Exercise: What is the expert consensus?

One of the most unforgettable details of the Spring Festival movies is probably Jia Ling's weight loss of 100 pounds. The secret to losing weight is to control your mouth and move your legs. So how can we exercise properly? Let's take a look at the key points of "Chinese Expert Consensus on Exercise Prescription (2023)".

Exercise is not only for losing weight, but also can reduce blood sugar, blood pressure, blood lipids, prevent cancer, and improve sleep. Expert consensus mentions that reasonable exercise should follow 6 principles.

Principle 1: Exercise frequency

It is best to do flexibility exercises every day . For aerobic exercise, it is recommended that adults do aerobic exercise at least 3 days per week . In resistance exercise, the frequency of strength and endurance exercises for the same muscle group is preferably every other day, 2 to 3 days per week.

Principle 2: Exercise Intensity

Everyone has a different physique. Directly measuring physiological indicators during exercise through incremental exercise load cardiopulmonary endurance testing is the preferred method for determining exercise intensity. The subjective exertion scale can also be used to evaluate, adjust or refine individual exercise intensity.

To judge the intensity of aerobic exercise, you can measure it by talking during exercise:

Low or lesser intensity – can talk and sing;

Moderate intensity – can talk but cannot sing;

Greater and above level strength – cannot speak in complete sentences.

Principle 3: Exercise Time

The recommended exercise time can be completed continuously or accumulated in several times. The daily aerobic exercise time used to improve cardiopulmonary endurance should be more than 30 minutes (excluding preparation and finishing activities).

Principle 4: Exercise Method

Principle 5: Total amount of exercise

The World Health Organization recommends that adults should perform at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic exercise per week.

The minimum amount of exercise per day is 7,000-8,000 steps/day , of which at least 3,000 steps should be brisk walking (step amount > 100 steps/minute). Children and adolescents should minimize sedentary behaviors (such as watching TV, surfing the Internet, and playing video games). Screen time for children aged 2-5 should not exceed 1 hour/day, and screen time for children aged 6-11 should not exceed 2 hours/day.

Principle 6: Progression

Exercise is recommended to be carried out in a gradual and dispersed manner. At the beginning of the exercise plan, especially for those who do not have regular exercise habits, adopting a "low starting point, slow increase" strategy can reduce the risk of exercise-related cardiovascular events and injuries, and increase the individual's adaptability and compliance to exercise.