Exercise And Fitness

By Karen Voight, Special to The Times
May 5, 2008
Perform this yoga pose to help your body find a balance between effort and ease. It will strengthen your lower body and provide a deep stretch in your back muscles. Move into it slowly to allow time for you to find your center and feel a sense of strength and stability while holding the posture.

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Myth 1: I can reduce fat around the abs, thighs, etc. with specific exercises.

If you've ever done crunches to get six-pack abs or leg lifts to get thin thighs (and haven't we all?), you've fallen prey to the myth of spot reduction.

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One of the few downsides of lifting weights is that it's easy to get bored doing the same old exercises. How many squats can you do before your head explodes? According to my clients, not that many.

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By GINA KOLATA
Published: April 10, 2008

I have a confession to make. I get so competitive about heart rates when I am at the gym that my husband will not tell me his.

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The New York Times' Gina Kolata confesses that she suffers from maximum heart rate envy of her husband, even though her husband will not disclose his maximum heart rate. Geezer confesses that he has always been confused by notions of maximum heart rate and target heart rate (calculated by the Karvonen method or the Zoladz method?) and wonders if all of that math is worth the effort.

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In exercise tests of 30 thin or obese 12-year-old boys, French researchers found that obese boys burned the most fat when they worked out at a modest intensity -- akin to riding a bike on level ground.

Once the activity became more challenging, their bodies began to use substantially less fat compared with normal-weight boys.

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A daily dose of either ibuprofen and acetaminophen appears to boost both muscle mass and strength among elderly men and women who do weight training.

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Designing walkable communities is a cost-effective way to address the growing epidemic of obesity in the United States and cut down on harmful car emissions and pollution, a researcher told the American College of Sports Medicine's 12th annual Health and Fitness Summit in Long Beach, California.

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In an interview with Reuters Health, Melissa Miller, who spoke at the meeting, noted that 4 out of 10 older adults suffer from a chronic condition, like heart disease, high cholesterol, or arthritis.

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Two separate studies found a 12-week programme of exercise was enough to boost the immune system, and to cut blood sugar levels.

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Professor Naomi Fineberg, a consultant psychiatrist who runs a treatment service for people with obsessive compulsive disorder, said that men and women suffered equally from body dysmorphic disorder.

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Three things Geezer came away with:
1. Exercise can delay cognitive decline by as much as ten years.
2. Exercise is a good treatment for ADHD.
3. It's better to exercise with someone than to exercise alone.

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People who spend hours staring at a computer screen risk suffering tired dry eyes, blurred vision, eye strain, headache, and sensitivity to light -- collectively known as "computer vision syndrome."

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Although the reasons people do a triathlon differ, the benefits are universal. That's what this chapter is about -- it outlines the 20 benefits you can reap from training for and completing a triathlon. The bottom line is that this process is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in your life, not just physically, but mentally, spiritually and socially as well. Ask anyone who has done

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By GINA KOLATA

The truth is that after dozens of studies and years of debate, no one really knows whether stretching helps, harms, or does anything in particular for performance or injury rates.

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