Sports « Weekly Gravy

Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in middle age and beyond might help keep your brain healthy, a new study suggests. “Our study suggests that getting at least an hour and 15 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity a week or more during midlife may be important throughout your lifetime for promoting brain health and preserving the actual structure of your brain,” said study author Priya Palta, an epidemiologist at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York City. “In particular, engaging in more than 2.5 hours of physical activity per week in middle age was associated with fewer signs of brain disease,” she said. For the study, published online Jan. 6 in the journal Neurology, Palta’s team collected data on more than 1,600 people (average age: 53) who had five physical exams over 25 years and rated their weekly activity levels. Participants also had brain scans at the end of the study to measure their gray and white brain matter and areas of injury or disease in the brain. While the researchers only found a correlation, those participants who didn’t do moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity in midlife had 47% greater odds, on average, of developing small areas of brain damage compared to people who engaged in high levels of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity. Higher activity levels were also associated with more intact white matter. White matter is tissue… read on > read on >

If you want to burn fat this winter, take your exercise outdoors, researchers say. A Canadian study suggests that vigorous exercise in cold weather may burn more fat than working out indoors. Regular physical activity speeds metabolism and helps regulate fat in the blood (“lipids”), and high-intensity training is better for burning fat than moderate-intensity exercise, the researchers said. Temperature also plays a role in metabolism during exercise. In the study, a group of moderately fit, overweight adults participated in two high-intensity exercise sessions. In both, they completed 10 one-minute cycling sprints at 90% effort. A 90-second recovery period of cycling at 30% effort followed each sprint. In one session, the temperature was about 70 degrees Fahrenheit (“thermoneutral”). In the other session, it was 32 degrees Fahrenheit. During both sessions, the researchers measured participants’ skin temperature, core body temperature, heart rate and the amount of oxygen delivered to the large thigh muscle. “The present study found that high-intensity exercise in the cold increased lipid oxidation by 358% during the exercise bout in comparison to high-intensity exercise in a thermoneutral environment,” according to the report published online recently in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Longer-term metabolic responses after eating a high-fat meal did not change substantially after the cold condition, the researchers noted in a news release from the American Physiological Society. The lead researcher was… read on > read on >

A culture of toughness and resilience is encouraged among elite college rowers, but it can keep them from reporting injuries, a new study finds. There’s an overall myth among athletes that admitting pain is a sign of weakness and failure, the researchers said. Irish and Australian rowers in this study felt compromised by lower back pain, which is common in the sport, the study authors said. But many felt that the sporting culture didn’t allow them to be open and honest about their pain for fear of exclusion. Also, many felt they had to keep competing and training even when in pain. This might have increased the risk of poor outcomes from their pain, and poor emotional and mental experiences they had, according to the report. Rowers who have lower back pain can feel isolated and it can affect their lives beyond sport, the researchers noted. “This study presents a powerful message that athletes fear being judged as weak when they have pain and injury. They feel isolated and excluded when injured. They feel that there is a culture within sport that values them only when they are physically healthy. This leads athletes to hide their pain and injury, which is likely to lead to poorer outcomes,” said researcher Dr. Fiona Wilson. She’s an associate professor of physiotherapy at the School of Medicine at Trinity… read on >

Active older adults — cancer survivors included — are in better physical and mental health than their sedentary peers, a new study finds. More regular moderate to vigorous physical activity and less sedentary time improve the mental and physical health of older cancer survivors and older people without a cancer diagnosis, say researchers from the American Cancer Society. “The findings reinforce the importance of moving more and sitting less for both physical and mental health, no matter your age or history of cancer,” study co-author Dr. Erika Rees-Punia said. “This is especially relevant now as so many of us, particularly cancer survivors, may be staying home to avoid COVID-19 exposure, and may be feeling a little isolated or down,” Rees-Punia added in a cancer society news release. For the study, the research team analyzed aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities, sitting time and mental and physical health of nearly 78,000 people who took part in the society’s Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. The researchers found clinically meaningful differences in mental and physical health between the most and least active, and the least and most sedentary. They say the findings support the importance of regular exercise and less sitting time as a way to improve quality of life for older men and women. The American Cancer Society physical activity guidelines recommend that adults get 150 to 300… read on >

Preventing falls in older age could be as fun as dancing them away, new research shows. Researchers found a 31% reduction in falls and a 37% reduction in fall risk for those aged 65 and older when reviewing clinical trials on “dance-based mind-motor activities” from around the world. “We were positively surprised by the consistency of our results,” said study author Michèle Mattle, a movement scientist and doctoral candidate at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland. “Although previous research in the field of falls prevention and exercise was suggesting that interventions, including multitasking activities, are promising falls-prevention strategies, it was unclear if dance-based mind-motor activities would lead to comparable results,” she said. Dance-based mind-motor activities are those that have upright movements that emphasize balance and use music or an inner rhythm, such as breathing, according to the study. They include instructions or choreography, as well as social interaction. Tai chi meets those criteria, in addition to a variety of dance-based activities, including ballroom and folk dancing. Though dance was often suggested as a good fall-prevention activity for older adults, there was not previously evidence for that, Mattle said. The review only found an association between dance and mobility, balance and lower body strength, not a cause-and-effect relationship. It also concluded there is a need for more high-quality trials on dance. Tai chi is an activity… read on >