Fitness - Exercise
REVIEW our Selected Fitness Articles in 2007. Stay informed and updated!
If you have any questions regarding our Search Reports, please contact us at info@infomedsearch.com.
Fitness and Exercise
NIH – NIA Exercise and Physical Activity: Getting Fit For Life “Four Ways to Be Active To get all of the benefits of physical activity, try all four types of exercise – 1) endurance, 2) strength, 3) balance, and 4) flexibility. 1. Be sure to get at least 30 minutes of activity that makes you breathe hard on most or all days of the week. That’s called an endurance activity because it builds your energy or “staying power.” You don’t have to be active for 30 minutes all at once. Ten minutes at a time is fine. Just make sure you are active for a total of 30 minutes most days. How hard do you need to push yourself? If you can talk without any trouble at all, you are not working hard enough. If you can’t talk at all, it’s too hard. 2. Keep using your muscles. Strength exercises build muscles. When you have strong muscles, you can get up from a chair by yourself, you can lift your grandchildren, and you can walk through the park Keeping your muscles in shape helps prevent falls that cause problems like broken hips. You are less likely to fall when your leg and hip muscles are strong 3. Do things to help your balance. Try standing on one foot, then the other. If you can, don’t hold on to anything for support. Get up from a chair without using your hands or arms. Every now and then walk heel-to-toe. When you walk this way, the toes of the foot in back should almost touch the heel of the foot in front. 4. Stretch. Stretching can help you be more flexible. Moving more freely will make it easier for you to reach down to tie your shoes or look over your shoulder when you back the car out of your driveway. Stretch when your muscles are warmed up. Don’t stretch so far that it hurts. Who Should Exercise? Almost anyone, at any age, can do some type of physical activity. You can still exercise even if you have a health condition like heart disease or diabetes. In fact, physical activity may help. For most older adults, brisk walking, riding a bike, swimming, weight lifting, and gardening are safe, especially if you build up slowly. But, check with your doctor if you are over 50 and you aren’t used to energetic activity. Other reasons to check with your doctor before you exercise include: 1. any new symptom you haven’t discussed with your doctor 2. dizziness or shortness of breath 3. chest pain or pressure, or the feeling that your heart is skipping, racing, or fluttering 4. blood clots 5. an infection or fever with muscle aches 6. unplanned weight loss 7. foot or ankle sores that won’t heal 8. joint swelling 9. a bleeding or detached retina, eye surgery, or laser treatment 10. a hernia 11. recent hip surgery “
NHS - Why be active? “Exercise is a great stress buster. It can help you keep the weight off but, more importantly, it will lower your risk of developing major chronic diseases. At least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on five or more days a week is all it takes for you to reap the health benefits. Children and young people need to be active for at least an hour every day, for example through active play, sport or walking to and from school. We know that reduced or no physical activity can have serious health consequences. Even a little bit of activity can lower the risk of developing major chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, some cancers and type two diabetes, by up to 50%. It can also cut the risk of premature death by about 20% to 30%. “
NHS – Low-impact exercise “Low-impact exercises can improve your health and fitness without harming weight-bearing joints. Research suggests that moderate intensity, low-impact activity is just as effective as high-impact activity in lowering the risk of heart disease. However, low-impact activities won’t help to maintain healthy bones to protect against conditions such as osteoporosis. Circumstances when high-impact exercise isn’t advisable include: • If you're pregnant. • If you have injured your joints, bones or connective tissue injuries. • If you have chronic problems, such as arthritis, osteoporisis or stress fractures. • If you're very overweight. • If you’re new to exercise. “Low-impact exercise doesn’t put the joints under much stress,” says Robin Gargrave, executive director of YMCAfit, one of the UK’s leading trainers of fitness professionals. “The idea is that it’s less likely to cause an impact-type injury, such as an ankle sprain or cartilage tear.” “
Highlighted Articles
Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. (Nat Rev Neurosci. 2008) “Lack of physical activity, particularly among children in the developed world, is one of the major causes of obesity. Exercise might not only help to improve their physical health, but might also improve their academic performance. This article examines the positive effects of aerobic physical activity on cognition and brain function, at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioural levels. A growing number of studies support the idea that physical exercise is a lifestyle factor that might lead to increased physical and mental health throughout life.”
Rethinking Daily Exercise: Less Regular, High-Intensity Intervals May Be Best Bet for Metabolic Syndrome (2008) “According to the Norwegian investigators who tested two different exercise regimens, high-intensity exercise actually reversed most of the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome; after just 16 weeks of the exercise program, almost half the patients enrolled in this arm of the trial no longer had metabolic syndrome, without making any changes to their diets. Less impressive gains were seen with consistent, moderate exercise.”
Physical Activity and Public Health in Older Adults. Recommendation From the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association (Circulation 2007) "Summary—The recommendation for older adults is similar to the updated ACSM/AHA recommendation for adults, but has several important differences including: the recommended intensity of aerobic activity takes into account the older adult’s aerobic fitness; activities that maintain or increase flexibility are recommended; and balance exercises are recommended for older adults at risk of falls. In addition, older adults should have an activity plan for achieving recommended physical activity that integrates preventive and therapeutic recommendations. The promotion of physical activity in older adults should emphasize moderate-intensity aerobic activity, muscle-strengthening activity, reducing sedentary behavior, and risk management."
Even Small Amounts of Exercise Are Beneficial (2007) "Even small amounts of physical activity — approximately 75 minutes per week — can improve cardiorespiratory fitness levels of sedentary overweight individuals, a study shows. While this level of exercise is lower than that currently recommended to produce weight loss, the current findings may be used to encourage those people who do not exercise at present to start doing some form of physical activity, the authors advise."
Internet SitesCDC - Growing Stronger - Strength Training for Older Adults
CONTINUE YOUR INFOMEDSEARCH RESEARCH with our previous InfoMedLinks. Start with InfoMedLinks 2007.
Fitness and Exercise
General Information
NEWS:
A Walk In The Park A Day Keeps Mental Fatigue Away “The authors suggest that urban environments provide a relatively complex and often confusing pattern of stimulation, which requires effort to sort out and interpret. Natural environments, by contrast, offer a more coherent (and often more aesthetic) pattern of stimulation that, far from requiring effort, are often experienced as restful. Thus being in the context of nature is effortless, permitting us to replenish our capacity to attend and thus having a restorative effect on our mental abilities.”
Aerobic Exercise Keeps You Young “A person who maintains aerobic fitness may delay biological aging by up to 12 years, a new analysis shows. Jogging and other types of aerobic exercise improve the body's oxygen consumption and its use in generating energy (metabolism). However, a steady decline in maximal aerobic power begins in middle age, decreasing about 5 ml/ (kg. min) every decade, according to the information in the analysis. When maximal aerobic power falls below about 18 ml in men and 15 ml in women, it becomes difficult to do any activity without experiencing major fatigue. A typical 60-year-old sedentary man has a maximal aerobic power of about 25 ml, nearly half of what it was at age 20. But research shows that a long period of relatively high-intensity aerobic exercise can increase maximal aerobic power by 25 percent (about 6 ml), which equals 10 to 12 biological years.“
Are you running yourself to death? “Researchers have identified a number of physical effects of running a marathon, including changes in immune system and kidney function. But Dr. Siege says the brunt of the damage falls exactly where you'd expect: on your muscles. As the miles pass, skeletal muscles stiffen and leak injury-signaling enzymes into the blood. … “
Dose response relationship between physical activity and mental health: The Scottish Health Survey (Br J Sports Med 2008) “Conclusion: Mental health benefits were observed at a minimal level of at least 20 minutes per week of any physical activity, although a dose-response pattern was demonstrated with greater risk reduction for activity at a higher volume and/or intensity.”
Exercise Could Be The Heart's Fountain Of Youth “According to a study conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, older people who did endurance exercise training for about a year ended up with metabolically much younger hearts. The researchers also showed that by one metabolic measure, women benefited more than men from the training.”
Exercise Cuts Cancer Death In Men “Men who exercise often are less likely to die from cancer than those who don't exercise, according to a new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet.”
Exercising In The City? Don't Get Exhaust-ed; Take It Inside “In addition to fine particulates -- which are emitted by the diesel engines of trucks and buses -- the two most significant environmental culprits are carbon monoxide and ozone, Dr. Crystal says. Carbon monoxide arises from cigarette smoke and automobile exhaust. It has a tremendous ability to force oxygen out of our circulatory system -- it combines with hemoglobin 200 times faster than oxygen. Overexposure may lead to headache, dizziness, confusion, and dangerous increases in body temperature. Ozone, which is a large component of the smog found in cities like Los Angeles and New York, results from the interaction of sunlight and chemicals found in car exhaust. Ozone adversely affects a person's breathing pattern and causes the airways in the lungs to become smaller and more resistant to oxygen exchange. Because of ozone, a person working out has difficulty taking deep breaths, and has to breathe faster. As a result, the exercise becomes more stressful and difficult.”
Irregular Exercise Pattern May Add Pounds “… key to staying trim is to remain active year-round, year-after-year, and to avoid seasonal and irregular exercise patterns. Most of all, don’t quit. Failure to do so may be a contributing factor in the nation’s obesity epidemic.”
Jog To The Beat: Music Increases Exercise Endurance By 15%
Lifting weights 'good as running' “Weight training could be as effective as endurance exercises like running when it comes to burning fat and warding off diabetes, a study suggests.”
Regular Walking Protects The Masai -- Who Eat High Fat Diet -- From Cardiovascular Disease “Scientists have long been puzzled by how the Masai can avoid cardiovascular disease despite having a diet rich in animal fats. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet believe that their secret is in their regular walking.”
Rethinking Daily Exercise: Less Regular, High-Intensity Intervals May Be Best Bet for Metabolic Syndrome “According to the Norwegian investigators who tested two different exercise regimens, high-intensity exercise actually reversed most of the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome; after just 16 weeks of the exercise program, almost half the patients enrolled in this arm of the trial no longer had metabolic syndrome, without making any changes to their diets. Less impressive gains were seen with consistent, moderate exercise.”
Ten Medical Reasons To Exercise: What Does Exercise Really Do For Us?
Top 10 Reasons to Lift Weights
Who's More Likely To Do Sports? White, Middle Class, And Middle-aged
ARTICLES:
Don't Let Your Exercise Routine Suffer the Bad Weather Blues!
Eating and exercise: Time it right to maximize your workout
Exercise Guidelines: Less Gym, More Fun “Children and adolescents should get at least one hour of exercise every day, and adults should get at least two and one-half hours of physical activity per week, according to new federal guidelines.”
Exercise in Prevention and Management of Cancer. “Based on this evidence it is now clear to us that exercise is a critical adjuvant therapy in the management of many cancers and will greatly enhance the therapeutic effects of traditional radiation and pharmaceutical treatments by increasing tolerance, reducing side effects, and lowering risk of chronic diseases, even those not aggravated by cancer treatment. While patients and their clinicians deal with their cancer, other chronic disease mechanisms continue unabated. Anxiety, depression, poor nutritional choices, and a counterproductive rest strategy will accelerate these processes, while a well-designed exercise program adhered to by the patient and supported by the medical and exercise professionals will effectively control and even reverse these diseases and disabilities.”
How Much Exercise Do You Need?
Retrain Your Brain To Love Exercise!
What's the Best Time to Exercise?
Why Physical Activity And Exercise Are Important
JOURNAL ARTICLES:
Aerobic Interval Training Versus Continuous Moderate Exercise as a Treatment for the Metabolic Syndrome. A Pilot Study (Circulation 2008) “Conclusions—Exercise intensity was an important factor for improving aerobic capacity and reversing the risk factors of the metabolic syndrome. These findings may have important implications for exercise training in rehabilitation programs and future studies.”
Association between muscular strength and mortality in men: prospective cohort study. (BMJ. 2008) “CONCLUSION: Muscular strength is inversely and independently associated with death from all causes and cancer in men, even after adjusting for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potential confounders.”
Be smart, exercise your heart: exercise effects on brain and cognition. (Nat Rev Neurosci. 2008) “Lack of physical activity, particularly among children in the developed world, is one of the major causes of obesity. Exercise might not only help to improve their physical health, but might also improve their academic performance. This article examines the positive effects of aerobic physical activity on cognition and brain function, at the molecular, cellular, systems and behavioural levels. A growing number of studies support the idea that physical exercise is a lifestyle factor that might lead to increased physical and mental health throughout life.”
Decreased exercise blood pressure in older adults after exercise training: contributions of increased fitness and decreased fatness. (Br J Sports Med. 2008) “CONCLUSIONS: Decreased exercise SBP was independently associated with decreased waist circumference, a marker of abdominal obesity, and increased fitness. Our findings suggest that exercise training improves multiple factors that have independent influence on SBP.”
Effect of Exercise Training Intensity on Abdominal Visceral Fat and Body Composition. (Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008)
Evidence-informed physical activity guidelines for Canadian adults. (Can J Public Health. 2007)
Exercise Capacity and Mortality in Black and White Men (Circulation 2008) “Conclusions—Exercise capacity is a strong predictor of all-cause mortality in blacks and whites. The relationship was inverse and graded, with a similar impact on mortality outcomes for both blacks and whites.”
Exercise Increases the Plasma Antioxidant Capacity of Adolescent Athletes. (Ann Nutr Metab. 2008) “Conclusions: Regular exercise enhances antioxidant capacity in adolescent athletes, independently of their dietary antioxidant intake, which indicates activity-related adaptations.”
High impact exercise is more beneficial than dietary calcium for building bone strength in the growing rat skeleton. (Bone. 2008)
Incident Hypercholesterolemia in Relation to Changes in Vigorous Physical Activity. (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. 2008) “Conclusions: The odds for hypercholesterolemia 1) decrease in runners who increase their running mileage and 2) decline in association with the higher dose of vigorous activity even in the absence of any change in exercise. These effects are associated in part to the runners' BMI.”
Increasing overall physical activity and aerobic fitness is associated with improvements in metabolic risk: cohort analysis of the ProActive trial. (Diabetologia. 2008)
Is exercise protective against influenza-associated mortality? (PLoS ONE. 2008) “When compared with never or seldom exercise, exercising at low to moderate frequency is beneficial with lower influenza-associated mortality.”
Physical Activity and Insulin Sensitivity. The RISC Study. (Diabetes. 2008) “Conclusions: Accumulated daily physical activity is a major determinant of insulin sensitivity. Neither time spent sedentary, in light-activity, nor bouts of moderate or vigorous activity impacted on insulin sensitivity independently of total activity.”
Physical Activity Is Associated with Risk Factors for Chronic Disease across Adult Women's Life Cycle. (J Am Diet Assoc. 2008) “CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these results indicate that younger age and greater physical activity, despite age, are associated with fewer risk factors for chronic disease, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.”
The Effects of Exercise upon Symptoms and Quality of Life in Patients Diagnosed with Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Randomised Controlled Trial (Int J Sports Med 2008) “Findings highlight the possibility that exercise may be an effective intervention for symptom management in patients with irritable bowel syndrome; this may be particularly the case for constipation predominant patients.”
Vigorous Exercise, Fitness and Incident Hypertension, High Cholesterol, and Diabetes. (Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 2008) “Conclusions: Higher cardiorespiratory fitness reduces the odds for hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes, independent of physical activity and is an important risk factor separate from physical activity.”
Go to the top