8
7
70 cleaneating.com
You could sleep better
Although higher-quality sleep can boost your fi tness performance, the opposite is true,
too: Exercise can enhance your sleep. In a study in Advances in Preventive Medicine,
29 of the 34 studies evaluated concluded that exercise improved either the quality or
duration of sleep, especially among middle-aged and older adults. Although aerobic exercise
tended to have the strongest positive impact on sleep, even resistance training, yoga and tai
chi were shown to improve it. But what if you’re stuck exercising close to bedtime? In a study
from Experimental Physiology with 11 middle-aged men, logging a 30-minute high-intensity
workout in the early evening didn’t disrupt sleep. Although researchers can’t say if women
would get the same benefi ts, they say that as long as exercise isn’t hindering your usual
sleep, exercise in the evening should be fi ne. One caveat: Make sure you’re not sacrifi cing
sleep by moving your bedtime back just to log a workout.You’ll keep
diabetes at bay
The American Diabetes
Association has long recommended
exercise as a preventive strategy
against diabetes. But just going to
the gym may not cut it. A recent
study of 2,000 individuals aged
40 to 75 found that diabetes was
less common in people who not
only had good cardiorespiratory
fitness but also did higher amounts
of high-intensity physical activity
(more than 22 minutes every week
for men and over 30 minutes for
women) and spent less time being
sedentary during the day (less than
9.3 hours a day for men and 8.1
hours for women). The surprise?
“A person who is considered to
be fit in our study but has a high
sitting time still has increased risk
for diabetes and the metabolic
syndrome compared to other fit
people who sit less,” says Jeroen
van der Velde, PhD, lead study
author from Maastricht University
in The Netherlands. One way
devout gym-goers can lower their
sit time? For every 30 minutes that
you sit, take a quick standing or
moving break.6 | You could learn a new motor skill faster
Learning to play the guitar or master the fl oss dance? It might be wise
to schedule a quick bout of exercise after learning that new skill. In
one study from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, people who
exercised immediately after practicing a tracking skill on a computer
had better motor-skill retention after 24 hours (which included a good
night’s sleep). Researchers note that this could be due to an increase in
metabolism, essentially bringing fresh blood to the brain. Bonus? Just
15 minutes of exercise can do the trick.ALARM^CLOCK^ILLUSTRATION^ BY^ DOREMI/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM,^ TENNIS^ PHOTO^ BY^4PMPRODUCTION/SHUTTERSTOCK.COMKaren Asp
FREELANCE JOURNALIST, FORT WAYNE, INDIANA
Asp notes that everything she does is for her health. She lives by the philosophy,
“How will this benefi t my future self?” and puts those words into practice by getting
regular exercise, prioritizing sleep, eating leafy greens and living clean.HEALTH