The most powerful aerobic exercise

There is no universal "strongest aerobic exercise". The one that benefits you the most at your current stage and that you can stick to for a long time is the strongest aerobic exercise that is unique to you.

The fitness circle has been arguing about this topic for almost ten years, and now it is basically divided into two camps and they are arguing fiercely. One group is obsessed with HIIT (high-intensity interval training). They use experimental data to speak, saying that EPOC (excess oxygen consumption, commonly known as the afterburn effect) after exercise can last for 12 to 24 hours. The training effect of 20 minutes is as good as jogging for an hour. It is simply a fat-loss savior for 996 office workers. I used to take care of a boy who works in the Internet industry. He squeezed 20 minutes out of get off work every day to practice TABATA. His movements were standard and his core was stable. He lost 4 points of body fat in 3 months, and even his perennially bulging belly became much flatter. But I have to pour cold water on it. The threshold of HIIT is really not as low as the bloggers say. If the movements are not strong and all depends on swinging and the core is loose, the pressure will be all on the knees and waist. There is a girl next to me who has no exercise foundation and followed the trend for a month. She suffered from a herniated disc in her waist and lay down for half a month. The gain outweighs the loss.

The other group is the staunch steady-state aerobics party. They use the experience of veteran lap runners and triathlon players as arguments, saying that low- to medium-intensity aerobics such as jogging, swimming, and elliptical machines are the real long-term benefits. It is friendly to the joints, has real effects on improving cardiopulmonary endurance, and also comes with an emotional buffering buff. I have a friend who is an advertising creative. He runs 5 kilometers around Chaoyang Park every morning without hesitation. He says it is more refreshing than drinking three glasses of iced Americano. The idea of ​​a plan that he had been stuck on for half the night the day before was solved by running. Of course, there are a lot of complaints: it takes too much time, and running for 40 minutes consumes more than 300 calories. It is better to save more calories by eating one less piece of mousse cake. For those who are impatient and want to see results quickly, it is really hard to endure.

Oh, by the way, many people have forgotten the core premise: No matter how strong your aerobic exercise is, if you can't persist, it will be all in vain. Two years ago, I followed the trend and bought a fat-burning heart rate monitor. I stared at the numbers every day, and quickly accelerated my heart rate if it dropped a little. Later I realized that I was just looking for trouble for myself - I already had to keep an eye on a lot of KPIs at work, and I also had to do numerical assessments during exercise. What was the purpose? Later, I switched to swimming, and I swam for an hour three times a week. I didn’t need to count my energy consumption and didn’t have to rush for time. When I was tired, I just floated on the water for a while. In three months, I lost 3 points of body fat. Even my shoulders and neck that had been stiff all year round felt a lot better. Now that it rains, I want to go to the swimming pool.

There are still many people on the Internet arguing about the usefulness of EPOC. Some studies say that the afterburn effect consumes up to dozens of calories, which is worse than eating one less bite of potato chips. Some studies say that for people with high muscle mass, the calories consumed by afterburn should not be underestimated. In fact, there is really no need to dwell on this controversy. Just choose whatever your situation is: if you can’t squeeze in half an hour of exercise every day, your joints are fine, and you have a certain foundation in exercise, then HIIT is the most efficient choice for you. ； If your joints have old injuries, your masculinity has not been restored for a long time, or you like the relaxation of slow exercise, then jogging, brisk walking, elliptical machine or even square dancing are your "best aerobic exercises".

Speaking of which, I met an aunt last week who walked around the community for 40 minutes after dinner every day. After a year of walking, her blood pressure stabilized and she lost 15 pounds. The effect was much better than many young people who applied for a fitness card and went to it three times and then became dusty.

To put it bluntly, there is no standard answer when it comes to exercise. No matter how scientific and efficient the project you choose is, it is useless to practice one day and take ten days off. One day you find a sport that you won’t scold in your mind after you finish it, and you’ll think about doing it again next time. You don’t have to worry about whether it is recognized as the strongest. For you, it is the best.