Physical activity and exercise Archive

Non-contact boxing has been shown to help many people with Parkinson's disease improve their balance, hand-eye coordination, mental focus, muscle strength, and body rhythm. Older adults also can benefit from this type of exercise, as they face many of the same physical and mental challenges as they age. Most boxing fitness workouts are done using punching bags and hitting oversized boxing mitts worn by coaches. The moves involve punches and sequences based on crosses, hooks, uppercuts, and jabs.

It's safe to work the core every day for about 10 to 30 minutes, as long as a person doesn't develop intense muscle fatigue. There are so many kinds of core-strengthening activities that it's possible to do a different one each day of the week. Ideas include marching, practicing yoga, doing body-weight workouts, exercising in a pool, and doing housework. Before a core workout, a person should do a warm-up, such as walking, to get blood flowing to the core muscles. After exercising, it's important to stretch the core muscles to help lengthen them and keep them flexible.

Sitting too much can boost stroke risk. But adding more movement—even low-effort activity such as doing household chores—may help lower that risk.

Long touted as beneficial for heart health, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is more complicated than experts once thought. Some forms of HDL grab cholesterol from the bloodstream and other tissues and transport it to the liver, where it's recycled or disposed, but other types are neutral or perform the opposite action. Most drugs that raise HDL don't seem to prevent heart disease, and very high HDL levels may even be linked to a higher risk.

Hybrid exercise training combines heart-pumping aerobic action with muscle-strengthening moves in the same exercise session. The strategy has the advantage of meeting two key goals of the federal Physical Activity Guidelines in one fell swoop. And it also appears to be one of the best—and most time-efficient—ways for people who are overweight to lower their risk of cardiovascular-related risk factors. Strong muscles boost a person's basal metabolic rate—the amount of energy the body needs to keep working during rest. That improves weight-loss efforts by ramping up the number of calories burned.

Around menopause, a decline in estrogen can trigger low-grade inflammation that leads to unexpected symptoms from head to toe. Symptoms can affect the digestive tract, skin, joints, eyes, ears, and heart, among other areas. A 2022 study found that estrogen loss can even fuel the jaw pain known as temporomandibular disorder. A year or longer can pass before many women connect symptoms with menopause. Women can take lifestyle measures to lower inflammation, such as eating more fruits and vegetables, avoiding processed foods, and exercising.

People with knee osteoarthritis may prevent future knee pain and reduce joint damage by walking for exercise.

Studies have shown that doing any one of certain activities, such as staying physically active and maintaining social ties, helps maintain brain health in older adults. A new study suggests that participating in multiple kinds of these activities, several times a week, may help even more.

Older adults can benefit from functional fitness exercises—those that focus on the muscles needed for basic everyday actions, like squatting, bending, reaching, and twisting. An all-around exercise routine that addresses the major muscle groups is ideal for improving functional fitness. Still, people should add specific exercises that mimic basic movements, such as getting up and down from the ground or a seated position, bending down and lifting objects, and carrying heavy or bulky items.

There's no one sound unique to a particular shoulder problem. That makes it hard to know what various shoulder noises are telling you. Possibilities include arthritis; bone breaks; rotator cuff tears; gas bubbles, loose parts, or bone spurs in the shoulder joint; neck problems; and bursitis. It's advisable to investigate shoulder noises if they happen, along with shoulder pain, weakness, or limited movement, or if the sound followed a shoulder injury. It's also smart (though not urgent) to ask a doctor about shoulder sounds that aren't accompanied by other symptoms.