The new version of National Physical Education and Health Curriculum Standards for senior high schools and compulsory education has successively proposed that the average heart rate of all students in each physical education class should reach an intensity requirement of 140-160 beats per minute. Some literature has then come up with theoretical justifications, but they remain to be proved in theory and practice. In view of the confusion, this article attempts to examine these justifications, and reflects on issues such as the use of exercise intensity and the development of exercise intensity standards in physical education courses. Meanwhile, both in theory and practice, there are still deficiencies and errors in the current understanding of exercise intensity which is the core concept of sports training. Therefore, the discussions and arguments here could also be revisions and supplements of exercise intensity and sports training theories. The study holds that the existing justifications have problems such as improper reference (e.g., selective citation, alteration of the original text), incorrect inference, unknown sources, flawed research design, logical and theoretical deviations. These problems are related to exercise intensity requirements, as well as the value and role of "moderate-to-vigorous intensity", covering topics such as the reasonable heart rate intensity, the heart rate requirements in physical education class at home and abroad, and the influence of "moderate-to-vigorous intensity" on "physical and mental health" (including physical fitness or physical quality) and core literacy cultivation, including specific intensity experiments and the empirical evidence or citations of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). It is finally proposed that: It is urgent to define the orientation of heart rate intensity in sports training and physical education. Distinct from external-specialized intensity, heart rate intensity is an internal-physiological intensity which is not a causal element or direct-sensitive indicator of external physical fitness and skill development. Heart rate intensity, mainly related to cardiorespiratory endurance, should maintain a reasonable connection with other value goals of physical education (teaching, physical fitness development, sports projects development, moral cultivation). It is difficult and inappropriate to develop or propose a unified intensity standard for all physical education classes; but a certain "moderate-to-vigorous intensity" exercise period can be imposed in the class based on the development of cardiorespiratory endurance. |