You must remember A-Gump in the movie: the bearded man who walks across the United States and is ragged. From the east coast to the west coast, A-Gump ran tirelessly for 3 years, 2 months, 14 days and 16 hours, and then stopped abruptly and ran to the next paragraph of his life. Agan’s legendary running life has inspired countless people. Beyond the screen, the reality of A-Gump's deeds is also frequently reported. In the United States, a man named Dean Kanas has been running for 16 years. According to reports, he only sleeps 4 hours a day, and spends the rest of his life. He has participated in countless marathons and endurance races everywhere, leaving his footprints from the road to the world's driest desert. He even went home thousands of kilometers after the game. According to rough statistics, the total mileage of Mr. Dean Kanas has been enough to circle the Earth's equator 4 times! The sport brings him strong muscles and strong bones. In China, although there is no such a long-running madman, the long-distance running is also a favorite of many people.

The benefits of aerobic exercise such as long-distance running are obvious to the human body. Modern people, especially urban people, are often seriously lacking in sports due to time and space constraints. Maintaining a single posture for a long time during work will cause many problems such as cervical vertebrae and lumbar vertebrae; excess nutrients will lead to excessive weight, and will become obese after middle-aged, gradually becoming a good group of chronic diseases such as “three highs”; obesity can also lead to snoring. Hypoxia during sleep at night will make the whole day dizzy, energy drop, work efficiency is difficult to guarantee, and even induce cardiovascular accidents; the heart will not get proper exercise for a long time, but it is fat, coronary atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease The rate will also increase... These terrible consequences of the whole body can be effectively avoided by exercise. The significance of fitness exercises such as long-distance running is here.

However, long-distance running is good, but long-term repeated runs like A-Gump and the US "real version of Forrest Gump" will bring some problems? In fact, people already know this. Marathon-level athletic long-distance running events are more common to athletes. As we all know, the origin of the marathon project is to commemorate an Athens soldier who died as a result of long-distance running. When the long-distance running, the human body loses a lot of water and electrolytes, and must be replenished in time; the burden of the heart is aggravated, and the environmental changes in the body fluids are easy to cause arrhythmia; the participants have seen reports of sudden death in the marathon from time to time. Therefore, before participating in the competition, the organizer should evaluate the body of the contestants, and the mass marathon activities require participants to do their best. Long-term marathon competitions and training have made marathon runners often plagued with various injuries. At the end of last year, the Ethiopian man of the world marathon record holder, Brescia Lacy, retired, due to injuries in his right knee.

The main potential hazard of long-distance running to the sports system is the knee joint. Foreign countries even use "Running Knee" to name the patellofemoral joint pain caused by incorrect movement. For long-term, high-volume long-distance running, it is especially important to protect the knee joint. Taking the correct posture from the beginning and strengthening the training of the front and medial muscles of the thigh can effectively prevent the running knee. If the amount of exercise increases so that you feel that your knees are not good, then the ice can reduce your pain. In addition, the running ground also has an effect on the knee joint. It should try to avoid the rough running track, and the flat and comfortable plastic track is the best. Nowadays, many running shoes have a shock-absorbing design, which can also reduce the sports injuries of the knee joint to some extent.

Long-term large-volume training is "sad"

In addition to the exercise system, the impact of long-term high-volume training on the heart is also a topic of great interest. The health benefits of moderate exercise have become a consensus, but how long-term high-intensity endurance exercises have affected the heart has been unknown. Recently, some clinical observations have found that endurance sports training may lead to arrhythmia (not arrhythmia during exercise, but speculate that long-term endurance training changes the heart's myocardial structure and affects the heart rhythm conduction system). In this regard, Spanish scientists designed animal models for rats and conducted experiments: they divided male rats into two groups, one group let them rest as a control, and the other group kept it running in some way, time period Set to 4 weeks, 8 weeks, and 16 weeks, respectively. Finally, the changes of atrial ventricle in the two groups of rats were studied by histology and biochemistry. As a result, at 16 weeks, the heart of the "overworked" rats was eccentrically hypertrophied, the atrial dilatation, and the diastolic ability decreased, and the ventricular muscle showed significant signs of fibrosis compared with the control group. Of the 12 rats that were overworked, 5 could induce ventricular tachycardia, while only 1 in the control group was induced. Rats who had rested after 8 weeks of exercise had better myocardial fibrosis than those who continued to exercise. Therefore, scholars believe that for rats, long-term high-intensity endurance training can lead to myocardial fibrosis and easily induce arrhythmia .

Since the lifespan of rats is much shorter than that of humans, the 16-week "endurance training" of this rat is equivalent to human beings running for more than ten years. Such a large amount of exercise may only be achieved by some athletes engaged in marathon or long-distance running. Whether the conclusions of animal models can be established in humans needs to be confirmed by medical investigations targeting humans themselves. According to a 2008 study by the Fitness 114 series , older marathon athletes showed more signs of cardiac fibrosis than older people of the same age group. However, this study has been questioned: some old marathon runners in the report did not start this project from a young age, and some people have a long history of smoking and other bad habits, so it is impossible to rule out cardiac fibrosis caused by other factors. A similar study in the UK a few weeks ago was more scientific: they selected some long-distance runners or rowers who had participated in the British national team or the Olympic Games, and they all completed at least 100 marathons. They have received long-term endurance training during their sports career. Twelve of the subjects were 50 years of age and older, while another 17 were relatively young, aged 26 to 40. The study also recruited 20 healthy, non-endurance athletes over the age of 50 as controls. Scientists performed an MRI on the heart of these subjects to assess their heart scar or fibrosis. The results showed that half of the heart in the older athletes had a scar, and these were the oldest athletes who had the longest training time and the hardest work, while the young athletes and non-athletes did not show signs of myocardial fibrosis. Researchers believe that long-term high-intensity endurance training does lead to heart fibrosis. The results of this study are consistent with the findings of animal models.

From the above research, the long-term high-intensity endurance training is indeed harmful to the heart, but we do not need to worry about it. For long-distance running enthusiasts who want to exercise for fitness, few people can reach the training intensity of the British national team or Olympic athletes. However, the American "real version of Forrest Gump" mentioned earlier in this article is really necessary to check to assess the risk of cardiac fibrosis.

For the individual, how to master the amount of exercise is a real problem. Perhaps it is really a good choice to "follow the feeling". I believe that A-Gump did not have the physical strength to cross the United States in the beginning. Gradually increase the amount of exercise so that it does not cause physical discomfort. The benefits of reasonable aerobic exercise far outweigh the risks of excessive exercise. Recent research has also found that even in patients with heart disease, aerobic exercise (endurance training) will benefit them. The unfavorable regulation of the autonomic nervous system of the heart due to disease can be reversed by appropriate exercise: aerobic exercise can moderately excite the parasympathetic nerves of the heart and reduce the incidence of malignant arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation, ventricular fibrillation, etc.). Of course, the exercise of these special people needs to be carried out under the close care of medical staff.

Run correctly and healthily

Even heart patients are starting to exercise, and lazy guys can't find a little excuse to escape from exercise. On the issue of exercise, if we can all have the same beliefs as Agan, of course, we don't have to go to the old age like him - it would be a good thing to live in health.

There should be sufficient warm-up before the start of the long run. Warm-up can make the body's organs begin to adapt to the upcoming movement, so that the body temperature rises, the heartbeat begins to accelerate, and the leg muscles relax and bring enough oxygen. Warm-up should last for about 10 minutes, so that the heart rate reaches about 70% of the maximum heart rate (maximum heart rate is equal to 220-age). If the temperature is high, the warm-up time can be appropriately reduced. If you feel a certain part of your body when you warm up, you can stop and stretch accordingly to increase tissue flexibility and avoid injury during exercise.

The correct posture should be mastered during the long-distance running. There is a different opinion about which part of the foot is first grounded. However, the whole foot on the ground or the forefoot on the ground is more favorable to the body than the heel, and the latter has a greater impact on the human body's vibration and knee joint. However, for amateurs or beginners, since the amount of exercise is not very large, and there is no need to pursue a high speed, there is no need to insist on it. Keep the center of gravity steady during the running, avoid "sitting and running", swaying from side to side, "including chest", "probe" and other postures, control the pace and breathing rhythm. Also pay attention to the addition of water and electrolytes during long-distance running, but not too much at a time.

After the long-distance running, you should not rest immediately. You should do some sorting exercises to gradually restore your heart rate and breathing to a resting level. After exercise, keep warm and do not bathe when sweating. The above are to avoid short-term ischemia due to brain. And cause syncope. After exercise, I often feel thirsty. I don't want to drink it at this time. It is better not to drink a lot of cold drinks to avoid excessive stimulation in the short-term gastrointestinal tract. If the muscles are sore, stretch and massage as appropriate.