During his visit to the school, Ginóbili took part in a language class with the children and emphasised the importance of sport as a powerful tool for child development.

“I am delighted to share this time with the children and to talk about the importance of sport as a way to bridge between studies and fun and in increasing the likelihood that children will remain in school,” he said.

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Beetroot Juice Gives Stamina Boost

10 August 2009---Drinking beetroot juice boosts your stamina and could help you exercise for up to 16% longer.

A University of Exeter led-study showed how the nitrate contained in beetroot juice leads to a reduction in oxygen uptake, making exercise less tiring. It showed how drinking beetroot juice reduces oxygen uptake to an extent that cannot be achieved by any other known means, including training.

The research team believes the findings would be of interest to endurance athletes, elderly people or those with cardiovascular, respiratory or metabolic diseases.

The researchers are not yet sure of the exact mechanism that causes the nitrate in the beetroot juice to boost stamina. However, they suspect it could be a result of the nitrate turning into nitric oxide in the body, reducing the oxygen cost of exercise.

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Physical Inactivity Causes Health Problems For Americans

10 August 2009---As many as 50 million Americans live sedentary lives that put them at increased risk of health problems and even early death, said Professor Steven Blair, PED, an expert in exercise science.

Research has shown approximately 25 to 35 percent of American adults are inactive, meaning that they have sedentary jobs, no regular physical activity programme. In addition, they are generally inactive around the house or yard.

"This amounts to 40 million to 50 million people exposed to the hazard of inactivity," Blair said in an interview. "Given that these individuals are doubling their risk of developing numerous health conditions compared with those who are even moderately active and fit, we're looking at a major public health problem."

Blair's extensive research comes primarily from an ongoing study that began in 1970 and includes more than 80,000 patients. The researchers periodically measured the participants' body composition and body mass index, and each patient underwent a stress test. They also looked at other factors including the participants' medical histories.

Blair also highlighted the benefits of exercise on the mind, referring to recent evidence that activity delays the mind's decline and is good for brain health. He thinks psychologists can help patients understand the health hazards of being inactive and encourage people to look for more ways to get moving.

The message should be simple, he said: Doing something is better than doing nothing, and doing more is better than doing less, at least up to a point.

"We need numerous changes to promote more physical activity for all, including public policies, changes in the health care system, promoting activity in educational settings and worksites, and social and physical environmental changes. We need more communities where people feel comfortable walking."

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US Study Finds Increase In PE-related injuries

5 August 2009---Physical education (PE) is a major tool used to increase physical activity and prevent childhood obesity. However,  PE-related injuries are on the rise in the United States.

Although increasing physical activity can reduce obesity, it may also increase the risk of injury. While recognizing that PE classes and physical activity are important, parents and school administrators should remain vigilant for injuries.

A study conducted by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, found that the number of PE-related injuries to elementary, middle and high school students in the United States increased 150 percent between 1997 and 2007.

According to the study, the most common PE-related injuries were lower-extremity sprains and strains (23 percent), followed by upper extremity sprains and strains (14 percent) and fractures (14 percent). Middle school-aged children (11-14 years old) accounted for the majority of PE-related injuries (52 percent). Elementary school-aged children (5-10 years of age) had almost double the odds of a head injury, compared with other injuries.

Nearly 70 percent of PE-related injuries occurred while children were participating in six activities (running, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer and gymnastics). Injuries were caused by contact with another person, playing surface, equipment, stationary structures, pulled muscles, overuse and activity-related illnesses such as heat stroke.

"The 150 percent increase in PE-related injuries presenting to emergency departments was consistent across gender and age groups. It is unlikely that this increase was attributable to an increase in PE participation," explained Lara McKenzie, PhD, principal investigator at the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital.

"Identifying patterns of PE-related injuries is the first step toward preventing them. Injury prevention education should be made a priority for all PE activities, especially for those activities with the highest injury rates."

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Protective Gear Essential In Lacrosse

27 July 2009---Kevin Plancher, a New York sports orthopaedist recently emphasised the importance of protective gear. When talking about the sport of lacrosse, he said, "More than 450,000 youngsters between the ages of 2 and 18 play lacrosse in the US each year, according to a 2008 participation survey. Add in college, post- college and club players, and the number rises to half-a-million, a 40 percent jump since 2001.

He added: "The bad news is that lacrosse players continue to be injured in significant numbers because it's a rough, aggressive game. Using protective gear is a big part of keeping players healthy. It's also what's required to reduce injuries in both professional and amateur players nationwide."  

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Previous Exercise Helps Stroke Patients Recover Faster

19 July 2009---A person who has exercised regularly prior to the onset of a stroke appears to recover more quickly.

Researchers reported that stroke patients who had previously exercised regularly before suffering a stroke were more likely to have milder impairments and, thus, were better able to care for themselves, compared to patients who rarely exercised.

"Many studies have shown that exercise can reduce the risk of developing a stroke in the first place, and this study suggests that if an active person does have a stroke, outcomes can be improved," says Mayo Clinic neurologist James Meschia, M.D.

He cautions, however, that a larger study is needed to validate these findings, because this study depended on recall from 673 people who had a stroke. A new study could also help clarify whether moderate or vigorous exercise is necessary to improve outcomes, he says.

"It makes complete sense that a person who exercised before a stroke would recover quicker," Dr Meschia says. "A brain that generally has good blood and oxygen flow from aerobic exercise will be in a better position to compensate for neurological deficits caused by a stroke."

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Preseason Shoulder Strength May Determine Injury Severity For Baseball Pitchers

11 July 2009---Athletic injuries can derail any player's ability to compete, but for a baseball pitcher, his shoulder strength and control is critical. A new study suggests that testing a pitcher's shoulder strength through a series of exercises during the preseason may help create a focused strength training programme to prevent serious injury during the season.

"The ability to identify pitchers at risk for injury could be extremely valuable to a professional baseball organisation. Our study examined the predictive value of preseason strength measurements as they relate to in-season throwing injuries," said Ian Byram, lead author and orthopaedic surgery resident at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville.

The study measured the preseason shoulder strength for pitchers in a professional baseball organisation. Over five years, 144 major and minor league baseball pitchers were analysed. Prone internal rotation (IR), prone external rotation (PER), seated external rotation (SER) and supraspinatus (SS) strength were tested during spring training prior to each season. The players were then followed throughout the season for incidence of throwing-related injury.

The study illustrated a significant association between PER, SER and SS strength with throwing-related injuries requiring surgery. There was also some evidence for an association between the ratio of PER/IR strength and the incidence of injury.

"The shoulder and elbow are subjected to significant stresses during the pitching motion, placing them at risk for injury. By demonstrating an association between shoulder weakness and throwing-related injuries, we hope that future injuries might be prevented by focusing strength training programmes on those areas that are weakest," said Byram.

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Parents Have Influence Over Children's Participation In Sports

10 July 2009---Parents who value strenuous team sports are more likely to influence their children to join a team or exercise, and spend less time in front of the TV or computer.

Researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and Duke University studied a sample of 681 parents of 433 fourth- and fifth-graders from 12 schools in Houston. They found that those parents who conveyed the importance of high-intensity team sports to their children had more active children. Both the boys and girls watched less TV and spent less time on their computers.

However, endorsing all types of exercise – both team sports and individual sports – increased boys' activity levels but not girls'.

"The difference between activity levels in the girls and boys had to do with the parents' attitudes. Parents encouraged sons to partake in vigorous- and moderate-intensity team and individual sports, and vigorous-intensity home chores, such as heavy yard work, more than they encouraged these activities for their daughters," said lead author Cheryl Braselton Anderson. "There still is gender bias on encouraging boys to participate in certain sports and strenuous activities more than girls."

Parents' attitudes toward household chores had unexpected influences on children's attitudes and activity levels. "Cleaning house and doing laundry was associated with a decrease in boys' sport team participation and more TV watching," Anderson said.

"Right now, we do not know why, but it could be that active boys spend less time inside and more time outside, so staying inside may detract from outdoor activity with friends. Boys shared their parents' attitude about the importance of vigorous household activities (yard work, moving), whereas girls did not. Parents did not believe girls should do these activities, but girls did not agree."

More educated parents placed higher value on both vigorous- and moderate-intensity individual or team sports for boys but did not place as high a value for girls. And having more children in the family influenced whether the parents valued sports for girls: More children led to more interest in the girls' being active.

"Playing team sports, especially the more strenuous ones, really makes a difference in decreasing both boys' and girls' media use and making them more active," Anderson said. "It is a good idea for parents to adopt a positive attitude toward all types of vigorous physical activities for boys and girls and know that girls can and want to do them."

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Joining Girls Guides Can Make Girls More Active

26 June 2009---Girls typically are less physically active than boys, but a researcher has found that organizations like Girl Scouts provide an ideal setting to get girls moving early in life and to develop lifelong healthy habits.

Richard Rosenkranz, assistant professor in human nutrition at Kansas State University, did a study using interventions with Girl Scouts aged 10 and 11 years old. He trained group leaders to instruct exercise sessions and promote healthful eating, and in effect taught the girls about a healthy lifestyle and increased their participation in exercise activities.

"We were striving to get the girls and parents to spend some of their leisure time together being active and taking steps together for fun and health," he said.

"What we saw in the control troops was an environment where girls were sedentary for the vast majority of time at the meeting, combined with snacks that were less than health-promoting. This is just one part of a girl's weekly or bi-weekly experience, but it offers the chance to provide an opportunity and a message for health promotion."

Rosenkranz trained the group leaders as part of the intervention. They learnt about the background of intervention activities, which included nutrition, family meals, physical activity and family connection. They were also taught the expectations of being role models and providing a healthful environment at Girl Scout meetings, as well as new physically active games.

They also participated in walking, dancing, active games and yoga. "The intervention was focused on physical activities that could be done in or around the home, without special equipment, ideally involving the parents," Rosenkranz said.

He said the girls in the intervention troops were less sedentary than those not in the interventions. Additionally, the girls involved in the intervention performed higher levels of both moderate-intensity and moderate-to-vigorous intensity exercise during troop meetings.

An important step of the intervention was involving the adults. Rosenkranz said adults should be involved in promoting physical activity to children, which can be done through providing formal and informal opportunities for children to be active, being active along with them and encouraging physical activity - or at least not discouraging it.

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Aerobically Unfit Likely To Develop Diabetes In Middle Age

19 June 2009---Most healthy 25 year olds don't stay up at night worrying whether they are going to develop diabetes in middle age.

However, many of them should be concerned. Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine have found that adults aged 18 to 30 years old with low aerobic fitness levels are two to three times more likely to develop diabetes in 20 years than those who are fit.

The study also shows that young women and young African Americans are less aerobically fit than men and white adults in the same age group, placing many of them at risk for diabetes.

"People who have low fitness in their late teens and 20's tend to stay the same later in life or even get worse. Not many climb out of that category," said Mercedes Carnethon, assistant professor of preventive medicine. "People who have low fitness in their late teens and 20's tend to stay the same later in life or even get worse. Not many climb out of that category."

In the study, the most important predictor of who will develop diabetes is the participants' Body Mass Index (BMI), a measure of the body's fat content.

"The overwhelming importance of a high BMI to the development of diabetes was somewhat unexpected and leads us to think that activity levels need to be adequate not only to raise aerobic fitness, but also to maintain a healthy body weight," Carnethon said. "If two people have a similar level of fitness, the person with the higher BMI is more likely to develop diabetes."

Carnethon stressed that unfit young adults can avoid a future with diabetes by exercising and losing weight. "Research shows that combining regular physical activity with a carefully balanced diet can help most people maintain a healthy body weight and lower the likelihood of developing diabetes," she said.

This is the longest observational study to focus on the relationship between aerobic fitness and diabetes. It is the first to look at the development of diabetes over a 20-year period. Because diabetes develops over a long period of time, the number of people affected rises with age. Previous studies that followed adults for a shorter period of time may have stopped short before diabetes was diagnosed.

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Sleep Extension Improves Sports Performance And Mood 

9 June 2009---Athletes who extend their nightly sleep and reduce accumulated sleep debt have reported improvements in various drills conducted after every regular practice.

A study has shown that sleep extension in athletes was associated with a faster sprinting drill (approximately 19.12 seconds at baseline versus 17.56 seconds at end of sleep extension), increased hitting accuracy including valid serves (12.6 serves compared to 15.61 serves), and hitting depth drill (10.85 hits versus 15.45 hits).

According to Cheri Mah, M.S., researcher at the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory at Stanford University in CA., many athletes who participated in the study realised the importance of sleep and how it impacts their performance during competitions.

"Traditionally, elite athletes dedicate numerous hours to daily practice, strength training, and conditioning as well as work closely with nutritionists in hopes of optimising their athletic performance," said Mah.

"However, very little, if any, attention is focused on an athlete's sleeping patterns and habits. While most athletes and coaching staff may believe that sleep is an important contributing factor in sports, many do not realise that optimal or peak performance can only occur when an athlete's sleep and sleep habits are optimal."

The study included five students aged between 18 and 21, members of the Stanford Women's tennis team. Athletes maintained their habitual sleep/wake patterns for a two- to three-week baseline during their regular tennis seasons. Athletic performance assessments were reported after every practice throughout the study, including sprinting and hitting drills.

Athletes then extended their sleep, aiming for 10 hours a night for five to six weeks. Mood and daytime sleepiness were monitored and daily sleep/wake activities were monitored. The study was conducted during the regular tennis season to provide data during weekly practices as well as during tournaments and competitions.

Mah believes the findings would be pertinent to other sports, in that daytime sleepiness would be reduced and mood and athletic performance would improve, based on findings from initial trials of this study.

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Scientific Method Of Evaluating Basketball Players 

7 June 2009---Spanish and American researchers have developed a way to evaluate basketball players that will, they say, better meet the needs of trainers and players. This technique uses mathematical models to measure productivity.

"Efficiency and productivity in companies is often measured using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique, and what we have done is to apply the same method to basketball players," José Luis Ruiz, a researcher at the Miguel Hernández University.

"We have based this new technique on the same data used by the ACB League (the Spanish basketball league) in order to assess players, but we obtain more information, and this is better adapted to what basketball trainers and experts are looking for", he said.

Until now, the evaluation index for players has been calculated using statistical performance indicators. Each positive aspect (shooting, rebounds or assists) is scored as +1, while negative aspects, like losing possession of the ball, result in a point being removed.

"This traditional form of evaluation assigns the same value to all the factors, but people from the world of basketball do not believe that all faults merit losing the same amount of points to those gained for scoring or recovering a rebound, and that's why we've incorporated the opinion of these experts", explained Ruiz.

The mathematical models applied encompass aspects such as points scored, hat tricks, free shots, scoring percentage, rebounds, assists, "ball stealing" and other factors, as well as their relative importance. In addition, the position of the player (whether a centre, point guard, etc) is also considered.

The researchers used the method to analyse all the players in the ACB League, by position, for the 2003-2004 season, although it could be applied to any other. The results showed that of the 41 players analysed in the point guard position, Elmer Bennett and Louis Bullock were the most effective, while the best centres were Kornel David, Rubén Garcés, K. Kambala, Brent Scott and Kevin Thompson.

"In general, the DEA classifies companies or, as in this case players, as efficient if they produce the best results with equal or less resources, and as inefficient if their performance is far behind that of the first group", Ruiz concluded.

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1 June 2009---People with lower back pain are better off exercising more, not less.

A University of Alberta study of 240 men and women with chronic lower-back pain showed that those who exercised four days a week had a better quality of life, 28 per cent less pain and 36 per cent less disability, while those who hit the gym only two or three days a week did not show the same level of change.

"While it could be assumed that someone with back pain should not be exercising frequently, our findings show that working with weights four days a week provides the greatest amount of pain relief and quality of life," said Robert Kell, an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus.

In the study, groups of 60 men and women with chronically sore lower backs exercised with weights in two, three or four-day weekly programmes, or not at all. Their progress was measured over 16 weeks. The level of pain decreased by 28 per cent in programmes that included exercise four days a week, by 18 per cent three days a week and by 14 per cent two days a week. The quality of life, defined as general physical and mental well-being, rose by 28 per cent, 22 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.

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Cereal And Milk: The Next Big Thing In Sports Supplements?

14 May 2009---Before you reach for that pricey fancy-looking sports drink, consider the humble cereal and milk.

Researchers led by exercise physiologist Lynne Kammer from The University of Texas at Austin investigated the post-exercise physiological effects of the foods. The subjects included 12 trained cyclists, 8 male and 4 female.
 
The exercise protocol was designed to reflect a typical exercise session. After a warm-up period, the subjects cycled for two hours at a comfortable work rate, rather than the more frequently seen test-to-exhaustion.

"Our goal was to compare whole grain cereal plus milk — which are ordinary foods — and sports drinks, after moderate exercise," said Kammer.

"We wanted to understand their relative effects on glycogen repletion and muscle protein synthesis for the average individual. We found that glycogen repletion, or the replenishment of immediate muscle fuel, was just as good after whole grain cereal consumption and that some aspects of protein synthesis were actually better".

"Cereal and non-fat milk are a less expensive option than sports drinks. The milk provides a source of easily digestible and high quality protein, which can promote protein synthesis and training adaptations, making this an attractive recovery option for those who refuel at home".

The researchers concluded that, for amateur athletes and moderately physically active individuals who are trying to keep in shape, popping into the kitchen for a quick bowl of whole-grain cereal with a splash of skimmed milk may be a smarter move than investing in a high-priced sports drink.

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Extra Support Leads To More Daily Exercise

6 May 2009---Increased daily exercise can prevent diabetes and cardiovascular disease in obese women, but getting started and maintaining new habits is a challenge.

However, a study by Karolinska Institutet shows that extra support and encouragement can help more women to exercise to and from work.

"Physically active transport is probably our best bet for helping populations at risk of heart disease and diabetes to increase physical activity levels, since we have to spend time getting to and from work anyway," says Dr Erik Hemmingsson, who led the research.

The study involved 120 obese and unfit women between 30 and 60 with a waist circumference of at least 88 centimetres. They were randomly assigned to a control group that focused on walking and an intervention group that focused on cycling.

The control group was given pedometers and attended two two-hour group meetings, at which they were encouraged to walk to and from work to attain a daily step count of 10,000. The cycling group received the same support plus three individual consultations with a physician, who provided each women with a Physical activity on Prescription (PaP) specifically encouraging them to cycle to and from work. They also attended group meetings and were lent a bicycle during the 18 months.

The results show that a larger proportion of the women in the intervention group (39%) cycled two kilometres or more per day than the women in the control group (9%).

"Bearing in mind that many of the women in the cycling group hadn't been on a bike since they were children, it was gratifying to see that so many of them actually managed to cycle regularly to work," says Dr Hemmingsson.

Roughly the same proportion of women in both groups achieved the goal of 10,000 steps a day which suggests that cycling does not have to detract from daily walks.

"The support programme given to the intervention group was deliberately not particularly expensive since we wanted the programme to be a feasible option for primary care," adds Dr Hemmingsson. "A positive side-effect was that car-driving dropped by 34 per cent."

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Emotional Support Can Lead To Sporting Success

2 May 2009---Athletes can get the edge on their opponents by accepting more emotional support in their personal and professional lives.

A study by the University of Exeter shows the extent to which a sympathetic ear or regular words of encouragement can improve sports performance.

Previous studies by the university have linked 'social support' to performance in golf and other sports. Now, for the first time, researchers have tested the importance of social support by providing individually-tailored support to sportsmen and then measuring its impact on performance.

The study focused on three male golfers, who competed at regional, national and international level. For half of the study, they were each given regular one-on-one support by the lead researcher, Dr Paul Freeman of the University of Exeter.

Dr Freeman offered a range of support including listening to the golfers as they talked through their problems, offering encouragement and reassurance before competitions, and helping with practical issues, such as organising accommodation during competitions. To provide comparative data, the researchers recorded the performance of the three golfers prior to receiving the support from Dr Freeman.

All three golfers performed better when they were receiving support. The players improved by an average of 1.78 shots per round, which could be significant at high-level golf.

Dr Freeman said: "The benefits of social support on sports performance have been demonstrated in previous studies. In this study we have taken our understanding of the significance of social support a step further. By actually providing support to the golfers we were able to measure the actual improvement in performance. It is significant that the support I offered, as a relative stranger, had such a marked influence on their results. The findings suggest that amateur and professional athletes would benefit from seeking social support, whether this is from a friend or family member or even from a professional."

The researchers believe their findings would be relevant for other sports. Social support has been shown to influence other areas of life, including work performance. Previous research has also identified its role in addressing health issues such as weight loss and smoking cessation. Therefore, these findings could have wide-reaching relevance.

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Athletes With Asthma Need More Help

29 April 2009---For athletes with asthma, the dangers of the condition can be as mild as impacting athletic performance or so severe to be incapacitating or deadly.

“We wanted to see how well asthma is being managed in athletes competing at the NCAA level,” says Jonathan Parsons, clinical assistant professor of internal medicine at Ohio State University in the US. “Evidence has shown that outcomes are better when an athlete has an asthma attack and the proper help is available.”

“Since it’s impossible to predict an asthma attack, we need to be prepared for when it happens,” he adds.

Pulmonary and sports medicine researchers sent electronic surveys, with questions related to the diagnosis and management of exercise-induced bronchospasm (EIB), to 3,200 athletic trainers in NCAA sports medicine programs. More than one-fifth of the 541 responses indicated that they had an asthma management protocol at their institution. Slightly more reported having a pulmonologist on staff.

Approximately 17 percent reported screening athletes for EIB, 39 percent indicated a rescue inhaler does not have to be available at all practices and 41 percent say an inhaler does not have to be present at all games.

The results suggest an overwhelming majority of NCAA sports medicine programmes do not adhere to national asthma guidelines.

“Research data supports testing athletes for asthma when it’s suspected, having inhalers immediately on-hand and asthma specialists as part of their care,” says Parsons.

Exercise-induced asthma occurs when airflow to the lungs is reduced due to narrowing and closing of the airways in association with exercise. This airway obstruction usually occurs just after exercise and is much more common in college athletes than in the general population. Symptoms include coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath.

According to Parsons, athletes often ignore symptoms of EIB, perceiving the condition as an indication of poor performance or simply being out of shape.

Exercise is one of the most common triggers of bronchospasm in patients with chronic asthma, with exercise-induced asthma occurring in approximately 80 to 90 percent of individuals with known asthma. Ten percent of the general population has an unrecognised history of chronic asthma and only experience symptoms of asthma during exercise.

Parsons says that costs associated with inhalers, staff pulmonologists and compliance should be viewed as minimal in comparison to protecting the health of our student-athletes.

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Keepimg Slim Is Good For The Planet

21 April 2009---Maintaining a healthy body weight is good news for the environment, according to a study.

Because food production is a major contributor to global warming, a lean population will consume almost 20% less food and produce fewer greenhouse gases than a population in which 40% of people are obese, according to Phil Edwards and Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine's Department of Epidemiology and Population Health.

Transport-related emissions will also be lower because it takes less energy to transport slim people. The researchers estimate a lean population of 1 billion people would emit 1,000 million tonnes less carbon dioxide equivalents per year compared with a fat one.

In nearly every country in the world, average body mass index (BMI) is rising. Between 1994 and 2004, the average male BMI in England rose from 26 to 27.3, with the average female BMI rising from 25.8 to 26.9 (about 3 kg heavier). Humankind - be it Australian, Argentinian, Belgian or Canadian - is indeed getting fatter.

When it comes to food consumption, moving about in a heavy body is like driving around in a gas guzzler, say the authors. 'The heavier our bodies become, the harder and more unpleasant it is to move about in them and the more dependent we become on cars.

Staying slim is good for health and for the environment. We need to be doing a lot more to reverse the global trend towards fatness, and recognise it as a key factor in the battle to reduce emissions and slow climate change, they conclude.

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Obstacles To Walking And Biking To Work 

14 April 2009---Active commuting - walking or biking to school or work - can be an easy, effective and efficient way to integrate physical activity into the daily routine.

Pam Wittman, a K-State senior in kinesiology worked with K-State's Melissa Bopp and Andy Kaczynski, both assistant professors of kinesiology, on the active commuting research.

Just 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day is enough for health benefits, and small bouts of exercise throughout the day (as little as 10 minutes) provide the health payoff, according to revised guidelines from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Among the campus findings: students were most likely to actively commute, then faculty members, and then staff. Women and men were equally interested in walking or biking. Older individuals were less likely to actively commute than younger individuals.

Depending on distance to campus, those living within a 20-minute walk actively commuted four times per week, and those within a 20-minute bike ride, biked to campus five times per week.

Many participants said they were willing to actively commute if they perceived they could travel to their destination in about 20 minutes -- or a distance of approximately one mile.

The K-State researchers found some things that facilitated people's choices to actively commute. "People who hold ecologically-friendly attitudes are more likely to actively commute and less likely to drive to work," Bopp said. The finding was interesting and she said future programmes promoting active commuting could emphasise the eco-friendliness of it as a selling point.

Some hindrances included a perceived lack of bike racks, showers or a place to freshen up before work or teaching, and an "office culture" where driving to work is the norm and there is limited support for walking or biking. Respondents also listed time constraints, weather, a need to go elsewhere before or after work or school; parking availability; parking costs; concerns about the environment, such as pollution; cost of gasoline; safety from traffic and crime; and the terrain they have to traverse.

Kaczynski said that if bike lanes and sidewalks are a consideration of city and county engineers whenever roads have to be renovated it could benefit public health. "Policymakers ought to weigh the cost of installing sidewalks or widening roads for bike lanes and the positive health benefits of physical activity.

"There are long-term economic costs to society of obesity, cancers and heart disease," Kaczynski said. "There are emotional costs of people suffering because physical activity is actually being engineered out of our lives by having poor streets and other factors related to urban design."

Mixed land use, where residential areas, commercial opportunities, parks, and workplaces are close and connected, provides more chances for people to engage in physical activity for leisure or for purposeful transportation, Kaczynski said. "We see some areas of Manhattan where people can live, work and play all within a relatively short distance, but for large portions of Manhattan, such opportunities are limited by the way the neighborhoods are developed," he said.

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Public Transit Users More Likely To Be Fit

28 March 2009, British Columbia, Canada---A new study by the University of British Columbia suggests taking public transit may help you keep fit.

The studyfound that people who take public transit are three times more likely than those who don't to meet the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada's suggested daily minimum of physical activity.

Doctoral student Ugo Lachapelle and Assoc. Professor Lawrence Frank of the UBC School of Community and Regional Planning used 4,156 travel surveys from metropolitan Atlanta, Georgia, to examine whether transit and car trips were associated with meeting the recommended levels of physical activity by walking.

Because transit trips by bus and train often involve walking to and from stops, the study found that users are more likely to meet the recommended 30 minutes of moderate physical activity a day, five days a week.

According to the study, people who drove the most were the least likely to meet the recommended level of physical activity.

"The idea of needing to go to the gym to get your daily dose of exercise is a misperception," says Frank.

"These short walks throughout our day are historically how we have gotten our activity. Unfortunately, we've engineered this activity out of our daily lives."

The researchers conclude that making transit incentives more broadly available may produce indirect health benefits by getting people walking, even if it's just in short bouts.

"This should be appealing to policy makers because it's easier to promote transit incentives - such as employer-sponsored passes or discount fares - than to restructure existing neighbourhoods," says Frank.

The research could have major implications for urban planning and public transit development, Lachapelle says.

"You don't necessarily have to rebuild communities or make major investments in infrastructure to promote public health," he says. "There are things we can do in the interim, such as encourage people to drive less, and adapt their lifestyles which will get people more physically active and generate fewer greenhouse gasses."

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Indoor Cycling Found To Reduce Migraine Suffering

28 March 2009---While physical exercise has been shown to trigger migraine headaches among sufferers, a new study found that indoor cycling is well tolerated by patients. The findings show that the activity decreased the frequency of headaches and improved quality of life.

The study used a sample of migraine sufferers who were examined before, during and after an aerobic exercise intervention. The program was based on indoor cycling (for continuous aerobic exercise) and was designed to improve maximal oxygen uptake without worsening the patients’ migraines.

After the treatment period, patients’ maximum oxygen uptake increased significantly. There was no worsening of migraine status at any time during the study period. During the last month of treatment, there was a significant decrease in the number of migraine attacks, the number of days with migraine per month, headache intensity and amount of headache medication used.

Individuals with headache and migraine typically are less physically active than those without headache. Patients often avoid exercise, resulting in less aerobic endurance and flexibility.

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