Exercise as good as pills...?

Exercise as good as pills...?

Exercise can be as good a medicine as pills for people with conditions such as heart disease, a study has found.

The work in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) looked at hundreds of trials involving nearly 340,000 patients to assess the merits of exercise and drugs in preventing death.
Physical activity rivalled some heart drugs and outperformed stroke medicine.
The findings suggest exercise should be added to prescriptions, say the researchers.
Experts stressed that patients should not ditch their drugs for exercise - rather, they should use both in tandem.

Prescriptions rise
Too few adults currently get enough exercise. Only a third of people in England do the recommended 2.5 hours or more of moderate-intensity activity, such as cycling or fast walking, every week.
In contrast, prescription drug rates continue to rise.
There were an average of 17.7 prescriptions for every person in England in 2010, compared with 11.2 in 2000.
For the study, scientists based at the London School of Economics, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute at Harvard Medical School and Stanford University School of Medicine trawled medical literature to find any research that compared exercise with pills as a therapy.
They identified 305 trials to include in their analysis. These trials looked at managing conditions such as existing heart disease, stroke rehabilitation, heart failure and pre-diabetes.
When they studied the data as a whole, they found exercise and drugs were comparable in terms of death rates.

But there were two exceptions:

• Drugs called diuretics were the clear winner for heart failure patients
• Exercise was best for stroke patients in terms of life expectancy.

Health benefits Doing exercise regularly:

• Can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer by up to 50%
• Can lower your risk of early death by up to 30%
• Can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy as well as keep weight off
• Moderate activity, such as cycling or fast walking, gives your heart and lungs a work-out

Source: NHS Choices

Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said that although an active lifestyle brings many health benefits, there is not enough evidence to draw any firm conclusions about the merit of exercise above and beyond drugs.

"Medicines are an extremely important part of the treatment of many heart conditions and people on prescribed drugs should keep taking their vital meds. If you have a heart condition or have been told you're at high risk of heart disease, talk to your doctor about the role that exercise can play in your treatment."
Dr Peter Coleman of the Stroke Association said exercise alongside drugs had a vital role that merited more research.
"We would like to see more research into the long-term benefits of exercise for stroke patients.
"By taking important steps, such as regular exercise, eating a balanced diet and stopping smoking, people can significantly reduce their risk of stroke."
"Moderate physical activity, for example, can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 27%."

Lose weight without losing muscle

Double up



In a recent report, scientists have shown that consuming twice the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of protein while adhering to a diet and exercise plan prevents the loss of muscle mass and promotes fat loss. Tripling the RDA of protein, however, failed to provide additional benefits.

To make this discovery, Stefan Pasiakos PH.D (a researcher involved in the work from the Military Nutrition Division at the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, MA) and colleagues; assigned young men and women controlled diets for 31 days that provided dietary protein at three different levels:

1) the recommended daily allowance,
2) twice the recommended daily allowance, and
3) three times the recommended daily allowance.

Volunteers were given adequate total calories to maintain constant body weight for the first 10 days to allow their metabolism to adapt to the dietary protein level, and then for the following three weeks, weight loss was induced by restricting the total calories and increasing daily exercise sufficiently to elicit an average two-pound weight loss per week.
All meals were prepared and administered by research staff and exercise was highly controlled.

Body composition and measurements of muscle protein metabolism were performed at the end of both the stable weight maintenance and weight loss phases of the study.
The results of this study demonstrated that there are limits to the protective effect of extra protein. As such, these data suggest an optimal, and perhaps maximal, level of protein for young, active adults who may undergo short-term periods of intentional or unintentional weight loss.
This study essentially confirms what body builders have shown us for a long time -- a high protein diet helps prevent muscle loss when trying to lose fat.

Although eating a well balanced diet is still necessary for health and weight maintenance, upping one's protein intake when dieting might be a useful tool in the short term.

 

Spartan Tough 2013

We came, we saw, we Toughened Up
AROOOO!!

 

The Toughen Up first outing to the Spartan Sprint Race at Pippingford Park was a great success. Everyone completed the course and in true Spartan spirit even helped other struggling competitors along the way.

As it had rained the previous night the course was very muddy and slippery. We ran, swam, climbed, crawled, swung, pulled, pushed, slipped and fell countless times and came away bruised and battered, but with a real sense of pride and accomplishment.

 

Missed out on this event... there are other events throughout the remainder of 2013

Looking for something to motivate your training?  Following the success of this outing Toughen Up will be attending another Spartan Sprint race in 2014.
You have lots of time to prepare so no excuses will be accepted. You will need upper body strength, strong legs, cardiovascular fitness and determination to complete the course.

Get training, get focused and compete AROOO!

 

 

'Enter '2toughenup' during registration to get a 10% discount

 

 

 

Beginners Bodyweight Workout

Bodyweight Workout

You don't need gym membership or expensive equipment to achieve a firm toned body

Always perform a warm up before any exercise routine - this prepares the body for exercise and reduces the risk of injury.

Always perform a cool down and stretch after your exercise routine - this speeds up the recovery time following exercise and makes your muscles more flexible and less prone to injury.

                         

Prisoner Squat
Burpee
Side Lunge              

Explosive Push Up                     

Dirty Dogs
Supermans

Rotational Push Up

Toe Touches

Plank Pike

Perform each exercise 8 times and move onto the next exercise with the minimum amount of rest.

Once all the exercises have been completed have 2 minutes rest and repeat.

1. Prisoner Squat

To make it harder jump on UP movement

2. Burpee

To make it harder jump or raise up onto toes














3. Side Lunge

To make it harder once in side lunge add 2 bounces

4. Explosive Push Up

To make it easier start on your knees in push up position

.

To make it harder clap or really hard slap thighs

5. Dirty Dogs

To make it harder add 2 bounces at top of movement

6. Supermans

To make it harder hold for 1 second at top of movement

7. Rotation Push Up

To make it harder hold at top of movement or add weight

8. Toe Touches

To make it harder keep feet off floor throughout and hold at top

9.Plank Pike

To make it harder push from forearms into full push up pike and return to forearm plank

Perform each exercise with as perfect form as possible. This engages your muscles correctly and reduces the risk of injury and muscular imbalances.

Spartan Race Preparation Tips

When the going gets tough, the tough Toughen Up!

 

 

1. 3+ Miles - 5km Assault course
2. Multi terrain course: Fields, Concrete, Tarmac, Woodland, Rivers, and Bogs, not including 15 + obstacles.
3. Rope Swings, Cargo Nets, Fire, Ice Baths, River Crossings, Monkey Bars, 12ft Walls… you name it, this course will most probably have it.

If you are training to complete a Spartan Race and think you are going to complete it with relative ease because you can ace a half marathon with a degree of ease, then think again! Cardiovascular conditioning is a significant element, but not your only concern. This course will challenge your body to climb or crawl over, under, around or through various obstacles whilst at the same time coping with some tricky terrain and the mental doubt of “can I complete this” ringing in your ears.


Forget L.S.D (Long slow duration) cardio, it’s all about the use of sprints and hill sprints for complete conditioning. It is important to also focus on increasing functional strength and agility using push-ups, pull-ups, dips and squats – essentially compound exercises utilising multiple muscle groups at once.
Ideally you want to picture the event in your mind, the obstacles involved and they types of terrain you’re going to encounter. Use the videos on the Spartan website as part of your plan for how you are going to train and hopefully conquer this event.

You want to picture the event in your mind, the obstacles involved and the types of terrain your going to encounter.

 

Fundamentally, endurance, grip strength, power to bodyweight and flexibility/agility is what’s required. The way the courses are set up, they are designed with a stop start pattern. High intensity exercises, followed by well spaced runs through varying terrain .

When formulating your plan of action don’t forget to try and stick to a hybrid type workout whereby you tag explosive weight training such as kettle bell swings/presses with short and sharp sprints, possibly even with a weighted back pack for extra authenticity!
The stop start nature of this event demands that you are well versed in using high-energy demands followed by short rest periods. Adapting to this scenario will stand you in good stead for Spartan Race Day.

Remember having a decent level of fitness to start with is great. As a minimum I would suggest being able to do a straight 3 mile run non-stop in a fairly decent time. However it will be those event specific skills that you will need to hone that will enable you to hang, climb, lift and balance your way across those tricky obstacles that will make you a contender to finish and not just another statistic or casualty that didn’t complete it!

And remember to Toughen Up!

Improve Your Metabolic Health

Lose Weight and Get Fit - whilst you can

 

 

Today’s adults are so unhealthy they are medically 15 years older than their parents were at the same age, according to a new study.

 

Two thirds of UK adults are now overweight or obese

Despite life expectancy having improved over the last few decades, the younger generation is 15 years ahead of the older generation in terms of metabolic health because of the prevalence of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Researchers from the Netherlands followed 6,000 individuals for up to 16 years and compared the health of people in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.
At the start of the study, 40 per cent of men in their thirties were overweight. But a decade on, and the proportion of overweight men in the next generation of 30 year olds had increased to 52 per cent.

Meanwhile, women in their 20s were twice as likely to be obese as those 10 years previously.
The researchers also found that blood pressure had increased among the younger generation of both men and women. Additionally, young men had a higher risk of diabetes than their fathers or their grandfathers.
Author Gerben Hulsegge, from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment said: “The prevalence of obesity in our youngest generation of men and women at the mean age of 40 is similar to that of our oldest generation at the mean age of 55.

“This means that this younger generation is '15 years ahead' of the older generation and will be exposed to their obesity for a longer time.”

Experts warn that the effect will mean a slowing of the increase of life expectancy, or even a complete reversal.

An excess of fat, sugar and salt in our diet as well as inactivity means that diabetes, blood pressure and obesity are higher than ever before.
Since 1996 the number of people diagnosed with diabetes has more than doubled from 1.4 million to 2.9 million, and by 2025 it is estimated that five million people will have the condition.
High blood pressure, one of the biggest causes of heart disease and stroke, affects one in four of the adult population or around 12 million people in the UK.
And with two-thirds of people in the UK classified as overweight or obese, on present trends this figure looks likely to reach 90 per cent by 2050.

Belly Fat

 

Worried that you're harboring dangerous belly fat?

Your waist circumference tends to be related to the amount of visceral fat you have. It is recommended to keep your waist below 40 inches. To check, wrap a measuring tape snugly around your bare abdomen, just above your hip bones. Relax, exhale, and measure.
If your number comes up a little elevated, here's what you need to do to target visceral fat.

QUIT THE FRUCTOSE
A diet packed with fructose can make your belly bulge:
Avoid fruit juice or foods that have added sugar or high-fructose corn syrup. Don't worry about whole fruit, though.

SWEAT THE CARDIO
Resistance training is great for adding lean body mass, but cardio is better for burning visceral fat. In a Duke University study, people who trained on treadmills, elliptical trainers, and stationary bikes for 8 months (at the cardio equivalent of jogging 12 miles a week) lost about 8 percent of their visceral fat. Those who performed equally intense resistance workouts saw no change in visceral fat.

EAT WHOLE GRAINS
Foods like barley and quinoa do more than just help fill you up. In a recent study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people who ate three or more daily servings of whole grains had 10 percent less visceral fat than those who ate hardly any or no whole grains. It is speculated that one benefit might come from prebiotic compounds that feed beneficial bacteria in your gut.

SLEEP SMART
The right amount of shut-eye is key. People who log 6 to 7 hours a night have the lowest levels of visceral fat. Below that range is associated with more visceral fat, with the worst numbers going to those who slept less than 5 hours. Over a 5-year span, poor sleepers put on visceral fat about five times faster than the healthy sleepers.