"BBC heart-pricking experiment" tells you the truth about fitness: running for 45 minutes every day is not as good as exercising for 2 minutes every week! 》

I am a person who can hardly exercise. For me, standing is the most intense exercise.

Although I have long known that exercise has countless benefits, I have always wanted to take the first step, but when I see people around me who are struggling to exercise,Spend an hour or two sweating in the gym every day., who all want to back down?

However, watching a documentary recently actually made me take the first step of exercise, because it let me know that exercise is not a hard job at all!

The documentary also said: those who work hard in the gym for an hour or two are simply thankless. As long as you master the method,Just 2 minutes a week., you can achieve excellent fitness results!

The host of this documentary is?Professor michael mosley, a medical journalist(Dr Michael Mosley), he has always been a lazy man, and in the matter of exercise, he wants to?Spend the least effort?Get the biggest return.

Medical journalist Dr Michael Mosley.

In order to realize his dream, the whole BBC team is in full swing, accompanying him to visit sports experts in various fields and looking for?Super high efficiency?The exercise method. This process was filmed as the documentary The Truth About Getting Fit.

Anyone who wants to exercise but doesn’t want to work hard must not miss this documentary!

At the beginning of the documentary, Michael will?overturn?A popular saying: "You can stay young and healthy by walking 10,000 steps every day".

The idea of 10,000 steps first came from a marketing campaign more than 50 years ago. A Japanese company invented the "10,000-step pedometer", and while sponsoring the Tokyo Olympics, it relied on a sentence.10 thousand steps a day"The advertising words are deeply rooted in people’s hearts.

But do you have to walk 10 thousand steps to be effective?

In order to find out the truth, Michael consulted Professor Rob Copland of Harlem University in Sheffield, and he will arrange a controlled experiment to verify this theory.

Note: In order to make the public understand the BBC documentary,

Experimental methods with small samples and not rigorous enough are often adopted, but they still have certain reference.

He divided six people into two groups to take part in the experiment:

The first group (Gillian, Dave, Dai Lun): Walk 10,000 steps every day, unlimited speed, about 8 kilometers.

Group 2 (Nathan, Gary, Judy): 10 minutes three times a day,doubleAbout 3000 steps, about 2.4 kilometers.

In the experiment, both groups wore activity monitors, which could track their activities throughout the day and monitor their heart rates. Professor Copeland said that the increase in heart rate caused by exercise can?Strengthen heart and lung function, is an important indicator to measure the effect of sports.

After the experiment began, the members of the first group worked hard to achieve the goal of 10 thousand steps, because 10 thousand steps were too difficult to complete!

Of the three people, only Dave and Dai Lun managed to finish the task. Gillian washed the bowl and deliberately walked back and forth several times, but only walked more than 5000 steps in one day.

In contrast, the members of the second group are much more relaxed.

They met for a brisk walk, and 10 minutes passed quickly. Unconsciously, they easily completed the indicators.

On the one hand, it is difficult to move forward, and on the other hand, it is easy to reach the standard. What is the effect of their exercise?

Professor Copeland published?Surprising?Experimental results of:

Although the first group is more tired, the exercise effect of the second group is better.?better!

He explained that this is because the brisk walking adopted by the second group belongs to moderate to intense physical exercise, and the intensity is increased by 30% compared with the usual walking.

Comparatively speaking, although the walking time of the second group is shorter, the intensity of cardiopulmonary exercise is greater, so the effect is better than that of the first group.

Michael’s first discovery saved him 7000 steps every day.

But lazy, he is not satisfied with this! Last time he found out?More labor-saving?Movement, this time he turned to.?More time-saving?The exercise method.

He went to visit.?High intensity intermittent exercise(HIIT) expert Niels worrall.

Experts from worrall arranged for six white-collar workers to participate in a five-week exercise program.

Before the exercise, the six people first took an aerobic fitness test.

Aerobic fitness refers to human intake, transportation and utilization.?oxygen?The ability. People with good aerobic fitness will run for 1000 meters without breathing. On the contrary, people with poor aerobic fitness will be panting after climbing several stairs.

After testing aerobic fitness, Niels worrall asked these white-collar workers to do it on a spinning bike every week?3 groups of 40 seconds?HIIT training.

In other words, every week they only need?Exercise for 2 minutes. After five weeks, these people only exercised in total.?10 minutes.

However, five weeks later, when six white-collar workers took the physical fitness test again, their?Aerobic fitness?An average increase of 11%!

Worrall explained,

This is because HIIT can stimulate deep muscles.

Deep muscles are hidden around the bones of the body, which plays a role in coordinating the body and supporting the bones and joints. Ordinary exercise is difficult to involve, and HIIT can activate them.


In addition, HIIT can rapidly consume muscle glycogen.

Muscle glycogen is the sugar stored in muscle. When people exercise vigorously, the body will break down the sugar in muscle and provide energy for the body.

Worrall asked a white-collar worker to do three groups of HIIT for 2 minutes, and compared his muscle glycogen levels before and after exercise.

The results showed that his muscle glycogen level decreased.?24%?As much as, if you use other sports methods, you may have to?45 minutes?In order to achieve the same effect.


Finally, HIIT can also exercise the heart and lungs and improve the whole cardiovascular system.

HIIT is good, but it is not convenient for everyone to go to the gym to ride a spinning bike. In order to let everyone enjoy the benefits of HIIT, Michael specially invited Beth Philips from Nottingham University to design a set of HIIT training without any auxiliary tools.

This training takes a total of 5 minutes, namely:1-minute arm jump, 1-minute squat, 1-minute run, 1-minute arm jump, 1-minute squat..

You can also easily complete this set of movements at home, and the exercise effect is comparable to HIIT of spinning bike.

Besides HIIT,Strength training?It is also a very popular exercise method in recent years.

In order to find out?Have the best effect?The way of strength training, Michael came to Glasgow University, where sports researchers Stuart Gray and Nai Stefanacci are working.?Test weightlifting and light liftingWhich effect is better.

The experiment they designed was completed by five women. Before the experiment began, all the people took a strength test, and the researchers will record what they can lift.?maximum weight.

During the experiment, the participants lifted the dumbbells with one hand and the light dumbbells with the other, and both hands should be lifted until they have no strength. The hand that lifts light things takes longer to reach the fatigue point than the other hand. Their legs also had a heavy and light exercise.

For six weeks, they conducted two groups of training every week. After the training, they accepted the strength test again, and the results showed that:


There is no difference between lifting weights and light weights at all, and the muscle strength of both hands and legs is almost the same.


Their hands muscles have been strengthened by 18%-19%, and their legs muscles have been strengthened by 25%, and there is no difference because of the different weights on both sides.

After learning this result, five participants said that they would rather lift weights because of the short time.

Therefore, it is simple to save time by lifting weights.

Unlike strength training, running is the most popular sport because it doesn’t need any instruments and equipment and is very convenient to perform.

In order to explore the truth of running, Michael came to St. Mary’s University in London and asked John Brewer, an exerciser, about it.?run?The problem.

We always think that running will damage the knee joint, but is this true?

Brewer said,Running will not only hurt the knee joint, but also benefit it..

This is because the regular pressure generated by running can bring more oxygen and nutrients into articular cartilage.Conducive to cartilage repair and growth.

Michael, the host, found it unbelievable, so Brewer asked him to do an experiment to compare knee pressure.

In the experiment, Michael put a sensor on his knee, then walked a certain distance at the designated position, and then he ran the same distance.

Then, the computer will analyze the pressure on the knee when walking and running.

As can be seen from the above picture, although the pressure on the knees is greater when running than when walking,But it takes less time to cause stress.. Generally speaking, the time for running to produce stress is only half of that for walking, because people have longer strides and shorter contact time between their feet and the ground.

The blue bar represents the stress time caused by walking.

The red column represents the stress time caused by running.

In the above experiment, the total pressure on Michael’s knees when he runs is smaller than when he walks.

Brewer said that these pressures are completely within the acceptable range of the human body, because the human body structure can fully load walking and running. Imagine if our ancestors couldn’t run, how could they survive the competition of nature?

Whether it is to avoid or chase prey, people need to use the skill of running, which has been used to this day.

Nevertheless, if you run in the wrong way, such as running too fast, running for too long, running on uneven or slippery ground, you may cause injuries.

After visiting a number of sports experts, Michael has mastered four major exercise truths:

1. Walking 10,000 steps slowly every day is better than walking 3,000 steps quickly.

2. HIIT for 2 minutes per week can effectively improve aerobic fitness.

3, it takes a short time to lift the dumbbell to fatigue, which can effectively strengthen the muscles.

4. Running won’t hurt your knees.

Michael’s next stop is to visit a physiologist, Professor Sirsa Osullevin. He wants to know why some people love running so much.

Professor O ‘Sullivan said that people will produce endogenous pheromones when running. This kind of substance spontaneously produced by the human body is very similar in structure to the alcohol in * *, which will excite.?Positive mood, increase appetite, bring pleasure..

Besides running, other exercises can also produce endogenous hormones, which explains why some people feel uncomfortable without exercise for a day. Because exercise can really make people happy. Professor O ‘Sullivan believes that "endogenous pheromone" is one set up by the body?Incentive mechanism to encourage exercise.

In order to let Michael witness the power of running, Professor O ‘Sullivan arranged for three runners to jog.

After running, the endogenous pheromone in participants’ bodies increased by 30% compared with that before running!

Professor O ‘Sullivan explained that the endogenous pheromone produced during this exercise is within a safe range and can make people excited to the right degree.

After reading "The Truth of Exercise", I was eager to try, and immediately did a 5-minute HIIT exercise, and sure enough, I immediately felt High.

It turns out that,Exercise can also be a simple and happy thing!Friend, you might as well try it!