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It’s clear that staying active is key to being healthy, and fitness trackers and smartwatches have become popular tools for tracking activity. But just how many steps does someone need to take to lose weight? That’s not such a simple a question. While evidence is limited on exactly how many steps a day it takes to lose weight, experts say to get about 150 to 300 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity exercise weekly, said Amanda Paluch, an assistant professor in the department of kinesiology and Institute for Applied Life Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. That’s about an average of 22 minutes per day on the low end and 45 minutes on the high end, Paluch said. “And we do know that for weight loss and weight maintenance, you really need to get to that higher end,” Paluch said. “We do need to exercise more often at this moderate to vigorous intensity to really see weight loss,” Paluch added, but “we really haven’t figured out how much that equates to in terms of steps per day.” Tracking steps That doesn’t mean a person shouldn’t track their steps. “These types of devices can really help us with tracking and goal-setting,” Paluch said. Harvard Health cited a review of recent studies that found people who were overweight or obese and who had chronic health conditions were… read on > read on >

Starting a walking routine is simple because it requires so little: comfortable, supportive walking shoes and your own two feet. Unlike gym workouts, the initial expense is small and the schedule is flexible. “Walking’s a great way to work out because we can integrate it into our daily lives,” said Amanda Paluch, an assistant professor in the department of kinesiology and Institute for Applied Life Sciences at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. “And if you can just fit it around your house or within your neighborhood, it’s one of the most convenient options,” Paluch said. The benefits abound, too. Even a single bout of walking at a moderate-to-vigorous intensity can improve sleep, memory, ability to think and anxiety, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Harvard Health noted some surprising benefits, including that walking can reduce sugar cravings, ease joint pain, boost immunity, counteract obesity genetics and reduce breast cancer risk. More well-known benefits include lowering high blood pressure and the risk for type 2 diabetes, helping someone maintain a healthy body weight and strengthening the musculoskeletal system, according to Colorado State University. A Texas clinical trial credited a half-hour of power walking or jogging five times weekly with better blood flow in and out of the brain in research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology. “Taking just a few more… read on > read on >

“Move it or lose it” the saying goes, but too much exercise or playing sports can lead to overuse injuries. These injuries include damage to bones, ligaments, tendons and muscles due to repetitive actions, such running, throwing, biking, lifting and swimming, to name a few. An overuse injury can be the result of poor training techniques such as doing too much too fast; not warming up or cooling down; failing to take enough time to recover after exercise; or not doing the proper cross training to support the activity. Shoulder impingement Shoulder impingement is an overuse injury in the rotator cuff — the muscles and tendons that surround the shoulder joint. It is caused by “repetitive overhead activities while the shoulder joint is in a forward rotated position,” said Jessica Moyer, owner of Viva Stretch in Jacksonville, Fla., and a sport rehabilitation specialist for nearly 20 years. According to the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, pain is usually felt when lifting overhead, and is most common in active adults in their 30s and 40s. In a hospital release, Dr. Lawrence Gulotta, head of the shoulder and elbow division at the hospital’s Sports Medicine Institute, says this type of injury often stems from poor technique and rushing when lifting weights. How to prevent it: Moyer recommends strengthening the scapular, or shoulder blade, muscles.… read on > read on >

A lot of people wear watches that count their every step as they try to move more. Now, a new study finds that getting more of those steps each day, along with moderate-to-vigorous physical exercise, could cut the risk of dementia and thinking impairments for women. For women aged 65 or older, each additional 31 minutes per day of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with a 21% lower risk of developing mild cognitive (thinking) impairment or dementia, according to the study led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). The risk was 33% lower with each additional 1,865 daily steps. “Given that the onset of dementia begins 20 years or more before symptoms show, early intervention for delaying or preventing cognitive decline and dementia among older adults is essential,” said senior study author Andrea LaCroix, a professor at UCSD’s Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. Much of past research on movement and sitting in relation to mild cognitive impairment and dementia has used self-reported measures rather than devices, noted first study author Steve Nguyen, a postdoctoral scholar at the School of Public Health. For this study, the researchers included data from 1,277 women who were in Women’s Health Initiative ancillary studies that looked at memory, physical activity and heart health. Study participants wore research-grade accelerometers (a device that… read on > read on >

A good physical workout benefits an older brain. So does socializing. Put those two together and the payoff may be even bigger. Researchers in Japan found that link in a new study that looked at exercising solo and in a group. “Exercise is manageable for many older people, and we saw cognitive benefits from it compared with those who don’t exercise,” said study senior author Tomohiro Okura, a professor at the University of Tsukuba in Japan. “But it’s even more noteworthy that we found exercise’s benefits rise — 14.1 percentage points in our study — when performed with others and at least twice a week,” Okura added in a university news release. Starting in 2017, the study collected data on nearly 4,400 older adults for four years in a city 62 miles north of central Tokyo. The investigators analyzed the data to find the relation between cognitive (or mental) decline; exercise in general; and exercise with others. People who exercised alone twice or more weekly decreased their risk of developing impaired thinking or learning skills by more than 15%. Those who exercised with others twice or more weekly showed about a 29% decrease. Exercise provides other physical and mental benefits, such as reducing chronic diseases, including high blood pressure and diabetes, the study authors said in background notes. Socializing is known for reducing development of… read on > read on >

Even short bouts of light exercise can help the millions of people with knee osteoarthritis reduce pain and improve their range of motion. Knee osteoarthritis, the wear-and-tear form of the disease, occurs when the cartilage between your bones breaks down, causing pain, stiffness and swelling. Researchers in a new study compared high-dose and low-dose exercise in 189 people with knee osteoarthritis. Everyone exercised three times a week for 12 weeks. Exercises included indoor cycling and various lower body exercises such as de-loaded squats and knee extensions. De-loaded exercises use bands or pulleys to take weight off the knee joint and minimize pain. Folks in the high-dose group performed 11 exercises in 60- to 90-minute sessions. Folks in the low-dose exercise group performed five exercises during 20- to 30-minute sessions. The result? Everyone showed improvements on a standard scale measuring knee osteoarthrosis pain and function at three, six and 12 months. People in the high-dose group did show greater improvements in knee function during sports and recreation at six months, suggesting that a high-dose program may be better for athletes and weekend warriors. The study, led by Wilhelmus Johannes Andreas Grooten, a physiotherapist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, was published Jan. 24 online in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Outside experts are quick to point out that the best exercise plan for someone with knee… read on > read on >

It’s no secret that athletic endurance and strength go hand-in-hand with a healthy heart. “Exercise strengthens the heart muscle, enabling it to pump a greater volume of blood with each heartbeat,” said Dr. Deepak Bhatt, editor of the Harvard Heart Letter, in a recent Q&A. The enlarged heart muscles that athletes may develop are also the hallmark of a condition known as athletic heart syndrome (AHS), often called “athlete’s heart,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. What is athletic heart syndrome? When a person does vigorous-intensity exercise for more than an hour a day on the majority of days, changes in the heart may occur, according to the Cleveland Clinic. One of the main changes is thickening of the left ventricle wall. Another marker of AHS is that the space in your left ventricle gets larger. A study of Olympic athletes published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging revealed that AHS shows up differently in the hearts of women and men, although electrical and muscular size changes occurred in the hearts of both. Compared to men, women in the study had relatively larger increases in the size of their right and left ventricle cavities. The absolute dimensions of these cavities in women were smaller than those of men. An electrical measurement called T-wave inversion (which can indicate the presence of heart trauma or disease) was also more common… read on > read on >

When it comes to picking the best exercise to lose weight, there is no one right answer. That’s because the right answer is variety, mixing and matching types of exercise to keep the body guessing and improving. “The body adapts to the demands we put on it,” said Dr. Russell Camhi, who works in primary care sports medicine for Northwell Health’s Orthopaedic Institute in East Meadow, N.Y. “If we do the same exercise regimen over and over, results are bound to plateau,” he explained. “Now this doesn’t mean you have to change exercises every day or every week, but a little variety will help the body change and grow.” The key to weight loss is a blend of exercise and nutrition, with the latter responsible for about 80% of the heavy lifting, according to Camhi. It’s important to reduce calories while increasing physical activity, according to the Mayo Clinic, which recommends cutting about 500 to 750 calories a day to lose 1.5 pounds per week.` Though diet plays a bigger role than exercise, physical activity can help with weight maintenance, as well as counter loss of bone density and muscle mass, the Mayo Clinic noted. A high amount of physical activity would be necessary to lose weight unless also adjusting diet, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s not clear exactly… read on > read on >

Some college athletes take longer to recover from a concussion, but a new study offers them some good news. They may still be able to return to play — after one extra month of recovery, researchers report Jan. 18 in the journal Neurology. “Although an athlete may experience a slow or delayed recovery, there is reason to believe recovery is achievable with additional time and injury management,” said study author Dr. Thomas McAllister, from Indiana University School of Medicine. “This is an encouraging message that may help to relieve some of the discouragement that athletes can feel when trying to return to their sport. While some athletes took longer than 24 days to return to play, we found that three-quarters of them were able to return to sports if given just one more month to recover,” McAllister said in a journal news release. The study included 1,751 college varsity athletes who had concussions diagnosed by their team physician. About 63% of the athletes were men who primarily played football, soccer or basketball. The women primarily played soccer, volleyball or basketball. Participants were evaluated multiple times: within six hours of their injury; one or two days later; after being free of symptoms; after being cleared to return to play, and at six months. The athletes reported their symptoms daily for up to 14 days to medical… read on > read on >

Winter may feel like a time for hibernation, but it’s important for seniors to safely keep up their hobbies and physical activity in the cold weather. “It’s important to get outside as much as possible, whether it’s temperate or even if it’s colder, as long as it’s safe to do so,” said Dr. Angela Catic, an associate professor in the Center on Aging at Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston. “If it’s cold, bundling up and getting outside is good for your spirit and good for you physically,” she said in a Baylor news release. Continue walking, biking or being in nature, Catic suggested, while being cautious of snow or icy conditions. But don’t pick up a new active sport like skiing or snowboarding, unless that was already a hobby, she cautioned. Here are some of her tips: If you typically garden outside, grow some indoor plants in the winter. Plan for the upcoming growing season by perusing gardening catalogs and making a springtime plan. Explore indoor activities, such as reading, doing puzzles, playing games, crafting or knitting. Go to concerts, visit museums and take road trips. If the thought of picking up a new hobby post-retirement seems daunting, reflect on activities you enjoyed in the past before you were focused on work. Check out adult education programs in your area. They may offer a… read on > read on >