Latest Fitness Industry News
The latest fitness industry news at your fingertips.
- How to get out of an exercise rut [news]
- By this stage in the New Year it can be hard to stay motivated with those exercise resolutions. Here's how to keep going. DON'T GET STUCK IN A RUT Doing exercise you enjoy is good - it helps keep you motivated. But sticking with the same routine week after week can also slow down progress because our bodies soon get used to it, explains Alisha Smith.
- Clenching Left Hand Could Help Athletes Avoid Choking Under Pressure [news]
- Some athletes may improve their performance under pressure simply by squeezing a ball or clenching their left hand before competition to activate certain parts of the brain, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. In three experiments with experienced soccer players, judo experts and badminton players, researchers in Germany tested the athletes' skills during practice and then in stressful competitions before a large crowd or video camera. Right-handed athletes who squeezed a ball in their left hand before competing were less likely to choke under pressure than right-handed players who squeezed a ball in their right hand.
- Growing calls for NZ to have own food standards [news]
- New Zealand needs to establish its own more stringent food standards authority which is separate from Australia, food advocates say. There are 18 food additives allowed by Food Standards Australia New Zealand that are banned in other countries. Some of the additives have side effects including nausea, vomiting, high blood pressure, skin rashes, breathing problems and other allergic reactions. Others cause cancer in animals.
- Spotlight on sugar [news]
- Here’s a prediction for 2013: we’ll be hearing a lot more about sugar, sugar-free diets and sugar’s effects this year. Sugar is once again a buzzword and, increasingly, a baddie, in nutrition and diet circles, from the faddish to the serious scientific community. The latest from the credible science camp on this subject comes from local researchers at the University of Otago, including lead co-author and Healthy Food Guide Editorial Advisory Board member, Professor Jim Mann from Otago’s Department of Human Nutrition and Medicine and Edgar National Centre for Diabetes and Obesity research. The study, commissioned by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and published in the British Medical Journal, looked into what is known about the effects of sugar.
- Craving chips? Accept it. Move on [news]
- When it comes to the urge to eat junk food or avoid exercise, acceptance and commitment therapy says: don't fight it, resistance is futile. Confoundingly, however, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is attracting growing recognition for its effectiveness when it comes to getting people to eat less and exercise more.
- Is Stevia the sweet solution? [news]
- Stevia has been said, by many, to be the sweet solution to the sugar 'problem'. Native to Paraguay, the stevia plant is as much as 300 times sweeter than sugar, but has barely any effect on blood glucose levels and contains no calories. It's pitched as the 'natural' alternative to artificial sweeteners and is the choice of US physicist and renowned sugar critic, Gary Taubes, who has said that by spiking our insulin levels, sugar, not fat, is responsible for the obesity epidemic and a slew of related illnesses. For a natural sweetener, pop leaves in your tea Alice Gibson suggests ... Stevia plant. For a natural sweetener, pop leaves in your tea Alice Gibson suggests ... Stevia plant. Photo: David Tease In an article for the New York Times, he said stevia "gets my vote as the best noncaloric sweetener, by virtue of being the only one that's truly 'natural'... Extracts of the herb have been used as a sweetener for centuries. In Japan, Stevia has been sold widely as a sugar substitute since the early 1970s without any documented ill effects."
- A change from the old routine [news]
- If you want constant improvement, you've got to mix up your workouts. You work out religiously. You use excellent form for every lift on the resistance side and do every scheduled aerobic session no matter how tired you may be. But you're still not making gains. So, here are the first two questions you need to ask yourself: how long have you been training consistently? And how long have you been doing the same routines? Whether you're trying to build an awesome beach body or become a stronger and more powerful athlete, there's one rule that applies to every kind of workout: to progress in your appearance or athletic ability, you must have at least a basic knowledge of physiology and be able to put it to use.
- Compress yourself [news]
- Find out whether tight is right when it comes to compression gear. It seems you can't head to a gym or run down your favourite trail these days without finding someone wearing compression garments. Weekend warriors and elite athletes alike are squeezing themselves into knee-high socks, tights and even full body suits that promise to improve performance and speed recovery from hard workouts. Those claims might be true. Or they might not be. A good bit of research has been conducted on the effectiveness of compression gear, and the results are inconclusive.
- Blood pressure, check. Pulse rate, check. What about your workout minutes? More docs asking [news]
- Roll up a sleeve for the blood pressure cuff. Stick out a wrist for the pulse-taking. Lift your tongue for the thermometer. Report how many minutes you are active or getting exercise. Wait, what? If the last item isn't part of the usual drill at your doctor's office, a movement is afoot to change that. One recent national survey indicated only a third of Americans said their doctors asked about or prescribed physical activity.
- New MRI Technique Allows Detailed Imaging of Complex Muscle Structures and Muscle Damage [news]
- Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the Academic Medical Center (AMC) in Amsterdam have together developed a technique that allows detailed 3-D imaging of complex muscle structures of patients. It also allows muscle damage to be detected very precisely. This new technique opens the way to much better and more patient-friendly diagnosis of muscular diseases. It also allows accurate, non-invasive muscle examinations among top athletes.
- Why nuts don't make you fat [news]
- The message that nuts are a healthy food that can help lower bad LDL cholesterol has been around for years – so why aren't we eating more of them? The surprise finding from a new nut industry report on Australia's nut eating habits is that most of us nibble them once a month or less, often on planes or at parties, with only two per cent of us eating them daily. What's holding us back is the F word: fat. We might know that the fat in nuts, like the fat in foods like olive oil and avocado, is healthy fat, but we're still keeping it at arms' length.
- Getting older? Get stronger [news]
- If you're sick of hearing bad news about ageing and physical decline, here's some good news. Not long ago, researchers at Saskatchewan's University of Regina took a group of men aged 60 to 70 and gave them a 22-week strength training program. They then compared them to a group of 18 to 31-year-old untrained men - and found that the two groups were pretty much equal in muscle mass and strength.
- Twists and turns that make a difference [news]
- It has the latest fitness equipment, from a Cybex training circuit to stationary Expresso Cycles with video screens that let you bike virtually through a bucolic countryside. It holds classes in yoga, Pilates, boot camp and the hottest exercise trend, Zumba. And it offers personal training, massage therapy and a variety of health screenings. Yet it's not a glitzy mirror-wall health club aimed at fitness-minded singles. In fact, its business has nothing to do with fitness. It's Cisco, worldwide provider of networking systems for business. And Cisco, with its state-of-the-art workout center, is hardly alone among its contemporaries in Research Triangle Park, where buff bodies seem about as important as strong bottom lines.
- Why Trainers Say, 'Slow Down' [news]
- When his running coach implored him to take rest days, Bill Carr didn't listen. Slated to run a 100-mile ultramarathon this month, the 36-year-old cranked up his workouts over the summer, running more and harder miles than his coach recommended. Running coach Julie Fingar guides Bill Carr, who ran too much and injured his ankle, in drills at a Twin Rocks trail near Folsom Lake in Granite Bay, Calif. "I wanted to make sure that I got to the event fully prepared," he says. But Mr. Carr won't get to the 100-miler at all. Last month, his ankle sustained an over-use injury during a workout, sidelining the Rancho Cordova, Calif., project manager for a vision-benefits company. "Type A personalities will increase their training load until something backfires," says Julie Fingar, Mr. Carr's running coach, who says her biggest challenge is convincing her clients to take an adequate amount of rest. "In their minds, taking rest means they're not working hard enough."
- Anytime Fitness wants parents, children angry enough to make a lasting change [news]
- The kids are angry. That's what one fitness chain claims as it has partnered with the Coalition of Angry Kids during the month of September. William White, of Anytime Fitness, said childhood obesity isn't a children's epidemic. “It's a family epidemic,” he said. One out of three children are overweight or obese, according to national health campaigns. And if a parent is overweight, the child is 50 percent more likely to be overweight. That's why it's time for parents to start taking charge, White said.
- Why every breath you take counts [news]
- We breathe, on average, between 22,000 and 28,000 times a day. It's a basic action that most of us take for granted. Provided all is well, our ever-faithful, ethereal friend, the breath, endures. And noticing its presence can have surprising effects on our health and happiness. Not only does every one of our body's trillions of cells need oxygen to survive and thrive, but the way we breathe can influence our immune function, stress levels, respiratory and emotional health. The breath can also help with grief relief, tone our abdominals and even help us to even burn fat more effectively. The key to obtaining such benefits lies not in breathing more, but in breathing better.
- Five proven facts that make Yoga awesome [news]
- How many times have you tried to tell your friends about the energy body but you just can’t seem to convince it’s real? How many times have said friends stopped talking to you altogether, or at the very least mentally categorized you as the cuckoo? Here are five enlightening facts to help you understand what is happening in the body on a physiological level, plus practical applications to integrate into your daily practice (good news: you probably do these things already!)
- Sacroiliac Joint's Don't Like Excessive Twisting [news]
- Understanding the biomechanics of the SIJ enables us to spot functional habits that stress the sacroiliac complex. A correct understanding of motor control ensures that we train the appropriate stabiliser muscle combinations in order to maintain a close pack and stable position for transferring load through the pelvis avoiding the development of pain.
- Sweet flavour without sugar: impossible dream? [news]
- Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of new products coming through – or existing products being reformulated – using the relatively new sweetener, stevia. It’s being used as a sugar substitute in all sorts of things from yoghurt to drinks. Stevia is a sweetener extracted from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant. Stevia has been used for centuries in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay to sweeten foods and drinks and is widely cultivated in Asia. The fresh leaves are reported to be 15-20 times sweeter than sugar, and extracts from the leaves can be up to 300 times sweeter – meaning you don’t need to use very much at all to get a sweet taste. Unlike sugar, it has hardly any kilojoules, and no impact on blood sugar. Bulk stevia powder is available now in the supermarket for use in cooking, under several brand names. So is this new sweetener the answer to our prayers of unlimited sweet things with no guilt, no sugar ‘addiction’ and no weight gain?
- Latest Fitness Trends: Body Weight Training Takes Centerstage [news]
- Think you need a gym to stay in shape? According to the American College of Sports Medicine, one of the leading fitness trends requires nothing more than your own body weight. This year’s trendiest fitness programs include a mix of fresh ways to sweat it out as well as some stand-bys. Body weight training, a method that uses the body’s own weight as the source of resistance for strength training and muscle endurance, made the list for the first time while previous gym go-tos like spinning and Pilates fell out of favor.
- Exercise May Protect Against Brain Shrinkage [news]
- Remaining physically active as you age, a new study shows, may help protect parts of your brain from shrinking, a process that has been linked to declines in thinking and memory skills. Physical exercise not only protected against such age-related brain changes, but also had more of an effect than mentally and socially stimulating activities. The subjects in the study provided details on their daily physical, mental and social activities. Three years later, using imaging scans, the scientists found that the subjects who engaged in the most physical exercise, including walking several times a week, had less shrinkage and damage in the brain’s white matter, which is considered the “wiring” of the brain’s communication system.
- Seaweed may be cancer-fighting [news]
- New Zealand scientists say one of the world's most invasive species of seaweed, undaria, could help in the fight against cancer. Researchers at the Auckland University of Technology say the discovery of a compound in a noxious seaweed might one day help those who are battling the disease. ”There's a reasonable amount of evidence that seaweed consumption, particularly in Asia, is in some way is correlated with some cancers, or the lack of some cancers,” says AUT marine biologist Lindsay White. Undaria is a daily staple in the diets of Koreans and the Japanese.
- Energy drink-linked deaths could impact NZ [news]
- A spate of US deaths linked to Monster Energy drinks could speed up a trans-Tasman review of caffeinated drinks and see caffeine limits slashed in New Zealand. The United States Food and Drug Administration is investigating the safety of energy drinks after receiving reports of five deaths and a non-fatal heart attack after drinking Monster Energy. One 14-year-old girl drank two 700mL cans in the 24 hours before suffering a fatal cardiac arrest in December last year.
- For Better Heart Health Exercise Harder, Not Longer [news]
- he general advice for most people is: Get more exercise. But the question is what kind of exercise, how intensely and for how long? A new study suggests that for improvements in cardiovascular health, you should pick up the pace. More intense exercise (brisk walking) was better than longer bouts of lower-intensity activity (leisurely walking) at reducing people’s chances of developing risk factors for heart disease and diabetes, researchers found.
- How to beat a Sugar Craving [news]
- We’ve all suffered through it: that mid-afternoon urge for a candy bar, or the blues that make us reach for a cupcake or brownie. Those strong sugar cravings that pack the power of all the Avengers rolled into one moment of weakness. We’ve known for a while that sugar is a dieter’s worst nightmare, but everyday we’re learning more about how sugar is not only bad itself, but actively works against meeting your health and wellness goals.
- Get Moving: The Dangers of Sitting Still [news]
- An increasing number of workers spend their day in front of a computer. Often, the only physical activity they get for 8 to 9 hours is the tapping of their fingers on the keyboard. Then, after a long day, they head home and park in front of the television for another hour or two, getting even less exercise than they did at work. More and more, doctors and researchers are realizing that our weight problems – and the host of medical conditions that accompany our expanding waistlines – can be largely blamed on the sedentary lifestyles so many of us lead.
- How being told what to eat can make us fatter [news]
- How do you feel when someone says “you shouldn’t eat that”? It’s human nature – we don’t like being told what to do, and this seems even more true when it comes to eating. Just look at the brouhaha that erupts every time some health expert suggests regulation on junk food. New research from Otago University has found that not only do we hate being told we should eat better, but it can actually make us fatter.
- Staying healthy after menopause [news]
- Being more active and improving your diet after menopause can promote bone health and reduce the risk of cancer. Saying goodbye to a menstrual cycle sounds like cause for celebration. But like everything in life, menopause comes with strings attached: sleep disturbances, hot flushes, mood swings, increased abdominal fat, thinning hair, vaginal dryness and loss of breast fullness. Add to that an increased risk of osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, urinary incontinence and weight gain. Frankly, that’s not a good advertisement for life post-menstruation. But menopause doesn’t have to be taken sitting down; in fact, getting up and doing things might be the best thing you can do. The hormonal changes associated with menopause, such as decreasing oestrogen levels, make it more likely that excess weight will be stored on the abdomen rather than hips or thighs. Add to that a tendency for menopausal women to exercise less, a natural decline in muscle mass with age, genetic factors and changes in lifestyle as we age, and the end result can be unwanted weight gain around the middle.
- Do our genes make us fat?
- As a boy, generously proportioned Gerry Brownlee stuck out in his family like a goose among ducks. From a young age, the future Cabinet minister was a big boy in a family of thin people, according to uncle Owen Brownlee, prompting worried visits to the doctor with his parents. Despite all the Brownlee children eating at the same dinner table, Gerry mysteriously piled on the pounds faster than his skinny siblings. Whatever was at work, it wasn’t simply his environment. Cases like these have fuelled interest in the role of genes in loading the dice towards obesity. Groundbreaking research from the Dunedin longitudinal study released this week has quantified just how powerful genes can be in producing hefty adults.
- Physical activity could reduce Alzheimer’s risk, study finds [news]
- Being physically active may help reduce one’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, even in older patients, according to a study published online April 18 in Neurology. The study is one of the first to look at a range of physical activities, instead of strictly focusing on exercise. “There is accumulating evidence to suggest that a whole range of late-life activity is important in maintaining cognitive ability,” said Aron S. Buchman, MD, associate professor of neurological sciences at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. The study is among the latest of several to suggest a link between mental and physical activity and long-term cognitive health.
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