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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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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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Personal trainers often have female clients over the age of 40 who have similar complaints about losing muscle mass and gaining body fat. Although these changes aren’t unexpected and can be a normal part of the aging process, they are not inevitable. In fact, the right resistance-training program can positively affect body composition by reducing fat, maintaining and building muscle, and increasing strength in this population.
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Hip fractures have serious consequences, including an increased risk of death within the first year following the accident. Findings from a recent study offer good news on the benefits of physical activity for postmenopausal women.
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Good news for pregnant exercise enthusiasts: Vigorous exercise, even in the third trimester, is safe for healthy pregnant women, according to a study reported in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth (2019; 19 [1], 281).
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For the most part, sports nutrition science is bro-science. That’s because the vast majority of studies to date have focused on men, leaving active women to assume the same results apply to them. But that is slowly changing.
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Are some of your clients obsessed with achieving their step counts every day? While 10,000 steps is a popular marker, it turns out that taking as few as 4,400 steps per day is associated with a lower risk of death for women with a mean age of 72 years.
“Clearly, even a modest number of steps was related to lower mortality rate among these older women,” said principal investigator I-Min Lee, MBBS ScD, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
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Encourage your pregnant clients (if cleared by their doctors) to keep working out with you. A new study shows that maintaining a healthy weight before and during pregnancy is a key factor in avoiding pregnancy complications.
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Caffeine is known to increase performance when taken before endurance activities, but more than 80% of studies have focused on men. A recent randomized, double-blind, crossover study out of Queensland, Australia, aimed to determine whether or not gender affects ergogenic responses to caffeine.
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A new study on meat consumption among women suggests that eating red meat raises the risk of breast cancer, whereas eating poultry is linked to a lower risk of the disease. The findings were published online August 6 in the International Journal of Cancer.
Investigators analyzed information on meat consumption and cooking practices among 42,012 women, who were followed for an average of 7.6 years.
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You’re helping participants get set up on their bikes in your 6 p.m. cycling class when someone taps you lightly on the shoulder: Is it okay to ride if she’s pregnant? To your knowledge, you’ve never had a pregnant participant in class, and you don’t know how to respond.
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For years we’ve heard that people who regularly lift weights can benefit from eating higher amounts of protein than the general population. There’s just one glaring problem. Most of the research behind this advice was conducted on men, with little focus on women. Now, a study in the April 2019 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise has shed light on the specific protein needs of this understudied demographic.
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Are you leaning into the rise of millennial moms? These women are part of a generation that’s expected, as of this year, to surpass baby boomers as the nation’s largest age demographic. The 83 million 17- to 36-year-old “millennial” men and women in the United States—combined with Generation Xers—account for 80% of the fitness dollars spent in clubs (Lexington Law 2019; Les Mills 2017). Already fitness consumers, millennial women are becoming mothers.
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Research shows that exercise benefits breast cancer survivors, but many do not stick with programs. What might appeal enough to increase adherence? A pilot study found that group exercise designed specifically for people surviving breast cancer resulted in more improvements to quality of life than similar exercise programming led by personal trainers. The study is available in Oncology Nursing Forum (2019; doi:10.1188/19.0NF.185-97).
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Many studies show that cardiorespiratory fitness improvements boost brain fitness in later life. New research in the Journal of Applied Physiology (2019; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01046.2018) reveals that effects may differ between men and women.
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If you’re looking for a different way to progress a client’s lower-body strength, consider adding a weighted vest to the training program. Specifically, wearing a progressively heavier weighted vest while stepping may be effective in boosting lower-body power and functional ability among older women.
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It’s not over in 9 months. A new mother’s body keeps changing long after the baby arrives. Hormonal shifts, breastfeeding and risks like pelvic organ prolapse (see “3 Issues for Postpartum Exercisers,” below) complicate the weeks and months after childbirth.
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The number of children with overweight or obesity—especially among kids younger than 6—is rising in modern societies. Being overweight before preschool increases the likelihood that children will develop obesity as they grow older.
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Women in their third trimester of pregnancy who are highly physically active are less likely to have an acute cesarean birth than women with low physical activity levels, according to findings from the Norwegian Fit for Delivery study (a randomized controlled trial).
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Women in a group exercise class experienced greater body satisfaction and better moods when the instructor made motivational comments related to strength and health instead of weight or appearance.
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IDEA Fitness Journal
Current Issue:
December 2019
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