What's a healthy running level for an adult? ｜Improving Literacy and Promoting Health
Healthy running is a topic of concern for runners. So, how many kilometres per week is healthy to run? How many kilometres per month is the minimum amount of exercise needed to stay healthy?
Healthy adults should perform 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity or 75 to 150 minutes of high-intensity aerobic exercise per week, and should perform resistance training two to three times per week.
For adults, the health benefits of adhering to exercise are mainly reflected in improving obesity status, promoting cardiovascular health, reducing the risk of chronic diseases, alleviating anxiety and depression, and improving sleep quality. If people follow the recommended amount of weekly exercise schedule, walking or jogging five times a week for 30 minutes each time, or running three times a week for about 25 minutes each time will be able to achieve the minimum exercise amount.
For the judgement of exercise intensity, people can make a simple judgement based on their own feelings and reactions during exercise. For example, moderate-intensity exercise means breathing, heartbeat acceleration and slight sweating during exercise, but you can talk during exercise, walking or jogging is a typical moderate-intensity exercise; whereas high-intensity exercise means breathing, heartbeat acceleration and heavy sweating during exercise, and you cannot talk freely or can only talk occasionally during exercise. In a general sense, running is high-intensity exercise.
Taking running as an example, one can calculate this way: a cumulative running time of 75 minutes per week is the minimum level of exercise that can bring positive health value, i.e., running 3 times per week, each time running for about 25 minutes and running 3 to 4 kilometres. Running 10 to 12 kilometres per week and 40 to 50 kilometres per month is the minimum amount of exercise needed to maintain good health.
It should be noted that first-time runners should gradually increase their weekly running volume according to their body's adaptation, and then let their monthly running volume reach 40 to 50 kilometres, which must not be rushed. At the same time, first-time runners should also pay special attention to the warm-up before running and relaxation after running, which will help the body to recover quickly and prevent sports injuries.
