Four Misconceptions about Morning Exercise

Health preservation and disease prevention must conform to nature, which includes health care and regulation during the day and night. "Suwen·Qi Sheng Tong Tian Lun" points out that in a day, Yang Qi begins to grow in the morning, grows at noon, recedes at dusk, and hides at midnight. Since morning is a good time for Yang Qi to grow, it is more suitable to breathe outdoors and move the limbs. This is what people usually call "morning exercise", but morning exercise must also be scientific. If you "take it for granted" to do morning exercise, you will often fall into the misunderstanding that is not good for your health.

Myth 1: The earlier you do morning exercise, the better

Many people do morning exercises before dawn or when it is just getting light, thinking that the environment is quiet and the air is fresh, which will provide the best exercise effect. In fact, the best time for morning exercises is after sunrise.

According to research, the near-ground inversion layer that often appears in the second half of the night makes it most difficult for air pollutants to spread around 6 a.m., when the sky gradually brightens, it is often the peak period of pollution. From another perspective, before sunrise, the sun has not yet shone on the leaves, and the green plants that have not photosynthesized overnight have not only no fresh oxygen, but a large amount of carbon dioxide has accumulated. Morning exercises near the woods or green plants at this time are obviously not conducive to healthy breathing.

Myth 2: Do morning exercises right after waking up

Morning exercise on an empty stomach is actually not good for health. Drinking a glass of water after getting up in the morning can help eliminate toxins accumulated in the body and play a role of "internal cleansing". But don't drink too much water to avoid increasing the burden on the heart and gastrointestinal tract. 150 to 200 ml is appropriate.

Before morning exercise, you should also eat some food, otherwise, because you do not take in carbohydrates, the main energy source during exercise is the fat in the body. At this time, the free fatty acids in the blood will increase significantly, which may induce arrhythmia or even sudden death. However, do not eat too much to prevent gastrointestinal discomfort or insufficient blood supply to some parts of the body during exercise.

Myth 3: Morning exercises in the fog are poetic and picturesque

The thick fog and hazy scenery seem to add a poetic touch to morning exercises. Little do people know that the fog we usually refer to may include "smoke screen", "haze" and "heavy fog", all of which are weather phenomena that indicate the presence of pollutants in the air. Among them, "smoke screen" itself is a manifestation of atmospheric pollution, PM2.5 (i.e. particulate matter with a diameter of less than 2.5 microns in the air) is the culprit of "haze" weather, and "fog" is a condensation of water vapor suspended in the low altitude near the ground, which often dissolves some harmful substances discharged from pollution sources. When doing morning exercises in the "hazy fog", breathing is bound to deepen and accelerate, and naturally more harmful substances in the air are inhaled, which can easily induce a variety of diseases including respiratory infections.

Myth 4: Daily morning exercise is effective

It is a more scientific exercise method to do morning exercises on five days out of seven days a week and rest on the other two days to allow the body to recover and buffer. The two days of rest can be chosen on weekends, or according to the weather and physical condition. If you feel unwell, such as having a cold, fever, etc., or some diseases are in the acute stage or onset stage, you should avoid morning exercises; if you did not sleep well the day before, it is not suitable for morning exercises the next day. People with heart disease and cerebrovascular disease should not go out for morning exercises. For healthy middle-aged and elderly people, the morning exercise time should also be controlled to about 30 minutes.