Article Archive
Before you freshen up with anti-bacterial mouthwash after a heavy sweat session, ask yourself whether it’s really necessary. Working out commonly leads to a drop in blood pressure, but using an anti-bacterial mouthwash after training significantly reduces this benefit, according to a study published in Free Radical Biology and Medicine (2019; 143, 252–59). Rinsing with water, in contrast, does not affect blood pressure.
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Global surveys show that children are becoming less and less active. A study conducted at University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, concluded that, in developed countries, children of all ages are at risk from declining physical activity levels—seen as early as 4 years old.
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Practicing yoga benefits both brain structure and function by increasing grey matter in brain regions responsible for memory recall and emotion regulation, among other changes, according to research findings published in Brain Plasticity (2019; doi:10.3233/BPL-190084). Researchers at the University of Illinois and Wayne State University reviewed 11 studies that examined the effects of yoga on brain structures, function and cerebral blood flow.
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Do you work with a client who has fibromyalgia? Here’s some good news: In a study of 466 women with fibromyalgia, researchers found that those with higher levels of overall fitness also experienced higher health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Spanish researchers from various institutions conducted the study to determine which components of fitness would be most valuable to target in people with fibromyalgia.
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A new study further supports the benefits of maintaining cardiovascular fitness during middle-age and beyond. In a study presented at the European Society of Cardiology’s EuroEcho 2019 meeting in Vienna, high cardiovascular fitness was linked with significantly lower death risks from heart disease, cancer and other causes for middle-aged and older women.
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Get motivated to reboot your clients’ running programs for springtime. The good news: Any amount of running is associated with a 27% lower risk of death from any cause, a 30% lower risk of death from heart disease and a 23% lower risk of death from cancer, according to a study reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (2019; doi:10.1136/bjsports-2018-100493). An international team of researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing 14 studies that included more than 232,000 participants.
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Here’s another reason to encourage exercise enthusiasts not to overtrain. New research shows that cognitive fatigue is as much an effect of overtraining as physical fatigue.
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If repairing and building muscle is a primary goal, people may want to think twice about taking an ice bath after training. New research conducted at Maastricht University in the Netherlands shows that cold-water immersion during recovery from resistance-type exercise reduces muscles’ ability to take up protein for repair and to synthesize protein to muscle building.
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Do you have clients who seem to be able to deeply imagine how a movement would feel in the body? If you do, kinesthetic imagery training may help them improve their sports skills. New research shows that golfers who could imagine the physical feeling of putting while visualizing the action improved their subsequent ability to putt more accurately.
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Women do not respond to weight training the same way men do. University of New South Wales researchers in Sydney conducted a comprehensive search of the literature on resistance training and found only 24 randomized controlled studies that focused exclusively on women. Lead study author Amanda “Mandy” D. Hagstrom, PhD, lecturer in exercise science at UNSW Medicine, said, “I was surprised. I knew there wouldn’t be many [studies], but I thought there’d be more than that.” The selected studies included almost 1,000 women.
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