Aerobic exercise production

From a physiological perspective, it is an exercise state in which the human body uses the aerobic metabolic pathway as the core energy source when the oxygen supply is sufficient to cover energy consumption needs. Moderate intensity and sustainability are its core features; from a conceptual evolution perspective, it is a clearly defined exercise classification after the development of sports medicine in the 1960s, and has now become one of the most popular health intervention methods in the field of mass fitness.

Last week, I took a member who had just applied for a card to run 3 kilometers. He held his waist and shouted to stop after just 5 minutes of raising his legs. He gasped and asked me, "Am I already aerobic? Why am I more tired than the last time I climbed Mount Tai?" In fact, you usually sit and catch fish and go downstairs to get express delivery. Your body is also undergoing aerobic metabolism - oxygen enters the alveoli along the respiratory tract, mixes into the blood, and travels throughout the body to supply energy to the cells. However, this intensity is too low and cannot achieve the effect of exercise at all. What we usually call "aerobic exercise production" means that the intensity of your exercise just hits the "sweet spot": it is neither so low that it is ineffective, nor so high that the body has no time to deliver enough oxygen to the muscles. It can only rely on anaerobic metabolism to quickly supply energy, and you are panting so hard that you can't even speak a complete sentence.

When it comes to how to judge this intensity, the fitness circle has been arguing for almost ten years and there is no unified answer. One group is the "heart rate party" who is obsessed with data. They insist that as long as the heart rate is maintained in the 60%-80% range of the maximum heart rate (the general formula is 220 minus age), the proportion of aerobic energy supply can exceed 70%, which is a proper standard aerobic. This is actually true. I have come into contact with many elderly members who have coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. I will ask them to wear heart rate monitors at all times. The threshold must not be exceeded. Safety is the first priority. The other group is the somatosensory group that focuses on "doing whatever you want". They believe that ordinary people do not need to buy so many equipment for fitness. As long as you can speak complete sentences smoothly during exercise without being out of breath, your aerobic state will be basically stable. I usually don’t wear a watch when running in the mountains, so I rely on this method to judge. After several attempts to compare the data with the heart rate monitor, the error is basically within 5%, which is completely sufficient for ordinary enthusiasts.

What’s interesting is that the concept of “aerobic exercise” that everyone talks about now was only born less than 60 years ago. In the 1960s, Cooper, a doctor in the U.S. Air Force, discovered that many pilots had good strength training, but their endurance could not keep up when flying long missions, so he began to systematically study the energy supply mode under different exercise intensities. He first proposed the "aerobic capacity" evaluation standard, which became the 12-minute running test that everyone became familiar with. As a trivia fact, when Cooper first took the test, he could only run 1.6 kilometers in 12 minutes, which is similar to the level of many novices today. Later, this concept spread from the military to the public fitness circle, and gradually became what we now call aerobic exercise.

Two years ago, I met a girl who ran on a treadmill at a speed of 8 kilometers for an hour every day in order to lose weight. After running for a month, her weight did not move at all, and she came to me crying. I asked her to run once wearing a heart rate monitor, and found that her heart rate soared to over 170 during the whole process, almost 90% of her maximum heart rate. Her aerobic energy supply accounted for less than 50%. Most of her energy was provided by decomposing glycogen, and she burned less fat. She was very hungry after the run, and she could get back the calories consumed in one meal. Later, I asked her to slow down her speed to 5.5 kilometers per hour so that she could talk to me about the sweet pet drama she was watching recently while running. At this intensity, she ran 4 times a week and lost 4 pounds in three weeks. She was not as hungry as before.

In fact, the creation of an aerobic state is like burning a stove. If the fire is too small, the water cannot be boiled. If the fire is too big, the firewood will be burned out immediately and black smoke will be emitted. The fire that is just enough to slowly boil the water and continue to burn for a long time is the aerobic state. Don’t think that only running, swimming, and cycling can be considered aerobic. The last time my mother went to the wholesale market to stock up on vegetables, she walked home for 20 minutes carrying 20 kilograms of rice, flour, and oil. She was just out of breath, but she could still complain to me about the increase in vegetable prices. It was also a proper aerobic exercise, and it was no worse than running for half an hour in the gym.

There is really no need to worry about "whether what I'm doing now counts as aerobic." There is never a standard answer to fitness. The intensity that suits others may not be suitable for you. As long as you don't feel uncomfortable when you move and can persist, it is much more useful than being stuck on those cold numbers. After all, isn’t the essence of our pursuit of aerobic training just to make the body more comfortable and healthier?