Although there are many health benefits of walking, the wrong method will only get half the result with twice the effort, and even damage the body. How on earth is walking exercise?
Interviewed experts
Lu Yifan, Professor of Sports Medicine Department of Beijing Sport University
Wu Wenqiang, associate professor, School of education, Beijing Sport University
Gou Bo, associate professor of sports medicine teaching and Research Office of Xi’an Institute of Physical Education
strength
walk fast for at least 40 minutes every day
Walking is certainly a good way to keep fit, but walking is divided into walking and fast walking. Walking can not achieve fitness effect, and only fast walking can play a role of exercise to a certain extent. As a fitness method with low exercise intensity, fast walking has a good effect on the elderly and people with chronic diseases.
A study by the University of Pittsburgh found that people who walk fast have a lower mortality rate than those who walk slowly. Because fast walking not only has a good exercise effect on the cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and respiratory systems, but also has the least damage to the body compared with other sports.
In order to ensure the effect of exercise, fast walking should be at least 40 ~ 60 minutes each time. Many countries put forward the slogan of “6000 steps” or “10000 steps” every day, which is actually a quantitative treatment of exercise time. According to the frequency of walking about two steps per second, “6000 steps” is about 40 minutes fast, while “10000 steps” takes more than an hour. People who have just started exercising can gradually increase the length of time, starting from walking fast for half an hour. When walking fast, the heart rate should be maintained at 120 ~ 140 times per minute, and sweating is the best. The middle-aged and old people in good health may not be able to sweat through fast walking. At this time, they can assist in jogging to achieve the “combination of walking and running”, so as to achieve better fitness.
posture
the steps are straight and the arms are swinging.
“When people walk normally, they will have a little ‘external eight characters’.” Gou Bo said that mild “internal and external eight characters” will not affect the body, but if the situation of walking “internal and external eight characters” is serious, it needs to be adjusted in time or even hospitalized. Because people who are used to walking with “internal and external eight characters” will cause excessive wear of hip joints and knees because their power points and effort points are different from those of normal walkers.
Fast walking exercise with such bad posture will not only fail to achieve fitness effect, but also aggravate knee and hip joint injuries. People who walk in an improper posture usually wear their shoes faster than normal walkers. It is recommended that those who wear their shoes in one place should go to the hospital for consultation and correct their walking style in time.
Lu Yifan said that when walking fast, we should also cooperate with the correct arm swing posture, that is, the curved arm swing, because the straight arm swing can easily make the arm congest and cause discomfort; There are not too many requirements on the walking pace, as long as you feel appropriate.
method
walking forward, backward, tiptoe, etc.
Many old people like to walk backwards, which is a good exercise method. Wu Wenqiang said that walking backwards can exercise the muscles of the waist and back that are rarely used at ordinary times, and balance the exercise effect. In addition, walking on tiptoe can also exercise the leg muscles, especially the calf muscles.
However, whether walking backwards or on tiptoe is an abnormal way of walking, which is easy to cause damage to the hip joint and knee. Therefore, they can be used as auxiliary exercises, but they cannot be too long. It is better to take 5-10 minutes each time.
Lu Yifan suggested that after fast walking, you can add some strength exercises to appropriately improve the intensity of exercise, especially for upper limb strength exercises, such as push ups or exercises. In particular, doing exercises is also conducive to the recovery of the body.
Lu Yifan reminds that it is best not to do fast walking exercise on pebbles, because it is easy to sprain your feet. Elderly people with diabetes should avoid it, so as not to cause foot damage without knowing it.
method
four or five in the evening is the best.
Many old people are used to exercising in the morning, but in Lu Yifan’s opinion, it would be better at four or five in the evening. Because for the elderly with cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, exercise in the morning is a high-risk factor to induce disease onset, and the high humidity of the air in the morning is not conducive to the diffusion of pollutants, and the air quality in many places is not good.
If you choose to exercise after dinner, you should do it half an hour after dinner, and control the end time of the exercise to two hours before going to bed, such as going to bed at 10 p.m. and ending the exercise at 8 p.m. Because fast walking will accelerate blood circulation and keep the body in a certain excited state. If the interval between ending exercise and sleeping is too short, it is easy to cause insomnia.
After exercise, you should do something to calm your mood, such as reading books and listening to soft music, and then go to bed after your mood is stable.
location
the ground of the playground is soft and elastic, and the air in the park is good
Wu Wenqiang believes that the roadside is the most unsuitable place for fast walking. This is not only because the road has a large traffic flow and poor air quality, which is easy to cause damage to the respiratory system, but also because the asphalt road is too hard, which is easy to cause great impact on the knees and ankles.
Therefore, soft dirt roads and plastic playgrounds are the best places for fast walking. In addition, parks and their own communities are also good choices, because the air quality in these places is better, which can ensure that the respiratory system will not be too damaged during exercise.
equipment
wear a pair of soft soled shoes with a bottle of boiled water
Before fast walking, you should make necessary preparations:
First, wear a pair of soft soled running shoes, which can buffer the pressure of the soles of the feet when walking and protect the ankle joints from injury;
Second, wear a pair of breathable socks and a loose and comfortable sportswear, which is conducive to physical relaxation;
Third, it’s best to bring a bottle of water. Replenishing water in less times and more during exercise can prevent dehydration;
Fourth, diabetes patients had better take a piece of sugar with them to prevent hypoglycemia accidents.
Security
warm up first and act according to your ability
“Persistence is the key to fast walking.” Lu Yifan said that when starting to exercise, you can walk every other day, so that your body can gradually accept it, but after gradually adapting, you should insist on exercising every day. Because the consumption of fast walking is not large, it is an exercise method with low exercise intensity, and it must be persisted every day to achieve fitness effect.
However, because people’s mental and physical conditions are different every day, sometimes we should not force them. For example, middle-aged and elderly people with chronic diseases need to make timely adjustments to exercise intensity according to their physical conditions. When the state is not good, it can be appropriately reduced or even not left; When you are in good condition, you can exercise more for a while if your body allows.
In order to avoid injury during exercise, do some warm-up activities to extend limbs before fast walking to prevent strain caused by excessive stride; When selecting the route, be sure to bypass the construction site or other rough roads.
Leave a Reply