It’s all good news this week. Today, three good news stories about the benefits of three different types of exercise. Yoga improves your brain function. Stretching before exercise interferes with your athletic performance, but don’t count out the brain benefits of doing yoga. Older woman that practice yoga have increased cortical thickness in areas of their brain responsible for …
Good news
One of the questions I am most commonly asked is, “Do you ever run out of ideas for the facts?” No. There is always something new about fitness, health and nutrition. Sometimes they aren’t that interesting and normally in the summer the research slows down and I have to search a bit longer for something that may seem relevant. Not …
Stretching it
Feeling tight and inflexible? You might think you should stretch more? If you like to stretch, go ahead, if you don’t, it won’t make much of a difference, unless you want to perform better. Then don’t stretch. There is a corresponding 5 – 7.5% decrease in performance after you hold a stretch. 5% is the difference between Usain Bolt winning a race …
Muscles ask for energy
Muscles need energy to produce power. They use energy all day long and when we sleep our muscles recover and use less energy. Sounds simple, but new research has shown that muscles can request more energy from fat cells. We know a lot about our anatomy and physiology, but this is new. Jason Karpac, PhD, assistant professor at the College …
Performance Enhancing Drugs
If your job was to win races would you be willing to break the rules? Would you take performance enhancing drugs? Would you use ergogenic or performance enhancing aids? July means the Tour de France and many people associate cycling with performance enhancing drugs, while this may be true it is not limited to professional cycling. It appears that more …
You can make a difference
There is a lot of news about how good exercise is for us, but for many people that doesn’t make much difference. There is often a gap between knowing and doing. There is no magic age to start being active, it should be a normal part of your day. There also isn’t age when you get to “retire” from exercise. If …
High fat infection
Your guts don’t like high-fat foods. New research has shown that when you eat high-fat foods your intestines react as if they were fighting a virus. They increase production of immune cells and increase inflammation in your body. We know that being overweight can cause inflammation in the liver and fat cells which also leads to type 2 diabetes and …
For the love of bread
For the record, I have a bread problem. Maybe not so much a problem, but a serious love of good, delicious, crusty, whole grain bread. Nothing like it. My mum wouldn’t have the store bought kind in our house. It was only delicious, homemade, and lots of it. She made 5 loaves a week. For 4 people. I could have …
One time only
I was on my way to the gym at the Nordic Centre on Saturday. It is always busy there on the weekends, World Cup races, club events, mountain biking, running, always something and a lot of serious athletes. This weekend there was a trail run and I was meeting someone to pick up a package and then going to the gym. It …
Age isn’t an excuse
How many times have you heard “gaining weight is part of aging” Sorry, no. No, it is not. You might be gaining weight as you age, but it is not a result of aging. Here are a few common reasons for gaining weight. Not moving as much. Losing muscle mass because you aren’t exercising. Being sedentary for hours at a …
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