Muscle & Fitness Australia - Issue 352 - June 2017

JUNE 2017 MUSCLE & FITNESS 19

FITNESS NEWS TRAIN

LOWER RISK

OF DEATH

■ A WORKOUT PER DAY...

Scientists at the University of Sydney

analysed a mass of data on more than

60,000 people and discovered that

active adults — those who logged

150 minutes of moderate exercise or

75 minutes of vigorous exercise each

week — had about a 30% lower risk

of death from all causes than adults

who never got off their lazy arses.

SIMON-MCDERMOTT JOHNSON; GETTY IMAGES (3)

CARDIO

TAKE THE STAIRS

■ Scientists at McMaster University

in Canada had subjects perform two

different 10-minute workouts three

times per week. The first phase had

subjects go all out on a StairMaster for

three sessions of 20 seconds each. The

second experiment had them run one or

two flights of stairs in the same manner,

but for three 60-second periods.

Both protocols increased peak oxygen

uptake, by 12% in the first phase and

by 7% in the second, indicating that

just 30 minutes of stair climbing can

improve cardiovascular health.

MINUTES OF EXERCISE

■ Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine,

US, found that just one 20-minute bout of exercise

— in this case, running at a moderate pace on the

treadmill — was all that was needed to boost your

(^20) immune system by 5%.
FOCUS
BELONG
STOP PHONING IT IN
■ Researchers at Hiram College in the US
analysed 45 college students as they worked
out while texting, talking or listening to tunes.
A separate control group did calisthenics
and/or cardio without phones. Unsurprisingly,
swiping right mid-workout makes it harder to
focus on your push-ups and burpees. Texting
also reduces “postural stability” — the egghead
term for how well you can stay balanced — by
45%, the researchers found, and talking on the
phone mid-exercise hurts balance by 19%.
JOIN A GYM
■ Exercise researchers at
Iowa State University, US,
used data on more than 400
subjects to compare those
who belonged to a gym with
those who didn’t. The results
found that 75% of the gym-
membership holders met the
US recommended physical
activity guidelines, while only
18% of non-members met
that standard. Gym-joiners
also had a smaller waist and
a lower resting heart rate
(by five beats per minute).