High score reward: Begging for the 60-year history of mass fitness in China

In China, due to political and economic development and other reasons, people’s fitness has obvious characteristics of the times. Looking back at the fitness methods we have used since childhood, it is not difficult to find that fitness content is constantly changing like fashion.

In the 1950s - Radio Gymnastics became popular all over the world

In 1951, not long after the founding of the People's Republic of China, everything was waiting for improvement. While the masses were actively engaged in construction, they were in urgent need of the simplest form of gymnastics. , the most popular mass sports activity to improve national physical fitness. On November 24, 1952, Radio Gymnastics came into being in this political and economic environment.

"The first set of radio gymnastics begins now! The first section, stretching exercises..."

Every day when the horn sounds, millions of workers and students follow the broadcast and do exercises, becoming Something unprecedented in history. In order to meet the fitness needs of different people, Broadcast Gymnastics has designed 8 sets, and also designed special gymnastics for teenagers, making Broadcast Gymnastics one of the mass fitness activities with the largest number of participants in our country in the past few decades. Broadcasting exercise mainly uses flexion and extension activities of various parts of the body to make the heart rate at about 120-140 beats/min immediately during exercise, which has the best effect on heart exercise.

However, this kind of fitness movement promoted by administrative means overemphasizes the role of sports in production and national defense, ignores the role of sports in individual development, and is not conducive to mobilizing the inherent fitness enthusiasm of participants.

The 1960s - table tennis and swimming were huge

In the 1960s, the victory of Chinese athletes at the 26th World Table Tennis Championships inspired tens of millions of Chinese to take up the sport Table tennis racket. From cities to rural areas, from factories to schools, there are tables made of wood and bricks everywhere, and the popularity of table tennis is unprecedented.

In addition, Comrade Mao Zedong’s swim in the Yangtze River in 1957 also inspired hundreds of millions of people to swim. On June 1, 1965, Shanghai organized a large-scale mass crossing event. This mass crossing event lasted two and a half days. , more than 25,000 people from all over Shanghai participated.

So far, these two exercise methods are still the two most popular fitness methods among Chinese people.

1970s - Symbolic long-distance running event

In the 1970s, a new trend emerged in mass fitness: before every important festival, various provinces and cities would hold Mass distance running event. These activities often attract millions of people to participate and have a great social impact. For example, in November 1974, Shanghai organized the "Exercise to Defend the Motherland, Shanghai-Zhenbao Island Symbolic Long-distance Run" event, with more than 1.4 million people participating.

Mass fitness before the 1970s mostly lacked sports equipment and venues, but the participation rate was high, which greatly promoted the development of mass fitness. However, such activities generally have the problem of complex organization and difficulty in regularization.

In the 1980s - fitness projects changed every year

In the 1980s, mass fitness projects could be said to be different every year: in 1983, a "Shaolin Temple" made Chinese Kung Fu It became popular on the streets. The flying saucer game became popular in 1984. Roller skating in 1985, disco fitness dancing in 1986 and hula hoop in 1987 became the most popular fitness methods among young people. Among the elderly, traditional Tai Chi is beginning to recover.

While fitness methods are booming, small fitness equipment is also emerging. Owning a tensioner or a gripper has become the most proud thing for young men at that time. Wang Qingmei, who went to college in 1987, told reporters that he saved money from his food expenses and bought himself a spring tensioner. Practicing for more than ten minutes every morning and evening has become almost a compulsory course.

In the 1980s, mass fitness began to pay attention to science, and related knowledge such as warm-up before exercise and nutrition after exercise became popular.

From the 1990s to the present - Fitness keeps pace with the world

In the 1990s, the concept of "saving money is not as good as saving for health" was popular. There are many kinds of fitness methods, which are almost the same as those of fitness. The world is in sync. Today's internationally popular fitness programs, from Taekwondo and kickboxing to hot yoga and spinning, are all available in the Chinese market. Mass fitness is not only the pursuit of health, but also the pursuit of fashion.

The prosperity of mass fitness content today is not only reflected in the absorption of foreign fitness methods. Many fitness methods that have appeared since the 1950s have also been well inherited.

Even broadcast gymnastics, which was once suspended, has begun to be carried out again among employees of many companies.

From the perspective of the development process of mass sports in my country over the past 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, external factors such as political environment and economic conditions have a considerable impact on national fitness. However, in the future, as the nutritional level of our people, the educational level of the population, the level of sports consumption, changes in sports values, and the increase in leisure time, the development of mass fitness will definitely get better and better. In addition, as our country gradually enters an aging society and keeps pace with the world, the national sports and fitness methods that are popular among the masses will gradually become dominant.

The following is a summary by Liu Peng, Director of the State Sports General Administration:

Vigorously carrying out mass sports activities and continuously improving the health quality of the people are the fundamental goals of sports work and also the promotion of people's health. an important means of comprehensive development. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the party and government have always attached great importance to the development of mass sports, and have successively issued a series of rules, regulations, policies and measures, including the preparatory labor and national defense sports system (referred to as the "labor and health system"), the national physical exercise standard system, etc. In order to meet the growing needs of the general public for physical fitness, in June 1995, the State Council approved and issued the "Outline of the National Fitness Plan". Since the implementation of the "Outline", governments at all levels and relevant departments have strived to create a new situation in mass sports work with the goal of building a sports service system that is close to the people, convenient for the people, and beneficial to the people, and have achieved remarkable results.

Mass sports facilities are located throughout urban and rural areas, providing strong support for the masses to participate in sports and fitness activities. As of the end of 2004, there were 850,080 sports venues of various types in my country, 199 times the number in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The per capita sports venue area is 1.03 square meters, 101 times that of the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Especially since the implementation of the "National Fitness Plan", the central government has invested in the construction of 13 batches of "National Fitness Path Projects" and built 11,000 national fitness paths. We have built 157 "National Fitness Activity Center Projects" in some cities across the country, and assisted in the construction of 318 small public sports facilities and "snow charcoal projects" in economically underdeveloped areas such as old, minority, border and poor areas.

The level of organization of mass sports has continued to improve, basically covering urban and rural areas across the country, and forming a hierarchical structure at the central, provincial, prefectural, district and county levels, and streets (townships). In order to ensure that the "National Fitness Plan" is scientific and standardized, sports departments at all levels have implemented a national physical fitness monitoring system in conjunction with relevant departments, regularly conduct surveys on the current situation of mass sports, and guide and standardize mass sports and fitness activities.

Mass sports activities are booming. From 1957 to 1966, more than 42 million people met the "labor and health system" and youth physical exercise standards. Since the promulgation of the "Outline of the National Fitness Plan", various regions have actively carried out "Fitness Activities for Hundreds of Youths and Children", "Fitness Activities for Hundreds of Millions of Farmers", etc., and the "Sports to the Countryside" and "Sports to the Communities" activities have become increasingly in-depth, and the "National Fitness Expo" , "New Year's Day Climbing", "Spring Festival Long-distance Running" and other activities have distinctive features, "National Hundreds of Millions of Students Sunshine Sports" has been launched in an all-round way, and the "National Fitness and Olympic Games Together" campaign is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. Various mass sports competitions are booming. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, our country has held 6 Peasants' Games, 8 Ethnic Minority Games, 7 Disabled People's Games, 9 Middle School Students' Games and 8 University Students' Games. We founded and successfully held 3 National Sports Conferences focusing on non-Olympic sports. According to statistics, 28.2% of the total population in my country currently participate in physical exercise.

With the approval of the State Council, since 2009, August 8 every year has been the national “National Fitness Day”. The birth of the first national sports festival is of great significance in promoting the extensive and in-depth development of national fitness movements. Around the arrival of this year's first "National Fitness Day", a variety of mass sports activities have been carried out across the country, which has greatly enriched the people's spiritual and cultural life.

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