Ease stiffness and feel relief from chronic conditions causing your pain, such as arthritis and fibromyalgia. In this gentle joint video, I will walk you through exercises that gently strengthen and stretch common troublesome areas. This workout begins with a warm-up in a standing position, and then halfway through, we move to a seated position in a chair. If you are only able to complete the seated portion, then just fast forward to that section (about the 15-minute mark), please make sure that you are in a warm environment. This will make sure that your muscles relax and don’t cramp up. It is also essential to stay hydrated. Drinking water will help lubricate your joints.
Findings show the importance of activities that raise heart rate for blood pressure control.
Recent research indicates that incorporating small amounts of physical activity, such as walking uphill or climbing stairs, can help reduce blood pressure.
Research suggests that just five minutes of activity each day could potentially lower blood pressure. Additionally, replacing sedentary behaviour with 20 to 27 minutes of exercise daily—such as uphill walking, stair climbing, running, or cycling—can significantly reduce blood pressure clinically.
Joint senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, Director of the ProPASS Consortium at the Charles Perkins Centre, stated, “High blood pressure is one of the most significant health issues globally. Unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality, there are potentially accessible methods to address this problem beyond just medication.”
Finding that just five extra minutes of exercise daily can lead to significantly lower blood pressure readings highlights the effectiveness of short, intense bouts of physical activity for managing blood pressure.
Hypertension, or consistently high blood pressure, is one of the leading causes of premature death worldwide. It affects 1.28 billion adults and can lead to serious health issues such as stroke, heart attack, heart failure, and kidney damage. Often referred to as the “silent killer,” hypertension typically presents no symptoms, making it especially dangerous.
The research team analysed health data from 14,761 volunteers in five countries to see how replacing one type of movement behaviour with another across the day is associated with blood pressure.
Each participant used a wearable accelerometer device on their thigh to measure their activity and blood pressure day and night.
Daily activity was split into six categories: sleep, sedentary behaviour (such as sitting), slow walking, fast walking, standing, and vigorous exercise such as running, cycling or stair climbing.
The team statistically modelled what would happen if an individual changed various amounts of one behaviour for another to estimate the effect on blood pressure for each scenario and found that replacing sedentary behaviour with 20-27 minutes of exercise per day could potentially reduce cardiovascular disease by up to 28 per cent at a population level.
Dr. Jo Blodgett, the lead author from the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL and the Institute of Sport, Exercise, and Health, stated, “Our findings suggest that for most people, engaging in exercise is more effective for reducing blood pressure than opting for less strenuous forms of movement, like walking.”
“The good news is that whatever your physical ability, it doesn’t take long to have a positive effect on blood pressure. What’s unique about our exercise variable is that it includes all exercise-like activities, from running for a bus or a short cycling errand, many of which can be integrated into daily routines.
“For those who don’t do a lot of exercise, walking still has some positive benefits for blood pressure. But if you want to change your blood pressure, putting more demand on the cardiovascular system through exercise will have the greatest effect.”
Millennials sit more than 60 hours per week, fueling heart disease risk and accelerating ageing.
Recent research from CU Boulder and the University of California, Riverside, reveals that millennials are spending over 60 hours a week sitting due to long commutes, back-to-back Zoom meetings, and evenings spent streaming and scrolling through social media. This sedentary lifestyle could increase their risk of heart disease and accelerate other signs of ageing.
The study of over 1,000 individuals from Colorado, including 730 twins, is one of the first to investigate how prolonged sitting affects health metrics such as cholesterol levels and body mass index (BMI) in young adults.
Research shows that simply meeting the minimum physical activity guidelines—approximately 20 minutes of moderate exercise each day—is insufficient to offset the risks associated with spending most of our waking hours sitting.
“Our research indicates that reducing the sitting time during the day, engaging in more vigorous exercise, or implementing a combination of both may be essential for lowering the risk of premature ageing in early adulthood,” stated the study’s senior author, Chandra Reynolds, a professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience as well as the Institute for Behavioral Genetics.
After the COVID pandemic, Bruellman noticed that he and others his age were sitting more. He set out to learn more about the consequences.
“Young adults often believe they are immune to the effects of aging. They think, ‘My metabolism is excellent, so I don’t need to worry until I reach my 50s or 60s,’” said Bruellman. “However, what you do during this crucial stage of life is important.”
A walk after work isn’t enough.
The authors analyzed data from participants aged 28 to 49, with an average age of 33, from CU’s Colorado Adoption/Twin Study of Lifespan Behavioural Development and Cognitive Ageing (CATSLife), which has followed twins and adopted individuals since Childhood.
Participants reported sitting almost 9 hours daily, with some sitting as much as 16 hours. On average, they reported between 80 and 160 minutes of moderate physical activity weekly and less than 135 minutes of vigorous exercise weekly. The authors note that these results are likely better than national averages due to Colorado’s active lifestyle.
The researchers looked at two key heart and metabolic ageing measures: total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein and body mass index (BMI). The study found that the more one sat, the older one looked. Adding a little moderate activity on top of a long day of sitting did little to buffer these impacts.
Young adults who sat 8.5 hours per day and performed at or below current exercise recommendations could enter a “moderate to high risk” category for cardiovascular and metabolic disease, the authors said.
“Taking a quick walk after work may not be enough,” said Reynolds. “While this is increasingly apparent with age, we show that associations are already emerging in early adulthood.”
Adding vigorous activity did have a buffering effect.
For instance, those who exercised vigorously (think running or cycling) for 30 minutes daily had cholesterol and BMI measures that looked like those of individuals five to 10 years younger who sat as much as they did but didn’t exercise.
However, even vigorous activity could not fully buffer the negative impacts of prolonged sitting, the study concluded.
Same genes, different lifestyles
Identical twins are handy to study because they share 100% of their genes, making it easier to rule out genetic factors that might contribute to different health outcomes and zero in on lifestyle differences.
When looking at a subset of twins with different sitting and physical activity habits, the researchers found that replacing sitting with exercise seemed to improve cholesterol better than simply adding exercise to a full day of sitting.
The bottom line, the researchers said, is to try to do both.
To reduce sitting time at work, use a standing desk, take breaks, and organize walking meetings. If possible, do something that gets you out of breath for at least 30 minutes per day, or be a “weekend warrior” and get in longer, vigorous workouts when you can, said Bruellman.
He hopes the study will prompt policymakers to revisit physical activity guidelines and specify how much sitting is too much.
Meanwhile, Reynolds encourages young adults to take steps now that could shape their future:
“This is the time to build habits that will benefit health over the long term.”
The research concludes that just one or two sessions of physical activity at the weekend—a pattern of exercise dubbed ‘weekend warrior’—may be just as likely to lower the risk of cognitive decline, which can often precede dementia, as more frequent sessions.
And it may be more convenient and achievable for busy people, suggest the researchers.
They say it’s important to identify potentially modifiable risk factors for dementia because a 5-year delay in onset might halve its prevalence. They add that nearly all the evidence to date comes from studies in high-income countries.
They, therefore, drew on two sets of survey data from the Mexico City Prospective Study: the first, which took place between 1998 and 2004, and the second, which took place between 2015 and 2019.
Some 10,033 people (average age 51) completed both surveys, and their responses were included in the analysis.
For the first survey, respondents were asked whether they exercised or played sports, and if so, how many times a week and for how long (in minutes).
Four groups were derived from the responses: the no-exercisers, the ‘weekend warriors’ who exercised/played sports once or twice a week, the regularly active who did so three or more times a week, and a combined group comprising weekend warriors and the regularly active.
The Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) assessed cognitive function during the second survey. A score of 22 or less out of 30 defined MCI.
In all, 7945 respondents said they didn’t exercise; 726 fulfilled the definition of a weekend warrior; 1362 said they exercised several times a week; and 2088 made up the combined group.
During an average monitoring period of 16 years, 2400 cases of MCI were identified. MCI prevalence was 26% among non-exercisers, 14% among weekend warriors, and 18.5% among the regularly active.
After taking account of potentially influential factors including age, educational attainment, smoking, nightly sleep, diet and alcohol intake, weekend warriors were 25% less likely to develop MCI than the no exercisers, while the regularly active were 11% less likely to do so. Those in the combined group were 16% less likely to do so.
When MCI was defined as an MMSE score of 23 or below, 2856 cases were identified. And MCI prevalence rose to 30% among the no exercisers, 20% among the weekend warriors, and 22% among the regularly active.
Compared with the no exercisers, weekend warriors were 13% less likely to develop MCI, while the regularly active and those in the combined group were 12% less likely to do so. The results were similar for both men and women.
The researchers estimated that, in theory, 13% of cases might be avoided if all middle aged adults exercised at least once or twice a week.
This is an observational study, so no firm conclusions can be drawn about causal factors. And the researchers acknowledge various limitations to their findings. For example, the survey respondents might not have been truly representative of middle aged adults and there were no objective measures of physical activity.
But there are several possible explanations for the seemingly protective effect of exercise on brain health, they explain.
“For example, exercise may increase brain-derived neurotrophic factor concentrations [molecules that support the growth and survival of neurons] and brain plasticity. Physical activity is also associated with greater brain volume, greater executive function, and greater memory,” they write.
“To the best of our knowledge, the present study is the first prospective cohort study to show that the weekend warrior physical activity pattern and the regularly active physical activity pattern are associated with similar reductions in the risk of mild dementia,” they continue.
And they go on to suggest that the findings “have important implications for policy and practice because the weekend warrior physical activity pattern m
A rigorous workout suppresses hunger more than moderate exercise in healthy adults, with females potentially more affected, according to a small study published in the Journal of the Endocrine Society.
The study investigates how exercise intensity affects ghrelin levels and appetite in men and women. Ghrelin, known as the “hunger hormone,” is linked to feelings of hunger.
“We discovered that high-intensity exercise reduces ghrelin levels more effectively than moderate-intensity exercise,” said lead author Kara Anderson, Ph.D., from the University of Virginia and the University of Virginia Health System in Charlottesville, Virginia. “Additionally, we found that individuals felt ‘less hungry’ after high-intensity exercise compared to when they engaged in moderate-intensity exercise.”
Ghrelin circulates in acylated (AG) and deacylated (DAG) forms, which are known to affect appetite. The study noted that data on the impact of exercise intensity on AG and DAG levels and their effects on appetite is sparse and primarily limited to males.
To address this shortfall, the study examined eight males and six females. Participants fasted overnight and then completed exercises of varying intensity levels, determined by blood lactate measurements, followed by self-reported measurements of appetite.
The study noted that females had higher levels of total ghrelin at baseline compared with males. However, only females demonstrated “significantly reduced AG” following the intense exercise.
“We found that moderate intensity either did not change ghrelin levels or led to a net increase,” the study noted. These findings suggest that exercise above the lactate threshold “may be necessary to elicit a suppression in ghrelin.”
Researchers also acknowledged that more work is needed to determine the extent to which exercise’s effects differ by sex.
Ghrelin has been shown to have wide-ranging biological effects in areas including energy balance, appetite, glucose homeostasis, immune function, sleep, and memory.
“Exercise should be thought of as a ‘drug,’ where the ‘dose’ should be customized based on an individual’s personal goals,” Anderson said. “Our research suggests that high-intensity exercise may be important for appetite suppression, which can be particularly useful as part of a weight loss program.”
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