Tag Archive for: exercise

How Exercise Affects Menopause: Muscle and Bone

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In Tuesday’s post, we looked at how menopause affects exercise. Today and Saturday we’ll look at the reverse because exercise can have powerful effects on the changes we associate with menopause.

As a woman ages, she loses bone mineral content due to decreasing hormone levels. Her muscles change as well; fast-twitch muscle fibers become more like slow-twitch fibers. Women can’t run as fast . . .

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How Menopause Affects Exercise: Thirst

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Dr. Peggy Whitson is an astronaut on her third extended mission on the International Space Station. If her current mission ends as planned, she will be the astronaut with more time in space than any other. She just completed her 7th spacewalk to install three new lithium-ion batteries. This is nothing like changing the batteries in the remote; each battery is about the size of half of a refrigerator and takes hours to install. And, oh, by the way, Dr. Watson is 56 years old.

By all accounts, she is fit, with an avid interest in weight training and . . .

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Rule 3: Move More

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While I absolutely believe that we need to eat less and eat better, the one thing that can help you faster than anything else is exercise. Changes in how your body responds to insulin happen within three days. Your heart rate and blood pressure start to decrease within a week. Even your digestive system will work better.

To help you out, there are two papers I wrote in the Health Info section of my website. Interval . . .

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Why You Should Keep Moving

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When I read the online articles published with the science-by-headline titles “Exercise Isn’t Enough,” it really got to me. If you’re in the category of following the recommended 30 to 45 minutes of moderate to vigorous exercise five days a week, based on these articles it really doesn’t do you any good if you sit too much the rest of the day. What evidence did they provide?

The articles cited the results of several studies that had subjects fill out questionnaires about their daily activity with follow-ups to find out who got sick and . . .

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Does Sitting Cancel Out Exercise?

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This past Friday, I ran 4.5 miles on a great running and biking trail in Grand Rapids; it was a great morning and with the canopy of trees, it was cooler than it would have been in the sun. The rest of the day, I recorded my radio show, read, wrote, and finished off the day watching some home improvement shows. I typically spend more than eight hours sitting while I do what I do.

Unfortunately, that run won’t reduce my risk of dying from cardiovascular disease—not based on the headlines for a scientific statement just released . . .

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Sports Nutrition After Your Workout

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The objective of post-workout sports nutrition is to recover as quickly as possible; that means providing nutrients that will replace fuel, help the repair process, and reduce inflammation. These are natural by-products of exercise, especially intense exercise. Nutrition can help the recovery process, and we’re learning more about it all the time.

The first priority is to replace muscle glycogen; that helps the muscle, but it also seems to help the immune system as well. Second is to provide protein for any repair that needs to take place, especially after a hard weight-training workout. Whether from . . .

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Sports Nutrition Before Your Workout

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With the Olympics around the corner, sports nutrition’s a timely topic. Many sports nutrition products are available, but I’ve wondered whether you understood why you might use some of these products. This week, I’ll cover three areas of sports nutrition.

Let’s begin with pre-workout products—what purpose do they serve? The first purpose is to increase fuel availability. When you exercise, you need sugar released from glycogen and fatty acids released from fat stores; that allows your body to be ready to use calories from those fuels at a higher rate when you begin your . . .

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Pedelec: The Bottom Line

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I want everyone to exercise. Period. It doesn’t matter how. You can work within your physical limitations, but everyone needs to exercise. That’s why the pedelec story and research study attracted my attention. Combining what you have to do anyway—get to work—with physical activity could be just the ticket. Let’s see if this is your ticket to ride.


The Benefits

Even in a study as short as four weeks, there were some health benefits, especially for blood sugar control. For someone at risk for type 2 diabetes, which is just about everyone, it . . .

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Results of the Pedelec Study

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Researchers wanted to find out if there were health benefits from the regular use of the pedelec, an electric-assist bicycle, by previously sedentary commuters. They recruited 20 volunteers to participate in a four-week study on the regular use of the pedelec to replace their drive to work. The researchers tested fitness levels, heart rate, blood pressure, and measures of blood sugar control before and then again after four weeks.

The subjects averaged close to 200 miles per week. If they used the pedelec three days per week, that’s an average commute of 32 miles each way. Using . . .

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Enter the Pedelec

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Of all the reasons people give for not exercising, the lack of time would be number one. But what if you could combine exercise with something you’re going to do anyway?

A long-time reader sent me a link to the Tree Hugger online blog article that talked about a press release that demonstrated the benefits of using pedelecs to commute to and from work (1,2).

What’s a pedelec? It’s an electric-assist bicycle. The rider has to pedal, but the electric motor kicks in when the terrain gets hilly and the rider needs an assist . . .

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