Maybe you think that young people are exercising their abdominal muscles just to be more beautiful. In fact, the more obvious the abdominal muscles are, the healthier you will be. Take a look at the pot-bellied generals around you. All of them are suffering from diseases such as high blood pressure.
A person has nearly 640 muscles from head to toe, and the total weight accounts for about 35-45% of the body weight. Each muscle can be light or heavy, with large muscles (such as the abdomen, back, thighs, etc.) weighing up to 2 kilograms, and small ones weighing only a few grams (such as the eye muscles that control eyeball movements). If you look closer, you will find that each muscle is composed of many fibers of varying lengths. The longest can reach 60 centimeters and the shortest is only about 1 millimeter. The total number of muscle fibers in the body is about 6 billion. Muscles, like other organs, are inseparable from the blood supply, so there are dense capillaries distributed in the muscles, with a total length of 100,000 kilometers, which can circle the earth twice and a half.
From the perspective of human physiology, the main function of muscles is nothing more than to cooperate with bones to generate force, allowing people to do various activities or sports. How can it be linked to life span? It turns out that muscles The quantity and vitality are related to the occurrence and development of certain diseases in the human body. Let’s just talk about abdominal muscles. Due to the particularity of their location, they have a considerable impact on health and even lifespan.
Medical research shows that, like bones, blood vessels and other tissues, muscles also age with age, and a sign of aging is the loss of muscle mass. Once a man crosses the threshold of 40 years old, his muscles begin to decrease at a rate of 1% per year. 1% is not as simple as a number: First, people's basal metabolism decreases, and caloric consumption decreases. Excessive caloric intake is converted into fat and accumulates in the body, forming obesity. Obesity has been recognized by experts as a disease. . At the same time, muscles are also reliable assistants to the heart, which is known as the "engine of life." Muscle weakness will inevitably affect the heart and become an "accomplice" in inducing cardiovascular disease. This is also one of the factors that make middle-aged and elderly people susceptible to coronary heart disease. In addition, as the strength of the leg muscles decreases, it will be difficult to go up and down steps, the walking stride will become shorter, and it is easy to trip and suffer fractures. Furthermore, with less muscles, the burden on the joints will increase, causing joint pain, which may lead to posture deformation and lower back pain.
In comparison, the abdominal muscles are the focus, including four groups of muscles: rectus abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques and transversus abdominis. The reason is simple. The reduction of abdominal muscles and the loss of elasticity will inevitably lead to fat accumulation, causing the abdomen to become loose and bulging, commonly known as the general's belly. The fat buried under the general's belly easily flows to the blood vessels of the heart and brain, causing fat deposition on the blood vessel walls and the walls of the tubes. Thickening of the arteries is medically called atherosclerosis, so obesity is more likely to cause fatal diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and stroke than other parts of the body. It is natural that people's life span will be shortened, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Research reports say that at least 15 diseases that can lead to death are directly related to abdominal obesity. If abdominal subcutaneous fat exceeds 15-25% of the normal standard, the mortality rate will increase by 30%. In particular, the risk of sudden death will increase significantly - This is why the longer the belt, the shorter the lifespan.
Test your abdominal muscle age
Are your abdominal muscles aging? It doesn’t matter. Take a self-test first, and then tailor an exercise plan. The traditional sit-ups are the simplest way to test the age of abdominal muscles:
Lie on your back, bend your knees 90 degrees, and place your feet flat on the ground. Keep your arms straight at your side, palms facing down. During the entire process, be sure to keep your arms parallel to the ground and keep your feet from the ground. Use 5 seconds to slowly move upward until you are in a sitting position, and pause for 1 second. , then restore in 5 seconds. If you can complete more than 10 times without pausing, you are considered qualified. If you cannot complete 10 times, or you cannot continue to complete the action when it reaches 30 degrees, it means that your abdominal muscles are seriously aging. < /p>
