How many minutes of aerobic exercise is appropriate

For the vast majority of healthy adults, maintaining aerobic exercise for 30 to 60 minutes each time is the most cost-effective option. This is also the consensus recommended amount by authoritative organizations such as the WHO and the Chinese Society of Sports Medicine.

You may have heard two completely opposite opinions. One school says that you must exercise for 40 minutes to burn fat, and a minute less will be useless. The other school says that as long as you exercise, it will be effective, and 10 minutes is not too little. In fact, both statements have their own truths, but they are suitable for different people and needs. Two years ago, I took care of a young girl who had just joined the job. She had no exercise foundation at all. She was out of breath even when climbing the third floor. At first, I forced her to run for 30 minutes. She asked for leave the next day and said that her legs hurt and she couldn't get up. Later, she changed to a 10-minute brisk walk three times a day, including lunch. After that, I walked around the park twice, got off the bus two stops before get off work and walked home. I followed the video and did step exercises for 10 minutes before going to bed. It was enough for 30 minutes a day. In two months, I lost 2.1% of my body fat, and my blood lipid index during the physical examination became normal. In recent years, there have been many studies to prove that as long as it is moderate-intensity aerobic exercise - that is, the intensity at which you can speak normally but cannot sing coherently during exercise, for more than 10 minutes each time, and a total of 150 minutes per week, you can get similar health benefits as a single long-term aerobic session, which is especially friendly to office workers who cannot squeeze out the entire time.

But if you have a clear need to clean fat and improve cardiorespiratory endurance, then the continuous aerobic efficiency of more than 30 minutes in a single session is indeed much higher. After all, the body mainly consumes glycogen for energy in the first 15-20 minutes of exercise, and then the proportion of fat energy supply will gradually rise to the dominant position. When I was preparing for the half marathon last year, I fixed a 45-minute jog at a constant speed twice a week, with my heart rate controlled at about 65% of my maximum heart rate. After three months of training, my resting heart rate dropped from 71 to 57, which is much more effective than when I ran for 20 minutes each time to fool around with things. However, longer is not always better. I went on a 3-hour wild walk with an outdoor group last spring. I didn’t replenish much carbohydrates during the journey. I was exhausted for two days after I came back. Even the bench press that I usually can push 60 kilograms couldn’t even lift 40 kilograms that day. After checking, I found out that if a single aerobic session exceeds 90 minutes, the body’s cortisol level will increase significantly, which will not only consume muscles, but also lower immunity. It is completely worth the loss.

Many people on the Internet now advocate that 20 minutes of HIIT is more effective than 1 hour of aerobic exercise. This statement is indeed supported by experimental data. The time efficiency of high-intensity intervals is much higher, but it also requires high cardiopulmonary function and joint foundation. I have seen many novices just do burpees for half an hour, and their knees hurt for half a month. Instead, it is safer to walk briskly for 30 minutes. In fact, you really don’t need to be stuck on time. If you are in good condition today, it’s okay to run for 10 more minutes. If you have just recovered from a cold or are so tired from work that you can’t open your eyes, walking slowly for 20 minutes to sweat slightly is better than lying down. The time that you can persist for a long time is the most suitable for you.