Shirley Archer, JD, MA
Article Archive
In addition to getting a flu shot, you may want to exercise or meditate consistently to help protect yourself against winter colds and flus. New research shows that simple preventive measures like engaging in daily physical activity or mindfulness meditation may be almost as effective as a flu vaccine for lowering the odds of succumbing…
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Get your high-energy playlists ready. Sedentary male and female adult participants worked harder and enjoyed cycling sprint intervals more when listening to motivational music with a tempo of 135–140 beats per minute as opposed to no music or an informational podcast, researchers reported in Psychology of Sport & Exercise (2019; 45 [101547]).
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Colon cancer cell growth slows immediately after a HIIT session, according to a pilot study published in the Journal of Physiology (2019; 597 [8], 2177ÔÇô84). More physical activity is linked with a lower death risk for people with colorectal cancer.
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Fitness pros may want to put more emphasis on kids’ fitness to ensure that more adults choose an active lifestyle and become fitness enthusiasts.
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Most adults over age 70 have multiple risk factors, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and/or diabetes, but experts note that knowing the total number of risk factors is not helpful for predicting future health. By contrast, knowing how fit a person is can be predictive, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 68th Annual Scientific Session in March 2019.
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University of Maryland researchers found that healthy adults ages 55–85 did better on a memory task just after a moderate exercise session than they did after resting. Measurements of brain activity showed significantly more activation in memory-related areas of the brain immediately following physical activity.
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It’s common for athletes, musicians and other professionals to train repetitively to fatigue in seeking to improve their performance. When it comes to mastering a motor skill, however, new research shows that intensive repetition to the that subjects who had trained to fatigue experienced detrimental changes in motor skill learning, but not in performance of mentally demanding tasks.
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Maybe you’re familiar with using bright-light exposure to shift your body clock so you can overcome jet lag more quickly. But what about exercising to achieve the same goal? Researchers at Arizona State University and the University of California, San Diego, found that exercising at 7 a.m. or between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. was effective for advancing the body clock, whereas training between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. worked to delay the clock. “Delays or advances would be desired . . .
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A healthy lifestyle that includes regular physical activity, a healthy diet, moderate alcohol consumption and no smoking can significantly reduce the risk of developing dementia, even for people with genetic risk factors.
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A recent study supports indoor cycling instructors who urge students not to pedal at a cadence above 90 revolutions per minute. Researchers found that at 90 rpm and beyond, pedal forces exerted by recreational cyclists decreased, heart rate increased by 15%, and exercise efficiency and skeletal muscle oxygenation declined.
The study appeared in the International Journal of Sports Medicine (2019; 40 [5], 305–11).
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