The 4-second workout

Four seconds of high-intensity exertion repeated periodically throughout the day may counteract some of the unhealthy metabolic consequences of sitting for hours, according to a surprising and timely new study of the potentially large benefits of diminutive workouts.

The study relied on a specialized type of stationary bicycle that few of us will have available at home, but its implications remain broadly applicable and suggest that even a few minutes — or seconds — of exercise each day could help substantially to bolster our health.

For most of us, sitting is our default posture and was, even before the shelter-at-home edicts took effect across the globe. Epidemiological studies indicate that most American adults sit for a least 10 hours a day, a total that is likely to have risen now that many of us are home all day.

The health effects of this inactivity can be considerable, with studies linking prolonged sitting to increased risks for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disruptions. In particular, multiple hours of sitting can contribute to a later rise in the bloodstream of fatty acids, known as triglycerides, probably in part because muscles at rest produce less than contracting muscles do of a substance that breaks up triglycerides. High levels of triglycerides, in turn, are linked to an increased risk of heart disease and other metabolic problems.


In theory, exercise should help fight this problem, since it entails muscular contractions. But some experiments hint that one workout may not be enough. In studies conducted at the University of Texas at Austin in recent years, healthy young people who sat all day for the sake of science showed higher-than-normal levels of triglycerides in their blood the next day after a fatty meal. The sitting had left their metabolisms less able to break up and clear away the fat.

Even when the young people interrupted another full day of sitting with a 1-hour run, they continued to experience difficulties with fat metabolism the next day. The researchers speculated that the long hours of sitting may have changed the volunteers’ physiologies in ways that rendered them “resistant” to the expected, beneficial metabolic effects of physical activity.

Those studies had deployed a single moderately paced workout, however. Recently, the researchers began to wonder whether more-frequent, brief spurts of exercise throughout the day, especially if they were intense, may better stave off the undesirable effects of sitting.

So, for the new study, published in April in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, the Texas scientists recruited eight healthy young people and asked them to spend a full day at the lab, rising only to eat or visit the bathroom. The next morning, the volunteers returned or a high-fat breakfast of melted ice cream and half and half, while the scientists monitored their bodies’ metabolic response during the next 6 hours.

Then, on a separate day, the volunteers sat again, except for a few seconds each hour, when they sprinted.

These sprints took place on an unusual type of stationary bicycle with a heavy flywheel and no resistance that has been used at the physiology lab to test the leg and lung power of professional athletes. In those tests, athletes generated a tsunami of power and achieved all-out exertion within about two seconds of pedaling.

The scientists reasoned that if athletes needed two seconds of pedaling to reach maximum exertion, the rest of us probably would require, say, twice as much. So, they asked their volunteers to clamber on the bikes and sprint as hard as possible for four seconds, then stop pedaling, rest for 45 seconds, and sprint again, repeating that sequence 5 times.

The volunteers completed these brief interval sessions once every hour for 8 hours, for a total of 160 seconds of actual exercise that day. Otherwise they sat, then returned the next day to down the unctuous breakfast shake.

Their metabolic responses differed this time, though, the researchers found. The volunteers arrived at the lab with lower blood levels of triglycerides to start with and burned more fat during the next 6 hours, so their triglycerides remained about 30 percent lower throughout the 6 hours of monitoring than on the morning after nonstop sitting.

The results suggest that frequent, intense and extremely abbreviated exercise “can undo” some effects of being sedentary, said Ed Coyle, a professor of kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas, who conducted the study with his graduate student Anthony Wolfe and others. (Coyle has equity in the company that manufactures the bicycles at his lab but said his stake did not influence the design of the study or reporting of results.)

This was a small, short-term study, and its results are limited. They do not tell us if the desirable metabolic outcomes after sprinting linger past the next day or whether 4-second intervals represent the right dose of exercise or merely the teensiest. The study also relied on an uncommon type of bicycle. Standard stationary bicycles or spin-class versions would likely require us to sprint for more than four seconds to reach an all-out exertion level, Coyle said. So would racing up and down stairs or jogging in place.

But the underlying theory of the study remains achievable, he adds. When you find yourself sitting for most of the day, try to rise frequently and move, preferably intensely, as often as possible and for as many seconds as you can manage.

2020 The New York Times Company

How exercise may affect your immunity

Does exercise help or hinder our bodies’ ability to fight off infections?

In the context of the novel coronavirus outbreak, that question has gained urgency and also, thanks to recent research, emergent answers. The latest science suggests that being fit boosts our immune systems, and that even a single workout can amplify and improve our ability to fight off germs.

But some studies also indicate that the types and amount of exercise may influence how exercise affects our immune responses. More is not necessarily better. And the location of the exercise could matter, too; cue recent findings about the germiness of gyms.

What follows is an overview of the state of today’s science about how and why exercise interacts with our immune systems and whether we should plan to remain active, even as the incidence of new virus cases continues to grow.

Many of us who exercise have heard from well-meaning friends, spouses or parents that strenuous exercise will tamp down our immune systems, opening us to pathogens and illness. That notion gained credence in the late 1980s, the result of studies showing that “marathon running increased the incidence of infection symptoms among runners in the days and weeks after the race,” said John Campbell, a professor of health science at the University of Bath in England and co-author of an influential 2018 review of exercise and immunity.

But those studies subsequently turned out to have relied too heavily on self-diagnoses from the runners about their sniffles. In experiments using laboratory testing of marathoners after races, few proved to have actual respiratory infections. Instead, most had developed airway irritations or other noninfectious conditions.

Follow-up studies then established that marathon runners and other competitive endurance athletes tended, in fact, to report few annual sick days, indicating their immune systems were not over-burdened by exercise but bolstered. Since then, a wealth of research in both people and animals reinforced that idea. A series of 2005 experiments with mice, for instance, showed that if rodents jogged gently for about 30 minutes a day for several weeks, they were much more likely to survive a virulent form of rodent influenza than untrained animals.

At the same time, though, some research hinted that one strenuous workout might temporarily diminish our immune responses soon afterward, putting us at heightened risk for an opportunistic infection after the workout. This possibility was known as the “open window” theory and relied on experiments in animals and people showing that immune cells flooded our bloodstreams immediately after a hard workout and then abruptly disappeared, presumably dying as a result of the exercise stress. This disappearance seemed to leave us with lowered levels of the cells that recognize and fight pathogenic intruders, offering germs an open window for incursions.

But, once again, subsequent, sophisticated experiments offered a different explanation. In remarkable experiments with rodents, scientists marked some of their immune cells with phosphorescent dye and had them run to exhaustion.

Afterward, the scientists noted that the levels of glowing cells in their bloodstreams spiked and then plummeted, as expected. But they also found that few of those cells had died; instead they had traveled to the animals’ lungs, guts and other parts of their bodies potentially most vulnerable to germ invasions during exercise. After a few hours of sentinel duty, most cells returned to the bloodstream, stabilizing immune cells levels there and suggesting that their immune vigilance had refocused but not declined.

Similarly, in a study published last year, fit, exercise-trained mice that were injected with germs immediately after a strenuous run fought off the infection better than sedentary animals, in large part, additional molecular analysis showed, because their immune cells homed in on and clustered around the pathogens, while those same cells were more diffusely scattered in the tissues of the inactive animals.

Taken as a whole, this research about exercise and our immune systems tells us that “there is no or limited reliable evidence for exercise directly increasing the chance of developing any kind of viral infection,” said James Turner, co-author of the 2018 review about exercise and immunity and also a professor of health science at the University of Bath. “So, it is safe to exercise, despite concerns about coronavirus,” he concludes. Exercise, in fact, will probably lessen the risk of an infection, he said.

There are caveats, though. If you have not been exercising, now might not be the ideal moment to start an extremely ambitious and tiring new workout routine. In the 2005 studies with mice and influenza, a separate group of animals that ran strenuously for weeks developed somewhat more severe and longer-lasting symptoms than the mice that ran moderately before their infections, although the differences were slight.

And do not ignore basic hygiene and common sense. Wash your hands often before and after exercise; shorten or skip workouts if you feel unwell; avoid training partners who are sniffling or coughing; and rub a sanitizing wipe over gym equipment before use. A study last year identified lingering, infectious germs on about a third of the surfaces at 16 different fitness facilities. 

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Extra protein boosts muscle with resistance-training, but only slightly

Extra protein from food or supplements does lead to increases in strength and muscle, but not as much as some might hope, researchers write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 

Presented as an infographic, the results are based on a review of data from 49 randomized controlled trials in 17 countries and more than 1,800 participants.

The upshot: supplementing protein while doing resistance training can increase strength by about 9 percent and add about a pound of muscle. The effect levels off at a certain point, after which extra protein provides no additional benefit.

“Lots of people take protein supplements with the expectation that they are going to gain lots of muscle because of the protein supplement,” said senior study author Stuart Phillips of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.

“Supplement companies tout huge benefits,” Phillips told Reuters Health by email. “We thought it was time to do some science.”

Phillips and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of research published on the topic of protein supplementation and resistance training, looking at how much extra muscle men and women gained, as well as how much stronger they became.

The studies had to be at least 6 weeks long, include resistance training at least twice a week, and one group had to be given a protein supplement that didn’t have other muscle-building ingredients such as creatine or testosterone-enhancing compounds.

Ten of the studies involved people who were experienced in resistance training and 14 studies had exclusively female participants.

The team found that protein supplementation led to an increase in muscle, but not much. In addition, protein supplements were more effective in people who were already lifting weights and less effective in people over age 60.

The analysis didn’t find any differences between types of protein supplements or a distinction between getting protein from food or from supplements.

When Phillips’ team analyzed the relationship between the amount of muscle gained and total amount of dietary protein consumed, they found that gains leveled off at around 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, or about 0.7 grams per pound. That is twice the recommended daily amount in most official nutrition guidelines, they note.

“Going to the gym is where most of the benefits come from,” Phillips said.

Current studies are investigating the key amino acids in protein that aid this muscle-building process, particularly leucine, and especially for adults over age 60 who may have muscle and bone loss known as sarcopenia.

“It’s a big deal to have sufficient enough quantities to stimulate muscle growth,” he added.

Future studies will focus on ways to boost muscle mass and the effect of protein supplementation in older adults, including through everyday foods such as milk and meat.

“Older adults experience age-related physiological changes that affect body weight and body composition,” said Li-Qiang Qin of Soochow University’s School of Public Health in Suzhou, China.

Qin, who wasn’t involved in the current review, has studied the effect of milk protein supplementation among older adults taking part in a resistance training program.

“Milk proteins are excellent sources of all the essential amino acids and may represent an ideal protein source to promote muscle anabolism in older adults undergoing resistance training,” Qin said.

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Exercise in middle age tied to longer life, study says

Even if they were inactive during their younger years, middle aged and older adults who get at least the minimum recommended amount of exercise each week may live longer than their sedentary counterparts, suggests a large UK study.

Physical activity has long been linked to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. But most research has looked at exercise habits at a single point in time rather than activity patterns across the years, researchers note in The BMJ.

For the current study, researchers assessed activity levels several times over eight years for 14,599 men and women who were between 40 and 80 years old at the outset. After the first eight years, researchers started tracking mortality for another 12.5 years, on average. During that period, there were 3,148 deaths, including 950 from cardiovascular disease and 1,091 from cancer.

The researchers measured both work and leisure-time physical activity in terms of energy expended per kilogram of body weight. Activity increases over time that were equivalent to going from sedentary to meeting the World Health Organization’s recommendation of at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity were associated with a 24% lower risk of death from any cause, a 29% lower risk of cardiovascular death and an 11% lower risk of cancer death compared to those who remained inactive.

“This sends a strong message to all of us, irrespective of what our current life circumstances may be, since it is never too late to build physical activity into your daily routine in order to enjoy a longer healthier life,” said Soren Brage, senior author of the study and a researcher at the University of Cambridge in the UK.

“Everybody benefitted from becoming more active,” Brage said by email. “This was also true for the subgroup of people who already had a serious chronic condition such as heart disease and cancer at baseline.”

The reduced risk of death linked to increasing activity was present regardless of past activity levels and improvements or even worsening of other risk factors such as diet, body weight, medical history, blood pressure and cholesterol levels over the years.

Compared to consistently inactive people, adults who shifted from being inactive to “low” activity levels were 24% less likely to die of any causes during the study, while people who reached “medium” activity levels were 38% less likely to die and adults who achieved “high” activity levels were 42% less likely to die.

At the population level, the researchers calculated, getting at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity physical activity would potentially prevent 46% of deaths associated with physical inactivity.

The study wasn’t designed to prove whether or how exercise, or changes in activity over time, might directly prevent disease or help people live longer.

Even so, it adds to evidence suggesting that changing exercise habits late in life can still make a difference, said Dr. I-Min Lee, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who wasn’t involved in the study.

Other studies that randomly assigned inactive people to start exercising or maintain their current lifestyle have found, among other things, that starting to exercise can improve blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol levels, and inflammation and reduce belly fat, Lee said by email.

“Becoming physically active in mid-life can extend longevity,” Lee said.

SOURCE: bit.ly/2xPTOlJ The BMJ, online June 26, 2019.

Why so many of us don’t lose weight when we exercise

People hoping to lose weight with exercise often wind up being their own worst enemies, according to the latest, large-scale study of workouts, weight loss and their frustrating interaction. The study, which carefully tracked how much people ate and moved after starting to exercise, found that many of them failed to lose or even gained weight while exercising, because they also reflexively changed their lives in other, subtle ways. But a few people in the study did drop pounds, and their success could have lessons for the rest of us.

In a just and cogent universe, of course, exercise would make us thin. Physical activity consumes calories, and if we burn calories without replacing them or reducing our overall energy expenditure, we enter negative energy balance. In that condition, we utilize our internal energy stores, which most of us would call our flab, and shed weight.

But human metabolisms are not always just and cogent, and multiple past studies have shown that most men and women who begin new exercise routines drop only about 30 percent or 40 percent as much weight as would be expected, given how many additional calories they are expending with exercise.

Why exercise underwhelms for weight reduction remains an open question, though. Scientists studying the issue agree that most of us compensate for the calories lost to exercise by eating more, moving less, or both. Our resting metabolic rates may also decline if we start to lose pounds. All of this shifts us back toward positive energy balance, otherwise known as weight gain.

It has not been clear, however, whether we tend primarily to overeat or under-move as compensation, and the issue matters. To avoid compensating, we need to know how we are doing it.

So, for the new study, which was published last month in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and other institutions decided to exhort a large group of inactive people into exercising and closely track how their waistlines and daily habits changed.

They began by recruiting 171 sedentary, overweight men and women ages 18 to 65, measured their weight, resting metabolic rates, typical levels of hunger, aerobic fitness and, using complex, liquid energy tracers, daily food intake and energy expenditure. With standardized psychological questionnaires, they also explored whether the volunteers felt that virtuous, healthy actions now justified less-desirable ones later.

They then randomly assigned some to continue their normal lives as a control, while others began supervised exercise programs. In one, people exercised three times a week on treadmills or exercise bikes until they had burned eight calories for every kilogram of their body weight, or about 700 calories a week for most of them. The other program upped the exercise to 20 calories for every kilogram of body weight, or about 1,760 calories a week.

Both routines lasted for six months. Throughout, the volunteers wore activity monitors, and the researchers periodically checked their metabolic rates, energy intake and fitness. The volunteers could eat as they chose.

Afterward, everyone returned to the lab for comprehensive remeasurements. As expected, the control group’s numbers, including their weights and resting metabolic rates, had not budged. But neither had those of most of the exercisers. A few had dropped pounds, but about two-thirds of those in the shorter-workout group and 90 percent of those in the longer-workout group had lost less weight than would have been expected.

They had compensated for their extra calorie burn.

But not by moving less, the scientists found. Almost everyone’s activity-monitor readouts had remained steady. Instead, the exercisers were eating more, other measurements and calculations showed. The extra calories were slight — about 90 additional calories each day for the some-exercise group, and 125 a day for the most-exercise set. But this noshing was sufficient to undercut weight loss.

Interestingly, the researchers also found that those exercisers who had compensated the most and lost the least weight tended to be those who had reported at the start that they thought some good health habits gave people license for other, insalubrious ones.

“In effect, they felt that it’s OK to trade behaviors,” says Timothy Church, an adjunct professor at Pennington who led the new study. “It’s the ‘if I jog now, I deserve that doughnut’ idea.”

In consequence, they lost little if any weight with exercise.

But the study produced other, more encouraging data, he says. For one thing, almost everyone’s resting metabolic rates remained unchanged; slowed metabolisms would encourage pounds to creep back. And those few exercisers who avoided an extra cookie or handful of crackers did lose weight.

“There was only a small difference, overall,” between those who compensated and those who did not, Church says. “We’re talking about barely 100 calories. That’s about four bites of most food.”

So, people hoping to lose weight with exercise should pay close attention to what they eat, he says, and skip those last four bites, no matter how tempting.


2019 New York Times News Service

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Short walk once-a-week can lower risk of death: study

PARIS, France - A brisk stroll once or twice a week is enough to reduce the risk of dying from heart attack, stroke or cancer, according to a statistical study of nearly 90,000 people released Tuesday.

People who walked or gardened 10 minutes to an hour each week had an 18-percent lower risk of death from any cause compared to full-on couch potatoes, researchers reported in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Two-and-a-half to five hours weekly of such "moderate physical activity" -- broken into segments of no less than 10 minutes -- resulted in a 31 percent reduction in risk, they found.

And those who clocked up at least 25 hours almost halved the risk.

Not everyone, however, has that much time to spend on leisure-time exercise, the authors acknowledged.

Heart-pumping and pulse-quickening activities such as biking, running and competitive sports "are more time-efficient than moderate intensity activity," they said.

For cardiovascular disease alone, there was no additional benefit to be gained by graduating from five to 25 hours, they noted.

Researchers led by Bo Xi, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Shandong University in northern China, sifted through data collected annually on 88,140 people in the United States between 1997 and 2008 for the National Health Interview Surveys.

That data on exercise was then matched against registered deaths through 2011.

The authors cautioned that the study was observational, meaning that no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. The fact that exercise data was self-reported was also a potential weakness.

But the large number of people covered by the research goes a long way to compensate for these methodological limitations, they added.

mh/nla

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1.4 billion risk disease from lack of exercise: WHO

PARIS - More than 1.4 billion adults are putting themselves at heightened risk of deadly diseases by not getting enough exercise, doctors are warning, with global activity levels virtually unchanged in nearly two decades. 

With richer nations enjoying an increasingly comfortable, sedentary lifestyle, a study by the World Health Organization said a third of women and a quarter of men worldwide are in the firing line for killer conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer unless they up their physical activity. 

"Insufficient physical activity is a leading risk factor for non-communicable diseases, and has a negative effect on mental health and quality of life," said the study of world exercise levels published Wednesday by The Lancet Global Health Journal. 

The WHO recommends each adult do at least 150 minutes "moderate-intensity" exercise -- such as brisk walking, swimming or gentle cycling -- each week, or 75 minutes "vigorous-intensity" activity -- such as running or team sports. 

The study tracked activity levels of 1.9 million people in 168 countries across the world during 2016. 

Researchers found there had been no improvement in physical activity levels since 2001, despite numerous public health initiatives extolling the benefits of exercise.

More than a quarter of the world's adults (1.4 billion people) were insufficiently active, according to the data. 

"We definitely haven't done enough" to encourage people to exercise, the WHO's Regina Guthold, lead study author, told AFP. 

"We have seen basically no progress."

The study authors highlighted several worrying trends, including a stark divide in exercise rates between poor and rich nations, and between men and women. 

WEALTH, GENDER GAPS 

Levels of insufficient activity to guard off non-communicable killers, including dementia and cardiovascular diseases, are more than twice as high in high-income countries compared to developing nations.

Guthold said the link between the lifestyle in wealthier nations -- more time indoors, longer office hours, more easily accessible high-calorie foods -- and lower exercise levels, was part of a "clear pattern" of poorer health coming with urbanization. 

"As countries urbanize, people who used to be, say, farmers, and got a lot of physical activity through their work all of a sudden live in an urban environment where they might be without work or move to a sedentary job, so societies need to compensate," she said.

In four countries -- Kuwait, American Samoa, Saudi Arabia and Iraq -- more than half of adults were classified as insufficiently active.

In Kuwait, an oil-flush gulf state where temperatures regularly top 45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), a whopping two-thirds (67 percent) of adults weren't exercising enough.

Melody Ding of the University of Sydney, who worked on the paper, said there were a variety of reasons why some countries were more active than others, including "biological, psychosocial, institutional, cultural and environmental barriers". 

"I consider one of the biggest barriers being our environment -- physical activity has been engineered out of life, with desk-based jobs replacing labor jobs, lifts replacing stairs, cars replacing active travel," she told AFP. 

"Technological advancement has made our life more convenient but also less active." 

Women still lag behind men in nearly every region of the world, with the gender exercise gap highest in Bangladesh, Eritrea, India, Iraq and the Philippines, the study found. 

"In these settings, women are often expected to be at home, take care of the children, manage the household and so sometimes don't always have time to exercise," said Guthold. 

One bright spot on the global exercise map was southeast Asia, where women were equally as active as men in the only region where inactivity has decreased since 2001.

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More evidence links exercise to lower stroke risk

Women who consistently get the minimum recommended amount of exercise for a healthy heart may be less likely to have a stroke than their counterparts whose exercise habits shift over time, a recent U.S. study suggests.

Researchers examined data on more than 61,000 women in the California Teachers Study who reported their exercise habits at two points in time, once from 1995 to 1996 and again from 2005 to 2006. The women were current and retired teachers when the study began.

Overall, 987 women had a stroke by the end of the study period.

But the women who got at least 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise at both points in time were 30 percent less likely to have what’s known as an ischemic stroke, the most common kind, which occurs when a clot blocks an artery carrying blood to the brain.

“How people exercise changes over time and some individuals exercise when they are a young adult but do not keep it up when they are older,” said lead study author Dr. Joshua Willey of Columbia University Medical Center in New York.

“In our study, we found that maintaining exercise levels was protective against stroke, and that taking up exercise when not being active while younger was also protective,” Willey said by email. “Similarly, those who no longer exercised on the follow up assessment did not have a lower risk of stroke.”

The American Heart Association recommends that adults get at least 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity exercise or at least 75 minutes of more vigorous physical activity.

More than 22,000 women met these minimum recommendations at both points when they were assessed in the study, mostly with moderate exercise.

Almost 19,000 women failed to get enough exercise at either point in time.

Another 11,500 women fell short of this goal in the beginning but achieved it at the end, while about 8,600 women started out getting enough exercise but failed to do so by the end of the study.

Compared to women who failed to meet exercise recommendations at either point in time, women who got enough moderate activity at both points were 38 percent less likely to have a fatal stroke and 12 percent less likely to have any kind of stroke, the study found.

Meeting moderate exercise guidelines by the end of the study, but not at the start, was associated with 35 percent lower odds of a fatal stroke and 27 percent lower odds of any stroke.

But the chance of any stroke, including fatal ones, was similar for women who never got enough exercise and women who started out meeting the activity recommendations but didn’t do so at the end of the study, researchers report in the journal Stroke.

The results were similar for women who did higher-intensity exercise.

The study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how exercise habits might influence the odds of having a stroke or dying from it.

Other limitations include the lack of data on other factors that could influence stroke risk such as blood pressure, obesity or diabetes, the authors note.

Even so, the findings add to growing evidence for the benefits of moderate exercise, said Joe Northey of the University of Canberra in Australia.

“Moderate intensity seems to be optimal for increasing blood flow to the brain,” Northey, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. “Increasing cerebral blood flow through exercise improves the health and function of the brain.”

Enjoyment, rather than intensity, should be the focus, said Dr. James Burke, of the University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor VA.

“The best exercise is the one a person enjoys doing because he/she is more likely to make it a habit,” Burke, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

Inactivity, meanwhile, can take a toll on health, said Sandra Billinger of Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City.

“When we don’t exercise, our blood vessels become more stiff, we tend to gain weight, our lungs are not well used and our muscles become weak and lose size,” Billinger, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

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Thousands of yogis search for serenity in Times Square

NEW YORK - Thousands of yoga aficionados celebrated the summer solstice amid the neon lights and cacophony of Times Square Wednesday, searching for inner peace in the heart of New York on International Yoga Day.

"I have always wanted to come to yoga in Times Square. This year I retired so now I can," said 62-year-old former school principal Kathy Gaffney, who took the ferry bright and early from Staten Island to get a good place in line.

Around 12,000 people were expected to take part in six one-hour yoga classes beginning at 7:30 am (1130 GMT) to celebrate the official start of summer and the longest day of the year. The event is now in its 15th year.

For the last three years, it has coincided with International Yoga Day.

"It is mind over matter," laughed Magdalena Leszko, 40, of the surrounding Times Square din. "To have fun and to be part of a community. It tests the limits."

Chloe Liu, a Malaysian living in New York, came with two Chinese friends.

"To be able to do yoga in Times Square, in the middle of this chaotic and noisy scene, to be able to find calmness and equanimity," she said. "I was able to -- not the whole time, but in and out," said the delighted 49-year-old.

Under the watchful eye of police in one of the busiest plazas in the world, organizers handed out green yoga mats and bottles of water, before talking participants through their postures.

"The first year there were only three people who participated, the weather that day was horrible, raining," said Douglas Stewart, yoga teacher and co-founder of the event. "But it started to grow year after year," he added.

In 2015, when the event coincided with the first International Yoga Day, 17,000 people took part, including then UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

'World's hottest math teacher' draws backlash over workout video

The math teacher whose body and brains made him an Internet sensation may have miscalculated the potential effects of a fitness video he recently posted on social media.

Pietro Boselli has come under fire for using a friend as a workout equipment in a nearly 3-minute clip that he said they made just for fun.

In what looked like a scripted video set on an unnamed island in the country, Boselli talks to the camera and says he was looking for a training tool he can “actually lift repeatedly for exercise.” He settles for a “Filipino man,” whom he calls “ideal.”


Subsequent scenes show Boselli chasing the man around the beach and hoisting him a number of times as if he were weights. He would later clarify to the Telegraph that the man was his friend, Danel.

The image didn’t sit well with many people.

Krishna Omkar, whose reaction to Boselli’s video drew one of the most likes on Facebook, called the clip “outrageous.”

“The Filipino man is referred to by the white man (Pietro Boselli) as ‘that’ and ‘my weight,’ he doesn’t have a name, neither do we see his face clearly, nor do we hear him speak, he is purely an object to be used by the white man and must be approached ‘slowly because he can get scared and start running’ just like a wild animal?” Omkar wrote.

“Yes I do have fun and I have a great sense of humour. That’s what lets me recognize that this is demeaning and derogatory.”

Another commenter, JP Mercado, said the visuals were “problematic.”

“Put differently, while Pietro is fully formed . . . ‘that Filipino man’ remains a caricature who’s poked fun at,” Mercado wrote.

“I don’t know. I mean, I’m all for shenanigans, which I’m a staunch advocate of, but this is just . . . off.”

Some who defended Boselli said they don’t understand how any one would take offense over a video that both Boselli and Danel knowingly agreed to create.

Boselli told the Telegraph he only has respect for Filipinos.

“I am so far removed from racism that I cannot possibly see anything racist about a funny video I have made with my friend Danel (the Filipino man in the video),” he said.

“We all have differences but we are all the same as human beings. I have and always will respect everyone.

“If anyone sees any racism in this video, they probably have racism in their head. I and Danel alike, still think this is light- hearted and funny video.”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Hip yoga studio offers 'express' program

Want to get a good workout but can't fit it in your tight schedule?

Yoga + Express gives you all the benefits of a full yoga session packed in just one hour instead of the usual 90 minutes.

According to Yoga instructor Missy Castro, Yoga + Express combines movements from different yoga classes into a 60-minute program to maximize time without sacrificing the quality of exercise.

"The workout is like an overall workout for your body so we choose movements that maximize time when you can work out everything," she said.

The studio offers a variety of yoga classes such as Yin Basics, Flow Basics, Hot yoga, Flow yoga and vinyasa-based Hot Flow yoga.

It is also the first yoga studio in the country to use infrared heaters, which Castro says is therapeutic for muscles of the body.

Yoga + Express currently has four branches across the country.

Interested customers can visit studios in Legazpi Village, Makati; McKinley Hill, Taguig; Nuvali, Sta. Rosa, Laguna; and Malate, Manila.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

FTO gene not an obesity life sentence: study

People who carry a variant in the so-called obesity gene, FTO, react just as well to diet and exercise as those without it, a research paper said Wednesday.

This means that people with the variant, which appears to be linked to a higher risk for being overweight, are not necessarily doomed to remain so, according to a meta-analysis published in The BMJ medical journal.

"Individuals carrying the (variant) respond equally well to dietary, physical activity, or drug based weight loss interventions," wrote the authors of the review of eight studies involving some 10,000 people.

This meant that genetic predisposition to obesity "can be at least partly counteracted through such interventions."

Scientists have previously shown an association between a variant of the FTO gene and surplus body fat, but little is understood about how the link works.

The relative contribution of genetics and lifestyle to the global obesity epidemic is still very much in dispute.

The latest review showed that participants in weight loss programs who had the FTO variant started out almost a kilo (about two pounds) heavier on average than those without it.

But changes in weight were similar in people with the variant and those without it, regardless of other factors such as ethnicity or gender, the authors said.

In 2014, according to the World Health Organization, more than 1.9 billion adults globally were overweight. Of those, more than 600 million were obese.

Carrying excess weight has been linked to heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.

Commenting on the latest research, Public Health England agency chief nutritionist Alison Tedstone said the causes of the obesity epidemic may have little to do with genes.

The study, she said, "adds to the evidence suggesting that environmental factors might dominate over at least common obesity linked genes".

Such factors could include a high-sugar diet or insufficient physical exercise.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

WATCH: Techniques to work your abs

Getting abs takes hard work, commitment, and definitely the right exercise.

So if you're working on achieving those abs but falling short of your goals, then maybe you're not doing it the proper way.

Here is Anytime Fitness instructor Andrew Agustin for a demonstration of various abdominal workouts you can try.

- Mornings @ ANC, January 11, 2016

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Workouts get smart with tech-personalized routines

NEW YORK -- When 55-year-old Connie Antoniou visits her fitness studio, the leg press knows her name.

"The machines are programmed for my body so they take the guesswork out and I'm not worried I'll injure myself," said Antoniou, an Illinois realtor. "The traditional approach didn't work for me. It just took too long."

An increasing number of gyms are using high-tech exercise equipment that can prompt, respond and adapt to individuals in what fitness experts say may signal a future that frees clients from trying to gauge how fast, how hard or how long to work out.

Now her trainer at The Exercise Coach fitness studio punches a code into the fitness machine, her name pops up on a screen, and a session tailored to her personal goals and strengths begins.

Antoniou said because of the workout she is stronger and has improved her golf game with just two 20 minute sessions per week.

The Exercise Coach, a Chicago-based firm that has 30 franchises nationally, is among the gyms and fitness studios turning to responsive machines to improve workouts.

"The paradigm is shifting to workouts that are briefer, more challenging, more intense, and less frequent," said Bryan Cygan, the founder and chief executive of The Exercise Coach.

He cited research published in the journal "Preventive Medicine" showing virtually all benefits of resistance training are likely to be obtained in two 15- to 20-minute training sessions a week.

"We take individual snapshots of customers and provide exercises that are appropriate to them," he explained. "Then our software makes intelligent recommendations."

The coach-led, circuit-style workouts cost up to $40 each and typically include leg curls, leg presses, multiple upper body exercises, and core work and elliptical trainers.

Ted Vickey, senior consultant on fitness technology for the American Council on Exercise, said the big box gyms are also exploring the benefits of responsive machines.

"The problem is that people aren't exercising, period," said Vickey, who is finishing a Ph.D. on the uses of technology in fitness. "I'm a fan of small steps."

Vickey says wearable trackers are currently the most important fitness devices. He envisions a future in which fitness centers resemble fitness hubs, where clients with stored information can get professional recommendations.

"I like the fact that we can use that tech to make a change , but I want humans to make that change," he said. "I don't want equipment telling me what to do."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Older minds need physical and mental activity

Exercising the body and mind may be the best way to keep an older brain sharp, suggests a new study.

“The best medicine is physical activity,” lead researcher Ralph Martins told Reuters Health.

“At the end of the day, the two together – physical activity and cognitive training – gave us an additional benefit,” said Martins, who directs the Center of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and Care at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia.

Martins and his colleagues studied 172 people from ages 60 to 85 years, assigning them randomly into four groups.

One group walked three days a week for an hour and did 40 minutes of resistance training twice a week for 16 weeks. Another group did hour-long computer brain-training exercises five days a week, also for 16 weeks. A third group did both the physical exercise and the computer activities. A fourth group maintained their regular routines.

The researchers write in Translational Psychiatry that only the group that engaged in both physical activity and computerized brain training showed significantly improved verbal memory, which helps people remember words and language.

The researchers note that the study failed to show benefits for executive functions that control focus, attention to details and goal setting. They also didn’t find benefits for visual memory, processing speed or attention.

Martins said physical exercise had the most profound and constant effect.

Dr. David Merrill also sees physical activity as the most useful aid to maintaining memory and cognitive ability as people age, but the combination of physical and mental exercise may offer “synergistic” benefits.

“What’s good for the muscular-skeletal system is good for the cardiovascular system, and it’s also good for the brain,” said Merrill, who is a geriatric psychiatrist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“Physical exercise sets the stage for the brain to be responsive to new information,” said Merrill, who was not involved with the new study. “You’re all ready to build new synapses, new connections.”

Both Martins and Merrill recommend that older people exercise regularly and stay intellectually involved. Both favor real-life challenges over computerized brain exercises.

Martins urges retirees to join service organizations, like the Rotary Club, and to dance for the physical exercise and mental acuity.

"Full retirement doesn’t make sense for graceful aging,” Merrill said. “People should try to keep working not only to maintain their self-identity but to challenge their brain.”

Merrill said the new research is the most recent of a handful of studies showing that a combination of interventions can help seniors remain mentally alert.

He advocates building up to more strenuous exercise than people did in the study.

“There’s lots of data that shows that being physically active is good for the brain,” he said. “It’s almost so intuitive that it defies logic that so few people are active physically.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that older adults perform moderate and vigorous aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Motivation to get fit: Exercise can be 'holy'

MANILA – Do you need a reason to start exercising this 2015? Here’s one: it can be a “holy” activity.

Motivational speaker and best-selling author Bo Sanchez, also known as the “Preacher in Blue Jeans,” made the statement during his interview on the ANC program “Headstart” on Friday.

He said that exercise as well as a proper diet can be “holy” because being strong and healthy is important in fulfilling a person’s mission to love as a son or daughter of God.

“Yes, because love requires it,” said Sanchez when asked by “Headstart” host Karen Davila if exercise and eating right can be considered holy. “Whatever love requires, that is what you do. What makes something holy? It’s love.”

“How can you love others if you’re sick? How can you love others until 60, 70, or 90 years old? You want to serve others for the rest of your life, you have to be healthy and strong,” he added. “So walk, eat right and exercise. Think right. Do what love requires.”

Referring to the body as “the remote control of your emotional life,” Sanchez noted that a person’s actions greatly affect his or her emotional state.

“Many people say, ‘I can’t control my anger, I can’t control my laziness, I can’t control my fear. What should I do?’ One would be controlling one’s thoughts, the other is controlling the body.

“When you can control your body, you can control your emotions. Sooner or later, you actually feel great,” he said.

Reacting to people who tend to say that they do not have enough time to exercise, Sanchez said the key is to know one’s priorities.

“Whatever is important to you, you will make time. A lot of people waste a lot of time on things that they do habitually. You have to make a decision: ‘What is the most important [thing] to me that I’ll give time [for it]?’ If exercise is important to you, then you’ll do it,” he said.

Sanchez said people can use this motivation to save money and spend more time with their famiy.

“Be rich so you can give and be generous,” he said, adding, “Your mission is not just connected to your work, but also to your family, your relationships, recreation, your health, food and exercise. All of those have to be connected with your mission.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Diet and exercise may help maintain weight loss

NEW YORK - Programs focused on both diet and exercise may help people who have lost weight keep the pounds from creeping back on, according to a new analysis of past studies.

Orlistat, an obesity drug, may also be effective when taken at higher doses, researchers found.

More than one third of US adults are obese, and obesity raises the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of cancer. Losing weight - and keeping it off - can reduce those risks.

“Long term weight loss through changes in eating and physical activity is possible, even in adults who have already acquired obesity related illness, and effective weight loss programs are now available,” researchers led by Stephan Dombrowski of Newcastle University in the UK write.

They pooled data from 45 studies that included a total of 7,788 adults who had lost at least 5% of their body weight. The studies looked at people’s ability to keep the weight off for a minimum of one year.

Forty-two of the studies included an initial phase meant to produce weight loss. The participants in those studies lost an average of about 24 pounds.

The studies all looked at medication or lifestyle changes such as diet, physical activity and meal replacements, either alone or in combination, to help with weight loss maintenance.

The researchers found that people participating in programs that combined diet and exercise gained back 3.4 fewer pounds after one year compared to people receiving no extra help with weight maintenance or standard treatment only.

They also found that combining Orlistat with behavioral changes resulted in 4 fewer pounds regained after one year compared to participants who took a drug-free placebo.

Orlistat appeared to be more effective at larger doses, according to results published in the British medical journal BMJ. But the drug also came with gastrointestinal side effects.

Lori Rosenthal said the findings echo previous research and that it was “interesting” that the authors included data from so many studies.

Rosenthal is a dietician at Montefiore Medical Center in Bronx, New York. She was not involved in the new review.

“I think it’s great that they covered so many different studies but there’s also so much variety and the long-term research isn’t there, you know - going beyond 24 months,” she told Reuters Health.

Still, “We know that interventions like diet and physical activity are really important in preventing weight regain after losing,” she said.

Rosenthal noted that participants who had dropped out of the programs were not always included in the findings, and that could affect the review’s results.

“Weight management is hard,” she said. “People have to realize that it’s not just the losing it - it’s for life, and if you don’t like what you’re doing, if it doesn’t work for you, you’re not going to stick with it.”

Support during the weight management phase is important, Rosenthal added. There are support groups and dietitians who can give people tricks and tools to help make it easier, she said.

She offered some advice for people who have lost weight and are moving into a maintenance phase.

“It’s really important to remember that weight management is a mind and a stomach game,” she said. “You have to feel good about what you’re having.”

“Really make sure you find foods you like - that you’re choosing foods not because you’re on a diet but because you like them,” Rosenthal said. “You have to like them more than the other things you were eating before.”

Rosenthal said that if people don’t like the new foods they eat or their new routine, they will be more likely to go right back to old habits.

She said being mindful and chewing slowly also allows people to enjoy their food and eat less.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Want to get fit? Eat more, exercise less

MANILA – Model-actor turned fitness consultant Edward Mendez is encouraging Filipinos to eat more and exercise less if they want to lose unnecessary fat and gain more muscle.

After testing it for himself and getting a lean physique, Mendez now actively promotes this fitness principle by holding classes and writing a book titled “Your Dream Body Come True.”

In an interview on “Mornings@ANC” on Wednesday, Mendez said the key to getting a strong and lean body is eating healthy food often and having quick, intense workouts.

He observed how a lot of people tend to exercise too much and starve themselves in an effort to slim down.

“Don’t starve yourself because if you do that, the thyroid gland will sense that there is no food coming in. The metabolism will go down and the fat, which is considered reserve energy, will be stored and will become more stubborn to burn,” he explained.

“That’s the common problem – they keep losing weight but they’re not satisfied with the shape of their bodies because they’re not really losing fat, they’re also losing muscles,” he explained.

“Most people like to train two to three hours in the gym,” he added. “The problem with that kind of regimen is they’re damaging their bodies more. And when they do that, muscles are being eaten up and the metabolism also goes down.”

One of Mendez’ clients or “jedis” as he calls them is “Mornings@ANC” host Pinky Webb, who attested to the intensity and effectiveness of his program.

Referring to Webb, he said: “Not only is she getting thinner but she is also getting strong. She started with the squats, now she is doing [more intense workouts].”

Mendez said that with his program, results can easily be seen after three months. His basic tips for a “dream body” include eating healthy food every three hours, working out for a total of four hours a week, and giving the body enough time to rest.

“You do cardio in one day for 23 minutes and you’re done. The next day, you do weight training for 45 minutes and then you’re done. So that’s three days of weight lifting and three days of cardio,” he said. “You focus more on nutrition. It’s 70% nutrition and 30% training.”

“You have to rest also. If you work out almost every day doing weight training or running, you’re not giving the body enough time to repair. Because every time you step into the gym, you’re damaging your body. You got to give your body some rest to complete the repair of the muscles. When you do that, that’s when you burn fat and shape your body up,” he added.

Mendez also advised those who want to get fit to avoid stress as much as possible.

“You have to control your stress level. Stress is the main culprit to weight gain and many other health complications. If you’re not stressed, you can easily burn fat and gain muscles,” he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

4 easy tips to prevent diabetes

MANILA – In celebration of Diabetes Awareness Week, an expert offered 4 simple tips to prevent the disease.

According to Dr. Nemecio Nicodemus Jr., the key to preventing diabetes, which is characterized by high blood sugar, is a healthy lifestyle.

1. Exercise, exercise, exercise

Nicodemus said a healthy lifestyle involves at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity --even if it's just walking.

“Kung makakapagbawas ka ng timbang mo ng at least 5%, pwede mo mapigilan ang diabetes at kung ikaw ay mayroong moderate physical activity ng at least 30 minutes a day,” he said in an interview on dzMM’s “Magandang Gabi, Dok" on Tuesday.

2. Eat fiber-rich food
Aside from exercise, a fiber-rich diet will also help prevent diabetes, said Nicodemus who noted that the only difference between white rice and brown rice is that the latter has more fiber.

3. Cut down on fatty food

He also stressed the importance of cutting down on fatty food.

“Dapat magbawas ng taba sa kinakain, less than 10% lang ang daily intake…Sa plato mo tuwing kakain ka, ang taba ay dapat less than one-fourth ng plato mo,” he said.

4. Eat less sweets

Lastly, Nicodemus said the intake of desserts with simple sugar -- such as cake, ice cream, and chocolates --should be monitored.

Not too late

Nicodemus said risk factors for diabetes include age (35 years old and above), having a first-degree relative who has the disease, polycystic ovaries (for females) and a sedentary lifestyle.

He said those who have elevated blood sugar levels do not necessarily have the disease, but may only be in a "pre-diabetic stage."

People who are in this stage, he said, can still be cured.

“Ang diabetes ay sakit na maaaring mapigilan lalo na kung kayo ay kamag-anak ng isang diabetic at kayo ay wala pang diabetes ngayon, kayo ang pinakamagandang kandidato na pigilan ang diabetes,” he said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Top 7 worst dieting mistakes

Weight loss may seem like a simple formula of eating less and working out more; however, you may be unintentionally making mistakes that will hinder your weight loss success. To avoid common slip-ups and makeover your diet, check out these 7 worst weight loss mistakes.

1. Relying on exercise

While exercise is essential for a healthy lifestyle and for keeping off those extra pounds, research has found that, when not combined with any dietary changes, exercise does very little in respect to losing weight. Experts believe that many new exercisers even gain weight by overcompensating for their workouts. This is because many of us overestimate the calories burned through exercise and overly increase our calorie intake to fuel or reward our workouts. For maximum weight loss benefits, try to incorporate both exercise and dietary changes into your day.


2. Going fat-free

Many of us are in the habit of obsessively checking the fat content of products and looking out for "low fat" labels before deciding if a food is diet friendly. However, opting for low fat products can be a huge dieting mistake as many low fat meals are packed with sugar to compensate. Also, "reduced fat" labels only indicate that the food is lower in fat than the original product, which may not mean it is low fat at all. It is important to also remember that not all fats are bad for you. Rather than avoiding fat, try to lower your intake of saturated fats and eat more monounsaturated fats (found in avocados, olive oil and nuts) as studies have found that this can help to promote weight loss.


3. Switching to diet drinks

Just as low fat foods are not always the best choice for weight loss, switching to diet drinks can also inhibit weight loss, or even cause you to gain weight. Research by the Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio found that those who consumed diet drinks daily experienced a 70% greater increase in waist circumference than those who drank none, while a previous study showed that obesity risk increased by 41% for each diet drink consumed. It is thought this may be because artificial sweeteners trigger appetite, and they may also inhibit the brain cells that make you feel full.


4. Getting hung up on your body weight

Many dieters become fixated on the number on the scales; however, this can actually be counterproductive. Not only is your body weight not an accurate reflection of how well you are doing (after all, how do you know how much of that weight is muscle, water or undigested food and how much is fat?), failing to see the results you want can also affect your motivation, lead to emotional eating, or cause you stress which can lead to weight gain. Rather than getting hung up on your weight, learn to relax and enjoy your healthy eating plan, and look out for other positive effects of your diet such as glowing skin, increased energy levels and your clothes starting to fit better.


5. Being too restrictive

While eating too much food will inevitably cause you to gain weight, eating too little can also be a big dieting mistake. Firstly, not giving your body an adequate amount of food will make it go into starvation mode, causing the metabolism to slow down and the body to hoard fat and calories. Furthermore, making your diet too restrictive and cutting out all the foods you like is unrealistic and will mean you are more likely to give in. It is also pointless to give up these foods unless you plan on giving them up forever, as the pounds will just pile on again once your reintroduce them into your diet.


6. Giving up at the first hurdle

Many of us take an all or nothing approach to dieting, meaning one small wobble can lead to us ruining our diets and giving up entirely. After all, if you’ve already broken your diet and eaten a cookie, you may as well eat the whole packet, right? Wrong! If you’re serious about losing weight, it’s important not to let lapses (big or small) get you down. So, you caved in and ate your body weight in weight in chocolate? Don’t dwell on it. Just because you have given into temptation once it doesn’t mean that you will again, and it doesn’t mean that you have failed. Simply put the past behind you, pick yourself up and carry on.


7. Overestimating your self-control

Although it is great to embark on your diet with a positive and determined mindset, being too confident – and failing to prepare for those moments of weakness – could be your biggest mistake. Don’t rely on being too disciplined to fail; instead accept that we all lack willpower at times and try removing temptation to prepare for those weak moments. Clear the cupboards of chocolate, ignore the urge to purchase your favorite treats (even if you claim they are for guests and you are sure you will be able to resist them) and stay away from places and situations that will tempt you to indulge. Make it as difficult for yourself to break your diet as you can.

Don’t give up at the first dieting hurdle! Read more at www.realbuzz.com.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com