Category: Blog

5 Ways to Make Your Home Safer to Breathe In

Posted on by Tammy Roche

The health of our families take priority over everything else! The American Heart Association has deemed October as Healthy Lung Month, emphasizing the importance of taking care of your lungs and respiratory system all year long. It’s surprising to find out that our indoor air can be just as unsafe as the air we’re exposed to in the public and outdoors. Here’s a few ways to improve the health of your lungs through simple adjustments in your everyday routine.

Weekly Cleaning

Creating a chore chart allows everyone to be accountable in the home. After all, a clean home is a happy home. Assign household tasks for everyone to perform on a weekly basis as pollutants are always hiding in the air. Simple habits like dusting, vacuuming, sweeping, and wiping down furniture will positively impact the health of the home. People are more prone to experience breathing issues indoors during the winter months because windows are closed, heat gets trapped, and pollutants build up. This is especially true for adults and young children who suffer from asthma. Vacuuming carpets and cleaning up dust mites or pet dander can result in easier breathing and a healthier future.

Limit your DIY Projects

If you have lived in your house for a while, it’s natural to want to reinvent and refresh your home. Hiring a professional can become expensive and long-winded but may require the touch of an expert. One serious toxin that could be lurking in your home is asbestos. Knocking down walls or ripping up flooring tiles can disturb the fibrous mineral. Due to its microscopic size, asbestos can get trapped in the body’s organs. Asbestos has been proven to cause multiple lung issues such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and even the rarer cancer, mesothelioma, which affects the lungs in up to 90 percent of all diagnoses.

Carbon Monoxide

Make sure your carbon monoxide (CO) detector is up and running properly. According to the CDC, roughly 400 people are killed each year from lung poisoning, and a staggering 25,000 people become sick from it. Due to this gas being odorless and tasteless, it’s very difficult to know when your family might be exposed to it. Anytime a material is burned, CO is emitted into the air putting you and your family at risk. Examples of this include your dryer machine, gas stoves and ovens, furnaces, boilers, water heaters, and any form of fire burning- i.e. fireplace, wood burning stove, pellet stove.

Radon

Radon is a very dangerous radioactive gas that forms in the ground. Radon moves up from the soil seeping into various cracks and holes in the foundation of the home. The colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas can be unknowingly present in the home at any time. Excluding cigarette smoking and secondhand contact with smoke, radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among Americans, nearing close to 21,000 deaths a year. Have your home tested or do it yourself by purchasing a kit as cheap as 20 dollars. If the radon levels in your home exceed four pCi/L, call a professional immediately.

Activities to Keep Your Lungs Healthy

When the season changes and the temperature drops it’s easy to fall into the couch potato habit. However, there’s a lot of fun alternatives to staying indoors while keeping your lungs active. Take the family to an open swim, try out new classes at your local YMCA, or even have a family bowling night.

Don’t let the cold scare you! 30 minutes of moderate exercise has many benefits for your lungs and your immune system. Taking initiative to care for your lungs now can have long lasting benefits for you and your family down the line.

 

Editors Note: Article contributed by Emily Walsh, Mesothelioma

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE: THE EVOLUTION OF RUNNING

Posted on by Susan Lechner

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE: THE EVOLUTION OF RUNNING

By Margo White for Fit Planet

 We weren’t just born to run, we were designed to. Author and runner Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid explains the art and science of running, and why it’s as good for your mind as your body.

 MARGO WHITE: You write that we’re born to run. Convince me.

VYBARR CREGAN-REID: The idea that we’re born to run comes from a wonderful book, Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall, who kick-started interest in this idea. His book comes out of the science done by biologist Dennis Bramble and paleoanthropologist Daniel Lieberman, who looked at the mechanics of our bodies, and the ways in which they’re specifically optimized for running.

For example?

If you’re reading this interview on an iPad and shake the screen up and down, you won’t be able to read it. Your eyes won’t be able focus. But if you shake the screen from side to side, which is the kind of lateral movement that the head does during a run, when it bobs from side to side, you will be able to read it. That’s because of a little set of bones in our inner ear that house the vestibulocochlear nerve, which means our brain can tell our eyes what to do so that we can see when we’re in motion – if our head moves to the right, our eyes move to the left, and vice versa. Primates don’t have this, but Homo erectus, from about 1.9 million years ago, did, and we’ve inherited it.

They also had toes that were quite short, so were economic. They had a big toe that was very powerful and independent and allowed them to propel themselves forward. They had Achilles tendons (which most other primates lack). You don’t need an Achilles tendon to walk, but it stores power when your body goes down in a stride, which can then be released when you toe off, and that helps propel you forward. The uniquely human arch in the foot also helps this, too. There are many more examples, but all these evolutionary tweaks that optimize us for running are there, ready to go, in our DNA.

But we live in an age optimized for sitting, rather than running…

Yes, the environment that was waiting for early humans was the African savannah, and we thrived on it. That environment didn’t have any chairs. It involved very little sedentary work. And it was one in which our muscles, all our tendons, were being used actively and frequently. So it meant their bodies were getting sustenance.

What we have now, is an environment in which our fingers travel over a keyboard about three miles a day, and our feet about half a mile. It’s absurd; think of all the time you spend in sedentary activities. If you just performed moderate activities for that amount of time, your bone density would be different, tendons would be thicker, and muscles would be stronger. So we are training our bodies to be weakened by modern life, with a level of commitment that if we were training for the Olympics, we’d win.

This is something you’re exploring in your next book, “Primate Change, how the world we’ve made is remaking us”?

Yes, which is coming out in September. I’ve got a whole section on sitting, and the history of chairs. We’ve not really been sitting for that long – only for about 150 years. Chairs have been around for thousands of years, but they were mostly used as status symbols; they were not widely adopted and people were sensible enough not to sit in them. And just because we like sitting doesn’t mean it’s good for us.

You’re a senior English lecturer, mainly in Victorian literature, and the author of Footnotes: How Running Makes Us Human. How did you end up writing a book about running?

My first book was an academic book about the oldest poem that humanity has, called the Epic of Gilgamesh, that took me many years and at the end of that process I thought, because it was an academic book, nobody is going to read this. So I decided that the next book would be about something that really fascinated me, something that was more mainstream, and that really felt new to me.

Footnotes is a running book, but I blend that with literary criticism, new nature writing, and memoir. The basic argument I’m putting forward is that we have bodies, and they need to do certain things, and if they don’t, they’re not going to be at their best.

In Footnotes you point out that there’s increasing evidence that running promotes neurogenesis. You run five to ten miles a day, but has it made you smarter?

No, not noticeably, but I’ve not noticed my hair going grey, either, so who knows? It won’t necessarily make you smarter, but will almost certainly slow the cellular degradation that is associated with ageing. It has, without doubt, made me more interested. There was something about the process of running, while writing Footnotes, which would generate ideas. Ideas would get shunted together while I was out on the trails, and I’d think, ‘oh yeah, treadmills are weird, I should look into that, I remember them being mentioned in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol’. The odd history of the treadmill ended up becoming an entire chapter in the book. There were without doubt some dumb ideas, but mostly though they blossomed into paragraphs or sections. I don’t think running made me smarter, but it created the conditions in which creativity could flourish.

Are the benefits of running distinct from the benefits gained by other forms of physical activity?

There’s no easy answer for this. But if you look at the kind of benefits that different leisure activities give us, such as the neurological benefits, the physiological benefits, psychological benefits and others, outdoor running comes out best. It’s great for cardio, great for bone density, and if you’re outdoors, it’s great for being stimulated by the natural environment. So it’s not that other exercises won’t give you these benefits, but none will give you them as perfectly as running does.

Is there really such a thing as the runner’s high?

Definitely. Some people rarely get it, some people never get it, some people get it a fair bit and some people get it all the time. I used to get it more than average and I think this is because I’m a slow runner. If you drive your exercise too hard, it won’t happen. So, often the people who never get it are those really serious about their running speed, and see their run as serious training. But it turns out that not maxing out your heart rate, makes it easier for the runner’s high to happen. I’ve got a recipe for the runner’s high in the book that I devised after speaking to several experts.

EXPERIENCE THE RUNNER’S HIGH

Vybarr Cregan-Reid’s recipe for the runner’s high, or more accurately, for endocannabinoid activation.

  • Make sure the run is as immersive as possible.
  • Ensure the run is mindful and not instrumental (performed to achieve another goal); sensory reception of the present is essential.
  • Make sure the run is longer than 40 minutes.
  • Don’t run too fast. The ideal is about 75 percent of maximum heart rate. Below that and your body is not likely to be stressed enough for endocannabinoid activation, but any faster than that and you will be too distracted by your exertion to notice anything happening. Cregan-Reid says: “In my experience, if I’m four steps breathing in/four steps breathing out, I’m going at about the right pace.”
  • Run in a green space.

It’s not about the endorphins though, is it? 

For years everyone thought it was, but the scientists were quite rightly saying, no, endorphins are too big to get through the blood brain barrier, which stops us from going insane when we get an infection. But more recently, there was the discovery of a substance called anandamide, a neurostransmitter released when the endocannabinoid system is activated, which is small enough to pass the blood brain barrier. That does all the things that that the runners’ high is supposed to do.

Like what?

It makes you feel euphoric, that you could carry on forever. It has dilatory effects so your breathing slows and blood is able to flow more freely, and it also has a pain-killing component.

It’s like your body recognizing that it has reached the limits of its ability, and it just goes ‘poof’ and puts a little injection of magic into your brain and blood, which keeps you going a little bit longer. So that, if you were a Paleolithic persistence hunter, you could get the reward of the hunt. Everything usually come down to evolution. That Darwin guy was onto something.

Can you get a “runner’s high” from other forms of physical activity?

There’s no reason to suggest that you can’t. I think it’s more closely associated with running, because everyone knows the term; they don’t call it “the exercise high”. But as I say in the book, and my recipe for “runner’s high”, you also need to go off line, to switch off, and that can be harder in a gym or in an urban environment than it is in a natural environment. By natural, I don’t mean that it has to be a breathtakingly beautiful place, just some grass and a few trees.

Is running bad for your knees?

No, there’s been loads of studies done on this, but yet another study published a few weeks ago showed that levels of osteoarthritis among runners is hugely below the average of the population. So running is not bad for your knees. Not running is bad for your knees. I don’t believe that we pick up injuries when we’re running. We gather them slowly in our lives, and then we give them a chance to express themselves while we’re running. We are injuring ourselves by doing what we are both doing now, which is sitting still for long periods of time.

Dr Vybarr Cregan-Reid is Reader in English and Environmental Humanities at the University of Kent, and author of Footnotes: How Running Makes us Human. He is currently working on his third book, Primate Change: how the world we’ve made is remaking us, a study of the Anthropocene body and how, as we have altered the environment, it is changing us.

Benefits of Eating Together as a Family

Posted on by Tammy Roche

Families are busier than ever, and aligning everyone’s schedule for a meal together can be challenging. In fact, studies show that nearly one third of children ages 4-19 eat fast food daily and many of those meals are eaten in the car. But children who share regular family meals reap numerous benefits, like better eating habits and nutrition, greater academic success, fewer risky teenage behaviors, and improved mental health. Furthermore, many of these benefits extend through your child’s teenage years and into adulthood. In our hectic society, family meals provide a daily respite that encourages connection and helps your children reach their full potential to lead happy, healthy lives.

Support Budding Conversationalists

Regular family meals help young children build vocabulary, learn to communicate effectively and interact in socially appropriate ways. Research indicates that children learn more new words through family conversation during mealtime than they do from reading a book aloud with their parents.

Boost Nutrition

Good nutrition allows your child to develop both physically and mentally to their fullest potential. Children who eat regular family meals consume more fruits, vegetables, fiber, vitamins and micronutrients, and fewer unhealthy foods. These benefits early in life extend beyond the family dinner table, resulting in healthier eating patterns in adulthood.

Foster Academic Success

Students who have regular family dinners tend to do better in school. In fact, regular family mealtime is a more accurate predictor of higher performance in school than time spent in school, doing homework, playing sports or doing art.

Decrease High-Risk Teenage Behaviors

Many studies link regular family meals with less risky behavior as teens. Adolescents are less likely to smoke, binge drink, use drugs, or engage in violence or sexual activity when they frequently share meals with their families.

Improve Mental Health

Adolescents are more hopeful, positive and have increased self-esteem and resilience to bullying when they share regular family meals. Family meals are also associated with lower rates of depression, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts.

Bring Family Meals Into Your Home

For families with conflicting schedules, coordinating family meals can be a challenge. Here are a few tips to make it happen.

  • Put it on everyone’s schedule. Choose times that are convenient and make sure everyone has family meal night on their calendar.
  • It doesn’t have to be dinner. When coordinating a shared dinnertime is not feasible, choose another meal, like breakfast, as your family meal.
  • Plan meals that are easy and family-friendly. Our recipes for Roasted Curried Sweet Potatoes and Rainbow Salad are quick, nourishing and universally enjoyed, so you avoid long prep times and squabbles over food. You can also try our latest recipe for a one-dish meal, Garden Spaghetti with Chicken.
  • Take-out is better than nothing. If you haven’t planned a meal ahead of time, sit down for a meal of take-out. You will still reap the benefits of a family meal – it’s the togetherness that counts!
  • Keep mealtime conversation warm, supportive and engaged. Shared conversation is responsible for many of the benefits of family meals.
  • Unplug your meals. Eating while focusing on technology leads to mindless eating/overeating. Studies show that watching television while eating is associated with childhood obesity and poorer dietary quality among adolescents. And there is little room for conversation and connection when you are buried in your smart phones. Make a family policy that smartphones and other devices have no place at the family table.
  • Aim for at least three family meals a week. While there is no magic number, the benefits of family meals begin to show with three or more per week.

Coordinating family meals may seem like a juggling act at first, but once you get into a rhythm, family meals become a normal part of your week. Stay motivated by reminding yourself of the many benefits you are giving your children by making family meals a regular part of their home life.

You will love the way you feel!

5 Myths About Aging

Posted on Updated on by Tammy Roche

About a quarter of older Americans participate in regular exercise—don’t let a common misconception keep you in the sedentary majority. Read up on five myths about exercise and how you can work toward being active.

Myth 1: It’s too late. I’m too old to start exercising.

Reality: It’s never too late. In an eight-year study of more than 3,000 people ages 55-73, those who became active at the start of the study—having been sedentary previously—had a seven-fold reduction in their risk of becoming ill compared to those who remained sedentary during the study. A study from the Journal of the American Medical Associationechoes this sentiment—and that even among the very old, initiating physical activity is associated with better survival and function.

If it’s been a while since you’ve exercised, the key is to start from where you are today. Start slowly and gradually work toward your goals. The YMCA is a great place to get started—or get started again. Find a Y near you.

Myth 2: I’m disabled and there is really nothing I can do to improve my strength and stamina.

Reality: If you have a chronic health issue, exercise is often a great way to improve how you feel. For example, a study from the Arthritis Foundation showed several benefits of exercise for people with arthritis, and that strength training might even reverse biologic aging in muscle cells.

If you have a medical condition, consult with your healthcare provider before beginning an exercise program. Together, you can explore options for exercises that are appropriate for your condition.

At the Y, there are several options available to those with a wide variety of conditions. Choose from Group Exercise classes like Arthritis Water Exercise or ask about our chair-based programs.

Myth 3: Exercise puts me at risk for falling down.

Reality: The Centers for Disease Control actually cites exercise as one of the top ways to prevent falls and lower the risk of hip fracture—especially exercises that focus on increasing leg strength and improving balance.

If you’re concerned about falls, the Y offers small-group classes like Moving for Better Balance

Myth 4: I need to save my strength in order to get through the day, exercise will exhaust me.

Reality: According to WebMD, regular exercise can increase energy levels—even among people who suffer from chronic medical conditions associated with fatigue.

The key is to boosting energy through exercise is to engage in the right amount of exercise, and the right kinds of exercise. A good place to start is with a senior fitness assessment—which is free for members as part of a Fitness Solution. Get more info and schedule a consultation at Member Services.

Myth 5: I don’t like to exercise, so I know I will just end up quitting anyway.

Reality: You can stick with an exercise program by following just a few simple tips—have a plan, set goals, find a support system and go easy on yourself. It also helps to find activities that you enjoy. Whether you like to walk, dance, exercise with a group or all by yourself, the Y has it all!

Ready, Steady, Balance: Prevent Falls in 2018

Posted on by Tammy Roche

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an older adult in the U.S. is treated in the ER for a fall-related injury every 14 seconds and dies from a fall-related injury every 29 minutes. Additionally, falls put an immense strain on the health care system, with the financial toll expected to reach $67.7 billion by 2020. The good news is falls are preventable, and the first step to prevention is understanding risk. With a focus on healthy aging, the Y is committed to helping older adults learn their fall risk and access programs that can help them reduce their risk for falls.

Older adults are valuable members of our families and communities, and falling and fear of falling may cause them to limit their activities, which leads to reduced mobility, diminished quality of life and actually increases their risk of falling. Falls take a toll on families as well and as the population ages, it is now more important than ever that we bring awareness to a highly preventable risk.

As a leading community-based organization dedicated to building a culture of health for all families, the YMCA of Greater Erie Y encourages older adults to learn their risk for falls by taking a fall risk test at  http://www.ymca.net/health-wb-fitness/ .

Once risk is assessed, the Y is helping older adults feel strong, steady and safe by reducing fall risk through programs specifically for them.

The Y’s Moving for Better Balance program is for adults 55+ and is a Tai Chi based program designed for older active adults who can walk easily.  Participants will feel stronger, have better balance and flexibility by using coordinated and flowing movements.  The program is offered to Y members only at the Eastside Family Y on Mondays and Fridays beginning Sept. 24.

The CDC suggests these basic lifestyle and safety changes to help reduce risk or prevent falls:

  • Begin an exercise program to improve your leg strength & balance.
  • Ask your doctor or pharmacist to review your medicines.
  • Get annual eye check-ups & update your eyeglasses.
  • Make your home safer by:
    • Removing clutter & tripping hazards.
    • Putting railings on all stairs & adding grab bars in the bathroom.
    • Installing proper lighting, especially on stairs.

 

My BMI is What?

Posted on by Tammy Roche

Body Mass Index: what you need to know

One of the metrics measured during a physical is your weight to determine your body mass index (BMI). You may have been disappointed to learn that your BMI fell into the “overweight” or “obese” category. Just what is BMI and why does it matter?

According to WebMD, BMI is a formula based on height and weight that is used to measure fatness. If you know your height and weight, the Mayo Clinic offers an online calculator to help you get a sense for your BMI.

Once you know your BMI, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) uses the following guidelines:

BMI Weight Status

Below 18.5

Underweight

18.5 to 24.9

Normal

25.0 to 29.9

Overweight

30.0 and above

Obese

Because BMI is a simple formula and doesn’t take into account actual percentage of fat and muscle, it’s not exact and is often used as just one measure. For example, the CDC cites factors like age, race and sex as having an impact on the correlation between BMI and body fatness.

To get an accurate picture of health and risk for disease, a healthcare professional might recommend additional methods like skinfold thickness and waist circumference measurements. Using your BMI as a starting point, talk with your healthcare provider to determine if you need to gain or lose to achieve a healthy weight.

If you need to lose or maintain your current weight, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends:

  • Setting the right goals for weight loss—one to two pounds per week is generally considered reasonable and safe.
  • Balancing calories with physical activity—if you use more energy than consume calories, you’ll lose weight. There are lots of simple ways to cut calories like swapping soda for water or skipping mayo on your sandwich.
  • Developing a healthy eating plan—including a mix of nutrients, controlled portion sizes, and keeps an eye on calories. [link to new blog post]
  • Keeping physically active—at least 30 minutes of moderate activity each day. You might jumpstart your efforts by working with a personal trainer, and it’s a good idea to incorporate fitness into everyday activities like taking the stairs at work instead of hitching a ride on the elevator.

SEVEN STEPS TO EFFECTIVE TRAINING

Posted on by Susan Lechner

SEVEN STEPS TO EFFECTIVE TRAINING
By Emma Hogan for Fit Planet

Want to get the best results from the time you spend working out? Keep these seven tips front of mind.

Dr Jinger Gottschall is a university professor, studio owner, Les Mills instructor and former triathlete who has dedicated her career to academic fitness research. Here she shares some of her favorite fitness facts – highlighting exactly what it takes to shape a safe and effective training regime.

#1 CHOOSE THE RIGHT MOTIVATION
If you’re primarily motivated by external goals (how you look), it’s harder to maintain good exercise habits over time. You have a better chance of making a lifestyle change if you think about what internal factors motivate you. It might be lowering cholesterol, improving body composition, boosting energy, productivity and happiness. Choose internally-focused motivators like these and sticking to exercise will be much easier. Write your goals down. And if you want, share them. Sharing your goals with other like-minded people is proven to boost your chances of success through support.

#2 PROGRESSIVE TRAINING IS THE BEST BET
If you’re new to exercise or haven’t exercised regularly for over six months, studies show a slow, progressive training plan is the best way to build a habit and prevent burnout. Try not to do more than the plan specifies – by doing too much too soon you increase the risk of injury, not to mention frustration and the likelihood of giving up.

#3 VARIETY BRINGS RESULTS
The best results come when you follow a weekly regime that features a combination of cardio, strength and flexibility training. This was highlighted by a study involving 25 non-active, healthy adults who completed a training plan featuring a combination of LES MILLS™ workouts. After 30 weeks the exercisers saw an increase in lean tissue (+5 percent), a decrease in both body mass (-4 percent), and LDL cholesterol (-6 percent). And their cardiovascular fitness increased by an average of 50 percent. Thanks to results like these we can now confidently advise that a varied work out regime will significantly improve your chances of living a longer, healthier life.

#4 CHOOSE HIGH REP, STRENGTH TRAINING
Don’t shy away from lifting weights. Incorporating low load, high-repetition strength training can build strong, lean muscle and do amazing things for your fitness. We studied 20 non-active, healthy adults following a regime featuring three RPM™ cycling workouts and three BODYPUMP™ strength training sessions per week. After 24 weeks not only did cardiovascular fitness significantly increase, but bone density in the arms, legs, pelvis, and lumbar spine were statistically greater.

#5 LOW WEIGHTS MAXIMIZE CALORIE BURN
High repetition training with low weights can maximize calorie burn. Studies show the mean amount of energy expenditure during a BODYPUMP workout, using faster repetitions with lighter weights, is 29 percent greater than in the same duration of slower repetitions with heavier weights.

#6 ADD HIIT
If you already participate in three to five workouts per week, consider embracing the magic of high-intensity interval training. With the addition of just two 30-minute HIIT workouts a week you can see your health, fitness, and strength leap ahead. In a study of 84 healthy adults it took just six weeks of twice-weekly LES MILLS GRIT™ workouts for them to enjoy a decrease in body fat (-2 percent), a reduction in triglycerides (-16 percent), an increase in cardiovascular fitness (+6 percent) and improved back strength (+21 percent).

#7 DON’T FORGET YOUR CORE
Squeezing in the odd set of crunches isn’t going to give you the results you deserve. Core exercises that require shoulder (deltoid) and hip (glute) activity produce greater muscle activation in the abdominal muscles than exercises such as a crunch. Research shows that incorporating integrated core training into your workout regime can improve endurance, enhance stability and reduce injury.

Jinger Gottschall, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Penn State University, and former triathlete who learned first-hand the injury-inducing effects of doing nothing but cardio exercise. She has subsequently led numerous studies into the effectiveness of various exercise regimes and works closely with Bryce Hastings, Les Mills Head of Research, to test all sorts of exercise programming. When it comes to getting the best results from the time you spend working out, this woman knows the way to go.

BIKE TO THE FUTURE: THE ANTI-AGEING POWER OF PEDALING

Posted on by Susan Lechner

Forget pills and potions, this could be the best approach to anti-ageing yet.

BIKE TO THE FUTURE: THE ANTI-AGEING POWER OF PEDALING
By Will Macdonald for Fit Planet

Cycling to work or at the gym will get you fit, but it will also keep you young – and we have the science to prove it.

Is it possible to reverse – or at least arrest – the effects of ageing? Since humans discovered the first wrinkle they’ve searched for an answer, yet despite a plethora of anti-ageing pills and potions, the fountain of youth has remained elusive.

Could it be we’ve been looking in the wrong places? Rather than sitting on the shelves of your local pharmacy or featured in “as seen on TV” commercials, might the solution actually be stored in your garage?

The answer is yes. In fact, you may have used it today on your way to work. Cycling, it has been shown, could be the answer to prolonging your golden years.

The older we get, the frailer our bodies become as your muscles tire from the wear and tear of everyday life. Cycling can slow this process considerably.

A recent study tested 125 amateur cyclists aged 55 to 79 against a group of adults who didn’t exercise on a regular basis. The findings showed that the cyclists maintained consistent levels of muscle mass and strength, and stable amounts of body fat and cholesterol, as they aged.

The results also indicated that, in addition to lessening the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, the cyclists’ thymuses (the organ that produces disease-combating T-cells, but which diminishes after our teen years) were found to be still functioning as well as those of people much younger.

Of course, any form of exercise is good for the aging body, so why cycling in particular?

The answer seems to be that cyclists push their cardiovascular systems harder and therefore prevent the physical deterioration caused by inactivity – which is on the increase due to the sedentary, office-based work lives so many of us now lead.

If the physical health benefits of cycling aren’t enough to get your wheels spinning, a broad range of studies have also explored the benefits on riders’ mental health, with evidence suggesting those who cycle to work regularly are actually happier than those opting for other modes of transport.

Including some thigh-burning pedaling to your weekly routine doesn’t necessarily require investment in your own bike, either. Bryce Hastings, Les Mills Head of Research, says “adding just two cycling workouts per week has been shown to increase VO2 [aerobic fitness] by around 10 percent, meaning not only are these workouts effective, but anyone can do them and feel like a pro right from the start.”

Cycling is a form of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), a proven way to improve fitness and lung, heart and circulatory health – all key to slowing the ageing process.

So, whether it’s a road bike and the wind in your hair on the way to work, or a hard-core cycling workout in a cycle studio at the gym, you can be sure you’re not just keeping fit, you’re pedaling back the years as well.

Is there an athletic up-side of a little caffeine?

Posted on by Susan Lechner

THE PROS & CONS OF COFFEE

CAN WE ALL CALM DOWN ABOUT COFFEE?
By Niki Bezzant for Fit Planet

 Recent news raised questions – again – about the health risks of coffee. How seriously should you take the warnings, and what about the athletic up-side of a little caffeine?

Coffee drinkers in California – and around the world when the news broke – could have been forgiven for spluttering over their morning cup. A court had ruled that coffee sellers must now display signs warning customers their drink of choice contains acrylamide, a potentially dangerous chemical created when coffee beans are roasted.

While acrylamide is a possible carcinogen, health experts say it’s far from clear whether or not consuming it in food increases cancer risks in humans. The American Cancer Society says we should be cautious, but notes “most of the studies done [on acrylamide] so far have not found an increased risk of cancer in humans”. More research is needed, they say.

Coffee is never far from a headline. It’s the fuel that runs many of us. It’s something we enjoy. It’s part of many cultures. But we’re never sure whether it’s good or bad for us.

Maybe because coffee and caffeine have been so widely studied, the question of whether they are good or bad seems to be, well, both.

First, the good.

Caffeine has been shown to reduce sleepiness and increase alertness, as anyone who’s ever used an espresso to power up after a sleepless night knows. Caffeine from coffee can also, it seems, improve athletic performance and endurance. In a review published in 2015 researchers found that between 3 and 7 milligrams of caffeine per kilo of body weight increased endurance performance by around 24 per cent – not insignificant. It’s thought that because caffeine stimulates and boosts alertness, it allows athletes to train harder, for longer.

Caffeine has been on the list of banned substances for athletes in the past, although not currently, despite being an acknowledged performance enhancer. It’s being “monitored” by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) but as yet hasn’t been re-listed.

“Most of the studies done on acrylamide so far have not found an increased risk of cancer in humans.”

– American Cancer Society

So for non-athletes, can coffee enhance a workout? It’s possible, based on the current research, that we may experience the same endurance-enhancing effects as athletes do. Caffeine’s benefits peak about an hour after ingestion, so having a coffee an hour or so before a workout would be the best way to see if it works for you. Going easy on the milk and sugar means you won’t cancel out your workout’s benefits with extra calories.

There’s much hype online about the potential of caffeine as a “fat burner”, and it’s included in supplements to supply this reputed benefit. It is possible caffeine helps muscles burn more fat, but the evidence is conflicting so far. There is some research associating caffeine with weight loss. But it’s not a magic solution.

Coffee may also have some other benefits in disease prevention: it’s linked with reduced risk for type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and liver cancer. Coffee, like tea, also contains antioxidants which are beneficial to health.

So what about coffee’s downside?

The main thing to note is that caffeine has a long half-life: about six hours, depending on the individual. That means that six hours after your espresso drink, half of its caffeine is still in your system, and could stay there for even longer. Not a problem at 2pm; potentially an issue at 10pm, because caffeine interferes with the duration and quality of your sleep. You might fall asleep, but have less of the deep, restorative sleep you need to wake up feeling rested.

Too much caffeine – which is classed by the FDA as both a drug and a food additive – can also have other side-effects, including nervousness, heartburn, constipation and diarrhoea. Longer-term effects include impaired judgement, emotional fatigue, mood swings, depression and anxiety.

If you’re worried you might be overdoing it, lay off the coffee in the late afternoon and evening, and if you’re finding sleep a problem, try cutting back.

There are few official guidelines on how much coffee is okay. It’s partly because we all tend to process caffeine at different rates; one person’s mellow buzz turns another into a jittery wreck. I’m a two-coffee-a-week person; I know someone who happily drinks five or six coffees a day. Pregnant women are advised to limit coffee to about one a day.

What’s more, the caffeine in a cup of coffee can vary widely – from 80mg to 150mg, depending on the variety and how it’s roasted and brewed. Espresso has more caffeine than instant coffee, and cold-brew coffee can pack an even heftier punch. Large coffee drinks, of course, have more caffeine. It can be tricky to know how much you’re getting in a specific cup.

So where does that leave us with our morning double-shot? As with everything, moderation is a good idea. And as always, it pays to look at the big picture. In a plant-based diet full of colorful, whole foods, a little coffee can be enjoyed without worry.

Niki Bezzant is a New Zealand-based food writer, editor and commentator. She is the founding editor (now editor-at-large) of Healthy Food Guide magazine, and is currently president of Food Writers New Zealand and a proud ambassador for the Garden to Table program which helps children learn how to grow, cook and share food. She is a member of the Council of Directors for the True Health Initiative, a global coalition of health professionals dedicated to sharing a science-based message of what we know for sure about lifestyle and health. 

 

IS THAT SPORTS DRINK REALLY NECESSARY FOR YOUR WORKOUT?

Posted on by Susan Lechner

IS THAT SPORTS DRINK REALLY NECESSARY FOR YOUR WORKOUT?

By Niki Bezzant for Fit Planet

Chances are you’re putting back more than you’re taking out in sweat and energy, so think twice about how you rehydrate.

When it comes to choosing something to quench our thirst the choices these days go far beyond the simple water or juice. Check the fridge at your local café and you’ll likely find iced tea, kombucha, coconut water, energy drinks, vitamin water… the list goes on.

Choosing what to drink during and after a workout can be tricky, too. Something we may often reach for is a sports drink. It’s for sport, we reason, it must be what we need – right?

Sports drinks are sophisticated products into which drinks companies pour a great deal of research, development and dollars. It’s a high-tech and lucrative business; one 2015 report found 60 percent of US adults drink sports drinks, whether they’re exercising or not.

Sports drinks are formulated for athletes engaged in long, high-intensity training and sports sessions, to allow them to quickly rehydrate and recover.

When athletes are exercising intensely for an hour or more and sweating a lot, rehydration is really important. Sports drinks have been shown to delay fatigue and improve exercise performance in these circumstances. The carbohydrate (in the form of sugar) in these drinks is a quick source of energy and helps the gut absorb water. Electrolytes such as sodium and potassium replace what’s lost in sweat, and sodium helps with rehydration too.

Pro athletes, then, need their hydration options. But what about the rest of us? Is a sports drink what we need after a big gym workout or a tough game of tennis?

The answer, according to the experts, is probably no – and the evidence seems to support this. One study looked at healthy men and compared the effects of water, coconut water and a sports drink after 60 minutes of dehydrating exercise on a treadmill. It found all drinks were equally as effective for rehydration.

A 2012 BMJ article concluded that despite many studies, the evidence for benefit from sports drinks is limited, and the drinks industry has used its marketing to influence advice about dehydration and re-hydration more than the evidence has.

For everyday exercisers, sports drinks may actually be doing more harm than good; giving us calories and sugar we don’t need.

This appears to be the case for kids and teens, with whom sports drinks are popular. A 2014 study found that young people who consumed one or more sports drinks each day gained more weight over a three year period than their peers.

Sports drinks are usually high in sugar and energy – necessary for those elite athletes, but not for an average person – or, for that matter, an average gym goer – who’s in danger of consuming more calories than their workout is burning off. Some sports drinks can contain ten or more teaspoons of added sugar – more than is recommended we consume in a day.

It’s easy to over-estimate how much energy we’re burning with exercise. If weight loss is a goal, we’re better off not undoing all the good work we’ve done by reaching for a sports drink.

Beverage companies are now recognizing this issue. They’re releasing “zero calorie” versions of popular sports drinks; these contain the electrolytes of their sugar-containing counterparts, but are made with artificial sweeteners instead of sugar.

But the jury is out on whether these have any advantage over water. Artificial or non-nutritive sweeteners, as they’re known, are well-studied additives which haven’t been shown to be dangerous to health. But there is emerging research that they may have an effect on gut bacteria, altering it in such a way that we’re more inclined to gain weight.

It seems despite all the options, water is still the most recommended post-workout drink. It’s easily accessible and (mostly) free, too.

Some sports nutritionists are also keen on milk as a post-training drink; milk contains both the carbohydrate and protein necessary for muscle repair and recovery after an intense workout. A Canadian dairy industry group recently launched a “Powered by Chocolate Milk” campaign to promote chocolate milk as a sports drink, using prominent athletes as “chocolate milk ambassadors”. Again, probably not necessary for most of us after a gym class. But worth considering after long, intense exercise.

Water is still the most recommended post-workout drink.

And the next frontier in sports drinks development? Nootropic drinks: drinks designed to boost brain health and mental performance. Originally developed for eSports gamers, these types of drinks are likely to cross over into traditional sports, where mental energy and focus can make a real difference to performance. So far the hype outweighs the evidence of benefit, and there’s not been enough research on them to know if there’s any harm. Watch this space.

HIIT: FIVE WAYS TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT

Posted on by Susan Lechner

HIIT: FIVE WAYS TO MAKE SURE YOU’RE DOING IT RIGHT
By Sarah Shortt for Fit Planet

When it comes to improving your fitness, HIIT is a great training modality for making fast gains in record time. To get the transformative results you need to be going all-out, but that doesn’t necessarily mean just pumping your arms and legs as fast as possible for as long as you can. Follow these five must-dos to ensure you’re getting the most out of your training.

  1. Make sure you warm up

HIIT is demanding, so it’s imperative that you structure a warm up into the workout to ensure your neuromuscular connections are firing and your body is prepared for the coming intensity. If you skip this essential segment, you increase your likelihood of injury and you may not be able to hit your max effort as quickly. Include dynamic, functional movements which are going to be similar to the movements in your workout.

  1. Go hard

Science shows that you need to be pushing your maximum heart rate to above 90 percent in every interval to achieve the results. Wearing a device that monitors your heart rate is ideal, but if you don’t own one you can use the rate of perceived exertion scale (RPE) as a guide – meaning how hard you feel you are working. On a scale of zero to 10, with zero being asleep and 10 feeling like your heart is going to explode, you should be aiming for 8 or 9. You should be breathless, your muscles should be burning, and even if someone offered you $1,000,000 to keep going for another five seconds, you couldn’t do it.

  1. Structure recoveries into the workout

Make sure you allow enough recovery between the intervals to enable you to produce a high level of force or intensity in the next one. If you cut your rest periods short, you can’t go as hard when it’s time to work again, and therefore you won’t achieve the desired results.

  1. Keep it short and simple

If the movements are too complex, you’re going to be sacrificing the intensity because you’re naturally going to be slowing down to achieve the movement. Choose a simple movement pattern that isn’t going to overload your brain, and can easily be repeated. A move such as a squat jump or high knee run is easy to master and uses lots of compound muscles to ramp up the intensity.

  1. Don’t HIIT it too often

The key thing to achieving results with HIIT is to remember that less is actually more. Be careful not to be training in the HIIT zone for more than 40 minutes a week – ideally spread over two sessions with two sleeps between sessions. Science shows if you’re doing HIIT every day you’re likely to actually reduce your results and increase your risk of injury. Remember, HIIT is just one component of your training regime, it shouldn’t make up the majority of your sessions.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BODYPUMP

Posted on by Susan Lechner

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT BODYPUMP
By Emma Hogan for Fit Planet

BODYPUMP is a barbell workout designed to get you lean, toned and fit. The combination of scientifically-backed moves, motivating instructors and great music helps you achieve much more than you would on your own.

WHY DOES BODYPUMP WORK? The effectiveness of BODYPUMP comes from The Rep Effect, a proven formula that exhausts muscles using light weights, while performing high repetitions – this is the secret to developing lean, athletic muscle.

HOW MANY CALORIES DO YOU BURN DOING BODYPUMP? While you can expect to burn around 560 calories* during a 55-minute BODYPUMP workout, it’s the building of lean muscle mass that provides the long-term benefits. By building lean muscle mass you increase your body’s ability to effectively burn calories in the long term as the extra muscle will raise your metabolism. Read more about this here.

HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU DO BODYPUMP? BODYPUMP challenges all of your major muscle groups so we recommend you do no more than two to three classes a week, and make sure you have a day off in between. Add two or three cardio classes into the mix and you’ll shape and tone your body in no time.

WHAT EXERCISES DO YOU DO DURING BODYPUMP? A 55-minute BODYPUMP workout features ten tracks, each focusing on a different muscle group. While instructors will often mix and match the tracks, you can always expect to do a good dose of squats, deadlifts, clean and presses, lunges and bicep curls. And, more often than not you’ll find push ups, chest presses, overhead presses and crunches are part of the mix too.

DOES BODYPUMP REALLY GET RESULTS? BODYPUMP really is the ultimate calorie burning resistance training workout. A ground-breaking new study shows that BODYPUMP generates a long-term calorie burning response that is far greater than a calorie-matched cardio class. BODYPUMP can therefore be described as a more potent exercise stimulus. This is backed up by research highlighting that the fast tempo resistance training of BODYPUMP expends more energy than lifting heavier loads at a slower rate. Studies also show that the high-repetition, low-load training of BODYPUMP can aid bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD I LIFT DURING BODYPUMP? There’s no pressure to lift heavy in a BODYPUMP class. In fact, the whole workout is structured around high repetitions using light weights. However, continual progression is the key to getting the most out of any strength training, so you need to lift more weight as you get stronger. If a BODYPUMP workout is not getting you hot and sweaty, and you’re not hanging out for the end of each track then it’s likely that your resistance is too light. We suggest you pick a couple of tracks where you think you can lift a heavier weight and add an extra weight plate to your bar. Remember, if at any time you feel that the weight you are lifting is compromising your technique stop for a few reps and reset – or simply drop your weight slightly.

HOW STRONG DO I NEED TO BE? In a BODYPUMP workout there are options to suit every ability. If you’re new to the workout start with very light weights (or even just the bar). Perhaps just do the first four or five tracks a couple of times a week. You’ll find your fitness and strength improves over a number of sessions.

WHAT DO I NEED FOR A BODYPUMP WORKOUT? BODYPUMP uses a weight bar and weight plates and a step. You’ll need to wear comfortable workout clothes and supportive shoes, and bring your own drink bottle and a sweat towel.

CAN I DO BODYPUMP WHILE PREGNANT? Plenty of people do BODYPUMP during pregnancy. If you’re pregnant and keen to do BODYPUMP we suggest seeking the advice of your doctor or midwife, as they have the best understanding of your personal medical history. If you can, chat to your instructor beforehand and let them know you’re pregnant – they will be able to coach you through the pregnancy modifications during the class.

CAN I SUGGEST A SONG FOR BODYPUMP? Yes absolutely! Please visit our Suggest a Song page. We look forward to seeing your suggestion!

HOW DO YOU BECOME A BODYPUMP INSTRUCTOR? The first step to becoming a BODYPUMP instructor is to connect with a club or your local Les Mills team. We’ll then provide you with plenty of training, you’ll get assessed and then you’ll be ready to lead your own classes. You can find out exactly what it takes to become a BODYPUMP instructor here.

WHERE CAN I DO BODYPUMP? You can find a BODYPUMP class at the Downtown YMCA.

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