Which sport has the best “value for money”? The famous medical journal “The Lancet” once gave the answer.
By tracking 80,000 people for 10 years, researchers analyzed the relationship between different types of exercise and all-cause mortality and found that the three most cost-effective types of exercise are:
First: Swing (table tennis, badminton, etc.); Second: Swimming; Third: Aerobics. These three types of exercise have the most obvious impact on health and longevity.
The top-ranked swingers had a 47 percent lower all-cause mortality rate compared with non-participating study subjects.
April 6 is World Table Tennis Day. Life Times (Search “LT0385” in WeChat to follow) interviewed experts to interpret this national sport, Shows you how each swing can benefit your body.
Experts Interviewed
Han Tieguang, director of Shenzhen Health Education and Promotion Center, and expert in the prescription of physical and medical integrated sports
Gou Bo, Professor, School of Exercise and Health Sciences, Xi’an Institute of Physical Education
Wang Jun, Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology, Beijing Sport University
How many body parts are activated per swing?
How popular is table tennis as a national sport? Liu Guoliang once said: China’s table tennis population is nearly 100 million, of which 83 million are folk table tennis enthusiasts.
In addition to improving reflexes and flexibility, playing table tennis is good for the heart, lungs, waist, shoulders, and cervical spine.
Cardiovascular protection
The above-mentioned study published in The Lancet found that table tennis, badminton and other swing sports ranked first in terms of protecting the cardiovascular system and reducing the risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
Make the brain more flexible
Table tennis can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease, delay cerebral arteriosclerosis in the elderly, and maintain thinking and memory.
A team of researchers at the Department of Neurology at Fukuoka University in Japan found that helping Parkinson’s patients with a table tennis training program resulted in significant improvements in their symptoms.
Increase cardiorespiratory endurance
Playing table tennis is an aerobic exercise, which can exercise cardiopulmonary function and visceral system, and improve basal metabolism.
Assessment of eye strain
Ping-pong balls come and go at a fast speed. To accurately judge the landing point, the eyes must keep an eye on the ball, and the brain can judge at a high speed, which has a good effect on the adjustment of vision.
Elementary and middle school students with heavy schoolwork often play table tennis, which can effectively improve ciliary muscle function and prevent myopia.
Increase muscle strength
Playing table tennis can exercise the muscles that support the body’s balance, move parts that are not normally moving, and relieve symptoms of low back pain or stiff shoulders.
The swinging action stimulates the biceps and triceps, effectively strengthening the shoulder and arm muscles.
Compared with other ball sports, table tennis is light and fast, and it causes almost zero physical damage to the opponent after bouncing. Therefore, table tennis is suitable for all ages.
Before swinging, 3 parts are ready
When playing, pay special attention to the protection of waist, knee, and wrist.
Waist
When playing table tennis, the human body always keeps the upper body forward and turns the waist every time the ball is hit.
On the other hand, the waist activities mainly focus on large muscle groups. If the preparation activities are not sufficient, and the body is not relaxed after the end, local over-fatigue will occur.
Before exercise, you should fully rotate your body to warm up, and after exercise, relax and stretch your waist muscles.
Knee
Most sports involve flexion, extension and rotation of the knee joint, which can easily increase the wear and tear of the soft tissue associated with the knee joint.
Doing a good warm-up before exercising and moving your knees can effectively reduce sudden injuries.
Wrist
Move the wrist before starting the swing, try a simple wrist loop or flick.
Do regular grasping exercises, and do straight arm retraction and wrist roll exercises with a water bottle or dumbbells of suitable weight.
5 Detail “Effective” Swings
In addition to a moderate warm-up, do 5 things while exercising to maximize the fitness benefits of swinging.
Pick the right venue
The playing field should be level and free of obstacles, be careful around, and be careful not to hit the wall or baffle behind when hitting back.
Be aware of action guidelines
Pay attention to the rules of movement when exercising and reduce mechanical movements to avoid sports injuries. If you feel local elbow pain, you should stop stretching in time.
Relax the whole body before catching the ball, use the big arm to drive the forearm, and then drive the fingers and wrist to hit the ball hard, do not slam the arm.
Control strength
The best way for middle-aged and elderly people to play table tennis is to keep fit, play less games, and don’t be upset because of a temporary win or loss. People with poor heart function should pay special attention regardless of the intensity.
Due less, more protection
If the goal is fitness, play more defense and less smash, and don’t be too active to save the ball to avoid injury.
Control duration and frequency
The optimal duration of each exercise is 45~60 minutes. If it is less than 45 minutes, the health care effect will be reduced, and more than 60 minutes will not obtain greater benefits.
In terms of exercise frequency, exercise 3 to 5 days a week, once a day, is the best. ▲
Editor of this issue: Xu Menglian
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