Can long-term running make thighs thicker?
The scientific answer is: no! ! ! If the correct running method is adopted, it will not become thicker, but will become thinner and more beautiful.
Today, I will share with you the reasons from the following aspects.
1. Muscle growth principle
2. Characteristics of aerobic exercise
3. Characteristics of anaerobic exercise
4. The correct way to run
5. Mike's practical experience
Principle of muscle growth
One factor of muscle growth is the process of excessive recovery of muscle after heavy stimulation, and the cross-sectional area of muscle fiber is also increased. The increase of cross-sectional area leads to the increase of muscle tolerance, which is what we usually call thickening and strengthening In other words, muscle augmentation is to stimulate the muscle with a heavy load, damage the muscle fiber from the inside of the muscle, and repair the muscle fiber damage by replacing protein, so as to obtain girth and muscle effect. However, running only carries our own weight, without doing any work forward, and it is not a heavy stimulus at all. Most people find it very difficult to run out of breath, not because their legs are tired, but because their cardiopulmonary function can't keep up.
Running, especially long distance running, is one of the most common aerobic activities. Which long distance runner do you think is fatter? Wang is called the deer of the East, not the leopard, which fully reflects her lightness.
So friends, rest assured that running, as long as the correct method is adopted, our legs will become thinner and thinner, and the lines will become more and more beautiful.
Characteristics of aerobic exercise
Muscle contraction needs energy supply, and the direct source of energy is adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The content of ATP in muscle is very limited, and it is exhausted in only 0.5 seconds after severe contraction. Therefore, there must be a temporary storage form of energy, and ATP should be replenished in time to ensure the continuous contraction of muscles. This reserve substance that can supplement ATP is called creatine phosphate (CP), which quickly transfers high-energy phosphate bonds to adenosine diphosphate molecules under the catalysis of enzymes to form ATP. But CP can only be supplemented in a short time. The most fundamental thing to ensure the energy supply of muscle contraction is the oxidation of sugar and fatty acids.
Both sugar and fatty acids can provide energy for muscle contraction through aerobic oxidation. Aerobic metabolism needs oxygen to ensure the reaction, which is called oxidation system to ensure the energy supply of moderate-intensity endurance exercise. Due to the lack of oxygen supply, the high-intensity activity of continuous intense muscle exercise needs anaerobic oxidation for energy supply, that is, anaerobic glycolysis of lactic acid system. Lactic acid produced by anaerobic glycolysis enters the blood through the muscle cell membrane, reaches the liver for gluconeogenesis, and then supplements blood sugar.
Therefore, low-intensity exercise that provides energy through aerobic metabolism is called aerobic metabolic exercise (aerobic exercise); The high-intensity and super-intensity exercise provided by anaerobic metabolism is called anaerobic metabolic exercise (anaerobic exercise).
Personal opinion: I think aerobic exercise is a kind of midsole exercise accompanied by regular exercise of oxygen metabolism (regular muscle contraction) in a certain period of time. Aerobic exercise is characterized by improving heart and lung function, because oxygen is used to regulate metabolism, so heart and lung function must be improved. Before I lost weight, my heart rate was significantly higher than now. And the lung capacity is much higher. Aerobic exercise can also promote metabolism, so that the garbage in the body can be quickly eliminated and the production of fresh cells can be promoted. Moreover, the aerobic exercise of running is obviously running with legs. Some people will say that running with legs has little effect on losing weight. In fact, running is the use of the whole body, the first is the exercise of the legs. When running, the thigh drives the calf, the contraction of the hip, and the distortion of the hip and waist play a balancing role. The upper body swings the arm to drive the muscles of the chest, shoulders, back and arms to contract gently. It can be said that this mild and moderate contraction of the whole body muscles helps to lose weight (fat). In addition, let's talk about how to practice leg thickening. The so-called exercise is to let the legs grow muscles. That is doing anaerobic exercise, and the following paragraphs will explain what anaerobic exercise is. Generally speaking, muscle building is to stimulate muscles with a heavy load. And the muscle fiber is injured from the inside of the muscle, and the girth and muscle enhancement effect can be obtained by taking protein to repair the muscle fiber injury. Usually, you can notice that some fitness people squat their legs to increase their weight, and only a few people in each group squat. They usually do this because their legs are too thin, or they are not satisfied with their leg circumference.
In running, the intensity is much lighter than squatting, and running is a time-dependent exercise. It can be said that the same regular muscle contraction for a period of time, the intensity is light. Muscle contraction during running will increase at the beginning of running, because the legs need enough strength and muscles to maintain the amount of exercise at that time. I should lose weight myself. When I first started running, I couldn't last three minutes. There are two reasons, 1 is poor cardiopulmonary function, and 2/is that my muscles are not enough to support the amount of exercise at that time. But then my muscles grew a lot, with more fat than long muscles, lines on my legs, and smaller circumference. Seeing this, the girl will say that she doesn't want to practice such lines. In fact, the proportion and state of muscle growth between men and women are different. Men are more likely to grow muscles and lines than women, while women are much worse in this respect. So the legs will not have lines like bodybuilders, but they look healthy, long and sexy. This is because after running for a long time, they can certainly burn fat fully when their muscle mass is saturated. Of course, the condition of muscle saturation is to maintain a certain time and strength. For example, my current amount of exercise is 1 hour for each run and 10 km for each run, and the average speed is 10 km per hour. Basically, you can run the whole course in one breath, and your muscles will not feel sore the next day. Therefore, friends who lose weight should not worry when running, and should exercise step by step. Slowly, you will find that your legs will be thinner and more beautiful.
Let's talk about muscle fibers first. The principle of muscle growth is mentioned above. When the amount and intensity of exercise are stable, the muscle mass and amount and intensity of exercise are saturated. So every time the muscles contract, the muscles have enough strength and endurance to support the movement at that time. In this way, the fibers inside the muscle will not be damaged again. Because every time you exercise, muscle fibers will not grow muscles again. However, due to the timing and regularity of muscle contraction, in this process, muscles exercise endurance and increase muscle fiber density, that is, your legs will appear tight and lined when running.
Characteristics of anaerobic exercise
Anaerobic exercise refers to the high-speed and intense exercise of muscles in the state of "hypoxia". Anaerobic exercise is mostly an exercise with high load intensity and strong instantaneity, which is difficult to last and the time for fatigue elimination is slow. The biggest feature of anaerobic exercise is that the oxygen intake during exercise is very low. Because the speed is too fast and the explosive force is too strong, the sugar in the human body cannot be decomposed by oxygen, so we have to rely on "anaerobic energy supply". This kind of exercise makes the body produce too much lactic acid, which leads to muscle fatigue, muscle soreness and shortness of breath after exercise. If you want to make your body stronger, you can go to the gym to take part in anaerobic exercise. However, when exercising, it is best to listen to the guidance of the coach and choose a training plan that suits you.
Common anaerobic sports are: running, weightlifting, throwing, high jump, long jump, tug-of-war, muscle strength training and so on.
Anaerobic exercise is to exercise muscle endurance and increase muscle function. In the process of losing weight, or after running, the equipment also plays an auxiliary role. However, if it is mainly to reduce fat, the load of the equipment must not be too heavy, just feel a little loaded, because if it is too heavy, the fibers inside the muscle will be damaged, and the damaged part will be repaired by protein, and as a result, the circumference of the muscle will be enlarged. Especially in the process of reducing fat, it is not suitable for women to bear too much weight, and when doing equipment exercise, it is best to give priority to light weight and multiple groups. For example, after running, you can do some lunges to exercise the line and endurance of leg muscles, and the weight can be required by hand, that is, without adding any weight, take the body's own weight as the weight, and do squats for about 20 times in each group, with no less than 4 to 5 groups each time. In this way, not only can running reduce fat, but it can also.
Scientific running method
Posture and time
The posture and time of running are also very important, which is very important from the posture, because the posture of running can determine the part of exercising muscles. If the running posture is incorrect, it will not only damage the body, but also affect the beauty of muscle lines. My personal running habit is to land on the back of my foot first, so it has little influence on my knees. After landing, the thigh exerts force to drive the calf to swing backwards, and the colleague's buttocks contract. My waist is balanced. At the same time, the abdomen swings left and right to drive the upper limbs, and the arms of the upper limbs will swing back and forth to maintain balance. This is the exercise of the shoulder, chest and back muscles of the upper limbs, as well as the upper arms and forearms. In this way, the correct running method can exercise the muscles of the whole body. Since you have exercised all your muscles, you can burn all your fat to lose weight. It is also important in terms of time. Because during aerobic exercise, the body needs calories to maintain the amount of exercise at that time. At first, the body used muscle sugar, or used body sugar and fatty acids in muscle to provide nutrition and energy. Generally speaking, the sugar and fatty acids in the basic muscles are consumed within 20 minutes. If you keep running, your body will burn fat to give you energy, so as to complete the rest of the exercise. So running is good. Or other aerobic exercise generally takes about 40 minutes to lose fat. Generally speaking, 20 minutes of warm-up consumes fatty acids and muscle sugar. Burning fat for the remaining 20 minutes, don't worry at the beginning of losing weight, because this is not a good way to hold back running, because the muscles didn't have enough strength to maintain the amount of exercise at that time, so it was anaerobic exercise at that time. It is also easy to get hurt. It is suggested that people who have just started exercising should have a two-week physical and cardiopulmonary recovery period. Don't force it, don't force it. The intensity is most suitable for their physical conditions. To sum up, the running posture must be correct, and it takes at least 40 minutes to lose fat.
Running intensity and heart rate
Warm up before exercise. Before each exercise, there needs to be a warm-up process, that is, warm-up activities, activities of joint ligaments, stretching limbs and back muscles. Then start with low-intensity exercise and gradually enter the state of moderate-intensity exercise. Warm-up generally refers to the use of low-intensity aerobic fitness, so that the body is getting better and better, the body temperature is slowly rising, the heart rate is accelerated, and breathing becomes accelerated at a uniform speed. Blood circulation is also faster, so that oxygen and nutrients will be transported to the heart and muscles to prepare for your exercise. An important sign after the completion of warm-up activities is that the body begins to sweat slightly. Warm-up time is 5~ 10 minute. When it is cold, keep warm for a long time and put on more clothes.
In order to save time, many people go straight into high-intensity aerobic training without warming up. If so, because the cardiovascular system and lungs have not yet entered the state, the body temperature is relatively low, and the flexibility of muscles is not good, which is easy to cause injuries. Besides, after warming up, you will feel better and exercise longer. In other words, if you exercise without warming up, you will get tired more easily.
● Close to but not exceeding the "bull's-eye rate" Generally speaking, the bull's-eye rate is 170- age. If you are 60 years old, the bull's eye rate is170-60 =110 (times/minute). You can count your pulse at any time when you are exercising. If the heart rate is controlled below 1 10 beats/min, the exercise intensity is appropriate. Of course, this refers to healthy athletes, except the infirm. If the heart rate is only 70 ~ 80 beats/min during exercise, which is far from the bull's-eye rate, it means that the exercise standard of aerobic exercise has not been reached.
● Self-feeling Self-feeling is an important indicator to master the amount and intensity of exercise, including mild shortness of breath, feeling a little heartbeat, slight fever, reddish complexion and sweating, indicating moderate exercise; If there is obvious palpitation, shortness of breath, fever, dizziness, sweating and fatigue, it means that the exercise is out of limit. If your exercise stays at the level of "face-deadening, heart-beating" and your heart rate is too far from the "bull's-eye rate", it means that your exercise can't achieve the purpose of enhancing your physique and endurance, and you need to add more.
Aftersickness is the discomfort after exercise, and it is also an index to measure whether the amount of exercise is appropriate. After exercise, the average person may feel mild discomfort, fatigue, muscle aches and so on. It will disappear soon after rest. This is a normal phenomenon. If the symptoms are obvious, you feel tired and have muscle pain, and they can't disappear for a day or two, it means that intermediate metabolites accumulate too much in cells and blood circulation. This is the result of anaerobic exercise, so we have to reduce the amount of exercise next time.
● Relaxation has the same effect as warm-up. During exercise, blood circulation is accelerated and blood volume is increased, especially in limbs. If you stop exercising immediately, blood will accumulate in the lower limbs, causing unnecessary burden on the heart. In severe cases, it will affect the blood supply to the brain and even cause dizziness. Therefore, there should be a relaxation time of 5~ 10 minutes after the exercise goal is achieved, that is, gradually reduce the exercise intensity and slowly return to a quiet state.
Leg effect after running.
Matters needing attention
Running exercise has many advantages, is simple and easy to operate, and has been accepted by people, and has become a main form of mass physical exercise. However, we must pay attention to some matters when running and abide by the basic requirements in running exercise. Only in this way can we really achieve the goal of keeping fit and avoid sports injuries.
Running exercise, we must abide by the basic principles of physical exercise, step by step, do what we can, and persevere. Teenagers should master a proper amount of exercise in middle and long distance running, and pay attention to reasonable recovery means after exercise to avoid feeling tired the next day. In addition to the above basic requirements, the following precautions should be paid attention to during the practice:
1. The running posture should be reasonable, the upper body should be straight and slightly forward, the shoulders should be relaxed, the elbows should be naturally bent, and the arms should swing back and forth forcefully at the sides of the body. In the process of running, the stride length is not required to be large, but the stride frequency and stride length should be basically the same. Pay attention to the stability of the body's center of gravity, not ups and downs.
2. Breathing during running is very important. Breathing should have a certain rhythm. When breathing through the nose and mouth at the same time, the mouth does not need to be too wide, and the tongue can be rolled up to prolong the time of air in the mouth and reduce the stimulation of cold air to the respiratory tract. Pay attention to exhaling gas from the lungs as much as possible every breath to increase the effective ventilation.
3. Sports shoes should be suitable, and shoes should be clean and free of sand. Sports clothes should be as loose as possible, but keep warm, especially for long-distance running in winter. Keeping warm is very important. You can wear a hat and gloves.
4. The requirements for running venues are not high, but for teenagers' long-distance running exercise, the ground should be soft, flat and free of foreign objects. If you exercise on the road, you should pay special attention to safety.
The exercise time can be early morning or other time, but the time from morning is generally tight, especially in winter. Some people think it is better to have activities at 4 ~ 5 pm. The reason is that the temperature is high at this time, it is not easy to catch cold, there is plenty of time and good light, and it is not easy to have accidents. It depends on personal circumstances.