Xiaohua: Hello, welcome to the Round table’s Word of the Week. This week let’s get a little bit sporty and talk about different kinds of exercises.
John: Yeah, so first we are going to talk about aerobic exercise, sometimes known as cardio, and basically this is a type of physical exercise of relatively low intensity that depends primarily on the aerobic energy generating process. So aerobic literally means relating to, involving or requiring free oxygen.
Xiaohua: 有氧运动aerobic exercises一般是指在人体氧气充分供应的情况下进行的体育锻炼。一般来说,强度比较低,持续的时间也比较长一些。
John: Usually when we talk about aerobic or cardiovascular exercises, we are talking about medium to long distance running or jogging, swimming, cycling and walking.
Xiaohua: 举例来说,有氧运动包括慢跑,游泳,骑自行车,还有走路。
John: And you can actually break it down into two different types of aerobic exercises. High-impact which means both your feet leave the ground simultaneously during the workout, so running, jumping rope, skipping, and things like that. And low-impact means that at least one foot stays in contact with the ground at all times, so things like walking or even technically, although there is really no feet involved, swimming or cycling are also considered low-impact.
Xiaohua: high-impact就是高强度的。高强度的有氧锻炼一般是指在运动中双脚都会离地的运动,比如说跳绳,跑步。低强度的有氧训练是指比如走路,另外游泳也可以算在里面。
John: We’ll talk about what anaerobic means next week, but first I just want to give you a quick comparison. So anaerobic exercises deals with releasing energy through the creation of lactic acid, whereas aerobic exercise deals with creating energy through oxygen.
Xiaohua: 跟有氧运动相对的是无氧运动。无氧运动是指在运动中会产生大量乳酸的运动,一般都是强度非常高的。有氧运动则是需要在氧气供应充分的情况下进行的锻炼。
John: Exactly. Let’s take a look at some different types of aerobic exercises. So as we mentioned before, I think one of the most popular and easily available type of aerobic exercises is running.
Xiaohua: 跑步,或者说慢跑。
John: Yeah, exactly. And looking at good running technique for everyone interested, actually, leaning forward places a runner’s center of mass on the front part of the foot, which avoids landing on the heel. Also you want to make sure you have upright posture with a relaxed frame and keep your core upright and stable.
Xiaohua: 跑步也有很多技巧。首先是身体前倾,然后重心要放在前脚掌部分。另外就是保持上身正直。
John: Now let’s take a look at some equipment. A treadmill is device for walking or running while staying in the same place. You’ll see that almost every signal gym that you go to is going to have some people on treadmill.
Xiaohua: treadmill就是跑步机,a pretty interesting name as well.
John: And now we come to my favorite piece of equipment in terms of aerobic exercises that elliptical trainer or sometimes even called the cross-trainer or X-trainer. And it’s a stationary machine that is used to simulate stair climbing, walking, or running without causing excessive pressure to the joints. So the two places where you put your feet, they actually move in ellipses which are basically just kind of oval sheet pattern.
Xiaohua: elliptical trainer又叫做椭圆机或空中漫步机,也是经常看到的一种健身器械。可能漫步机最主要的好处就是它最大限度地减少了跑步带来的运动伤害。
John: Yeah, so also looking at more pieces of equipment you can find in the gym, indoor rower or rowing machine, actually is used to simulate the action of watercraft rowing for the purpose of exercise or training. Then there is a stationary bicycle which I think is fairly self-explanatory, just a bicycle or piece of equipment that simulates the experience of riding bicycle without going anywhere.
Xiaohua: 还有划船机rowing machine和stationary bicycle室内自行车。
John: The last thing I do want to mention, because I think it’s very interesting, is high-intensity interval training. High-intensity interval training is very, very interesting. It becomes popular over the last couple of years and uses anaerobic exercises to produce aerobic benefits. Looking at certain studies, they found that 2.5 hours of sprint interval training produced similar muscle changes to 10.5 hours of endurance training.
Xiaohua: HIIT( high-intensity interval training)最近在国内和国际都非常火,中文叫做高强度间歇性训练,其实就是在做无氧运动的情况下达到有氧运动的效果,but it’s extremely, extremely tiring.
John: Yeah, that’s the whole point, because you know, there is the seven minutes interval training that becomes very very popular and the whole idea is that you do that and you’ll see metabolic changes in your body. Your actual metabolism will rise significantly throughout the entire day, for example if you do it in the morning.
Xiaohua: Exactly. That’s all we have for Round Table’s Word of the Week.
John: Tune in the next week for when we talk about anaerobic exercise.