Walking is the most suitable exercise method for middle-aged and elderly people to maintain health and prevent diseases. As long as you walk, you will benefit. However, there are still some considerations and requirements on how to maximize the benefits. Because in order to really achieve the effect, you need the support of your own good cardiopulmonary function, and the cardiopulmonary function is a direct reflection of the overall health of the body.

So, what kind of walking can really meet the requirements of exercise? There are 3 methods to check.

One ​​is heart rate

The heart rate of middle-aged people should reach 140-160 beats/minute when walking fast, and the heart rate of the elderly should reach 120-140 beats/minute, and it can last for about 30 minutes.

The second is to look at the distance traveled within 6 minutes

If you can’t walk 500 meters in 6 minutes, it indicates that your cardiopulmonary function is insufficient, and even heart failure may occur. You should find out the cause in time and actively take intervention measures.

The third is to see how far you can walk per second

The walking speed of a healthy adult is about 1 About m/s, less than this distance indicates that the legs are weak and the heart cannot bear the need to walk. The main causes of this result are excessive decline in muscle strength, poor cardiopulmonary function, and a relatively severe degree of aging.

Studies have confirmed that the elderly after the age of 60 should strive to maintain the above-mentioned walking ability, and if they increase by 0.1 m/s within one year, the life expectancy is expected to increase by exercising and other methods In 8 years, the risk of all-cause mortality can be reduced by 56%.

Don’t underestimate the 0.1 meter, it needs all the functions of the whole body to cooperate organically to realize it. Especially with the increase of age, it is difficult to realize it, but it is the direction of efforts to prolong life. You might as well test yourself, just pay attention to walking naturally, don’t rush to go deliberately!

In short, heartbeat and breathing are the most basic vital signs of the human body, and they are windows that reflect the overall health of the human body. Middle-aged and elderly people can often do self-tests according to the above methods, which will help for early detection of health problems.

In addition, elderly people often ask: Some people say that it is enough to walk 6,000 steps a day, while others say that you need to walk 10,000 steps. Is there really a difference in the physical benefits of the two situations? ? How much difference?

The answer to this question is actually quite simple and clear: not much difference! Why?

From the perspective of sports medicine, the benefit of exercise mainly depends on the amount of exercise. There are two standards to measure the amount of exercise, one is exercise intensity, and the other is exercise time.

Exercise intensity mainly refers to the exercise heart rate, which needs to reach 60%-70% of the maximum heart rate, and the maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age; the exercise time is usually required to be 30 minutes That’s it.

Excluding middle-aged and elderly people who are physically weak, the walking speed to meet the above heart rate requirement is about 120 steps/ Minutes, about 3600 steps can be taken in 30 minutes. That is to say, there is such a special continuous walking once a day, plus the number of steps taken in daily life, a total of 6000 steps will have enough benefits for the body.

Studies have also confirmed that after walking more than 6,000 steps a day, the benefits of the body will not increase significantly, and walking too much may cause damage to the knee joint And the loss outweighs the gain.

So there is no need for middle-aged and elderly people to pursue too many steps. If they can walk 6,000 steps a day while paying attention to muscle exercises, such as lifting dumbbells and doing half-time exercises Squat or stand on tiptoe, do standing push-ups that push the wall, etc., to further strengthen the muscles, there will be greater exercise benefits.

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