What are aerobics like

Aerobic exercise is an endurance exercise that is performed by the human body under the premise of sufficient oxygen supply and mainly relies on aerobic metabolism to provide energy. What we often call brisk walking, jogging, swimming, cycling, and medium- and low-intensity aerobics all fall into this category. The core function is to improve cardiorespiratory endurance and help burn excess calories.

When they first get into fitness, many people always struggle with "whether what I am doing counts as aerobic." In fact, there is really no need to look through the formulas and values ​​of exercise physiology at the beginning. According to academic standards, it must be within the range of 60%-80% of the maximum heart rate (the general formula is 220 minus your actual age), or the range of 50%-70% of the maximum oxygen uptake, and the exercise duration must last for at least 12 minutes to be considered effective; but I and the provincial team Kang When it comes to chatting with teachers, the threshold for ordinary enthusiasts is much looser - when you exercise, you can talk to the people around you intermittently for a whole sentence or two, without having to gasp every word, break out a little sweat, and can persist for more than 20 minutes, it is effective aerobic for you. After all, most of us don’t do aerobics to compete, so we can’t compete with the standards of professional athletes.

If you really don’t know what to choose, just choose according to your physical condition. If you have bad knees, don’t force yourself to run. In the summer, you can paddle slowly in the swimming pool for an hour. You don’t need to pursue speed. Even if you paddle for 25 meters and rest for 10 seconds, as long as the overall rhythm is not interrupted, it is aerobic exercise that is particularly friendly to the joints. I have a friend with knee effusion who used to have pain when running even two steps. According to the doctor’s instructions, I swam 4 times a week. In three months, I lost 4 points of body fat and my resting heart rate dropped from 78 to 62. The effect is better than that of many people who work hard on the treadmill every day. If you don’t want to go out, just dance at home with Liu Genghong and Pamela’s low- to medium-intensity exercises. Don’t follow the bloggers and rush for high-intensity sweaty money. The intensity is just right if you can still hum a few lyrics while dancing. If you are too lazy to do exercise, you can get off the subway two stops early after get off work, fling your arms and walk briskly for 20 minutes home. You can still get some fragmented aerobic exercise, which is better than lying on the subway scrolling through your phone.

By the way, there is no standard answer to the question "Does HIIT count as aerobic?" which is very hotly debated on the Internet. One school of thought believes that HIIT has a high-frequency and high-intensity sprint section, and the body will enter a hypoxic state to perform anaerobic metabolism. It is essentially a mixed-oxygen exercise and cannot be regarded as purely aerobic. The other school of thought believes that the so-called "HIIT" done by ordinary enthusiasts cannot reach professional-level intensity at all. I have tried it myself The most widely circulated 15-minute at-home HIIT on the Internet. Except for the last 30 seconds of leg-high sprinting, where the heart rate touched 170, the rest of the time was basically in the aerobic range of 130-140. To me, it is an aerobic exercise that accounts for the majority of the exercise. I really don’t need to be divided into such rigid categories.

There are still many people who have an obsession that they have to move until they are soaked through and so tired that they cannot get out of bed in order to have effective aerobic exercise. This is not true. My mother is 58 years old. She does Tai Chi for 40 minutes every morning with the aunties in the community. Her cardiopulmonary function during the last physical examination was better than that of many young men who stay up late and lie down every day. The doctor specifically said that her long-term, low-intensity aerobic habit is much healthier than her occasional 2-hour gym workout. Someone else asked if doing housework counts? If you clean the windows, mop the floor, and tidy up the house for 40 minutes without sitting down and resting in between, and you keep breathing slightly, then of course it counts. Don’t think that only running on a treadmill in fitness clothes can be considered a serious aerobic exercise. Exercise is not selective in nature.

In fact, to put it bluntly, aerobics is the least picky and has the lowest threshold of all types of exercise. There are not so many fancy rules at all. You don’t have to worry about whether this counts or whether that meets the standard. As long as you are willing to move, can persist, and feel comfortable and not uncomfortable after doing it, then it is the best aerobic for you - it is better than looking up "what is aerobic" on your mobile phone for half an hour, then turning around and slumping on the sofa to eat potato chips, right?