I am a fan of the Starting Strength programme to get started with strength training.
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exercise
It appears that just a few kilograms in weight loss can significantly reduce the risk of diabetes.
A November 2020 study by the University of East Anglia said, "We have now shown a significant effect in Type 2 diabetes prevention, and we can be very optimistic that even a modest weight loss, and an increase in physical activity, in real world programmes like this have a big effect on the risk of getting Type 2 diabetes.”
"This is really great news for the eight million people in the UK with a prediabetes diagnosis. The results of this trial, show that diabetes prevention is possible in the same prediabetes populations being treated in the NHS national diabetes prevention programme.”
"This is important to know, as the clinical methods for diagnosing diabetes and prediabetes have changed a lot in recent years."
A December 2016 study (of mice) by Georg-August-University suggests that, “physical exercise can be used as a preventive, as well as a therapeutic approach to aid recovery after a cortical stroke," It said, "We found that mice with free access to a running wheel throughout their life preserved a more juvenile brain into adulthood and were able to prevent the negative effects of a stroke."
A March 2020 study by Columbia University in New York said,
“[These results] suggest that people may potentially prevent brain shrinking and the effects of aging on the brain simply by becoming more active,"
"Recent studies have shown that as people age, physical activity may reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Our study used brain scans to measure the brain volumes of a diverse group of people and found that those who engaged in the top third highest level of physical activity had a brain volume the equivalent of four years younger in brain aging than people who were at the bottom third activity level."
"Our results add to the evidence that more physical activity is linked to larger brain volume in older people."
"It also builds on evidence that moving your body more often throughout one's life may protect against loss of brain volume."
My annual blood tests show HDL/LDL cholesterol rates are slightly high. It’s been at least three years since I had them tested and may not reflect the direction in which they are going, given my recent “Eat Clean & Train” programme.
I resolve to keep
Increasing the amount of fibre, fruit and vegetables in my diet
The gym programme (strength training – bench press, deadlifts and squats, every other day)
Focused on reaching my annually-set personal weight and BMI targets
And to get my blood tests done annually now.
A February 2020 study by the Arizona State University College of Health Solutions said,
“We were surprised to observe such a strong negative link between the amount of time spent sitting and insulin resistance, and that this association was still strong after we accounted for exercise and obesity,"
"The findings of this study build upon earlier research including our own, which showed, among older women, that too much time in sedentary behaviors was associated with higher risk for diabetes and heart disease. Reducing sitting time improves glucose control and blood flow, and engaging in physical activities, even light-intensity daily life activities like cooking and shopping, show favorable associations with reduced mortality risk and prevention of heart disease and stroke."
"Health care providers should encourage patients, including older adults, to reduce their sitting time, take breaks in their sitting time and replace sitting with brief periods of standing or light physical activity."
A February 2020 study by the American Heart Association said,
"Exercise is medicine, and there is no question that moderate to vigorous physical activity is beneficial to overall cardiovascular health. However, like medicine, it is possible to underdose and overdose on exercise - more is not always better and can lead to cardiac events, particularly when performed by inactive, unfit, individuals with known or undiagnosed heart disease,"
"More people are running marathons, participating in triathlons and doing high-intensity interval training. The purpose of this statement is to put the benefits and risks of these vigorous exercise programs in perspective,"
An April 2020 study "hypothesized that Mat Pilates might decrease the risk of hypertension in young obese women.”
The study found that, “Mat Pilates benefit[s] cardiovascular health by decreasing blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and body fatness in young obese women with elevated blood pressure. Because adherence to traditional exercise (both aerobic and resistance) is low in obese individuals, Mat Pilates Training might prove an effective exercise alternative for the prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular events in young obese adults."
A study in March 2020, part of the Framingham Heart Study, said,
“Measuring habitual physical activity in community-based settings in this way distinguishes our study from prior studies that have looked at either self-reported physical activity or used accelerometers to measure daily activity for only a short amount of time, usually about a week,"
"This study [result: more daily steps daily, tracked by a watch, lowers blood pressure] solidifies our understanding of the relationship between physical activity and blood pressure and raises the possibility that obesity or body mass index accounts for a lot of that relationship.”
“Going forward, it would be useful to look at how smart devices might be leveraged to promote physical activity, reduce the burden of obesity and potentially reduce blood pressure."
A March 2020 study by the University of Southern California said,
"We tend to think human physiology is adapted to the conditions in which we evolved … So, we assumed that if inactivity is harmful, our evolutionary history would not have included much time spent sitting the way we do today."
"Even though there were long periods of inactivity, one of the key differences we noticed is that the Hadza [the group studied] are often resting in postures that require their muscles to maintain light levels of activity -- either in a squat or kneeling."
"Being a couch potato -- or even sitting in an office chair -- requires less muscle activity than squatting or kneeling … Since light levels of muscle activity require fuel, which generally means burning fats, then squatting and kneeling postures may not be as harmful as sitting in chairs."
“Preferences or behaviors that conserve energy have been key to our species' evolutionary success … But when environments change rapidly, these same preferences can lead to less optimal outcomes. Prolonged sitting is one example."
"Replacing chair sitting and associated muscular inactivity with more sustained active rest postures may represent a behavioral paradigm that should be explored in future experimental work."
"Squatting is not a likely alternative … but spending more time in postures that at least require some low-level muscle activity could be good for our health."
A March 2020 study by the University of Massachusetts said,
"Walking is a widely accessible form of physical activity, and steps-per-day is an easy measurement and motivator that most people understand and can easily measure given the booming industry of wearable technologies or smartphones."
"The results of our study add to the growing evidence about the importance of regular physical activity for improving heart health, and that preventive efforts can be effective, even as middle-aged adults move into older adulthood."
The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical School said,
"Diabetes and high blood pressure are not inevitable. Healthy lifestyle changes, such as attaining and maintaining a healthy body weight, improving diet and increasing physical activity can help reduce diabetes risk. This study shows that walking is an effective therapy to decrease risk,"
"For people who find the idea of a daily, extended exercise period and physical activity regimen daunting, shifting the focus to accumulating steps throughout the day may help them become more active … The more steps, the better."
Another piece of research about the mythical 10,000 steps. A February 2020 study by Brigham Young University found that,
“Exercise alone is not always the most effective way to lose weight,"
"If you track steps, it might have a benefit in increasing physical activity, but our study showed it won't translate into maintaining weight or preventing weight gain."
"The biggest benefit of step recommendations is getting people out of a sedentary lifestyle,"
"Even though it won't prevent weight gain on its own, more steps is always better for you."
Dr Conor Cunningham, IPH Public Health Interventions Officer said, in a February 2020 review in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports,
"This research highlights the benefits of physical activity to our physical and mental health in older age. For some time, we have known of the benefits of physical activity for our physical health; however, what is important about this research is that it highlights compelling emerging evidence of the positive effects of being physically active on our mental health--including depression, cognition, and dementia and Alzheimer's disease,"
A February 2020 study by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said,
“This study is a significant step toward developing an exercise prescription that protects the brain against [Alzheimer’s], even among people who were previously sedentary,"
"This research shows that a lifestyle behavior - regular aerobic exercise - can potentially enhance brain and cognitive functions that are particularly sensitive to the disease. The findings are especially relevant to individuals who are at a higher risk due to family history or genetic predisposition,"
"An important next step would be to conduct a larger, more definitive, study. If these findings are replicated, they would have a tremendous impact on quality of later life, providing individuals with more years of independent living, active engagement with loved ones, and building memories."
In a January 2020 study by the University of Lincoln they created a Velocity Measurement that measured time lifting the weight, distance moved and combined that with the one rep max. This gave a Load Velocity Profile for each athlete. They found,
"There are a lot of factors which can contribute to an athletes' performance on a particular day, such as how much sleep they have had, nutrition, or motivational factors, but with traditional percentage-based methods we would have no insight into how this effects their strength.”
"The velocity-based training enabled us to see if they were up or down on their normal performance and thus adjust the load accordingly. It's about making sure the athlete is lifting the optimal load for them, on that particular day. If you lift too little then you won't stimulate the body as you intend to; but if you lift too much you'll be fatigued, which increases the risk of injury.”
"This fatigue won't necessarily happen immediately, either. You could lift too much regularly, and three weeks down the line this will catch up with you and you'll find that the muscles are too fatigued to manage what you believe should be in your ability."
"While some of these changes could be considered as only "small improvements" and were similar to the group using the traditional training method, the velocity group lifted significantly less in order to see the gains they made. The idea of velocity based training has been around for a while, but until now there hasn't been any science to prove that it actually works; the science has finally caught up."
A January 2020 report by New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing said,
“Developing a better understanding of patterns of physical activity, and the individual factors related to these patterns, could inform targeted interventions to increase physical activity,"
"Since a greater variety of activities was associated with meeting exercise guidelines, mixing up your workouts to vary the type of exercise could be beneficial."
"There are several scheduling and social barriers that could explain why this pattern of shorter, frequent activity may be more attainable for women as compared to men. For instance, research shows that women have less leisure time, reporting an average of 13.2 hours of household labor per week compared to 6.6 hours for men,"
"When encouraging their patients to exercise, clinicians should not just ask about frequency, but also what types of physical activities their patients do. They may even suggest engaging in a variety of activities."
"The ultimate goal is to develop targeted interventions to help people stick to their exercise plans and lower their disease risk."
More evidence on the benefits of exercise in relation to lowering the risk of diabetes.
A November 2017 study by the University of Copenhagen looked at exercise that may lower the risk of diabetes. They said, "Our study is encouraging as the results suggest that daily activity, even at a relatively low intensity and for a short amount of time such as brisk walking, gardening and playing with grandchildren, could improve appetite and blood glucose regulation."
An October 2019 study by the University of Bath suggest that, "…changing the timing of when you eat in relation to when you exercise can bring about profound and positive changes to your overall health." And that, “…men in the study who exercised before breakfast burned double the amount of fat than the group who exercised after. Importantly, whilst this didn't have any effect on weight loss, it did dramatically improve their overall health.”
"The group who exercised before breakfast increased their ability to respond to insulin, which is all the more remarkable given that both exercise groups lost a similar amount of weight and both gained a similar amount of fitness. The only difference was the timing of the food intake."
“This work suggests that performing exercise in the overnight-fasted state can increase the health benefits of exercise for individuals, without changing the intensity, duration or perception of their effort. We now need to explore the longer-term effects of this type of exercise and whether women benefit in the same way as men."
An August 2019 study of women weight trainers, by Florida State University said,
“For far too long, people have been led to believe that eating before bed causes metabolic disturbances and will make them gain fat … However, the data simply does not support this when the food we choose to eat before bed is protein-based and small in size."
"In women who weight train, there are no differences in overnight local belly fat metabolism or whole-body fat burn whether you eat protein in the form of a protein shake during the day post-workout or at night presleep,"
"So, essentially, you can eat protein before bed and not disturb fat metabolism."
"There are such bad misconceptions about eating at night, that it will 'make me gain weight' or 'slow my metabolism,' …The research suggests that really only holds true if you're eating a ton of calories and they are carbohydrate- and/or fat-laden. There are so many potential beneficial effects of eating protein at night, and it will be extremely important to take all of this science to the community to try to change the outlook of these dietary habits."
A July 2019 study by University East Anglia found that,
“In England, participation in physical activity tends to decrease around the age of 55.”
"Frailty and pre-frailty - the decline in health, resilience and mobility often associated with ageing - are conditions previously expected to be found in people at retirement age and over. But now these conditions affect a third of British adults aged 50-65.”
"Adults are spending more years of their life working than ever before. Retiring is a life-changing event which provides all sorts of opportunities - but it coincides with declining physical activity, health and wellbeing.”
"From the age of around 55, people begin thinking about retirement and making plans for their future.”
"In order to enjoy a fit and healthy retirement, a really key thing is that people need to maintain their physical fitness through their fifties and beyond.”
"But we found that there are many barriers to this - from poor health, lack of motivation, and the cost and availability of sports, activities and fitness classes, to not having enough time - due to work or in many cases because of caring responsibilities.”
"Many respondents also felt excluded and said that sports facilities and fitness classes tended to appeal to a much younger market.”
"While retirement can free up time, deteriorating health and wellbeing often become a new barrier.”
"That's why it's so important to maintain fitness in the lead up to retirement.”
"Supporting older adults to lead active lifestyles ahead of and at retirement could ensure people are more mobile, capable and healthier once retired.”
"There is no one-size-fits all approach. But we found that activity that is combined with socialising, or other purposeful actions such as dog walking, gardening, housework, childcare or volunteering, were all good ways for over-55s to remain active.”
"With an ageing population there is also an ageing workforce who need support to age, work and retire actively,"