Exercise & Fitness Archive

Swimming or doing water aerobics can be a good way to keep your heart in good shape.

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Looking for an activity to boost your heart health that's easy on your joints and doesn't leave you all sweaty? Swimming might be just the ticket. If you have access to an indoor pool, you can swim or do water aerobics year-round — and throughout much of your life.

"If you were to envision an exercise you could start during childhood and continue well into your later years, swimming has to be near the top of the list," says Dr. Meagan Wasfy, a cardiologist at the Cardiovascular Performance Program at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. Swimming also works many different muscles in the arms, legs, and torso. The buoyancy of the water takes the stress off your joints. That can make exercising a little easier if you have arthritis, are overweight, or are recovering from an injury.

Research we're watching

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The more a middle-aged or older woman walks or does other exercise, the lower her risk of developing heart failure, a new study suggests. Heart failure — which means the heart is too weak or too stiff to pump enough blood through the body — affects some 5.7 million Americans.

Researchers tracked the exercise habits and heart health of more than 137,000 women who were ages 50 to 79 when the study began. After an average follow-up of 14 years, women who got at least some physical activity were 11% less likely to develop heart failure than those who didn't exercise at all — and those with the highest levels of physical activity were 35% less likely to develop heart failure.

Skipping warm-ups and lifting too much can lead to injury.

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Exercising is one of the best things you can do for your health, and you deserve an enthusiastic pat on the back for any amount of physical activity you're doing. But if you're performing your exercises the wrong way, you could be hurting, not helping your body.

One of the biggest exercise errors is using improper technique. You risk back injury if you arch your back while doing planks or push-ups, and knee injury if you bend too deeply in a lunge or squat (see "Move of the month").

News briefs

Are you putting off exercise because you think you need to jump into a rigorous routine? An observational study published Aug. 8, 2018, in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that even light physical activity, combined with less time sitting, is associated with signs of better heart and blood vessel health among older adults. Researchers analyzed health information for more than 1,600 people ages 60 to 64 who underwent clinical assessments and wore heart and physical activity monitors for five days. Participants' activity ranged from light intensity — like stretching and golfing — to moderate-to-vigorous activity, like brisk walking, dancing, and lawn mowing. Scientists also looked at participants' blood markers for heart and blood vessel disease, including the inflammation markers C-reactive protein and interleukin-6. The results: compared with being sedentary, people with light to moderate activity levels had more favorable biomarker profiles. The takeaway: lots of research has shown that replacing sedentary time with any amount of physical activity is linked to better health, so don't let high activity goals keep you from getting off the couch.

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Research we're watching

After heart surgery, patients often enroll in cardiac rehabilitation, a multiweek program of structured exercise paired with lifestyle and nutrition education. A new review suggests that a similar program done prior to surgery, known as "prehabilitation," may help older, frail people to recover better from heart surgery.

The prehab approach goes by the acronym NEW, which stands for nutritional status, exercise capacity, and worry reduction. Targeting those three factors seems to improve people's physical and psychological readiness for undergoing surgery, according to the article, published in the July Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

You have many alternatives for treating and controlling pain.

The opioid epidemic continues to rise in America, and a 2017 report from the National Initiative for the Care of the Elderly suggests the crisis now affects more older adults.

A main reason for the growing addiction to pain medicine is the ease with which it is often prescribed, according to Dr. Robert Jamison, a professor of anesthesia and psychiatry with Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Here's what you need to keep you exercising.

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Perhaps the biggest physical challenge for older men is maintaining muscle mass and strength. On average, men can expect to lose up to 5% of their muscle mass each decade after age 30.

But regular strength training can slow that loss and even increase muscle mass into your 90s, according to Dr. Steven Makovitch, an instructor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. "Increased muscle mass has benefits beyond physical strength, too," he says. "Staying fit can reduce your fear of falls, increase confidence, and help you sleep better."

Running, jumping, and other weight-bearing exercises stimulate your bones and make them stronger.

If you've gone through menopause, your bones probably aren't as strong as they used to be.

"Around the time of menopause, there is accelerated bone loss in women as the ovaries stop producing estrogen," says Dr. Meryl S. LeBoff, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. This bone loss usually continues as you age, leading in some cases to either of two conditions: osteoporosis (a significant loss of bone density), or the less severe osteopenia (low bone mass). Together, these conditions affect 43.4 million Americans. Either can cause the bones to become brittle and break easily.

How fast is fast enough? About 100 steps per minute might be a reasonable goal, but your mileage may vary.

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Walking can be a wonderful way to get exercise. But do you ever wonder if you're moving briskly enough to benefit your heart? There's a quite a difference between a leisurely neighborhood stroll and a purposeful gait when you're late for the bus. Now, new research suggests that a pace of about 100 steps per minute qualifies as brisk walking for many people (see "Take this in stride: A study of walking speed").

Using that cadence as a benchmark might make sense for some — but not all — people, says Dr. Beth Frates, who directs wellness programming for the Stroke Research and Recovery Institute at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. "For example, 100 steps per minute could be a good goal for a middle-aged, relatively healthy person who's walking on a mild day when the conditions allow for safe footing." In fact, that pace might even seem a bit slow for a fit person who exercises regularly, she says.

Performing resistance exercises could help ease symptoms of depression.

Pumping iron might inflate not only your muscles, but also your mood, says a study in published in the June issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

The study's authors came to this conclusion after examining the results of 33 randomized clinical trials involving more than 1,800 people. They found that people with mild to moderate depression who performed resistance training two or more days a week saw "significant" reductions in their symptoms, compared with people who did not. The findings also suggested that resistance exercises may be even more beneficial for those with more severe depressive symptoms.