This year, exercise science expanded and fine-tuned our understanding of how physical activity\u00a0affects our brains,joints,\u00a0hearts,\u00a0and even genes, beginning\u00a0before birth\u00a0and continuing throughout our lifespans, which can be lengthened, it seems, by exercise, especially if we pick up the pace.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s fitness news, as a look back\u00a0through 2013\u2019s Phys Ed columns shows, was variously enlightening, validating (if, like me, you never bothered\u00a0cooling down after a workout\u00a0anyway), and practical (D.I.Y. concussion testing,\u00a0anyone?). It was also occasionally deflating, at least if you hoped that\u00a0barefoot running invariably would reduce\u00a0the risk of injury,\u00a0gentle exercise would quash your appetite,\u00a0or training for a marathon would automaticallyexempt you from being a couch potato.<\/p>\n
But the lesson that seemed to emerge most persistently from the fitness-related studies published this year was that intensity matters, especially if you wish to complete your workout quickly. The most popular column that I wrote this year, by a wide margin, detailed\u201cThe Scientific 7-Minute Workout,\u201d\u00a0a concept that appealed, I have no doubt, because the time commitment was so slight. But the vigor required was considerable; to gain health benefits from those seven minutes, you needed to maintain a thumping heart rate and spray sweat droplets around the room.<\/p>\n
Almost halving the time spent exercising was also effective, a\u00a0later and likewise popular column showed. In that study, out-of-shape volunteers who ran on a treadmill for a mere four minutes three times a week for 10 weeks raised their maximal oxygen uptake, or endurance capacity, by about 10 percent and significantly improved their blood sugar control and blood pressure profiles.<\/p>\n
The results undercut a common excuse for skipping workouts. \u201cOne of the main reasons people give\u201d for not exercising is that they don\u2019t have time, said Arnt Erik Tjonna, a postdoctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who led the study.<\/p>\n
But they emphasize, too, the potency of hard effort. The volunteers ran at 90 percent of their maximum aerobic capacity for those four minutes, a level that is frankly unpleasant. But, in four minutes, they were done.<\/p>\n
There were other hints throughout the year that exerting yourself vigorously may have unique payoffs, compared with less strenuous exercise. In a study that I\u00a0wrote about a few weeks ago, for instance, people who walked briskly, at a pace of 17 minutes per mile or less, generally lived longer than those men and women who strolled during their walks, at a pace of 20 minutes per mile or slower, although the study was not designed to determine why the intensity of the exercise mattered.<\/p>\n
And in September, I wrote about two studies showing that strenuous exercise\u00a0blunted volunteers\u2019 appetites\u00a0after workouts more effectively than longer sessions of easy exercise did. The studies were small, though, and involved only young-ish, overweight men. Whether the results are applicable to other people, including those of us who are not male, requires additional experiments. I expect to be covering the results in 2014.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, other studies that I wrote about this year emphasize how pervasive the impacts of any amount and type of exercise can be. One of my\u00a0favorite experiments of 2013\u00a0detailed how rodents that ran on wheels for several weeks responded far better to stressful situations than sedentary animals, in large part, it seems, because their brains contained specialized cells that dampened unnecessary anxiety. At a molecular level, the runners\u2019 brains were calmer than those of their sedentary lab mates.<\/p>\n
But perhaps the most remarkable studies of the year examined the effect of exercise on our DNA. In several experiments, which\u00a0I wrote about in July, scientists found that exercise reshapes genes in human cells, changing how atoms attach to the outside of individual portions of our DNA. As a result, I wrote, the behavior of the gene changes. In one of the studies, researchers found that six months of moderate exercise profoundly remodeled genes related to the risk for diabetes and heart disease. But for those of us too impatient to wait six months, the other study found that a single session of bike riding altered genes in volunteers\u2019 muscle cells. The effects showed up whether the pedaling was easy or strenuous, but, in line with so much of this year\u2019s exercise science, were more pronounced when cyclists rode vigorously.<\/p>\n
Still, for everyone, as one of the scientists told me, the studies are an important and inspirational reminder of \u201cthe robust effect exercise can have on the human body, even at the level of our DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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