Back to the gym time? 5 tips for getting motivated

When it’s back to school time for the kids, that means back to the gym time for some of us adults. However, after taking a break from our regular routine to relax on vacation, it might be hard to find the motivation needed to get back into a workout schedule. Here we round up five ways to get back into the swing of things and hopefully keep your fitness regime going all year long.

1. Find a friend

Finding a workout buddy is one way to keep going with your fitness schedule, as making plans to work out together will make it harder to cancel and make you both more accountable. Exercising with a friend or partner can also help you both stay motivated by congratulating each other on a workout well done and any goals reached. You could also make exercise more of a fun, social event by organizing to grab a post-workout brunch or smoothie together.

2. Update your workout wardrobe

The end of summer may mean back to work and back to real life, but it also means the start of the new season sportswear collections. Adidas, Monreal London and Bodyism are just some of the brands who have already unveiled their new fall collections, so if you’re struggling to get back to the gym, buying some new sportswear to show off might help. Alternatively, make a new purchase a well-deserved treat for hitting your exercise goals. It will help give you something to work towards.

3. Try a new class

Why not learn something new yourself and sign up for a new class? Not only will a new sport or workout give your fitness regime a shake up, but it could also teach you some new skills and help you make some new friends. If you’re always running, why not try a Body Pump class for some resistance training? Already love resistance training? Stretch it out with some yoga. If you always swim breast stroke, book in with an instructor to teach you front crawl. The possibilities are endless.

4. Set a new goal
If you’ve taken a break from the gym while on vacation, you might be feeling back to square one. Setting a new goal now that you’re back is one way to get yourself more motivated to start again, and to push yourself further. Try signing up for a run or sponsored swim, set yourself a new amount of steps to walk each week, or increase your workouts from three per week to four. It doesn’t have to be too far or too much to start with, just something that is a challenge but also fun for you. Once you’ve achieved this goal, you can push yourself even further with another.

5. Keep track of your progress

Even if you’re not working towards a goal, keeping a track of your workouts will show you how far you have progressed and help keep you going. Invest in a fitness tracker as part of your back to the gym kit, a bit like updating your stationery for school, and make sure you’re wearing it daily to track all your activity as well as other important factors such as sleep. Alternatively schedule workouts into your diary to keep a track of how many you make it to and what you achieved. JB

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

New to running? 5 answers to 5 questions to get you going

With the number of marathon participants around the world growing every year, running is clearly an increasingly popular physical fitness activity. But if you’ve never run before, you need to ease yourself into it. Dr. Philippe Sosner, a cardiologist, sports doctor, and scientific and medical director, has given us his running tips for beginners.

Can you start at any age?

Yes, it’s an endurance sport in which you will make progress, whatever your starting point.

Are there any medical reasons not to run?

Even if you have health problems, running is often possible, but you may need to adapt it to your condition. If you plan to be a regular runner, and to take it beyond a leisurely jog, it’s better to consult your doctor, especially if you’ve been inactive for a while. It’s also a good idea to assess your ability and work out a running plan with a trainer, who will, for example, give you advice on running speed (some will be at ease at 6 kilometers per hour, whereas others will start with a brisk walking pace).

How often is best and how can I avoid injury or giving up?

First of all, you need to set yourself a reasonable target. Your running plan must also take account of what you can do and what you would like to do.

You can start by walking, then picking up the pace and gradually introducing short bursts of running of low-to-moderate intensity. The ideal rate is three times a week, although this can be difficult to maintain because of other commitments. The benefits will increase gradually, especially if you become a regular runner. It’s important to have one rest day after each run.

As a beginner, you could start with a 30-minute session once a week, then increase the number of sessions to twice then three times a week. If you cannot increase the number of runs per week, then you could increase the length of each session, gradually getting up to one hour, and make the run more difficult by introducing interval training or running uphill.

You should always listen to your body. If you experience unusual discomfort, chest pain, palpitations, or breathlessness which does not calm down at rest, then stop and see a doctor.

Do I need to have practiced another sport and should running be supplemented with another sport?

No, if you’re already used to walking, you should be fine. But don’t set overly high goals at the start, especially if you run with someone who is fitter than you. You can also practice another complementary sport if you wish. The ideal would be to combine running with muscle-strengthening exercises for the legs and core. If you strengthen your muscles, you protect your joints.

Any advice about good running shoes?

Good running shoes should not be too heavy, and the sole should not be too thick, so that the foot can move naturally and feel the ground underneath. Opt for a classic-shaped non-fashion pair that is slightly bigger than your usual size, but not so much that your feet are slipping inside the shoes. So-called technical footwear is not always the most suitable for running. If you become an accustomed runner, but your feet feel uncomfortable or their shape changes, talk to a chiropodist. JB

source: sports.inquirer.net

Four great reasons to add high intensity intervals to your workout

From HIIT and CrossFit to spinning and functional training, here are four good reasons to jump onboard the latest trend for high-intensity interval-based workouts that combine short, intense bursts of activity with low-intensity active recovery.

Get great results, fast!

Military-inspired interval training sessions, combining short 30-second bursts of intense activity with short recovery periods, can change the shape of your body in record time by burning fat.

CrossFit combines elements of weight lifting (lifting, throwing, moving objects), classic gym exercises (push-ups, pull-ups, rings) and cardio training (running, rowing, cycling).

Some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) programs use body weight rather than equipment, boosting metabolism with a workout based on a series of standard exercises (squats, wall sits, lunges, planks, jumps, etc.) that work all muscle groups. This type of exercise can burn up to 800 calories in 30 minutes.

Circuit-based functional training programs are also popular at the moment. Some use equipment (resistance bands, gym balls, BOSU balls, kettlebells, TRX straps, etc.) while others don’t. Some are held outdoors, making use of benches, tree trunks, railings, etc.

Slow down aging

A study, published last March 7 about Cell Metabolism, found that using HIIT training techniques in aerobic, endurance-based activities like cycling and walking could slow down aging at cellular level. This involves adding short bursts of higher-intensity activity to a regular workout, like a 30-second sprint in the middle of a slower-paced jog, for example. This was found to boost the action of cell powerhouses called mitochondria, whose ability to generate energy declines with age.

Save time

These short but intense exercise sessions can fit easily into busy daily schedules. High Intensity Interval Training or functional training sessions usually last around 30 minutes. CrossFit sessions usually last up to an hour and high-intensity spin classes are 45 to 60 minutes in length. Classes can now be booked online at a growing number of gyms, making last-minute sessions more feasible.

Get tips and motivation from a coach

In this type of class, there’s usually at least one coach for around 12 participants. The trainer sets the program of exercises for each session with a “workout of the day.” They are also on hand to offer personalized tips and advice tailored to individual levels or goals. Exercising in a group can also prove more motivating than slogging it out alone with a screen or an MP3 for company. JB

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

New fitness trend ‘Rage Yoga’ lets students drink beer, swear and listen to rock music

Yogis, prepare yourselves for a different kind of ‘Zen’.

A female resident of Calgary in Canada has introduced a new variation to the globally popular exercise, which was dubbed as ‘Rage Yoga’.

Citing reports from the Huffington Post, the unlikely trend combines yoga poses with pints of beer, screamed profanity, and Metallica and Black Sabbath.

Canadian Lindsay-Marie Istace, who added a new twist to the traditional work-out, encourages her students to yell, swear and even burp during sessions, while a variety of heavy metal songs play in the background.

If the stretching is a bit too much, yogis may also take “hydration breaks” or grab a sip of beer or wine before continuing.

Laughter is also heavily encouraged for students finding themselves falling during a tricky pose.

“I think there are a lot of people intimidated by the usual yoga culture”, said Istace.

“Yoga studios are intimidating for people who are just getting into yoga, and for people who are very experienced in yoga they just want something that is a little less serious,” the former contortionist and fire-eater added.

Rage Yoga sessions are only available every Monday and Wednesday in Dickens Pub in Calgary Canada, but Istace is looking to bring ‘Rage Yoga’ to more subscribers online in the near future.

More information about the new exercise-craze is available in Intace’s personal website, rageyoga.com. Khristian Ibarrola, INQUIRER.NET

source: lifestyle.inquirer.net

Vigorous exercise helps people live longer – study

MIAMI, United States - Vigorous exercise, the kind that makes you sweat, get red in the face and breathe hard, may be better than moderate exercise when it comes to living longer, researchers said Monday.

The study by Australian researchers is based on more than 200,000 adults over age 45, and is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Internal Medicine.

The study participants were followed for more than six years.

Those who did jogging, aerobics or competitive tennis -- vigorous exercise for 30 percent of their weekly workouts -- had a mortality rate that was nine to 13 percent lower than those who did moderate exercise, like swimming, social tennis, or household chores.

"The benefits of vigorous activity applied to men and women of all ages, and were independent of the total amount of time spent being active," said lead author Klaus Gebel from James Cook University's Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention.

"The results indicate that whether or not you are obese, and whether or not you have heart disease or diabetes, if you can manage some vigorous activity it could offer significant benefits for longevity."

Currently, the World Health Organization urges adults to do at least 150 minutes of moderate activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.

But the current research suggests that given the choice, people should opt for some higher intensity exercise if they can, and if their doctor agrees, the study authors said.

"Our research indicates that even small amounts of vigorous activity could help reduce your risk of early death," Gebel said.

"For those with medical conditions, for older people in general, and for those who have never done any vigorous activity or exercise before, it's always important to talk to a doctor first." — Agence France-Presse

source: gmanetwork.com

Review finds best exercises to prevent women’s knee injuries

Some training methods are better than others at preventing knee ligament injuries in young women, researchers advise.

Based on 14 previous studies, the researchers say training programs that focus on strengthening the legs and hips and stabilizing the abdomen are the most effective for preventing injury to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), and doing more than one type of exercise is also important.

“We know neuromuscular training can reduce ACL injury in female athletes, but we were not sure what exercises are the best to attain the maximal prophylactic effects,” said Dai Sugimoto of The Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention and the Boston Children’s Hospital Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine department, in Massachusetts.

The ACL is the key stabilizing ligament in the knee, and is most often injured during sports that involve quick turns or pivoting movements.

ACL injuries are very serious and can take a long time to heal, the researchers write in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. College athletes with ACL injuries lose more time on the field than athletes with ankle or traumatic head injuries, according to the researchers.

Young women facing the greatest risk are those who play sports involving a lot of pivoting, such as soccer, basketball, lacrosse and handball, according to Sugimoto. He added that the most common age for women to be injured is around 14 to 17 years.

Grethe Mykelburst, who outlined the risks involved with ACL injury in an email, said, “it takes you out of your sport for 6-12 months, and some don’t succeed to return to their previous level.” She added that the risk of getting osteoarthritis, a degenerative condition, in the knee is high after injury.

Mykelburst, a sports physical therapist and associate professor at the Oslo Sport Trauma Research Center in Oslo, Norway, was not involved in the review.

Sugimoto’s team analyzed 14 studies of exercise intervention programs, looking specifically at four different exercise approaches including balance, jump training, abdomen stabilizing exercises and strengthening of the legs and hips.

Training programs that aimed to build strength in the back of the legs and in the hips significantly reduced the number of ACL injuries when compared with programs that did not. That was also true of programs that focused on strengthening and developing more control of the abdomen.

Programs that included more than one type of exercise were significantly more effective than those using only one type. “Neuromuscular training has to incorporate many exercise modes,” Sugimoto told Reuters Health. “Performing only one exercise mode seems ineffective.”

The researchers note that while balance and jumping exercises were somewhat helpful in reducing injury, they were not effective unless combined with other exercises.

The study lists a number of specific helpful exercises, including Russian hamstring curls, sit-ups, pushups and bench press. Sugimoto emphasized the hamstring curls in particular, as they work both to strengthen the legs and hips and require abdomen control.

“With inclusion of these exercises as well as a variety of exercise modes, athletes can attain the fullest benefit from neuromuscular training and prevent ACL injury,” Sugimoto said.

Every year 350,000 people seek ACL reconstruction surgery in the United States, the authors point out.

Sugimoto said that although surgery is the best available treatment, 24 to 30 percent of high school athletes who undergo the surgery tear their ACL again within the next several years.

“That’s why we need to prevent ACL injury in first place to avoid subsequent ACL injury and preserve a healthy knee joint,” Sugimoto said.

“The evidence is strong that neuromuscular training works,” Mykelburst agreed. “As an athlete or a coach, you can’t afford not using the prevention program and exercises that exist,” she added. — Reuters

Exercise should be part of treatment, disease prevention – experts

Appropriate exercise and suitable physical activities performed under the guidance of medical, health, and exercise professionals should be recognized and prescribed as a “medicine” and should be included by healthcare providers in the standard menu of options for the prevention, treatment, and management of certain diseases, health experts said at a forum last month.

Dr. Rodolfo Florentino, chair of the Exercise is Medicine (EIM) Philippines Task Force and vice president of the Philippine Association for the Study of Overweight and Obesity (PASOO), said their goal is to make exercise and physical activities a “standard part of the global prevention and treatment medical paradigm.”

“This is our gospel: physical activity is integral to the prevention and treatment of disease. Exercise should be a standard inclusion in all activities related to disease prevention and treatment,” Florentino said in an interview on the sidelines of the PASOO 2014 annual convention, with the theme “obesity: problems, prospects, and progress.”

Florentino said there are many exercise specialists in the Philippines, but they are “not linked properly” with the medical and health professionals. “These exercise specialists work independently.”

“What we want to do is to establish more ties and strengthen links between exercise specialists and medical and health professionals. We want operational links forged so medical doctors and other health professionals can easily refer patients to exercise specialists,” he added.

Florentino said they are working on training more exercise specialists and medical and health professionals jointly and together to facilitate referrals of patients and to establish working relationships and to build trust and confidence.

Behavior change 


Meanwhile, Dr. Mark Stoutenberg, an EIM program officer in the American College of Sports Medicine and an assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences - University of Miami, said EIM advocates want the exercise specialists to learn more about changing the health behaviors of patients.

“What we want to teach the exercise specialists is not about fitness stuff. They know these things. What we want to teach them is health behavior change. Like what patients must do or should do when the exercise specialists are not around them,” Stoutenberg told reporters.

“We want the exercise specialists to be able to teach their patients skills such as goal-setting, overcoming barriers, doing things on their own,” he added.

Stoutenberg said exercise specialists must also recognize the importance of updating with regular progress reports the medical and health professional who referred patients to them.

“The medical and health professionals must be informed regularly of the activities being done by their referred patients and their status. Are they correct and proper activities? Are they safe activities? These are the skills needed to be learned by exercise specialists who are working with high-risk populations,” he added.

Working together

On the part of the medical and health professionals, Stoutenberg said EIM wants to teach them on how to work with exercise specialists.

Stoutenberg said tension arises when professionals who do not know each other must refer patients to each other. “There is the element of how a medical doctor can entrust a patient to an exercise specialist.”

A medical doctor may have reservations referring a patient to an exercise specialist, he added. “We need to get everybody on board on EIM programs.”

EIM is a global initiative to establish physical activity as a standard in health care and aims to push doctors to prescribe exercise as “medicine” based on evidence-based strategies. It was launched in November 2007 by the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Medical Association. It is now present in 40 countries.

Among the goals of the EIM is "transformational change": to institutionalize physical activity assessment and prescription into global health care systems.

EIM Philippines, launched on Sept. 7, 2013 and led by PASOO, is a coalition of health organizations, government agencies and institutions, non-government organizations, and private companies.

In the Philippines, statistics from the 2013 Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI) survey show that an alarming 31.1 percent of adults are either overweight or obese, compared to the 16.6 percent in 1993.

The World Health Organization (WHO) Global Non-Communicable Disease Action Plan 2013- 2020, released in July 2014, said the Philippines has an estimated 571,000 deaths caused by non-communicable diseases. The figure is about 67 percent of the total deaths in 2013, or a 6 percent increase from the data in the 2010 NCD Country Profile.

150 minutes a week

Florentino cited studies showing that 150 minutes per week of moderate physical activity can have “a huge impact on one’s quality of life.”

“At the correct intensity and duration, exercise not only improves the quality of life but also decreases the incidence of diseases, chronic health conditions, and obesity,” he added.

The WHO recommends that adults aged 18–64 should engage in physical activities—“leisure time physical activities”  such as walking, dancing, gardening, hiking, and swimming; “transportation” such as walking or cycling; and “occupational” or work-related such as household chores, play, games, sports, or planned exercise in the context of daily, family, and community activities.

In order to improve cardio-respiratory and muscular fitness, bone health, and reduce the risk of NCDs and depression, the WHO said adults aged 18–64 should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity.

Aerobic activity should be performed in bouts of at least 10 minutes duration, the organization added.

For additional health benefits, adults should increase their moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity to 300 minutes per week, or engage in 150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity, the WHO recommended. — BM, GMA News

source: gmanetwork.com

Exercise video games may add to kids’ activity: study

NEW YORK - Giving children active video games to play while they follow a weight management program boosts their moderate and vigorous activity levels, according to a new study.

Kids who played the active video games also lost more weight than children who only followed the weight management program.

Traditionally, studies have examined what harms may come from children spending long hours sitting and playing video games.

"We thought - if you received active games - maybe we can turn this lemon into lemonade," Dr. Deneen Vojta told Reuters Health.

She is the study's senior author from the UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization at the UnitedHealth Group in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

"Wouldn't it be great if instead of beating on kids about screen time we turned screen time into a positive?" she said.

For the new study, the researchers built upon an existing weight loss program for children and their parents that had been found to work.

They recruited 75 overweight and obese Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Texas children who were randomized to one of two groups for a 16-week study period.

Both groups took part in the weight management program at local YMCAs and schools, but one group also received an Xbox game console and two active games.

The Xbox Kinect device captures the child's body movements to operate the game. The games given to the kids in the active gaming group were Kinect Adventures! and Kinect Sports. (Children in the weight-loss program-only group received the same equipment and games at the end of the study).

All the children's activity were recorded using an accelerometer, which measures movement, during the day.

At the start of the study, the children were between the ages of 8 and 12 years old and weighed between 123 and 132 pounds (lbs). About 67 percent of the kids had a body mass index (BMI), a measure of weight relative to height, that put them in the overweight category for their age groups. The rest of the children were in the obese category.

The researchers found that children in the group that received the active games added about seven minutes of moderate to vigorous activity and about three minutes of vigorous activity to their daily routines over the 16 weeks.

Meanwhile children in the group that only took part in the weight loss program didn't experience a significant change in their activity levels or duration.

Although the difference between groups appears to be small, the researchers write in JAMA Pediatrics, the added activity among the game-users group is equivalent to about 4 lbs of fat lost over a year.

They also found a greater percentage of children in the active-gaming group were no longer in the overweight category by the end of the study. The percentage overweight had dropped a little over 9 percent in the active gaming group versus just under 4 percent in the comparison group.

"Sure enough, the outcomes were very, very good," Vojta said.

The authors note in the paper, however, that they cannot be sure the children sustained their weight loss and increased activity beyond the 16 weeks.

The findings are in keeping with results from a 2012 study that found about one-quarter of 1,200 Canadian high school students played active games. That translated to about an hour of exercise two days a week.

Still, other studies have suggested that active games don't help kids meet the daily recommended dose of physical activity. (see Reuters Health story of February 27, 2012 here: reut.rs/1fAOAMj)

Vojta said they are currently working on incorporating the weight management program into a home-based program, for instance, one that would be administered through the game console.

"In many ways, these home-based active gaming solutions solve two problems," she said.

The games give children and adults the ability to build up a tolerance to exercise in their own homes, she said, and they give people who live in rough or high-crime areas an opportunity to exercise safely. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Evening workouts don’t disturb sleep

NEW YORK - Couch potatoes looking for a reason to forgo working out in the evening may no longer be able to use difficulty sleeping afterward as an excuse, according to a recent study.

Researchers found that people who exercised in the evening reported sleeping just as well as those who weren't active in the hours before bed. People who worked out in the morning reported getting the best sleep, on average.

"Sleep recommendations suggest avoiding exercise prior to bed," said Matthew Buman, lead author of the study from Arizona State University in Phoenix. "We found evidence to the contrary suggesting that individuals need not avoid exercise at night."

He and his colleagues analyzed responses collected from 1,000 adults participating in the 2013 National Sleep Foundation Sleep in America Poll. The telephone- and web-based questionnaire asked participants how well they felt they slept, how long they slept each night, how much time it took them to fall asleep, and whether they felt refreshed after waking up in the morning.

The poll also asked participants about their exercise habits, such as whether they worked out regularly and, if so, whether they were active in the morning, afternoon or evening. Evening was considered to be within four hours of going to sleep.

Based on the types of physical activity participants performed regularly, like tai chi, running or yard work, workouts were categorized by intensity as light, moderate or vigorous.

People who exercised vigorously in the morning were 88 percent more likely to report good sleep quality than non-exercisers and 44 percent less likely to say they woke up feeling unrefreshed.

Moderate-intensity morning exercisers were 53 percent more likely to say they slept well overall, compared to people who didn't exercise.

There was no difference in any of the sleep measures between moderate or vigorous evening exercisers and non-exercisers, according to findings published in the journal Sleep Medicine.

Experts said the study's poll-based methods may not necessarily be the most accurate gauge of sleep quality, however.

"As strange as it may seem, self-reported sleep—whether good or bad—is not a very reliable indicator of what's actually happening by objective measures with a person's sleep," Dr. Matt Bianchi said. He directs the sleep laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was not involved in the new study.

"For example, only half of people with sleep apnea will feel sleepy or non-refreshed about their sleep—and sleep apnea is a fairly dramatic kind of sleep problem. I take with a grain of salt any ‘survey'-based studies such as this one," Bianchi said.

Although the National Sleep Foundation's sleep hygiene recommendations don't preclude pre-bedtime workouts, they do advise sticking to relaxing exercises, such as yoga, in the evening hours.

Researchers said the online or printed resources to which some doctors direct patients advise against evening workouts.

"Generally, physicians do have patients get a sleep hygiene resource, and often not exercising close to bedtime will be on there," said Dr. James Mojica, director of the Spaulding Sleep Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Mojica, who is also a sleep specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, was not involved in the study.

Representatives from the National Sleep Foundation were not available for comment.

It's important to remember that sleep is different for each person; what helps one person's slumber may lead to insomnia in someone else, researchers said.

"Sleep hygiene recommendations are just that—things that might work in general. They are not written in stone," Bianchi told Reuters Health. He recommends people who are having trouble sleeping be "thoughtful and introspective about finding patterns in their own lives."

"Each patient may find by trial and error the best combination of things to do or to avoid," he said. —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Apps, other fitness gifts help exercisers heat it up and cool it down

NEW YORK - From sophisticated activity trackers and chest-mounted cameras to massage rollers and yoga toes, fitness experts say gifts for people trying to get in shape or stay that way include everything from high-tech toys to basic workout gear.

Marathoners, yoga instructors and other health and fitness pros say there is something for everyone hoping to rev up a workout, or trying to cool it down.

Apps: To boost or fine-tune cardio training, Dr. Mark Kelly, a California-based exercise physiologist, recommends interval training apps, such as Android's Stopwatch or Seconds Pro, which track recovery as well as exertion.

"You can list the exercise you are doing," said Kelly, CEO of Principle Centered Health, Inc., which specializes in fitness assessment and corporate wellness. "HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) formats often come pre-loaded."

Magazine subscriptions: For the tech-averse, Kelly said, a subscription to a health or fitness magazine will provide both a monthly exercise reminder and exposure to the latest workout trends.

Gadgets: "My big recommendation is one of the many popular motion sensors," said Shirley Archer, a Florida-based fitness and wellness expert.

Archer, author of the book "Fitness 9 to 5," has used several fitness bracelets that can track everything from steps walked to miles run or hours slept.

"They do a great job of raising awareness of how physically active a person genuinely is," she said.

Connecticut-based running coach Tom Holland believes a wearable camera, which sells for about $400, would be the ideal gift for serious runners seeking to record their races.

He said the GoPro Black Edition Camera, mounted on a chest harness strap, can record a run up the Empire State Building or through the Grand Canyon.

For the serious cyclist, Holland suggests a Tacx virtual reality cycle trainer, which ranges in price from $350 to $2,000.

"It's a bike trainer that allows you to ride any course in the world. Incredible technology," he said.

Florida-based fitness expert Suzanne Bowen said a good gift for yoga enthusiasts would be gel toe separators, which are designed to strengthen foot muscles, realign toe bones and improve tendon flexibility.

"They stretch your feet," said Bowen, creator of the "BarreAmped" DVDs. "Feet are the foundation of our structure, and we spend too many hours crammed into our shoes."

Basic fitness gifts: Gregory Chertok, a sports psychology consultant for the American College of Sports Medicine, favors basic fitness gifts.

"Simply, I love the hand grip," Chertok said. "It's not a high-tech device, but a strong grip will enhance performance on lots of strength and resistance training programs."

Most upper body exercises, he added, begin with gripping a weight or a barbell.

Dr. Michele Olson, professor of exercise physiology at Auburn University in Montgomery, Alabama, said a good pedometer is an ideal gift for anyone trying to get fit.

"Pedometers work," she said. "They give sort of neutral feedback and are simple and not overwhelming with technology."

Exercise wear: As a runner used to braving cold New England winters, Boston-based running coach Kelly Flynn said all-weather runners always appreciate light, warm layers of running wear and a good pair of socks.

Flynn, a coach for "Team In Training," the charity sports endurance program from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, also suggests giving The Stick, a massaging roller said to improve muscle circulation, flexibility, strength and endurance. — Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com

Exercise helps women tolerate breast cancer drugs

SAN ANTONIO — Exercise might help women beat breast cancer. Researchers found it can ease the achy joints and muscle pain that lead many patients to quit taking medicines that treat the disease and lower the risk of a recurrence.

The study is the first major test of an exercise program for women on aromatase inhibitors. These estrogen-blocking pills, sold as Femara, Aromasin and other brands, are recommended for five years after initial breast cancer treatment for hormone-driven tumors, the most common type.

The pills also increasingly are being used to help prevent breast cancer in women at high risk of it because of family history, bad genes or other reasons. A separate study found that one of these medicines — anastrozole, sold as Arimidex and in generic form — cut this risk by 53 percent. It's the second aromatase inhibitor shown to lower risk that much.

Despite how effective the drugs are, many women shun them because they can cause aches and pains, hot flashes and other side effects. About 15 percent of US women have enough risk to merit considering the pills to prevent breast cancer, yet less than 5 percent take them, said Dr. Powel Brown, a prevention expert at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The exercise study involved 121 postmenopausal women taking various aromatase inhibitors to treat breast cancer who complained of achy joints on a pain survey.

About half were assigned to two supervised strength training sessions a week plus at least 150 minutes of aerobic exercise per week. The rest got advice on the benefits of exercise and did their usual activities.

After a year, joint pain scores fell 20 percent among exercisers and 3 percent among the others. The severity of pain and how much it interfered with daily live also declined more in exercisers.

The exercise group improved cardiorespiratory fitness and lost weight — nearly 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) versus a slight gain in the others. Eighty percent stuck with the program, helped by free access to a gym and a personal trainer.

The National Cancer Institute paid for the study, which was led by Melinda Irwin of the Yale Cancer Center and Dr. Jennifer Ligibel of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Dr. Eric Winer, breast cancer chief at Dana-Farber, said the results may help more women stick with the drugs.

"A lot of people will say, 'if it's going to have a lot of side effects, I'm not going to do it.' The truth is, not everyone gets symptoms. Exercise might be a solution," he said.

The other study was led by Dr. Jack Cuzick of Queen Mary University of London and tested anastrozole for preventing first breast cancers. Nearly 4,000 women were given the drug or daily dummy pills, and 70 percent stuck with them for five years, just a little less than the placebo group.

After that time, 40 women on anastrozole had developed breast cancer versus 85 of the others, a 53 percent reduction in risk. That's comparable to how another aromatase inhibitor — exemestane, or Aromasin — did in an earlier study and better than tamoxifen, the longest-used breast cancer prevention medicine.

Women on anastrozole had more joint pain and hot flashes, but these also were very common in the placebo group — more than half of both groups reported these problems, which often are due to menopause and aging, Cuzick said.

Anastrozole users had more cases of a painful wrist condition called carpal tunnel syndrome, and dry eye, but these were relatively rare. Aromatase inhibitors are known to raise the risk of fractures, so many women take bone-strengthening drugs to help prevent that problem.

Besides the British cancer research agency, London-based AstraZeneca PLC, which makes the anastrozole used in the study, Arimidex, helped pay for the work, and some researchers are paid speakers for the company.

Results were discussed Thursday at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium and published by the British journal Lancet. In a commentary in the journal, Dr. David A. Cameron of Edinburgh Cancer Center in Scotland wrote that healthy women still may resist prevention drugs unless taking them turns out to save lives, not just avoid disease.

The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center. —Associated Press

source: gmanetwork.com

Elderly exercisers have fewer broken bones after falls

NEW YORK - Older adults who exercise are less likely to fall, but if they do, they're also less likely to get hurt, a new analysis suggests.

Researchers found that older adults taking part in fall prevention exercise programs were about 37 percent less likely to be injured during a tumble, compared to non-exercising participants.

"Falls are recognized as a serious and common medical problem experienced by older adults, but it's also widely known that falls are preventable, and that exercise is an efficient way to prevent them," Fabienne El-Khoury, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health in an email.

"However there was no clear evidence that exercise (programs) can also reduce severe or more moderate injuries caused by falls, even though injuries due to falls have serious medical, psychological and economic consequences," El-Khoury added.

She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Paris-Sud and at INSERM, the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Between 30 to 40 percent of people age 65 or older fall at least once each year, according to the government-backed US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). About five to 10 percent of those people will have a serious injury such as a hip fracture.

For older adults who live independently and are at a high risk for falls, the USPSTF recommends exercise or physical therapy and/or vitamin D supplements.

Older people who are at a high risk for falls include those with a history of falls, mobility problems and those who have trouble getting up from a chair and walking.

While several studies have found that exercise programs reduce tumbles, the researchers wondered whether those programs also prevented injuries if older adults did fall.

For the analysis, published in BMJ, El-Khoury and her colleagues used data from 17 previous studies comparing 2,195 people assigned to take part in exercise programs and 2,110 people who were not.

The average age of the people included in the analysis was about 77 years old and more than three quarters of the participants were women.

Overall, the researchers found that people in the exercise group were about 37 percent less likely to be injured during a fall, compared to the non-exercisers. Those injuries could be anything from bruises to broken bones.

The exercisers were 61 percent less likely to have broken bones after falls, and 43 percent less likely to experience a fall leading to any injury serious enough to warrant admission to a hospital.

El-Khoury said it's hard to know how many injuries those reduced risks represent, because all of the studies reported injuries differently. Also, results varied between studies.

For example, there were 81 injuries per 100 people over a year in the exercise group of one study included in the analysis. There were 134 injuries per 100 people over a year for the non-exercise group.

In other studies, researchers have found no such difference between groups based on exercise.

When there is a difference, Yvonne Michael, who has studied falls among older people but wasn't involved in the new analysis, said the reason could be that the bodies of people who exercise are better at absorbing a fall.

The authors suggest the minds of people who exercise may also be sharper than those of non-exercisers and they can respond better to falling, for instance by grabbing onto something.

Michael said the findings are consistent with previous studies, but there is still uncertainty about which exercise programs work best.

In the new analysis the programs emphasized exercises to improve balance, but most had several components. Three of the included studies used Tai Chi.

It's also uncertain whether routine activities, such as gardening, walking and mowing the lawn, are just as good as more structured exercise programs.

"It's harder to test the routine activity because it doesn't fit well into a randomized controlled trial setting," said Michael, an associate professor at the Drexel University School of Public Health in Philadelphia.

She added, however, that people living in urban or suburban areas should be able to find structured exercise programs through their local senior center. Also, some medical plans include exercise programs for older adults.

Those are typically low cost and may even be included in some insurance plans, she said.
"I think the evidence continues to grow in terms of the benefit of physical activity," Michael said. "It seems like there's really no downside to staying active." —Reuters

source: gmanetwork.com