Please accept these professional training dry goods for daily fitness.
Yang Wenxian, Jiangsu Sports Institute
Today, the 14th National Games kicked off in the ancient capital Xi ‘an, which is a grand gathering of national athletes. This National Games is divided into two categories: competitive sports and mass events. Our province sent 1603 athletes to participate in the finals of 52 major events and 434 minor events. You can watch the game live on TV and major web pages to see the elegant demeanor of Jiangsu athletes. Seeing them struggling on the field, I believe you can’t resist the enthusiasm for sports. In order to fully tap the human potential and challenge the limit, competitive sports need more accurate and scientific training indicators to improve sports performance. And our daily fitness also hopes to achieve the goal of health through active and scientific exercise and improving sports ability. How to improve sports ability and promote the development of various physical functions and qualities in daily fitness, and learn from the training contents of professional athletes may enlighten you. We have prepared several dry goods for professional training. Let’s lead you to decrypt professional sports training. This issue will start with the intensity of sports.
1 What is exercise intensity?
Generally speaking, exercise intensity refers to the degree of exertion during exercise. This word may be unfamiliar to the public, but it is widely used in the daily training of professional athletes. When the coach arranges a training class, the training content is formulated according to the total exercise intensity today. Good exercise intensity can effectively improve athletes’ sports quality, while poor exercise intensity may lead to sports injuries.
In order to fully understand the intensity of exercise, you need to know the following professional words.
Maximum oxygen uptake: refers to the oxygen content that can be ingested by the human body when the functions of various organs and systems reach the maximum operation when the human body is exercising at the maximum intensity. The maximal oxygen uptake is influenced by age, sex, health, exercise level and heredity, and it is an index that can accurately reflect exercise ability. It can be accurately measured by instruments or calculated by formulas.
Heart rate: refers to the number of heartbeats per minute.
Bull’s-eye rate: refers to the effective and safe exercise heart rate range during exercise, which is often used to adjust exercise load. Different heart rate ranges can mobilize different motor cells in the body to achieve different exercise effects. Different intensity of exercise has different bull’s-eye rate.
Maximum heart rate: refers to the maximum heart rate that can be reached during exercise, which is related to age. Calculation formula: maximum heart rate =207-0.7* age (the simplified formula of 220- age can also be used to estimate the maximum heart rate).
MET: English abbreviation is MET, which refers to the ratio of metabolic rate during exercise to metabolic rate at rest. It is a simple numerical value to express exercise intensity. The greater the MET value, the greater the exercise intensity of the event, and the activity intensity of 1MET is approximately equivalent to the basic metabolic level of adults.
I believe you have a general understanding of several professional terms for monitoring exercise intensity. Next, let’s take a look at how to apply it to daily fitness.
2 How to apply exercise intensity to daily fitness?
Our daily exercise training class should include the following four parts: warm-up, fitness training, finishing activities and stretching. Each of these parts can be monitored by the "several words" mentioned above.
Warm-up: at least 5~10 minutes of exercise with small to moderate intensity, which is the process of slow increase of heart rate, so as to raise body temperature and increase muscle activity and avoid sports injury.
Fitness training: at least 20~60 minutes of moderate to high-intensity exercise is the main part of sports training class, and whether the exercise is effective depends on this time.
Finishing activities: at least 5~10 minutes of small to moderate intensity exercise, at this time the exercise is coming to an end, which is the process of slow heart rate decline.
Stretching: at least 10 minutes, when the heart rate and body function tend to be calm, stretching can well prevent muscle tension and relieve body and mind.
The recommended exercise frequency for most adults is 3 to 5 days a week. If you are doing intensive exercise, it is recommended to do it three times a week; If you are doing moderate intensity exercise, it is recommended to do it five times a week.
For low-intensity training, whether the target intensity is reached can be judged in the following three ways:
Self-feeling: it’s easy to be relaxed.
Bull’s-eye rate: 57~64%* maximum heart rate. Example: Xiao Ming, a 25-year-old adult, calculated by using the formula of maximum heart rate, Xiao Ming’s maximum heart rate is 190, so the bull’s-eye rate ranges from 108 to 121.
Mette: young people (20-39) are < ＜4.8MET；; Middle-aged people (40-64) are < 4 met; Older people (65 years old and above) are < ＜3.2MET.
For moderate-intensity training, whether the target intensity is reached can be judged in the following three ways:
Self-feeling: it’s still a little easy.
Bull’s-eye rate: 64~76%* maximum heart rate. Example: Xiao Ming, a 25-year-old adult, calculated by using the formula of maximum heart rate, Xiao Ming’s maximum heart rate is 190, so the bull’s-eye rate ranges from 121 to 144.
Mette: 4.8 ~ 6.0 met for young people (20-39); Middle-aged people (40-64) are 4 ~ 6 met; The elderly (65 years old and above) are 3.2~4.8MET.
For training with greater exercise intensity, whether the target intensity is reached can be judged in the following three ways:
Self-feeling: it’s a little hard to work.
Bull’s-eye rate: 76~96%* maximum heart rate. Example: Xiao Ming, a 25-year-old adult, calculated by using the formula of maximum heart rate, Xiao Ming’s maximum heart rate is 190, so the bull’s-eye rate ranges from 144 to 182.
Mette: 7.2 ~ 10.2 met for young people (20-39); Middle-aged people (40-64) are 6.0 ~ 8.5 met; The elderly (65 years old and above) are 4.8~6.8MET.
3 Choose the exercise intensity monitoring method that suits you.
In the above ways of monitoring intensity, self-feeling is the most convenient and direct. But because it is one’s own subjective feeling, it will affect judgment for various reasons.
Heart rate monitoring can objectively reflect the intensity of exercise, which is the most commonly used way for professional athletes, and the heart rate data is often collected by wearing a professional heart rate belt. In daily life, it is more diversified and can be carried out in the following ways:
(1) Touch the pulse by hand: Touch the pulse for 15 seconds to calculate the heart rate for one minute; This method is easily influenced by various factors, resulting in inaccurate data.
(2) Sports bracelets and watches: The quality of bracelets on the market is uneven. You can choose professional sports products, but they can meet the sports needs of daily life.
(3) Heart rate band and arm band: for example, polar heart rate band. This method is more professional, accurate and simple, and the analysis results can be displayed on the corresponding app to get better motion feedback.
It is also one of the ways that athletes will take to evaluate the exercise intensity by Mettle. However, its calculation method is more complicated and will be reflected in intelligent products for monitoring heart rate, so it is seldom used in recent years. For details of mass fitness, please refer to the table on the right:
Generally speaking, the intensity of exercise determines the effect of exercise. It is not necessary to pursue the set intensity excessively in daily life, but it is best to exercise comfortably.
Activity and Mettle Comparison Table
Active mette value
Watch TV 1 MET
Writing and typing 1.8 MET
Walking 2.3 MET
Walk 2.9 MET
Slow riding 3.0 MET
Faster walking 3.3 MET
Stretching and housework 3.5 MET
Medium-speed walking (5.5km/h) 3.6 MET
Riding (16km/h) 4.0 MET
Jogging 7.0 MET
Push-ups, sit-ups, 8.0 MET
Pull-ups, opening and closing jumps, skipping rope