Even seniors who never exercised regularly can benefit from a workout program, researchers say. A new study found that men in their 70s and 80s who had never followed an exercise regimen could build muscle mass as well as “master athletes” — those of the same age who had worked out throughout their lives and still competed at the top levels of their sports. The U.K. researchers took muscle biopsies from both groups in the 48 hours before and after a single weight-training session on an exercise machine. The men were also given an isotope tracer before the workout in order to track how proteins were developing in their muscles. It was expected that the master athletes would be better able to build muscle during exercise, but both groups had an equal capacity to do so, the University of Birmingham team found. The study was published Aug. 30 in the journal Frontiers in Physiology. “Our study clearly shows that it doesn’t matter if you haven’t been a regular exerciser throughout your life, you can still derive benefit from exercise whenever you start,” lead researcher Leigh Breen said in a university news release. He’s a senior lecturer in exercise physiology and metabolism. “Obviously a long-term commitment to good health and exercise is the best approach to achieve whole-body health, but even starting later on in life…  read on >

For most healthy women, exercise during pregnancy is as important as it is at all times of life. It brings benefits such as better overall health, preventing back pain and keeping you regular, which can be a challenge for some women. While low-impact aerobic activities like walking are often emphasized, research has found a surprising benefit to working out in the weight room. It turns out that, beyond keeping muscles toned, strength training can ease the fatigue and low energy that affects so many women when they’re expecting. For a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 26 women did six low- to moderate-intensity resistance exercises twice a week from week 23 to week 35 of their pregnancies. Each session started with a five-minute warmup of walking on a treadmill followed by seated resistance machines — dual leg extensions, leg presses and leg curls, arm lat pulldowns and back extensions. Each exercise was done for two sets of 15 reps each at a controlled pace with a minute of rest between sets and two minutes of rest between machines. The participants also did two sets of a standing ab exercise using only their body weight. The results were clear: Nearly all of the women felt more energized and less fatigued, both physically and mentally, starting after a single workout. Strength training is…  read on >

Developing core strength is essential for fitness and overall health, but it doesn’t have to be a drudge. If you’re ready to go beyond crunches — or never liked them to begin with! — consider these moves that target the muscles in your torso and spine. The Advanced Bird Dog: Begin on your hands and knees. Contract your core muscles and straighten your right leg behind you until it’s level with your hip. Now raise your left arm straight out in front of you to shoulder level. From this start position, draw in your right knee and left elbow, touch the elbow to the knee if you can, and then straighten them back to the start position without touching the floor. Do one set, then switch sides and repeat. The Plank With Knee Drive: Begin on your hands and knees. Straighten your legs behind you, shifting your weight to the balls of your feet. Contract your core muscles and, with control, bring one knee toward your chest and then back out to the starting position. Alternate legs throughout the set. The Lying Single Leg Extension: Lie flat on a mat and then draw in your knees so that they make a 90-degree angle with your thighs; calves are parallel with the floor. Contract your core muscles. Keep your back pressed into the mat as you…  read on >

Waging a successful battle against advanced colon cancer should include regular doses of exercise, a new study suggests. It found that physical activity was associated with slower cancer progression and reductions in severe treatment side effects in more than 1,200 patients undergoing chemotherapy. Exercise — even low-intensity activity such as walking — helped. “What we found was that people who engaged in some type of physical activity had a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival [20%]” said senior study author Dr. Jeffrey Meyerhardt, from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. The results also suggested that exercise might extend overall survival, but the data were not statistically significant and that possible connection requires further investigation. “Physically active patients in our study also appeared to tolerate chemotherapy better,” said study first author Dr. Brendan Guercio, who worked on the study while a hospitalist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Total physical activity equivalent to 30 or more minutes of moderate daily activity was associated with a 27% reduction in severe treatment-related toxicities,” Guercio said in a Dana-Farber news release. The findings were published recently in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Previous studies have found that regular exercise can reduce the risk of recurrence and death from colon cancer that has not spread to other parts of the body, but this is the first study to examine…  read on >

Exercise, even a little of it, can lengthen your life, a new study suggests. The Norwegian researchers also found that too much sitting was associated with a higher risk of early death. “Developing ways to limit sedentary time and increase activity at any level could considerably improve health and reduce mortality,” the study authors concluded. In the study, the team analyzed data from eight studies that included more than 36,000 adults, aged 40 and older, who were followed for an average of almost six years. During follow-up, nearly 6% of the participants died. After adjusting for other factors, the researchers concluded that any amount of physical activity, regardless of intensity, was associated with a significantly lower risk of early death. Death rates fell sharply as total activity increased to an amount that was similar to average activity levels in U.S. men and about 10% to 15% lower than activity levels in Scandinavian men and women, the findings showed. A similarly steep decline in death rates was associated with increasing amounts of light physical activity up to about 300 minutes (5 hours) a day, and moderate-intensity physical activity of about 24 minutes per day. The largest difference in early death risk (about 60% to 70%) was between the least and most physically active, with about five times more deaths among inactive people than among those who…  read on >

Your dog might be your heart’s best friend, if a new study is any indication. Researchers found that compared with people who had no pets, dog owners tended to have fewer risk factors for heart disease: They got more exercise, and had healthier diets and lower blood sugar levels. Even compared with other pet owners, they were doing better with diet and exercise. The study of nearly 1,800 Czech adults is not the first to suggest our canine friends can do our hearts good. In fact, in 2013 the American Heart Association (AHA) issued a scientific statement saying that dog ownership is likely linked to a lower risk of heart disease. That was largely based on evidence that people with dogs are more physically active. The new findings suggest the benefit might extend to diet and blood sugar levels. It’s easy to see how having a dog could get people moving, according to senior researcher Dr. Francisco Lopez-Jimenez. And it’s possible that dog owners’ lower blood sugar levels were related to their exercise habits, said Lopez-Jimenez, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. It’s less obvious, though, why dog ownership would encourage a healthier diet. One possibility is that the two are not directly related, he said. On the other hand, past research has shown that dogs do more than demand walks and…  read on >