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1. How to Exercise Safely as It Gets Colder and Darker:
Here are a few ways to protect yourself from the elements, oncoming traffic and other threats that ramp up in the fall and winter months.
As the days shift to become shorter, darker and cooler, I have begun to worry about whether I’ll be able to continue taking daily outdoor walks. My strolls, which I can sometimes only squeeze in during the evening, feel crucial for my mental and physical health, so I don’t want to stop — but I don’t want to take undue risks, either.
Is it safe to exercise when it’s dark out? How cold is too cold? I interviewed two sports medicine physicians and an exercise scientist, all of whom are also outdoor exercise enthusiasts, to get their thoughts. The good news: Yes, you can continue exercising outdoors when the weather grows chilly — to a point.
“We bike all winter long, and we bike in the dark and the cold,” said Dr. Tom Fleeter, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine doctor based in Virginia, referring to himself and his wife. But there are extra steps you should take to stay safe from the elements, oncoming traffic and other threats that ramp up in the fall and winter months.
More...from New York Times.
2. Running outside vs treadmill: Is there actually any difference?
Here's what the latest research says about the 'running outside vs treadmill' debate.
Running outside vs treadmill – which is actually better for you? Running can be an enjoyable and effective form of cardio exercise, but many runners fall into two camps: those who love exercising outdoors and those who prefer the steady state of the best treadmills (opens in new tab). But is there really much difference between them?
To find out whether running on a treadmill can truly match the benefits of an outdoor jog, we looked at the latest research and spoke to a team of qualified physiotherapists to understand how speed, calorie expenditure, injury risk, and motivation differ depending on what version of this cardiovascular exercise we choose. And why, depending on what you’re training for, running outside might have more performance benefits than exercising on the treadmill.
More...from LiveScience.
3. Optimize Exercise: Specific Links Between Exercise, Memory, and Mental Health Revealed by Fitness Trackers:
Exercise can boost your mental and cognitive health — but not all forms and intensities of exercise affect the brain equally. In fact, according to a new Dartmouth study, the effects of exercise are much more nuanced. It found that specific intensities of exercise over a long period of time are associated with different aspects of memory and mental health. The findings were recently published in the journal Scientific Reports and provide insight into how exercise could be optimized.
“Mental health and memory are central to nearly everything we do in our everyday lives,” says lead author Jeremy Manning. He is an assistant professor of psychological and brain sciences at Dartmouth. “Our study is trying to build a foundation for understanding how different intensities of physical exercise affect different aspects of mental and cognitive health.”
For the study, the researchers enrolled 113 Fitbit users. They were asked to perform a series of memory tests, answer some questions about their mental health, and share their fitness data from the previous year. The scientists expected that more active individuals would have better memory performance and mental health, but the results were more nuanced. Participants who tended to exercise at low intensities performed better at some memory tasks while people who exercised at high intensities did better on other memory tasks. People who were more intensely active also reported higher stress levels, whereas those who regularly exercised at lower intensities showed lower rates of depression and anxiety.
More...from SciTechDaily.
4. Is it better to work out in the morning or at night?
For men, an evening workout offered more benefit. For women, the answer varied, depending on whether the goal was to burn fat or build muscle.
There is no wrong time to exercise, but there may be some times that are more right than others.
The best time of day to exercise can depend on your gender and even whether you want to burn fat or get stronger, according to a helpful new study of men, women and exercise timing.
It found that, for women, morning workouts zapped abdominal fat and improved blood pressure better than late-day training. For men, evening exercise led to greater fat burning and better blood pressure control. Evening exercise also amplified the benefits of strength training, but more so for women.
More...from The Washington Post.
5. Altra Outroad Review: One Hybrid to Rule Them All?
What You Need To Know
Weighs 9.8 oz. (277 g.) for a US M9 / 8.4 oz. (238 g.) for a US W8
Altra’s Ego midsole is no joke on road or trail
The design team has, once again, earned a raise
Do we have another all-star hybrid on our hands?
Available now for $140
TAYLOR: The life of a reviewer can be hard sometimes. I get it, your corneas met your brain before you finished reading that, but hear me out. About three times a year, we get slapped with more gear than we can wear and told to pick it apart and find what’s good and unique about several similar pieces of clothing and shoes. It might sound like a dream, and usually, it is, but I place a lot of importance on giving you, as readers, the best information I can.
One of the hardest parts of reviewing is deciding how to pack for a trip. I have to carefully weigh out which shoe or shoes I’ll bring. If I’m heading to the motherland (Minnesota), I need a pair of road shoes and at least a couple trail shoes, which starts a slippery slope. Once I decide on one pair, I might think about a second pair for longer gravel runs. Eventually, my bag is full of shoes, and my wife is annoyed as we can only fit one shirt and one change of underwear per person in the remaining space.
More...from Belive in the Run.
6. It's not just a fad! Swimming in cold water may help you lose weight and protect against diabetes, major review finds:
Swimming in waters with 20C or lower temperatures could cut 'bad' body fat
Also appears to protect against insulin resistance - which can lead to diabetes
Scientists believe cold water triggers the release of fat-busting hormones
It might seem like the last thing you want to do as we head into the winter months.
But going for a swim in cold water could help you lose weight and protect against diabetes, research suggests.
A major review found it could cut 'bad' body fat in men and protect against insulin resistance, which can lead to blood-sugar problems.
More...from the World Athletics.
But the book Marathon Wisdom from Amazon.
8. A Fitness Guide to Preventing Dangerous Falls in Old Age:
Costly tumbles amongst seniors are an epidemic. Get ahead of them now.
Someone over the age of 65 falls down every second in the United States.
That’s a ton of tumbles, and it speaks to the physical toll that frailty — an aging condition we have long accepted as inevitable — takes on the body. Weaker muscles, weaker vision and weaker neural pathways team up to turn the simplest sidewalks into an obstacle course, while turning uneven terrain, icy driveways, and even one’s basement stairs positively perilous.
The trend is an unheralded epidemic, too often framed as an unfortunate and natural consequence of growing old. It’s too costly to overlook, though; of the 36 million tumbles reported last year, 32,000 were fatal. Millions of others led to broken wrists, hip fractures or head trauma. An initial visit to the emergency room can trigger a cascade of additional medical issues, impacting both the mobility and mental health of senior citizens.
More...from InsideHook.
9. Can Ice Baths Help You Burn Body Fat? New Research Says Yes:
* A new study suggests that ice baths may help burn body fat.
* Cold water exposure also appears to protect against insulin resistance and diabetes.
* Other health benefits were less clear, however.
* Experts suggest starting slow and doing your homework before you begin.
The authors of a new review published in the International Journal of Circumpolar Health say that taking a dip in cold water may be just the thing if you are looking to reduce the amount of unhealthy body fat that you have.
Cold water exposure might also lower your risk for certain conditions such as diabetes, they explain. It seems to increase the amount of a hormone called “adiponectin” that is made by adipose tissue. Adiponectin plays an important part in preventing insulin resistance, a state where the muscles, fat, and liver become less responsive to insulin
More...from Healthline.
10. 3 Ways To Cope With Pre-Race Nerves:
“I don’t think I ever went into a race, even a smaller local race, where I wasn’t nervous.” The words of Ironman legend Dave Scott are a reminder that pre-race nerves affect everyone, from amateur athletes to the elite performers who seemingly win races for fun.
The tell-tale signs of pre-race jitters - clammy hands, an increased heart rate, excessive sweating, thoughts of ‘why am I doing this?’ - will have affected most athletes at one stage or another, and the reaction to the situation can be attributed to the ‘fight or flight’ response of our autonomic nervous system.
What causes pre-race nerves?
One of the earliest theories that attempts to explain nerves in relation to sporting competition is that the body elicits a ‘fight or flight response’ - which is the body’s automatic reaction to perceived harm or stress. Races and competitions are seen as potential stressors because they threaten an individual’s self-esteem.
More...from Precision Hydration.
11. How Elite Runners Train When They’re Pregnant:
ew data outlines how much they run, how long it takes to resume training after giving birth, and how well they return to competition.
When Elle Purrier St. Pierre, the 27-year-old Olympic miler and multiple American record-holder, announced her pregnancy a few weeks ago, fans were surprised. I was too, even though I recently wrote about a study suggesting that pregnancy doesn’t alter the career trajectory of elite runners. Old habits die hard, and the knee-jerk assumption that motherhood will derail an athlete’s career remains deeply entrenched—which makes another newly published study about the impact of pregnancy on training and performance in elite runners all the more important.
A team of researchers in Canada led by Francine Darroch of the University of Ottawa and Trent Stellingwerff of the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific recruited 42 elite distance runners, more than half of whom had competed at the Olympics or World Championships at distances ranging from 1,500 meters to the marathon. Using their training logs, the runners reported how their training changed before, during, and after their first pregnancy, which occurred at ages ranging from 20 to 42 years old. The researchers also analyzed how their publicly available competition results changed.
More...from Sweat Science on Outside Online.
12. Exercise with weights linked to lower risk of early death, study says:
Older adults could benefit from routine including aerobics and strengthening activities, according to researchers.
Regularly exercising with weights is linked to a lower risk of premature death, according to the largest study of its kind.
And ensuring your weekly exercise routine includes both weights and aerobic activities appears to have an even greater beneficial effect, researchers say. Their findings were published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Adults are urged to take part in at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity a week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity activity.
In addition, they are encouraged to do “strengthening activities” that work on the legs, hips, back, abdomen, chest, shoulders and arms at least two days a week.
While aerobic exercise is consistently associated with a lower risk of premature death, until now it was not clear if working out with weights might have similar effects.
More from The Guardian.
13. 5 Morning Stretches to Get Your Day Started Right:
Not a morning person? Not a problem. In the 5 minutes in between hitting the snooze button, you can set the tone for your entire day.
Mornings can be tricky. You may like to imagine yourself leisurely rolling out of bed for that early-morning swim or ride, but the reality is that most mornings you’re more likely to silently curse your alarm clock and groggily fiddle with the coffee machine while trying to talk yourself into getting that workout done.
The beginning of anything is a powerful time to create the tone for what we hope to come. Set an intention for what we hope to accomplish. It’s the reason why we make resolutions at the New Year. It’s also why we take a prolonged, and often pivotal, pause at the start of each yoga class. And, as we’re learning more and more with recent research, it’s why we need to take a few minutes for ourselves each morning as we begin the day.
What if setting your intention for your day was as simple as stretching your body first thing in the morning? And what if you didn’t even need to get out of bed to do that? Simply stretching in your bed for a few minutes right after waking up can have a profound impact on the rest of your day, and this 5-pose sequence will help you do just that.
More...from Triathlete.
14. UCI to host road championships for Afghan women next month in Switzerland:
The Afghan women racers will complete two laps of a 28.5km circuit near the UCI headquarters.
Afghan women racers who were evacuated last year in the aftermath of the Taliban takeover will be racing next month for the 2022 Afghanistan Women’s National Championships.
The UCI confirmed the date set for October 23 near the UCI’s headquarters in Aigle, Switzerland.
“The organization of the 2022 Women’s Road Championships of Afghanistan is part of the continuing efforts of the UCI and its partners to support and assist the Afghan Cycling Federation,” UCI officials said.
More...from VeloNews.
15. He’s Probably the Best Athlete Alive. Does Anyone Care?:
After his world record-setting win in Berlin, Eliud Kipchoge has now won 15 marathons in 10 years
Midway through the London Marathon in 2020, Eliud Kipchoge started to fall off the pace.
This defied reason. He’d won his last 10 marathons in a row, including four of the last five London Marathons. It would’ve been five had he not sat out the 2017 spring season to try and break two hours in a Nike-led project at Monza, the iconic Formula 1 racetrack. (He ran a 2:00:25, then ran a 1:59:40 two years later, over a similarly “staged” effort in Vienna.)
So to see Kipchoge drift from the front at the end of 2020, however bizarre the year’s iteration of the event was — on account of COVID, it was run in the fall and featured multiple loops around the city’s St. James’s Park — was firmly less likely than seeing the Kenyan win the race. The last time he hadn’t won a marathon was in 2013, when he’d finished just 40 seconds behind his countryman Wilson Kiprotich — who’d set a world record.
Kipchoge refused to make any excuses a couple years ago in London, though reports quickly emerged that he’d been battling a blocked ear (which impaired his breathing) and a cramped hip on the way to a relatively pedestrian eighth-place finish.
More...from InsideHook.
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