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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

The original title: "March 15" Consumer Rights Day "to break the misunderstanding of fitness: walking downstairs, exercise effect is better?" "

Today is the annual "March 15 International Consumer Rights Day", which is established to promote countries to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. On this day every year, the media and competent departments will expose a number of "fake and shoddy" products or services to the society, reminding consumers to beware of stepping on mines.

In fact, not only in consumption, we should be careful to step on mines. At the moment of the "information explosion", we should pay more attention to all kinds of information on the Internet, especially those related to our health. For example, many of the fitness knowledge popularized to the public by all kinds of fitness talents and opinion leaders on the Internet are misunderstandings, even pseudoscience.

In general, you may think that running up the hill is more effective than jogging down the hill, going up the stairs is better than going down the stairs, and lifting the barbell is better than putting it down. But what you don't expect is that the opposite is true. This may sound incredible, but that's the magic of centrifugal movement.

(Michael Mosley / tr. by Phil Newell)

The original article is published in Science focus 2023.02.

What is centrifugal movement?

Some training movements of Pilates need to lower the body slowly, so this kind of exercise belongs to centrifugal exercise. You may want to ask, what is centrifugal movement? Some exercises can only be accomplished by contracting the muscles, such as going up the stairs or lifting the barbell. This kind of exercise is called "centripetal exercise". In contrast, exercises that achieve the effect of exercise by stretching muscles, such as going down stairs or putting down barbells, are called centrifugal exercises.

Centrifugal exercise works better?

Skeletal muscles such as biceps contract or relax, driving the movement of the upper limb. Exercise, the upper limb to bear weight, so every contraction or relaxation will cause damage to the muscle, the injury promotes the secretion of hormones, but promotes the growth of muscle. (photo Source: Niwadare) before answering this question, let's talk about why exercise promotes muscle growth. As you may already know, all forms of exercise can cause slight damage to muscles. As you might not expect, the damage is not only harmless but beneficial-stimulating the secretion of hormones, which act on muscle cells, making muscles stronger.

Centripetal exercise motivates muscle fibers to contract, so that muscle fibers enter a state of fatigue. Although less muscle fibers are used in centrifugal exercise, the load on them during exercise is four times that of centripetal exercise, which will cause more damage to muscle fibers.

Tony Kay, a biomechanics expert at the University of Northampton in the UK, said: "greater damage means that muscles become stronger and that the body's repair and recovery takes more energy. Therefore, centrifugal exercise is more effective in increasing strength and metabolic rate than traditional exercise."

When you see the data here, maybe you still can't believe it. Then we will prove this point of view through several experiments.

Tony Kay did an experiment. In the experiment, volunteers were randomly divided into two groups. The experimental area was a 10-story building: one group took the stairs up the stairs and took the elevator downstairs twice a week, while the other group took the stairs twice a week and took the elevator up the stairs. After a period of time, the health status of both groups of volunteers improved, but the volunteers who took the stairs downstairs had a more significant improvement in resting heart rate (a health indicator, the number of heartbeats per minute in a quiet state), insulin sensitivity, blood lipid levels, balance and other health indicators.

What is even more unexpected is that the volunteers who took the stairs downstairs also had a more significant improvement in muscle function and bone mineral density. You may find the task easier in this group, but their muscle strength increased by 34%-twice as much as volunteers who walked upstairs.

In another experiment, Tony Kay's team conducted an experiment on the elderly, comparing the health indicators of the elderly who did traditional exercise and centrifugal exercise. They found that elderly people who did centrifugal exercise increased their leg strength by 38%, while those who did traditional exercise increased by only 8%.

Similarly, in other studies, through centrifugal exercise, the strength level of young and healthy male football players increased significantly; the strength level of people over the age of 65 also increased by 30% to 50% in just six weeks. Muscle mass increased by 10%.

The results of such research run counter to our perception. What causes it? Let's run downhill as an example to briefly explain. When you go downhill, the muscles on your legs or arms are stretched, slowing down the downhill (it's the muscles that protect you). Similarly, when you put down the barbell, the muscles are stretched. In order to take on the task of protecting the body, muscles make more efforts and suffer more damage when doing this centrifugal exercise. As mentioned earlier, the effect of exercise will be better.

When running down the hill, the muscles stretch and take on the task of protecting the body, but they have to bear a heavier burden, so they will be more injured and exercise better. (photo Source: Packa) completing centrifugal exercises correctly can not only keep you in good shape, but also increase your body's basal metabolic rate and promote fat loss, which is better than those that seem more difficult. However, any exercise should be done according to its capacity, beyond the body's bearing limit, not only will not achieve the effect of exercise, but will be harmful to the body.

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