Exercise & Fitness Archive

Sticking with exercise isn't always easy, but setting goals and having a plan for when your motivation lags can help. If you're spending more time finding excuses than doing those planks and bridges, try taking a look at the list below for some inspiration.

Doing core exercises regularly will

• keep your back strong and flexible, which will help you avoid low back pain
• ease back pain or stiffness so you can move, sit, and sleep comfortably
• enhance your balance and stability, which will help prevent falls and make walking and other activities easier
• reclaim the strength and flexibility you need for everyday movements like bending, turning, and lifting
• build up the strength and flexibility you need for on-the-job tasks like lifting heavy items, twisting, or standing or sitting at a desk for hours
• add power to activities you enjoy, like tennis, running, golf, kayaking, gardening — or any other active pursuit
• improve your posture, which can trim your figure visually and help prevent back injuries
• help tone your waistline
• spice up your regular workouts by adding variation.

For more ways to keep your core muscles strong and working for you, read Gentle Core Exercises, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

On call

Q. Do men have to worry about bone health, and if so, what are the best exercises to keep my bones strong?

A. Most men have the advantage of continuing to produce bone-protecting testosterone throughout life. But the level of the male hormone declines with age and therefore may not be sufficient to keep bones strong as a man hits his later years.

In the journals

It's well established that aerobic exercise improves health, but a new study suggests that better cardio fitness leads to a longer life, and that the benefit may help older adults the most. The results were published online Oct. 19, 2018, by JAMA Network Open.

In the study, more than 120,000 people (59% of them men) underwent exercise treadmill testing periodically over 14 years. The researchers found that increased cardio fitness levels were directly associated with longer lives, and that people with the highest aerobic fitness levels lived the longest, especially among those over age 70.

In the journals

Eating extra protein may protect older adults from becoming disabled and help them maintain independent lives, according to a study published online Nov. 1, 2018, by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. In the study, scientists recruited 722 85-year-olds and examined their medical data, including information like physical activity, what they ate each day, their body weight, and overall health status. Disability was measured from self-reported questionnaires in which the people described how much difficulty they had performing 17 activities of daily living, such as getting in and out of bed, dressing, bathing, doing household chores, and going up and down stairs.

Weak gluteal muscles can overload the muscles in the backs of your thighs.

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The hamstrings are the unsung heroes of the upper legs. The three muscles in the back of each thigh enable you to bend your knees and pull your legs back as you walk. They also assist the gluteal muscles (or "glutes") in the buttocks — the powerhouses that propel your body forward when you get up from a chair, bound across a room, or climb stairs. The glutes also help you come to a stop from a run or walk and lower your body to sit down or squat.

But weak gluteal muscles wind up overburdening the hamstrings. "When the glutes are weak, which is common in the age of sitting too much, the hamstrings are continually overworked and overloaded," says Matt Natanson, a physical therapist with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

News briefs

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Some small studies have suggested that too much vigorous exercise might harm your heart, perhaps by triggering heart rhythm changes or other problems. New evidence allays this concern. In fact, the more fit you are, the longer you may live. For the study, researchers reviewed data from more than 122,000 people who underwent exercise treadmill testing from 1991 to 2014. Based on the findings, they divided the subjects into five performance groups: elite, high, above average, below average, and low. Elite performers — who had fitness levels comparable to endurance athletes — had the lowest risk of dying of any cause during the follow-up period, which averaged just over eight years. The survival benefit was most notable among people ages 70 or older and those with high blood pressure. According to the study authors, there does not appear to be an upper limit of fitness above which a survival benefit is no longer seen. They published their findings online Oct. 19, 2018, in JAMA Network Open.

They can help you stay flexible and active enough to keep your heart in good shape.

It's no secret that as you age, your body becomes less flexible. Your muscles aren't quite as supple and your joints are little stiffer than when you were younger. As a result, getting regular, heart-protecting exercise may be more challenging.

That's why stretching — the deliberate lengthening of muscles to increase flexibility and range of motion — can be especially helpful after middle age. Yet many people are confused about the different stretching techniques and the best time to do them, says sports medicine physician Dr. Adam Tenforde, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School.

These master-level athletes can teach you how to stay fit and healthy.

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You're never too old to learn from the experience of others. For instance, master athletes in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s might compete at a higher level than you, but they still face the same age-related challenges.

"You can gain much wisdom from these individuals, such as how to exercise smarter, how to overcome obstacles, and how to stay motivated," says Dr. Adam Tenforde, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. "They have developed strategies that can be adopted by the average person to help maintain health and reach specific goals."

There are ways to keep morning stiffness from being a pain.

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Ever get that "old man" stiffness in the morning? You know the feeling: the dull, achy, and sometimes painful feeling in your joints — along with the customary grunts and groans — when you first stand and slowly move around.

"It's not known why this happens, especially as people age, but the only common thread is that it occurs after long bouts of inactivity," says Dr. William Docken, a rheumatologist with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. "That is why you often feel so stiff when you wake up, since sleeping is when you are inactive for the longest continuous time."

There's a lot you can do to improve your outcome if you're taking an active surveillance approach to your diagnosis.

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About 90% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer have the localized kind, which means the cancer is confined to the prostate gland. And for many, a reasonable approach is active surveillance, in which men choose to monitor their cancer instead of going straight into invasive treatments, such as surgery or radiation therapy.

Active surveillance includes a doctor visit about every six months, most often with a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and digital rectal exam.