Category: Exercise

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Weightlifting Beats Running for Glycaemic Control, Researchers Find

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Study shows that resistance training outperforms endurance exercise in improving insulin sensitivity in obesity and Type 2 diabetes models.

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Running may help burn calories, but when it comes to preventing diabetes and obesity, pumping iron might have the edge, according to preclinical findings from Virginia Tech scientists at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.

The research, published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, compared the effects of endurance and resistance exercise in mice fed a high-fat diet, a widely used model of obesity, hyperglycaemia, and Type 2 diabetes.

A team led by exercise medicine researcher Zhen Yan found that while both running and weightlifting helped the body clear excess sugar from the blood, resistance training was more effective in reducing subcutaneous and visceral fat, improving glucose tolerance, and lowering insulin resistance – key factors in preventing and managing diabetes.

“We all want to live a long, healthy life,” said Prof Yan, director of the Center for Exercise Medicine Research. “We all know the benefits of regular exercise. There is plenty of evidence in humans that both endurance exercise, such as running, and resistance exercise, such as weightlifting, are effective in promoting insulin sensitivity.” 

But while both support metabolic function, a rigorous side-by-side comparison was lacking. Is one type of exercise better than the other? 

What they did

To conduct the first direct, controlled comparison, members of the research team built something that had not previously existed: a mouse model of weightlifting.

In this model, mice lived in specially designed cages where food was accessed through a hinged, weighted lid. To eat, the mice had to lift the lid while wearing a small shoulder collar, causing a squat-like movement that engaged the muscle contractions people use during resistance exercise. The load was gradually increased over several days, mimicking progressive strength training.

For the endurance group, mice were given open access to a running wheel, an established model of aerobic exercise. Control groups included sedentary mice on either a normal or high-fat diet.

Over eight weeks, the researchers monitored weight gain, body composition, and fat distribution. They tested exercise capacity with treadmill runs, assessed heart and muscle function, and measured how well the mice regulated blood sugar. They also analyzed skeletal muscle tissue to study insulin signaling at the molecular level.

Using their novel model of resistance exercise, team members were able to directly compare how the two training styles affect obesity, blood glucose, and insulin sensitivity in a way that closely mirrors human exercise.

“Our data showed that both running and weightlifting reduce fat in the abdomen and under the skin and improve blood glucose maintenance with better insulin signaling in skeletal muscle,” Yan said. “Importantly, weightlifting outperforms running in these health benefits.”

Why this matters

Diabetes and obesity are major public health challenges, fuelled by sedentary lifestyles and high-fat diets. The findings underscore decades of clinical trials showing that endurance, resistance, and high-intensity interval training all reduce HbA1c while also lowering body mass index, blood pressure, and improving quality of life.

The new Virginia Tech study, which also involves collaborators from the University of Virginia, helps fill a critical gap by directly comparing voluntary running and weightlifting in a controlled, preclinical model of diet-induced obesity.

“The findings also bring good news for people who, for any number of reasons, cannot engage in endurance-type exercise,” Yan said. “Weight training has equal, if not better, anti-diabetes benefits.”

The researchers also saw changes in skeletal muscle signaling pathways that could inform new drug therapies for Type 2 diabetes.

Interestingly, the benefits of resistance training were not explained by changes in muscle mass or exercise performance, suggesting unique metabolic mechanisms at play.

Yan said the study underscores the idea that, while popular drug interventions like GLP-1 agonists can help with diabetes management and weight loss, they do not replace the unique, accessible, and comprehensive benefits of a well-balanced exercise programme. 

“The take-home message is that you should do both endurance and resistance exercise, if possible, to get the most health benefit,” said Yan, who is also a professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. 

Source: Virginia Tech

Categories : Exercise GenderTags :

Gender Equality Universally Linked to Physical Capacity

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Fitness amongst young adults varies widely from one country to another, and is strongly associated with both socioeconomic development and gender equality, a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science reports. The results indicate that levels of development and gender equality in a society can affect differences in physical capacity and therefore public health in general.

Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is an important factor of health and life-expectancy. For this present study, researchers systematically reviewed data from 95 studies in 24 countries involving a total of over 119 000 adult participants.  

CRF is measured by what is known as the VO2peak, which is the highest oxygen uptake a body achieves during physical exertion.  

The group, which included researchers from KI and Shanghai University of Sport, studied correlations between CRF, the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Gender Inequality Index (GII).  

HDI is a measure of societal parameters like education, income and life-expectancy, while GII reflects differences between women and men in terms of health, education and labour. 

Clear correlation in women 

The results show that people in countries with a higher HDI were, on average, fitter, a correlation that was particularly salient amongst women, where young women in countries with a medium HDI had a higher VO2peak than women in countries with a low HDI (31.2 versus 28.5mL/kg/min). However, a further HDI increase from medium to high gave only small improvements. 

“Our results suggest that societal structures impact greatly on people’s access to exercise and thus their fitness levels,” says the study’s lead author Nicolas Pillon, researcher at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, KI. 

The study also shows that higher gender equality (a lower GII) correlates with a higher level of fitness in both women and men. Again, the difference was the most notable amongst young women, who in countries with high gender equality had on average a 6.5mL/kg/min higher VO2peak than their peers in countries with low gender equality. 

“Our results underpin the importance of societal interventions and guidelines that reduce social and gender-related hindrances to physical exercise but point out that more research is needed from countries with a lower HDI, and on the obstacles facing different ethnic and socioeconomic communities,” says Barbara Ainsworth, researcher at Shanghai University of Sport and head of the study. 

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

Number of Steps Matters More for Older Women’s Health than the Frequency

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4000 steps once/twice weekly is associated with 26% lower risk of death rising to 40% if done on 3 days of the week – but it’s daily step count rather than number of days that matters, findings suggest 

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Clocking up at least 4000 daily steps on just 1 or 2 days per week is linked to a lower risk of death and cardiovascular disease among older women, according to research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This large prospective study examined not only how many steps older women take but how often they reach their step targets across the week, addressing a key gap in current physical activity guidelines.

Researchers found that achieving at least 4000 steps per day on 1-2 days per week was associated with a significantly lower risk of death and lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), compared with not reaching this level on any day.

A large body of evidence shows that lifelong physical activity is important for improving the healthspan, say the researchers. But it’s not entirely clear how much physical activity people should do as they age to reap appreciable health benefits, particularly in respect of step counts which are yet to make it into physical activity guideline recommendations, they add.

To explore this further, they set out to look at the associations between daily step counts of between 4000 and 7000 and death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease in older women.

They also wanted to find out if the total number of daily steps might drive any observed associations, rather than the frequency of achieving step count thresholds, with a view to informing future guidelines–in particular the US Physical Activity Guidelines, the next edition of which is planned for 2028.

The study followed 13547 women (average age 71) from the US Women’s Health Study who wore accelerometers (activity trackers) for seven consecutive days between 2011–2015 and were tracked for nearly 11 years. The women were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start of the study.

During the monitoring period of nearly 11 years up to the end of 2024, 1765 women (13%) died and 781 (5%) developed cardiovascular disease.

Clocking up at least 4000 steps/day on 1–2 days of the week was associated with a 26% lower risk of death from all causes and a 27% lower risk of a cardiovascular disease death compared with not reaching this threshold on any day of the week.

For those achieving this step count on at least 3 days of the week, the lower risk of death from any cause increased to 40%, but remained at 27% for the risk of cardiovascular death.

But while higher daily step counts of 5000 to 7000 on 3 or more days of the week were associated with a further fall in all-cause mortality risk (32%) they were associated with a levelling out in cardiovascular disease mortality risk (16%).

When the findings were adjusted to take account of average daily steps, previously observed associations weakened, suggesting that [average] steps is the key driver of the protective effect, suggest the researchers.

This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. The researchers also acknowledge that physical activity was assessed only for 1 week, and therefore couldn’t account for variations in behaviour over longer periods, nor did they have information on dietary patterns.

Nevertheless, they suggest: “The present study….suggests that frequency of meeting daily step thresholds is not critical (even 1–2 days/week of ≥4000 steps/day was related to lower mortality and CVD), and that step volume is more important than the frequency of meeting daily step thresholds in the older population.”

And they go on to explain: “An important translational implication of these findings is that since step volume is the important driver of the inverse associations, there is no ‘better’ or ‘best’ pattern to take steps; individuals can undertake [physical activity] in any preferred pattern (eg, ‘slow and steady’ vs ‘bunched patterns’) for lower mortality and CVD risk, at least among older women.”

They conclude: “These findings provide additional evidence for considering including step metrics in the next [physical activity] guidelines, and that ‘bunching’ steps is a viable option for health.”

Source: BMJ Group

Categories : Exercise Metabolic DisordersTags :

Remission Achievable for 1 in 3 Indian Diabetics Through Intensive App-based Lifestyle Programme

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Across 2384 Indian adults with type 2 diabetes, 31% achieved remission through a comprehensive mobile-based programme combining diet, exercise, stress management, and medical support

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Nearly one-third of people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in an Indian cohort achieved remission through an intensive lifestyle intervention program, according to a new study publishing October 22, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Pramod Tripathi of Freedom from Diabetes Clinic & Diabetes Research Foundation, India, and colleagues.

Type 2 diabetes affects more than 72 million people in India. While lifestyle interventions have shown promise for diabetes management in Western populations, limited data exists on their effectiveness in India, where genetic and lifestyle factors place the population at higher risk.

In the new study, researchers analysed data from 2384 adults with T2D who enrolled in a one-year online intensive lifestyle intervention programme at the Freedom from Diabetes Clinic in India between May 2021 and August 2023. The intervention, provided by a six-member care team through a mobile application, included a personalised plant-based diet, structured physical activity, group therapy and individual psychological counselling, and medication management.

Overall, 744 participants (31.2%) achieved diabetes remission, defined as maintaining glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) levels below 48mmol/mol for at least three months without glucose-lowering medications. The remission group showed significantly greater improvements than the non-remission group in weight (8.5% vs 5.2% reduction), body mass index (8.6% vs 5.2% reduction), HbA1c (15.3% vs 12.4% reduction), fasting insulin (26.6% vs 11.4% reduction), and insulin resistance (37.3% vs.19.7% reduction). People under 50 years of age, with higher BMI, no prior medication use, and a shorter duration of diabetes (<6 years) were most likely to achieve remission. 

The study was limited by its retrospective design and lack of a control group. Because the programme required a subscription and participants who lacked follow up data were excluded from the analysis, there may have been selection biases. However, the authors conclude that a significant proportion of individuals with T2D can achieve remission through a comprehensive, culturally adapted lifestyle programme.

The authors add: “Our research demonstrates that nearly one-third of individuals with type 2 diabetes can achieve remission through a scientifically designed, culturally tailored, and structured lifestyle intervention. This represents the first large-scale evidence from India highlighting the potential of intensive lifestyle modification in achieving type 2 diabetes remission.”

Provided by PLOS

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Improvements in Mental Health Best Predict Life Satisfaction

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A new model for evaluating changes to life satisfaction can be used to inform public health measures to improve people’s sense of wellbeing.

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Unsplash

 On October 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health, Steve Haake from Sheffield Hallam University and colleagues published a model for evaluating life satisfaction. They demonstrate their model using participants in a weekly running event as a case study, finding that increases in health, especially mental health, most strongly predict improvements in life satisfaction.  

 In the UK, where the study was conducted, the average life satisfaction on a scale of 0 to 10 is 7.5, as last measured in 2024. Personality is the most significant factor for a person’s life satisfaction, but many other factors that are more variable over time—such as relationship status or economic conditions—also influence how people feel about their lives. Health is another major contributor to a person’s general feelings of wellbeing, and thus the researchers aimed to evaluate how regularly participating in communal physical activity increases ratings of life satisfaction. 

The study focused on participants of a free, weekly 5k event called Parkrun, over 78,000 of whom responded to a survey about their life satisfaction. The survey included questions about other factors that can influence someone’s sense of fulfillment, including general health status and activity levels both before and throughout their participation in Parkrun events. The researchers matched these survey responses to almost a million participants who had done at least one parkrun in the previous 12 months. 

 A sense of improved health was most closely tied to increases in life satisfaction. The majority of Parkrun participants were already highly active and rated their health as “good” or “very good.” However, when the researchers looked at individuals who rated their health as “very bad” at the start of their participation in Parkrun, they found that these people had much greater capacity to improve their increases in life satisfaction compared to people who initially viewed their health as “good.” 

While physical health also had significant effects, the biggest changes in life satisfaction were related to mental health. The survey asked participants about their happiness, general mental wellbeing, and feelings of personal achievement and fun. Higher ratings of these responses were most closely related to growing life satisfaction. 

 The researchers were also able to measure differences for variables not affected by participation in the activity, such as age and gender. Age has a non-linear relationship with life satisfaction, being the lowest in early middle age, and older people were more likely to report a sense of improvement in life satisfaction. This was also true of women compared to men. 

In addition to the health and life satisfaction benefits, the estimated economic benefits of parkrun to the UK economy were estimated to be £668m. This included £75m for the number of runs or walks completed (£1.92 per run or walk per person), £132m for the increase in activity after participation, and £463m for an estimated improvement to health status of 3% (found in a previous study).

 Not only can these data inform public health measures, such as organized physical activity, but this study presents a model for evaluating changes to life satisfaction that can be more broadly applied.

The authors add: “Our previous paper showed that life satisfaction increased for those participating in parkrun – what we didn’t know was how parkrun ‘worked’.  This new paper has given us an answer to this question: health status, increases in activity level and the pleasure from cumulative parkruns.  Rather than the physical aspects of parkrun, it is the improvements to mental health that are most important, things like happiness, a sense of personal achievement and having fun.  Importantly, we now have a model that we can use for any public health initiative, even if it’s not related to health.  In a world of limited resources, the model is a useful way of working out which initiatives are most effective.”

Provided by PLOS

Categories : Diet and Nutrition ExerciseTags :

Not All Animal Proteins Are Equal When it Comes to Muscle Building

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A new study tracked the acute muscle-building response in adults engaged in a weight-training exercise who were fed either high-fat or lean ground pork burgers with the same amount of protein in each. The findings surprised the scientists, adding to the evidence that muscle-protein synthesis in response to weight-training and a post-exercise meal is as complex as the high-protein foods people consume.

The study is reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

“What we’re finding is that not all high-quality animal protein foods are created equal,” said Nicholas Burd, a professor of health and kinesiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who led the research with graduate student Žan Zupančič.  

A previous study from Burd’s lab found that consuming whole eggs after weight training was better for muscle-protein synthesis than eating only egg whites with equal amounts of protein. Another study from his lab revealed that eating salmon showed a more favourable rate of muscle-building after weight training than a processed mixture containing the same nutrients in the same proportions as the salmon.

These studies suggest that whole foods are better at stimulating post-workout protein synthesis than their processed counterparts, and that the fat content of whole foods may, in some circumstances, improve the rate of muscle-building, Burd said.

In the new study, the researchers used state-of-the-art methods to trace and calculate muscle-protein synthesis in 16 young, physically active adults. The team turned to the U. of I.’s Meat Science Laboratory for formulation of the pork patties.

“That took us a year because it was so hard to get those fat ratios correct,” Burd said. All the meat used in the study came from a single pig, and the researchers sent the patties off to another laboratory for analysis. Once the lean-to-fat ratios and other macros were confirmed, the pork burgers were frozen until needed in the feeding part of the study.

Before the weight-training and feeding intervention, all participants received an infusion of isotope-labeled amino acids. This allowed the researchers to track how quickly the labeled amino acids were incorporated into muscle. The team also took blood samples throughout the study to measure amino acid levels in participants’ blood.

Before and after the first two hours of the infusion, researchers took muscle biopsies of each participant to get a baseline measure of muscle-protein synthesis.

“And then we took them to the gym,” Burd said. “And they were wheeling that infusion pump and everything else with them.”

At the gym, the study subjects engaged in an acute bout of leg presses and leg extensions and then returned to the lab for a meal of either a high-fat pork burger, a lean pork burger or a carbohydrate drink. Five hours after the meal, another muscle biopsy was taken to measure protein synthesis in response to the weight-training and feeding intervention.

After a break of a few days, 14 of the 16 participants “crossed over, switching to a different feeding intervention to minimise the impact of individual differences in muscle-building responses,” Burd said.

The analysis revealed, as expected, that the amino acid content of the blood was significantly higher in those who ate pork than in those who consumed a carbohydrate drink. But the lean-pork group saw the greatest gains in amino acid levels in the blood. This was true for total and essential amino acids, the team found.

“When you see an increased concentration of amino acids in the blood after you eat, you get a pretty good idea that that is coming from the food that you just ate,” Burd said.

Those who consumed the lean pork burger after a bout of weight training also had a greater rate of muscle-protein synthesis than those who ate the high-fat pork burger. This was a surprise to Burd, as “the previous studies using fattier foods, such as whole eggs or salmon, generally showed enhanced post-exercise muscle-protein synthesis compared with lower fat food such as egg whites or nutritional supplements,” he said.

Although weight training boosted muscle-protein synthesis in the groups eating pork, the protein in the high-fat burger seemed to have no added benefit in the hours after participants consumed it, while the protein in the lean pork gave muscle-protein synthesis a boost.

“For some reason, the high-fat pork truly blunted the response,” Burd said. “In fact, the people who ate the high-fat pork only had slightly better muscle-building potential than those who drank a carbohydrate sports beverage after exercise.”

Interpreting the results of this study for people who want to optimise muscle gains from weight-training is tricky, Burd said. It could be that processing the ground pork patties, which involved grinding the meat and adding the fattier meat to the lean, affected the kinetics of digestion.

“There was a little larger rise in the amino acids available from eating lean pork, so it could have been a bigger trigger for muscle-protein synthesis,” Burd said. “But that seems to be specific to the ground pork. If you’re eating other foods, like eggs or salmon, the whole foods appear to be better despite not eliciting a large rise in blood amino acids.”

Burd stresses that exercise is the strongest stimulus for muscle-protein synthesis.

“Most of the muscle response is to weight-training, and we use nutrition to try to squeeze out the remaining potential,” he said. “When it comes to eating after weight-training, what we’re finding is that some foods, particularly whole, unprocessed foods seem to be a better stimulus.”

Burd also is a professor of nutritional sciences and is affiliated with the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at the U. of I.

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

Categories : Exercise NeurologyTags :

More Research Shows that Yoga May Also Protect Brain Health

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Photo by RDNE Stock project

Anyone who has taken a yoga class knows how relaxing it can be to set aside the day’s worries and focus on breathing, gentle movements, healing stretches and guided meditation, even if just for an hour.

A growing body of research suggests the soothing powers of yoga may go further than temporarily easing the day’s stress. Yoga is emerging as a potential prescription to boost brain power, offset cognitive decline and help prevent dementia.

“The evidence behind yoga has really picked up,” said Dr Neha Gothe, an associate professor and director of the PhD in Human Movement and Rehabilitation Sciences programme at Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University in Boston. “So far, it points toward the potential for it to protect brain health as we are aging.”

Exercise for an aging brain

Research into the health benefits of yoga – the origins of which trace back to 2500 to 5000 years ago – didn’t begin in earnest until the 2000s, when the practice began to surge in popularity in the US, Gothe said. Since then, yoga practice has been shown to have a positive influence on physical as well as mental health, with studies finding it may benefit cardiovascular function, musculoskeletal conditions and overall mental well-being.

More recently, researchers have turned their attention to yoga’s potential benefits on brain health, an area of growing interest as the population ages and the number of adults developing dementia and cognitive decline rises. In the U.S., about 1 in 5 people 65 and older are living with mild cognitive impairment, and 1 in 7 have some type of dementia. Researchers predict a doubling of new dementia cases in the U.S. over the next several decades.

While there is strong evidence that physical activity can benefit brain health and help slow cognitive decline, aging adults are not always able to reach the recommended 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorously intense physical activity needed to reap these benefits. Federal guidelines also recommend muscle-strengthening activities at least two days a week.

What the research shows about yoga

Yoga – which combines physical movement with breath work and meditation – may offer a more accessible alternative or supplement to other types of exercise, Gothe said.

Studies have shown yoga may have a positive effect on both brain structure and function. In a 2019 analysis of the evidence, Gothe found yoga could hold promise as a means of offsetting age-related and neurodegenerative declines in several regions of the brain. And in another small study comparing yoga practitioners to age- and sex-matched controls, she found women who practiced yoga regularly had more grey matter – the part of the brain that controls memory, thought and movement – and better working memory than those who didn’t.

In some cases, the ancient practice may even be better for the brain than other types of physical activity. In another small study, Gothe found cancer survivors who practiced yoga for 12 weeks reported greater cognitive improvement than those who engaged in aerobic and stretching-toning exercises.

For people who can’t engage in more vigorous activities, it’s certainly more accessible, Gothe said.

“Yoga is just as good as any other form of physical activity, such as walking or stretching,” she said. “For individuals who may not be able to engage in those activities, especially older adults who have other conditions, such as knee pain or arthritis, yoga is a neat alternative to traditional forms of exercise and is very modifiable to accommodate an individual’s abilities.”

How does yoga help?

An explanation for yoga’s brain health benefits may be the close connection yoga forms between the mind and body.

Gothe and her colleagues found the cognitive benefits of yoga may stem from limiting prolonged exposure to stress and inflammation, improving stress regulation and helping the brain communicate better with the body to work more efficiently.

“We have a lot of evidence at this point telling a cohesive story about a mind-body connection with brain health,” said Dr Helen Lavretsky, a professor of psychiatry in-residence and director of integrative psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Lavretsky has led numerous studies on the cognitive benefits of yoga, looking specifically at Kundalini yoga. This type of yoga blends physical postures with meditation and breathing techniques that focus on relaxation, healing and self-awareness.

In several studies, Lavretsky’s team compared Kundalini yoga to memory enhancement training in postmenopausal women: those who practised yoga experienced greater improvements in memory and cognitive function, including executive function, and were able to better prevent grey matter atrophy.

In a separate analysis of published research, Lavretsky looked more broadly at mind-body practices, including yoga and meditation. The review suggested that these practices improved brain function because they were targeting the area of the brain involved in regulating attention, emotional control, mood and cognition.

“Yoga and other mind-body therapies have an effect on stress reduction and other things that underlie brain health,” Lavretsky said. “Our research shows they are well equipped to reduce inflammation, stress, improve sleep and mental health.”

Making yoga a regular practice

How much and what type of yoga is needed to accrue these benefits remains unclear.

While Lavretsky’s studies involved Kundalini yoga, Gothe said her studies mostly involved Hatha yoga, the most widely practiced form. Both blend physical postures with breathing exercises, while Kundalini incorporates more spiritual and meditation elements.

Most studies involve at least eight weeks of yoga, with hourlong classes at least two or three times a week, Gothe said. But “there are no rigorous dose-response studies. So we don’t know exactly what dose is necessary to get an improvement in cognitive performance.”

Even so, yoga shouldn’t be considered a quick fix, Gothe said. To maintain benefits, it’s important to keep up the practice.

“It is a ‘use it or lose it’ phenomena,” she said. “If you continue practicing, you will continue to see improvement. But if you stop, you go back to square one.”

The good news is it’s never too late to begin accruing those benefits, Lavretsky said. She encourages people to begin at a young age, so they have a tool for stress management whenever it’s needed.

“The benefit of starting earlier is that it becomes a lifelong skill,” she said. “But yoga has benefits no matter what your age is.”

Source: American Heart Association

Categories : Cancer ExerciseTags :

Bouts of Exercise Could Help in the Fight Against Cancer

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A single bout of either resistance or high intensity interval training could help in the cancer battle, new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has found.

ECU PhD student Mr Francesco Bettariga found that a single bout of exercise increased the levels of myokines, a protein produced by muscles which has anti-cancer effects, and which could reduce the proliferation of cancer growth by 20 to 30 per cent.

“Exercise has emerged as a therapeutic intervention in the management of cancer, and a large body of evidence exists that shows the safety and effectiveness of exercise as medicine, either during or post cancer treatment,” Mr Bettariga said, first author of the study which appears in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment.

His research with survivors of breast cancer measured myokine levels before, immediately after and 30 minutes post a single bout of either resistance of high intensity interval training and found that both sets of exercise had a resultant increase in myokine levels.

While higher levels of myokines were expected in a healthy population, post a vigorous workout, Mr Bettariga investigated whether breast cancer survivors would see the same results, given the impact that cancer treatments and cancer itself often has on the body.

“The results from the study show that both types of exercise really work to produce these anti-cancer myokines in breast cancer survivors. The results from this study are excellent motivators to add exercise as standard care in the treatment of cancer,” Mr Bettariga said.

He added that the long-term implications of elevated myokine levels should be further investigated, particularly in relation to cancer recurrence.

Further research by Mr Bettariga investigated how changes in body composition, following consistent exercise, could impact inflammation, which plays a key role in breast cancer recurrence and mortality by promoting tumour progression.

Persistent inflammation not only promotes tumour progression by influencing cell proliferation, survival, invasiveness, and metastasis, but also inhibits immune function. Given that the cancer itself and the side-effects of treatments can elevate levels of inflammatory biomarkers, survivors of breast cancer are at increased risk of cancer progression, recurrence and mortality.

“Strategies are needed to reduce inflammation which may provide a less supportive environment for cancer progression, leading to a lower risk of recurrence and mortality in survivors of breast cancer,” Mr Bettariga said.

The new research found that by reducing fat mass and increasing lean mass, through consistent and persistent exercise, cancer survivors had a better chance at reducing inflammation.

“If we are able to improve body composition, we have a better chance of decreasing inflammation because we are improving lean mass and reducing fat mass, which is responsible for releasing anti and pro-inflammatory markers,” Mr Bettariga said.

Unfortunately, quick fixes to reduce fat mass would not have the same beneficial effects, Mt Bettariga stressed.

“You never want to reduce your weight without exercising, because you need to build or preserve muscle mass and produce these chemicals that you can’t do through just diet alone.”

Source: Edith Cowan University

Categories : Exercise RheumatologyTags :

Exercise Breakthrough Offers Relief for People with Rheumatoid Arthritis

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The novel exercise involves applying a pneumatic cuff to restrict the flow of blood. Credit: University of South Australia

New research from the University of South Australia is offering fresh hope to people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Evaluating the effectiveness of a novel form of exercise – blood flow restricted resistance training – among people with RA, researchers found that this alternative workout method not only improved their strength and physical performance, but also reduced their pain.

Blood flow restricted resistance training involves placing a pneumatic cuff – much like a blood pressure cuff – around the top of the working limb. The cuff is then inflated so that it restricts blood flow out of the limb, creating a highly metabolic environment which forces the muscles to work harder, even when using lighter weights or less effort.

The Arthritis Australia-funded study is the first to trial blood flow restricted resistance training on both the upper and lower limbs in people with RA, using five exercises – leg press, machine hamstring curl, machine knee extension, cable tricep extension, and cable bicep curl – with gradually increasing weights.

All participants in the study reported that they “liked” the programme, and the group showed clear improvements in strength, movement and pain levels.

Lead researcher UniSA’s Dr Hunter Bennett says the training offers a practical and achievable option for people with RA.

“RA can cause a loss of muscle mass and strength, which affects day-to-day activities, independence, and increases the risk of falls and fractures,” he says.

“Resistance training is one of the best ways to rebuild that strength, but for people with RA, using heavy weights can be difficult or harmful due to pain, fatigue or injury risk. This is where blood flow restricted resistance training can help.”

Dr Bennett says this approach is ideal for people who need to do resistance exercises but find it hard to lift weights.

“Many people with health conditions are understandably deterred by exercise, yet it is often one of the best things they can do to improve their condition,” he says.

And while this exercise might look unusual, the research shows that it works.

“This kind of training could be a game-changer for people with rheumatoid arthritis.

“It offers a way to build strength and reduce pain without pushing through discomfort – and that’s incredibly empowering for people who’ve often been limited by their condition.”

While this was a small-scale trial, researchers say the results are promising and lay the foundations for a larger trial comparing blood flow restricted resistance exercise to more traditional exercise approaches.

Source: University of South Australia

Categories : ExerciseTags :

Just 7000 Steps a Day Still Lead to Health Benefits

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A major new study led by the University of Sydney suggests that walking 7000 steps a day offers similar health benefits across several outcomes as walking 10 000. Led by Professor Melody Ding from the School of Public Health, the study was published in The Lancet Public Health and analysed data from 57 studies from 2014 to 2025 that were conducted in more than ten countries including Australia, USA, UK and Japan.

The largest and most comprehensive review to date, the researchers examined the impact that different daily step counts have on the chance of dying from cardiovascular disease and cancer, and developing diseases such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, dementia and depression. Professor Melody Ding says the findings offer a more achievable benchmark for people who struggle to meet traditional exercise guidelines. 

“Aiming for 7000 steps is a realistic goal based on our findings, which assessed health outcomes in a range of areas that hadn’t been looked at before,” said Professor Ding.

“However, for those who cannot yet achieve 7000 steps a day, even small increases in step counts, such as increasing from 2000 to 4000 steps a day, are associated with significant health gain.

“We know daily step count is linked to living longer, but we now also have evidence that walking at least 7000 steps a day can significantly improve eight major health outcomes – including reducing risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia and depressive symptoms.”

“Our research helps to shift the focus from perfection to progress. Even small increases in daily movement can lead to meaningful health improvements.”

Professor Melody Ding

Health benefits at different step counts

The researchers looked at studies in which participants wore step counting devices, such as pedometers, accelerometers and fitness trackers, to track their daily step counts. Starting at 2000 steps, experts compared the health outcomes of people walking more steps a day at 1000 step increments to see whether there was any difference in the risk of early death or other major diseases. 

When compared with 2000 steps a day, researchers found that: 

  • Walking 7000 steps a day reduced the risk of death by 47%, which was almost identical to the benefit seen at walking 10 000 steps per day. 
  • Dementia risk dropped by 38% from walking 7000 steps a day, with only a 7 percent extra reduction at 10 000 steps. 
  • Risk of type 2 diabetes fell by 22 percent from walking 10,000 steps a day and reduced to 27 percent at 12,000 steps.
  • Significant health improvements were seen when people increased their average daily steps from 2000 to between 5000 and 7000 steps. 

“For people who are already active, 10,000 steps a day is great,” said Dr Katherine Owen, co-author and chief analyst of the study from the School of Public Health. “But beyond 7000 steps, the extra benefits for most of the health outcomes we looked at were modest.”

The researchers are working with the Australian government to use the evidence from this study to inform future updates to physical activity guidelines.

“Our research helps to shift the focus from perfection to progress. Even small increases in daily movement can lead to meaningful health improvements,” said Professor Ding. 

Experts are calling for future studies to explore how step goals should vary based on age, health status and region, and to include diverse populations and longer-term data to strengthen the evidence. Professor Ding says this kind of detail is rare and will be useful for health practitioners when tailoring advice for patients.

Source: The University of Sydney