YOUNG WARRIOR: A little boy performs Taekwondo in Jinan, Shandong Province on August 8, 2009, to celebrate China's first National Fitness Day (ZHU ZHENG)

Beijing retiree Yang Hua was dedicating a lot of his time to staying fit by completing his favorite exercises. But, according to his doctors, his routine may have done more harm than good—he recently suffered a myocardial infarction because he was exercising the wrong way.

"Many people today still do not know how to exercise in scientific ways. As a result, they do not gain from the exercises and in fact may even hurt themselves," said Yang Zeyi, an executive board member of the Asian Council of Exercise and Sports Science.

Health experts said that a cardiopulmonary exercise test is necessary for middle-aged and senior citizens and those with special conditions. The test helps those engaging in exercise know whether their routines are safe. It also can find potential pathological changes to exercisers' organs and provide suggestions to get fit by conducting real-time and continuous measurement of blood pressure and other physical parameters. The test can also analyze the maximum functioning of which the cardiopulmonary system is capable.

In the past, Yang would not think of creating an exercise plan because of his physical condition.

"I liked to do exercises in the evening but experts told me that the high-strength exercises at night would be harmful to my health. They advised me to choose some easy exercises such as walking and to limit the length of time I exercise," he said.

Sun Kanglin, Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports, said, "Exercisers should choose a proper routine and length of time to engage in the activity according to their age, physical condition and profession. It's important to give scientific directions to today's exercisers."

He said Beijing's 18 districts and counties all have physical monitoring stations where people could get suggestions on how to exercise.

"The number of such stations will increase to more than 100 in the future and they will be able to regularly monitor citizens' physiques. They will also publish statistics for the public," he said.

On August 5, Beijing's Municipal Government started a 10-year action plan to promote citizens' health, including health education programs that advocate adopting rational diet and fitness planning. Sun said Beijing has more than 4,900 exercise locations and more than 20,000 sports instructors who are ready to give guidance for different kinds of exercises.

These sports instructors can be divided into two groups—professional and community-based. Professional instructors work mainly at sports venues and fitness clubs to give guidance to bodybuilders. Community-based instructors, who have received training and passed government assessments, work within communities and parks to coach exercisers at those facilities.

More people are exercising and are looking for advice from sports trainers. The growing need has triggered rapid growth in the number of instructors. Sports guidance stations now number more than 210,000 in the country.