Exercise and Fitness Archive

Exciting benefits of walking for heart health, including lower risk of heart attack and stroke

Why should you start walking for heart health? Walking doesn't get the respect it deserves, either for its health benefits, its value for transportation, or its role in recreation.

Aerobics, walking and health

Ever since the 1970s, the aerobic doctrine has dominated the discussion of exercise and health. In a scientific update of your high school coach's slogan "no pain, no gain," the doctrine holds that the benefits of exercise depend on working hard enough to boost your heart rate to 70% to 85% of its maximum, sustaining that effort continuously for 20 to 60 minutes, and repeating the workout at least three times a week.

Keep your heart strong and young by giving it a good, regular workout.

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Your heart, like any other muscle, can weaken over time, especially if you are sedentary. As you age and become less active, the muscle in your heart's left ventricle — the chamber that pumps oxygen-rich blood back out to the body — becomes stiffer.

"This change in the heart muscle, coupled with simultaneous stiffening of the body's arteries that leads to high blood pressure, begins a harmful cardiovascular aging cycle," says Dr. Aaron Baggish, director of the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. "Without intervention, this sets the stage for heart failure later in life."

Men may avoid activity because of their knee pain, but movement is exactly what they need.

It is perhaps the ultimate exercise catch-22: it's hard to move with knee osteoarthritis, but moving helps relieve osteoarthritis knee pain.

More than 30 million Americans have osteoarthritis, the most common kind of arthritis. While osteoarthritis can affect the hips, lower back, neck, and fingers, it occurs most often in the knees. In fact, an estimated 10% of men ages 60 and older have symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.

Men may avoid activity because of their knee pain, but movement is exactly what they need.

It is perhaps the ultimate exercise catch-22: it's hard to move with knee osteoarthritis, but moving helps relieve osteoarthritis knee pain.

More than 30 million Americans have osteoarthritis, the most common kind of arthritis. While osteoarthritis can affect the hips, lower back, neck, and fingers, it occurs most often in the knees. In fact, an estimated 10% of men ages 60 and older have symptoms of knee osteoarthritis.

The ideal workout program for osteoporosis combines weight-bearing, muscle-strengthening, flexibility, and balance exercises.

The popular mind-body practice can be one of the best ways to soothe an aching low back, as long as you are careful.

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Yoga is a gentle practice that is ideal for maintaining back strength and flexibility. It's also one of the more effective tools for helping reduce low back pain, the most common source of pain and disability among older adults.

"Yoga helps strengthen and stretch back muscles that might be tight, which improves mobility," says Dr. Lauren Elson, medical editor of the Harvard Special Health Report An Introduction to Yoga (www.health.harvard.edu/yo).

Strengthening your core will rev up your balance and stability.

After a long winter with lots of isolating and maybe too little physical activity, it might be time to give your core muscles more attention.

These muscles, located throughout much of your trunk, are the key to supporting your lower back and helping you stand, get out of a chair, bend, lift, and maintain your balance. So regular maintenance and tune-ups of the core muscles are important.

Research we're watching

Lifestyle changes may help to prevent symptoms related to gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), according to a research letter published online Jan. 4, 2021, by JAMA Internal Medicine.

Using data from the Nurses' Health Study II, a nationwide study that included 116,671 women, researchers found that among 9,000 women who had GERD symptoms, those who met five specific anti-reflux lifestyle criteria were 40% less likely to have GERD symptoms than women who did not meet any of them. These were having a normal body weight; never smoking; participating in 30 minutes of moderate or vigorous exercise each day; drinking no more than two cups of coffee, tea, or soda each day; and following a healthy diet. GERD symptoms were defined as reporting acid reflux or heartburn at least once a week.

News briefs

Living a healthy lifestyle may be one of the best things you can do to tame the heartburn of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), suggests a research letter published online Jan. 4, 2021, by JAMA Internal Medicine. Harvard researchers analyzed the self-reported health information of about 43,000 middle-aged women who were followed for 10 years. Women who adhered to five healthy lifestyle factors, regardless of whether they took heartburn medication, appeared to prevent nearly 40% of their GERD symptoms each week. The pill-free approaches included maintaining a healthy body weight (a body mass index between 18.5 and 24.9); not smoking; getting 30 minutes daily of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity; limiting coffee, tea, or soda to no more than 2 cups per day; and eating a healthy diet. "Each one of these factors may prevent the inappropriate relaxation of the sphincter muscle between the stomach and the esophagus, helping to keep acid from refluxing up and causing heartburn. For example, carrying extra weight around the waist can push on the stomach, forcing stomach acid up into the esophagus," says Dr. Raaj S. Mehta, lead author of the study and a gastroenterology fellow at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

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