Latest Fitness Industry News
The latest fitness industry news at your fingertips.
- Kiwi kids destined for shorter lives than parents [news]
- Kiwi children need to start learning healthier lifestyles if they are not to be the first generation in a century to have a worse life expectancy than their parents. A British public health expert is warning that modern lifestyles could prompt a reversal of medical improvements that have steadily increased life expectancy during the past 100 years. " . . . there's evidence now that things are stalling," The Times in London reported Professor John Ashton saying. "The golden generation, now in their 90s, have really benefited from traditional lifestyles - walking to school and work . . . not having junk food - but that has been coupled with the benefits of modern medicine. "What we've now got is generations coming through where there has been a deterioration of lifestyles."
- The Advantage of Having Functional Medicine On Your Side [news]
- Personal training in essence is, individualising fitness, nutrition and training methodologies to suit your client or athletes ability to maximise a pre-determined goal or outcome. The key here is to maximise their ability. Often the mentality of “eating less and exercising more” is not enough to maximise their results or even obtain a result in some people. Functional medicine teaches you the skills to identify which area in your clien'ts life has to be addressed, enabling you to truly maximise their results. I have countless case studies where issues such as gluten sensitivity, GI dysfunction, sleep disorders, vitamin and mineral insufficiencies, food intolerances and acidosis have been overlooked by personal trainers only to have these issues completely stop the client from obtaining any results.
- Superfoods promise too good to be true [news]
- Superfood is a buzzword now - part of mainstream food and health language, often touted as miracle food that cures all ills, staves off ageing and disease, or aids weight loss. In practice, superfoods are more readily evoked when it comes to exotic and ancient fruits. Goji berry and acai berry, for example, or pomegranate and mangosteen are all famously regarded as being super. Liver is actually more dense in nutrients than any of these foods, but have you ever heard it called a superfood?
- The science of sport: Exploring ways to be better, faster and stronger [news]
- Expectations are growing for our top athletes and cutting-edge sports technology is helping them achieve their goals. The Government sees development in high performance sport as vitally important to maintaining our place on the world stage, having boosted its investment. Funding for official body High Performance Sport New Zealand (HPSNZ) sits at $60 million a year. And with it, expectations have also grown.
- Vitamin E May Boost Return to Healthy Hearts in Former Smokers [news]
- Smoking can harm the heart, and while quitting is the most powerful way to avoid heart disease, taking vitamin E after putting out the cigarettes may speed the process along. Studies show that it can take a decade or more after smokers stop lighting up for their hearts to resemble those of non smokers. That’s how long it takes for some of the damage due to inflammation to subside, and to return blood vessels back to their elastic, flexible selves so they’re no longer contributing to an increased risk of heart problems. So in an effort to find ways to accelerate the process, researchers from Ohio State University focused on vitamin E, since it works as an antioxidant to combat damage — to tissues like blood vessels — caused by free radicals.
- 6 Strength Exercises Every Runner Should Be Doing [news]
- Run Faster, Farther, Longer If running's your thing, it can't be your only thing if you want to be fit. Your miles can burn off a burrito or two and clear your mind after a stressful day, but skipping strength and upper-body training can keep you from the sexy shoulders, strong arms, and overall healthy image you're after—and it can keep you from running your fastest. Keep yourself moving forward—and toward your race and physique goals—with these six strength exercises that will make you a faster, longer runner and a fitter you.
- The Truth About Juice Cleanses [news]
- The concept of consuming 20 pounds of body-cleansing fruits and veggies in a day can seem a both uplifting and daunting. On one hand, with that kind of fuel, who wouldn’t feel like a bionic superhero, teeming with the energy to leap buildings (or at least roles — from parent to office champ to lover) in a single bound? But chewing through 20 pounds of veggies? Who’s got the time? That's where juice comes in. Cold-pressed juice companies such as BluePrint Cleanse, Pressed Juicery, Ritual Cleanse, and Red Carpet Cleanse are having a major moment, appealing to health-concious consumers and celebrities seeking good taste and convenience. They absorb the work of shopping for, cleaning and preparing organic veggies and fruits by blending concoctions crammed with good-for-you foods like spinach, kale, romaine, celery and lemon, to consume on the go.
- HIIT - the latest fitness fad [news]
- During my two decades in the fitness industry, I've witnessed a never-ending range of fitness fads, programs, systems, methods and philosophies. In the context of what we know today about exercise, some of the crazy stuff we used to do seems, well, crazy. But now and again the fitness industry does get it right. My latest girl crush is on high-intensity interval training (HIIT to us fitanistas). Nothing gets my catecholamines more excited than the prospect of 60 minutes of tearing the gym door off its hinges. I know. It's perverse.
- Six everyday foods to increase immunity [news]
- As we head into winter, it's a good time to boost immunity to avoid nasty colds and the flu. Nutritionist Claire Turnbull gives us the low-down on six immune-boosting foods. Including; 1. Lemons and other citrus fruit 2. Eggs 3. Lean red meat 4. Oats and other whole grains 5. Seafood 6. Nuts
- Do You Burn More Calories In The Cold? [news]
- If holiday weight gain is at the top of your "naughty" list this season, you may be looking for extra ways to rev up your metabolism and keep your egg-nog-and-turkey-loving self in check. And if this healthy holiday regiment includes chilly outdoor runs (either at home or while visiting friends or relatives), you may be wondering about an age-old rumor: that exercising in the cold burns more calories. But is it true? That seems to depend on your definition of "true." Because it's true that being cold (to the point of shivering) can burn extra calories -- but how many is enough to make this myth a reality worth noting?
- Stand up to keep fit and healthy at work [news]
- The war against office desks is raging, with new research showing we increase our risks of heart disease with every hour we spend glued to our chairs. And exercise at the start or end of the day doesn't cut it - it's the movement we get during our work day that counts. University of Sydney public health professor Adrian Bauman presented the latest facts at a seminar in Auckland last week. Sitting for long periods is now considered on a list that includes smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, overall inactivity and obesity as factors contributing to early death.
- Exercise Increases Productivity [news]
- Everyone knows that exercise can improve your health. Exercise is a key part of managing your weight and maintaining healthy hearts, lungs, and other bodily systems. But did you know that exercise can make you more productive? The latest research shows that a regular exercise routine can make you happier, smarter, and more energetic. A habit of regular exercise will help keep you mentally sharper throughout your entire life. As you age, your body generates fewer and fewer brain cells (a process called neurogenesis). However, early research in mice suggests that exercise can help prevent this slowdown. In other words, by the time they reach their 50s, 60s, and 70s, people who exercise might have more brain cells than their more sedentary peers -- giving them a major advantage in the workplace.
- Does stretching prevent injury? [news]
- While it seems common sense to warm up muscles, and it often feels good, too, is there any evidence that stretching reduces muscle soreness or prevents injury? The practice of stretching gained popularity in the 1960s when scientists believed muscle soreness resulted from muscle spasms. Lengthening a muscle was thought to restore blood flow and reduce the spasm. While this theory of muscle soreness has been disproved, the practice of stretching continues. Physiologists now believe muscle soreness is the result of minor damage to the smallest contracting units of the muscle, called sarcomeres, during intense exercise. Tiny tears can form in these cells when a muscle, or group of muscles, are unaccustomed to a hard workout. The micro-damage is accentuated when performing exercises that require muscles to contract at the same time as they are forced to lengthen and stretch, such as running down hill.
- Yoga: the power of the pose
- Who would have thought that a 5000-year-old style of movement would become more popular in this country than Australian football? According to the Bureau of Statistics, more people take part in weekly yoga classes than they do in our national sport. And for good reason. ''All forms of yoga, meditation or tai chi, any gentle movement, helps to reduce pain or your perception of pain,'' says Dr Sam McCarthy, an osteopath at Sydney's Better Health Clinics (betterhealthclinics.com.au). ''We once thought that yoga made muscles longer alone, but we've now discovered that the poses make them wider, and the act of stretching actually feeds back information to your central nervous system. This in turn stimulates your muscles to become stronger around a point of weakness.''
- Does a detox cleanse your body? [news]
- People have been detoxing their bodies for centuries. The historical treatment of blood-letting was based on the theory it could rid the body of "over-abundances" that cause disease. These days, most detoxing involves a severely restrictive diet, often with the assistance of any number of "detox in a box" kits that line the shelves of chemists, supermarkets and beauty stores. These products make promises like - "helps the body cleanse itself of toxins and pollutants caused by the excesses of a busy life" and "cleanse your system and whisk away the polluting nasties".
- High Heart Rate at Rest Signals Higher Risk of Death Even in Fit Healthy People [news]
- A resting heart rate is determined by an individual's level of physical fitness, circulating hormones, and the autonomic nervous system. A rate at rest of between 60 and 100 beats per minute is considered normal. People who are very physically active tend to have a low heart rate at rest, but the authors wanted to find out if heart rate had any bearing on an individual's risk of death, irrespective of their level of cardiorespiratory fitness.
- Lifting Weights Can Control Blood Sugar [news]
- The latest study finds an intriguing connection between weight-bearing exercises and a lower risk of diabetes. While lifting weights is more often associated with strengthening muscle and keeping bones healthy, those exercises primarily benefit what’s known as red muscle, which gets its color from mitochondria, the energy factories of cells. Red muscle is the core of endurance athletes’ strength and helps them to power through sustained workouts. But it turns out that another type of muscle, white muscle, which is more prevalent among sprinters, weightlifters and those who use resistance training, where short bursts of energy are critical, may play a role in regulating blood sugar.
- Study Identifies Four New Genetic Markers For Severe Childhood Obesity [news]
- Unhealthy food environments and sedentary lifestyles certainly contribute to obesity, but they can’t entirely explain weight gain. The latest research points to four new genes that could contribute to the most extreme cases of obesity in childhood. By comparing the genomes of 1,509 children in the UK with severe obesity to 5,380 similar children of normal weight, an international team of researchers first identified a series of 29 genetic changes that distinguished the heavier children. Narrowing these differences down to those that influence obesity, they found nine genes strongly linked to early weight gain, five of which were known, and four of which are new.
- Want to Lose Weight? Leave it Up to Your Smartphone [news]
- There’s an app for practically everything now, and the latest study shows that when it comes to weight loss, some apps may be more effective than traditional dieting methods. Smartphones are an ideal way to communicate and remind people of everything from to-do lists to food and fitness goals, so researchers in the UK decided to investigate how effective weight loss apps alone might be in helping people to shed pounds.
- Watch out, your fat is trying to kill you [news]
- Being fat has been linked to such dangerous health conditions as diabetes, cancer and cognitive decline. But fat tissue was long considered to be passive, hanging out lazily and doing damage without much effort. New research, though, shows that this isn't exactly true, especially in the case of visceral fat that can form around the organs of overweight and normal-weight people alike. Fat, reports Outside magazine, wants to keep us fat.
- Yoga: the power of the pose [news]
- Who would have thought that a 5000-year-old style of movement would become more popular in Australia than Australian football? According to the Bureau of Statistics, more people take part in weekly yoga classes than they do in our national sport. And for good reason. ''All forms of yoga, meditation or tai chi, any gentle movement, helps to reduce pain or your perception of pain,'' says Dr Sam McCarthy, an osteopath at Sydney's Better Health Clinics (betterhealthclinics.com.au). ''We once thought that yoga made muscles longer alone, but we've now discovered that the poses make them wider, and the act of stretching actually feeds back information to your central nervous system. This in turn stimulates your muscles to become stronger around a point of weakness.''
- Microorganisms Detected Via Breath Test Linked to Body Mass, Fat Accumulation [news]
- The content of a person's breath may indicate how susceptible they are to weight gain, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). People whose breath has high concentrations of both hydrogen and methane gases are more likely to have a higher body mass index and percentage of body fat, according to the findings. The combination of the two gases signals the presence of a microorganism that may contribute to obesity.
- Detox diet is a lemon, say experts [news]
- A diet consisting solely of lemon-based drinks has been rated the worst fad diet for the second year running by a group of dietitians. The Lemon Detox Diet was deemed the worst by a survey of Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) members, followed by the Acid Alkaline Diet and the Six Weeks to OMG Diet. Dietitian Melanie McGrice from the DAA said she hoped the survey would make people think twice about embarking on fad diets. McGrice said the Lemon Detox Diet was rated the worst because it was essentially a starvation diet involving drinking only lemon-based drinks for 10 to 14 days.
- Bells, boards and boogie: fitness fads that made us sweat last year [news]
- Some exercise crazes disappear faster than you can utter the words "Ab King Pro". But others keep growing as more people think outside the square and seek variety. Faith Aird takes a look at trends of 2012 that look set to stand the test of time.
- Losing weight can make you gain weight [news]
- Going on a crash diet to shed the pounds fast? Think again. Although the pounds will dwindle, so will your metabolic rate and most likely your lean body mass - which in the end is exactly what you don't want. "If you go on, say, a 900-calorie-a-day diet, you will have a hard time getting the nutrients you need," says Rebecca Mohning, a nutritionist. "Without the daily requirement of protein, you will break down your lean muscle mass." "Basically, the body will make sure it gets what it needs to function - and if it doesn't get what it needs from food, it will take what it needs from the muscles," says Virginia nutritionist Danielle Omar, who owns Foodconfidence.com. "It's not that smart when you consider that you are in essence eating away at your own muscle mass." And less lean muscle mass means you burn fewer calories - probably not what you were going for. You will also lower the body's basal metabolic rate (BMR) - the minimum amount of energy you need to keep the basic functions going (such as liver and brain function and breathing; breaking down food requires about 10 percent of the total BMR).
- The War on Cholesterol [news]
- The medical establishment is waging a war against cholesterol Yet cholesterol is a health-promoting nutrient that just could save your life! Think this is an exaggeration? Consider the following. According to Michael Brown and Joseph Goldstein, winners of the Nobel Prize in 1985 for their discovery of the receptor that brings cholesterol into cells, the debate about the role of cholesterol in health and disease is a war. They wrote the foreword to a recent book by Daniel Steinberg, MD, PhD, called The Cholesterol Wars. In it, they call themselves and others "who condemn cholesterol as the culprit" the "anti-cholesterol forces." They liken scientific advances in our understanding of this vital nutrient to "powerful new weapons" that have aided the "anti-cholesterol forces" just "like modern armies."
- Kiwifruit linked to muscle health [news]
- Eating two kiwifruit each day could help keep muscles in top form, says new research. A University of Otago study, which was recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, looked into what role vitamin C played in the body. Lead researcher in the project, Professor Margreet Vissers, said muscles that support and move the skeleton were sensitive to changes in vitamin C intake. If consumption of the vitamin dropped below optimal levels, muscle function could also fall. The researchers gave 54 males aged 18-35 either half a kiwifruit or two kiwifruit every day over six weeks, and then measured the vitamin C content in their muscles.
- All twerk and a lot of play [news]
- A Google report of the top search terms of 2012 offers insight into the uncensored exercise interests of the Australian public. The top 10 "how-to" searches included how to kegel, handstand and twerk. Kegels are pelvic-floor exercises, while twerking is "a dance move that involves a person shaking their hips and bottom in a sexually provocative manner". Published in the current issue of the American College of Sports Medicine Health and Fitness Journal, the top predicted trend was the need for "certified, educated fitness professionals".
- Healthy food may make us happier [news]
- The research found a strong day-to-day relationship between more positive mood and higher fruit and vegetable consumption (file) Forget popping pills, it may be time to inject more fruit and vegetables into your diet to be happier, according to New Zealand researchers. A study by Otago University suggests eating more fruit and vegetables may make young people calmer, happier and more energetic in their daily life. The research, published in the British Journal of Health Psychology on Thursday, found a strong day-to-day relationship between more positive mood and higher fruit and vegetable consumption, but not other foods.
- Getting the jump on bones [news]
- When was the last time you hopped, skipped or jumped? If it was back in the last century you wouldn't be alone - these are the movements that often vanish from our lives when we leave childhood and school sports behind. Yet they're also the kind of high impact activities that grown up bones really thrive on - and they do a better job of boosting bone density than walking, according to exercise physiologist Dr Belinda Beck. "Walking is great for your heart and blood vessels, but it's not brilliant for bone - unless you add some jumps into your walk. Even if you're running it's best to add jumps along the way for better bone density," says Beck, an associate professor with the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at Griffith University.
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