wear sports equipment, and understand some self-protection actions during exercise. If you are about to fall, you should immediately bow your head, bend your elbows, and make a group of bodies, land on your back, and do rolling movements with the trend, and you cannot support the ground with your arms straight, so as not to cause fractures.
3. You should choose the mode of exercise according to your age and your own condition. People over the age of 50 are not suitable for strenuous exercise; If the cardiopulmonary function is not good, blindly increasing the amount of exercise will cause excessive cardiac load; People with lumbar disc herniation are not suitable for practicing sit-ups.
4. It is best to cross a variety of exercise methods. More choices of exercise methods can not only cultivate more interest in sports, but also avoid muscle strain. If you are very fond of strenuous exercise, it is best to ask a professional athlete or fitness instructor for guidance to standardize the movements and reduce the damage.
Immediately after sprains, cold compresses should be given to prevent excessive swelling of local tissues and reduce pain. If the hot compress is applied during the acute period of injury, or massaged with wine, safflower oil, etc., it will cause the injured soft tissue blood vessels to dilate, accelerate blood flow and increase exudation, and aggravate local swelling and pain.
Work is too busy, how to increase the amount of daily exercise?
If you,like most people, spend more than half of your waking time awake in a chair or couch, even if you spend at least 30 minutes a day on organized exercise, such as brisk walking, cycling, or swimming, you still need to maintain fragmented exercise habits every day, for example, getting up every hour for a few minutes. There are many ways to increase short-lived exercise in everyday life. You can choose to do 5-10 squats or raise your legs high; You can also put an elastic band next to the sofa, which can also exercise the arm. Here are some other tips:
1. Set a reminder. Many fitness apps or exercise bands have reminders that remind you to be active at least once an hour. Use reminders when you need to sit for long periods of time, or when it's less efficient to handle housework.
2. Stay standing or active while on the phone. Try to walk back and forth or circle around the room when talking, or use hands-free or Bluetooth headsets to do some light housework while chatting.
3, when watching TV, you can also move a little. Many people spend nearly 5 hours a day watching TV on average, and that number increases as they age. At least once an hour, stand up, stand still, wave your arms, or do something to stretch easily.
4. Try to go as far as possible. Whenever you're driving anywhere, try to park your car a little farther from the door so you can take a few more steps. When taking the subway, you can get off one stop in advance. Replacing escalators or elevators with stairs can increase activity time even if you're just climbing one or two floors.
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