Exercise & Fitness Archive

Research we're watching

There are a number of different approaches to treating a condition called adhesive capsulitis, better known as frozen shoulder. This common condition causes significant shoulder pain and reduced mobility. While it generally goes away on its own over time, it can take up to a year or longer to heal. But there hasn't been consensus on whether any particular therapy leads to more rapid pain relief and full range of motion.

A study published online Dec. 16, 2020, by JAMA Network Open looked at various treatment options for frozen shoulder to determine which was the most effective. Researchers analyzed 65 different studies with more than 4,000 total participants and found that the first line of therapy should be to inject a steroid directly into the joint to reduce inflammation. This treatment helped to reduce pain and led to the fastest recovery. The study authors said the steroid injection should be accompanied by a home exercise program that includes stretches and exercises to improve range of movement in the shoulder.

How much weight, how many reps and sets, and how often? Here's what new guidelines suggest.

Old-fashioned resistance training — lifting heavy weights multiple times — is the best way for men to slow and even reverse age-related muscle loss, known as sarcopenia. It can also increase your strength, protect against falls, and help you live a more independent life.

Resistance training (also known as strength training) consists of doing upper- and lower-body exercises using free weights (like dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells), weight machines, resistance bands, or just your own body weight.

Exercise and recreational balls can play an important role in recovery and pain reduction.

A golf ball to ease foot pain? A kids' playground ball to recover from a knee injury? The combinations may sound foreign, but they're familiar approaches in the world of physical therapy. Here's how these tools of the trade (and the toy box) can help you.

A playground ball

This is the kind of inexpensive rubber or plastic ball (less than $10) you'll find at a grocery or big-box store. It's about the size of a soccer ball, but lighter. "We commonly use that type of ball for knee rehabilitation. We'll have someone do mini squats against the wall with the ball between the knees. Squeezing the ball strengthens the quadriceps muscles," explains Clare Safran-Norton, clinical supervisor of rehabilitation ­services at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

News briefs

Wearable activity or fitness trackers and smartphone apps are helpful for goal setting and measuring how many steps you take or how much time you spend exercising. But do they motivate you to become more active? Probably a little, finds a review of randomized controlled trials published online Dec. 21, 2020, by the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Researchers combed through 28 studies that included a total of more than 7,400 adults (ages 18 to 65) who used fitness trackers or apps for an average of three months. Compared with people who did not use the devices, people who did increased their activity by 1,850 steps per day. Apps and trackers that included prompts and cues to stay active appeared to be most effective. If your smartphone doesn't already have a built-in basic fitness tracker that counts your steps and calories burned, you can find an app that does. Some are free. Fancy tracking devices, with all the bells and whistles, including heart rate monitors and cellphone capability, cost as much as $1,300. But even the simplest ones help remind you to move.

Image: © azy_Bear/Getty Images

Treadmills and related fitness equipment can make aerobic workouts more convenient. Which type is best for you?

Even if you enjoy exercising outdoors, there are times when it's too cold, too hot, or otherwise uncomfortable or impractical to walk, jog, or cycle outside. And like many people, perhaps you've let your gym membership lapse. So how do you make sure you're getting an aerobic, heart-protecting workout most days of the week?

Maybe it's time to invest in a home exercise machine, such as a treadmill or elliptical machine. Not only can you exercise in the privacy of your home, you can also easily break up your workout into 10- to 15-minute stints throughout the day, whenever it's convenient for you. Current guidelines recommend getting at least 2.5 hours of heart rate–elevating (aerobic) exercise each week.

The yoga routine "ten churnings" can be done on its own to help you get moving in the morning or to counteract stiffness after sitting for too long. In about six minutes, the routine can loosen up your joints and serve as a warm-up to a longer exercise session. To learn additional intermediate yoga exercises, visit: www.health.harvard.edu/iy

Regular physical activity promotes general good health, reduces the risk of developing many diseases, and helps you live a longer and healthier life. For many of us, "exercise" means walking, jogging, treadmill work, or other activities that get the heart pumping.

But often overlooked is the value of strength-building exercises. Once you reach your 50s and beyond, strength (or resistance) training is critical to preserving the ability to perform the most ordinary activities of daily living — and to maintaining an active and independent lifestyle.

A single exercise session may provide immediate and long-lasting protection.

Why is exercise so good for your health? Let us count the ways. One obvious answer is that exercise burns calories, which can help you maintain or reach a healthy weight. Regular exercise also improves factors linked to cardiovascular health, resulting in lower blood pressure, healthier cholesterol levels, and better blood sugar regulation.

And that's not all: Exercise also promotes positive physiological changes, such as encouraging the heart's arteries to dilate more readily. It also helps your sympathetic nervous system (which controls your heart rate and blood pressure) to be less reactive. But these changes may take weeks, months, or even years to reach their full effect.

They're great as a substitute for a dumbbell, but a risky choice for some exercises.

When you want to add strength training to your routine, wearable weights seem like a handy shortcut. Just slip them on and do your regular workout. But it's not that simple. "They're great for specific exercises, but they have some risks," says Terry Downey, a physical therapist at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Network.

Ankle weights

You may see people walking around with weights around their ankles. The weights are typically built into a wide neoprene strap that wraps around the ankle and attaches with Velcro.

Whittle your waist for better health.

You've probably heard that extra pounds around your middle are bad for your heart. But a new study has found that excess weight in your belly — a body shape doctors refer to as central adiposity — may be even worse for women's heart health than men's.

The study, in the March 6 issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association, involved about 500,000 people (55% of them women), ages 40 to 69, in the United Kingdom. The researchers took body measurements of the participants and then kept track of who had heart attacks over the next seven years. During that period, the women who carried more weight around their middles (measured by waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, or waist-to-height ratio) had a 10% to 20% greater risk of heart attack than women who were just heavier over all (measured by body mass index, or BMI, a calculation of weight in relation to height).