How long should you practice aerobic exercise

For the vast majority of ordinary healthy people who have no need to prepare for competitions or compete, a total of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobics or 75 minutes of high-intensity aerobics per week can achieve the effects of health gain and daily fat loss. The duration of a single exercise is from 20 minutes to 60 minutes. There is no need to stick to the deadlock of "you must practice for 40 minutes to be effective."

To be honest, I have seen two sides quarreling about this issue. One side clings to the old saying of "40-minute fat burning threshold", saying that missing a minute is consuming glycogen and has nothing to do with fat burning. The other side says that fragmented exercise for 10 minutes counts, as long as the number is enough. In fact, both opinions are a bit extreme. When I first started working out a few years ago, I believed in the threshold theory. Even if my eyelids were so tired after get off work, I still had to sit on the treadmill for 45 minutes. If I missed a step, I would feel that today's sin was in vain. Later, I chatted with a rehabilitation practitioner who retired from the national team and found out that it was "fat accounts for the highest proportion of energy supply". "Confused with "whether fat is consumed" - early studies did find that the proportion of fat energy supply will gradually climb to the peak after 20 minutes of exercise, but this does not mean that fat is not burned at all in the first 20 minutes, it is just that the proportion is slightly lower. The principle of accumulating a little makes a lot still applies in exercise.

I took care of a young girl from an Internet company last year. She had to eat every day from nine to nine, and couldn't spare any time to go to the gym. So she got off the subway two stops before get off work every day and walked briskly, 15 minutes one way. After lunch, she climbed the stairs around the office building for 10 minutes. After a week, the cumulative time was just enough for 150 minutes. The body fat scale measured that she lost 1.8 kilograms of pure fat. She said that she could fit a finger into the jeans that were stuck in her hips. The effect was no worse than those who squeezed in time to go to the gym and gave up after two exercises.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that the longer the better, it depends on your exercise purpose and physical condition. If you are a marathon enthusiast, it is routine to train for two or three hours at a time during the preparation period. As long as you can keep up with the supplements, you will be fine; but if you are middle-aged and elderly people with degenerative knee disease, doctors have warned you not to stand for long periods of time and walk for a long time. Walking slowly for 20 minutes at a time, divided into two times a day, is much better than carrying on for an hour and grinding your knees to the point of being unable to go downstairs. I had a friend who ran 100 minutes on an empty stomach every day for half a month in order to lose 10 pounds before the wedding. As a result, he lost 15 kilograms of bench press weight. He caught a cold when the temperature dropped during the change of seasons. This was because he did not replenish energy in time after a long period of aerobic exercise. He lost a lot of muscle and his immunity also collapsed, which was not worth the gain.

What is moderate intensity? To put it bluntly, you can chat normally with the people around you when exercising, but singing "Lonely Warrior" at the top of your lungs will definitely be strenuous. You can walk fast, jog, ride a shared bicycle, or jump for half an hour. High-intensity exercise is like interval running or burpees, where you have to gasp three times for every sentence. There is really no need to count the time by looking at the stopwatch. I am in good condition today and can cycle for 20 minutes. I am very tired from working overtime today. Walking downstairs for 10 minutes to get some fresh air is better than lying on the sofa for two hours watching short videos. The most suitable time is the time that suits your own rhythm and can persist.