rest days - szdaily.sznews.comszdaily.sznews.com/attachment/pdf/201711/24/c69012... · exercise is...
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10 ❘ lifestyle CONTACT US AT: 8351-9186, [email protected] Fri/Sat/Sun November 24~26, 2017 Y OU already know you need to push your limits to keep reaching your fitness goals, whether you’re looking to shed a few pounds, nail a faster race time or sculpt your physique. But that time you take to rest between butt-kicking workouts? It’s just as important. In fact, without recovering prop- erly, you could stall your prog- ress — or worse, reverse it. The trouble is, it’s easy to get carried away with hardcore exer- cise. “We have this mentality: If a little bit is good, then more is better,” says Pete McCall, CSCS, ACE-certified personal trainer. One of the biggest mistakes people make in the pursuit of improved athleticism is going too hard on days they should be taking it easy, he says. After all, exercise is only one piece of the fitness equation. Why you need a break to bust through plateaus As McCall reminds us, exer- cise puts physical stress on the body. In order to see results from that stress, you need to give your muscles time to adapt and recover. “Fitness [improve- ments] happen after the work- out, not during the workout,” McCall says. The best way to help your body recuperate and stay on track to reach your goals is to incorporate active recovery days into your weekly schedule. That means easy sessions done at no more than 60 to 70 percent of your maximum effort. The reason: After a hard SUDDEN cardiac arrest is associated with sexual activ- ity far more often in men than women, research suggests. But sex is a rare trigger for sudden cardiac arrest. Only 34 out of the 4,557 car- diac arrests examined occurred during or within one hour of sexual intercourse and 32 of those affected were men. Sumeet Chugh, of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, California, the United States, said his study is the first to evaluate sexual activity as a potential trigger of cardiac arrest. A cardiac arrest happens when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating. It causes someone to fall uncon- scious and stop breathing. Unless treated with CPR, it is fatal. This differs from a heart attack, where blood flow to the heart is blocked. It is known that sexual activ- ity can trigger heart attacks, but the link with cardiac arrest was previously unknown. Chugh and his colleagues examined hospital records on cases of cardiac arrest in adults between 2002 and 2015 in Portland, Oregon. Sexual activity was associated in fewer than 1 percent of the cases. The vast majority were male and were more likely to be middle-aged and have a his- tory of cardiovascular disease. The study also found CPR was performed in only one-third of the cases, despite them being witnessed by a partner. Chugh said, “These findings highlight the importance of continued efforts to educate the public on the importance of bystander CPR for sudden cardiac arrest, irrespective of the circumstance.” He said it shows the need for people to be educated about how to administer CPR. After a heart attack or surgery, the British Heart Foundation suggests patients should typically wait four to six weeks before resuming sexual activity. (SD-Agencies) Sex a rare trigger for cardiac arrest DOG owners have a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease or other causes, a study of 3.4 million Swedes has found. The team analyzed national registries for people aged 40 to 80, and compared them to dog ownership registers. They found there was a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in owners of dogs, particularly of hunting breeds. While owning a dog may help physical activity, researchers said it may be active people who choose to own dogs. They also said owning a dog may pro- tect people from cardiovascular disease by increasing their social contact or wellbe- ing, or by changing the owner’s bacterial microbiome. The microbiome is the collection of microscopic species that live in the gut. It’s thought a dog may influence its owner’s microbiomes as dogs change the dirt in home environments, exposing people to bacteria they may not have encountered otherwise. The researchers said dogs had a particularly protective effect for those who live alone. “The results showed that single dog owners had a 33 percent reduction in risk of death and 11 percent reduction in risk of heart attack, compared to single non- owners,” said lead study author Mwenya Mubanga of Uppsala University. People who live alone have been shown previously to be at a higher risk of cardiovascular death. Mubanga said: “Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family member in the single households.” For their study, published in Scientific Reports, the team looked at data from 2001 to 2012. In Sweden, every visit to a hospital is recorded in national databases — while dog ownership registration has been mandatory since 2001. Owning a dog from breeds originally bred for hunting, such as terriers, retrievers and scent hounds, was associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular disorder. Mike Knapton of the British Heart Foundation said: “Dog ownership has many benefits, and we may now be able to count better heart health as one of them. However, as many dog owners may agree, the main reason for owning a dog is the sheer joy. “Whether you’re a dog owner or not, keeping active is a great way to help improve your heart health.” (SD-Agencies) Why you should take more rest days workout, the body initiates an inflammatory response to help you recover. But if you do too much high-intensity exercise, that inflammatory response can work against you. “High-inten- sity exercise increases inflam- mation in the body and actually weakens the immune system,” McCall says, which makes you much more susceptible to germs, especially during flu season. That could easily translate to more sick days and less gym-time. So don’t be afraid to take it easy in order to stay healthy. On the flipside, “take it easy” doesn’t mean “do nothing.” The point of an active rest day is to be active. So instead of grinding out heavy lifting reps or sprinting until you’re out of breath, flow through yoga poses or take a light jog. The benefit of staying active — versus lounging on the couch for hours — is that you’ll keep blood flowing so you can get rid of the metabolic waste that accumulates in your tissues after a hard workout. “It’s like flushing out a car engine,” McCall explains. Moderate-intensity activity will also boost your circulation, intro- ducing new oxygen and nutrients into your muscles, he adds. As a result, you’ll be ready to hit it hard again the next day — most likely without nagging soreness. What your active rest day should look like •If you’re a heavy-lifter Include gentle yoga (like Hatha), core exercises (think: planks, reverse crunches, hanging leg raises), and bodyweight exercises like lunges, squats, pushups and pull-ups in your rest day. “You’re still using the same muscles as you were before,” McCall explains. “You’re just not placing the same mechanical forces on them.” •If you’re a snow sport enthusiast You’ll benefit from taking a brisk walk, or a bodyweight strength class like TRX. Even sitting in a sauna or hot tub for 20 minutes will aid recovery, as the heat helps improve circulation, McCall says. •If you’re training for a marathon Follow a long run at race pace with an easy, four-mile jog the next day. Keep the intensity low to moderate, and don’t let your jog turn into another training run. After all, the goal here is recovery. A re you resting enough? One way to gauge intensity on an active rest day is to use the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale, or how hard you feel like your body is working. Simply rate your exertion on a 0- to-10 scale. Zero means you’re doing noth- ing at all, while 10 refers to an all-out effort. On active recovery days, aim for a 5 or 6 on the 0- to-10 scale. At this level, you should be breathing harder than normal, but not out of breath. Whether you’re a weight lifter, runner, cyclist, swimmer or fit- ness class junkie, you want to alternate intense workouts with low to moderate ones lasting 20 to 40 minutes. And try to take one complete rest day per week. Also aim to be as active as pos- sible on your days off to hit that active recovery goal. That could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to your co-worker’s office instead of sending an email and standing up during phone calls. (SD-Agencies) Dog ownership lowers early death risk, study finds
Transcript of rest days - szdaily.sznews.comszdaily.sznews.com/attachment/pdf/201711/24/c69012... · exercise is...
10 x lifestyleCONTACT US AT: 8351-9186, [email protected]
Fri/Sat/Sun November 24~26, 2017
YOU already know you need to push your limits to keep reaching your
fi tness goals, whether you’re looking to shed a few pounds, nail a faster race time or sculpt your physique. But that time you take to rest between butt-kicking workouts? It’s just as important. In fact, without recovering prop-erly, you could stall your prog-ress — or worse, reverse it.
The trouble is, it’s easy to get carried away with hardcore exer-cise. “We have this mentality: If a little bit is good, then more is better,” says Pete McCall, CSCS, ACE-certifi ed personal trainer. One of the biggest mistakes people make in the pursuit of improved athleticism is going too hard on days they should be taking it easy, he says. After all, exercise is only one piece of the fi tness equation.Why you need a break to bust through plateaus
As McCall reminds us, exer-cise puts physical stress on the body. In order to see results from that stress, you need to give your muscles time to adapt and recover. “Fitness [improve-ments] happen after the work-out, not during the workout,” McCall says. The best way to help your body recuperate and stay on track to reach your goals is to incorporate active recovery days into your weekly schedule. That means easy sessions done at no more than 60 to 70 percent of your maximum effort.
The reason: After a hard
SUDDEN cardiac arrest is associated with sexual activ-ity far more often in men than women, research suggests.
But sex is a rare trigger for sudden cardiac arrest.
Only 34 out of the 4,557 car-diac arrests examined occurred during or within one hour of sexual intercourse and 32 of those affected were men.
Sumeet Chugh, of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, California, the United States, said his study is the fi rst to evaluate sexual activity as a potential trigger of cardiac arrest.
A cardiac arrest happens when the heart malfunctions and suddenly stops beating. It causes someone to fall uncon-scious and stop breathing. Unless treated with CPR, it is fatal. This differs from a heart attack, where blood fl ow to the heart is blocked.
It is known that sexual activ-ity can trigger heart attacks, but the link with cardiac arrest was previously unknown.
Chugh and his colleagues examined hospital records on cases of cardiac arrest in adults between 2002 and 2015 in Portland, Oregon.
Sexual activity was associated in fewer than 1 percent of the cases. The vast majority were male and were more likely to be middle-aged and have a his-tory of cardiovascular disease. The study also found CPR was performed in only one-third of the cases, despite them being witnessed by a partner.
Chugh said, “These fi ndings highlight the importance of continued efforts to educate the public on the importance of bystander CPR for sudden cardiac arrest, irrespective of the circumstance.” He said it shows the need for people to be educated about how to administer CPR.
After a heart attack or surgery, the British Heart Foundation suggests patients should typically wait four to six weeks before resuming sexual activity. (SD-Agencies)
Sex a rare trigger for cardiac arrest
DOG owners have a lower risk of death from cardiovascular disease or other causes, a study of 3.4 million Swedes has found.
The team analyzed national registries for people aged 40 to 80, and compared them to dog ownership registers.
They found there was a lower risk of cardiovascular disease in owners of dogs, particularly of hunting breeds.
While owning a dog may help physical activity, researchers said it may be active people who choose to own dogs.
They also said owning a dog may pro-tect people from cardiovascular disease by increasing their social contact or wellbe-ing, or by changing the owner’s bacterial microbiome.
The microbiome is the collection of microscopic species that live in the gut.
It’s thought a dog may infl uence its owner’s microbiomes as dogs change the dirt in home environments, exposing
people to bacteria they may not have encountered otherwise.
The researchers said dogs had a particularly protective effect for those who live alone.
“The results showed that single dog owners had a 33 percent reduction in risk of death and 11 percent reduction in risk of heart attack, compared to single non-owners,” said lead study author Mwenya Mubanga of Uppsala University.
People who live alone have been shown previously to be at a higher risk of cardiovascular death.
Mubanga said: “Perhaps a dog may stand in as an important family
member in the single households.”For their study, published in Scientifi c
Reports, the team looked at data from 2001 to 2012. In Sweden, every visit to a hospital is recorded in national databases — while dog ownership registration has been mandatory since 2001.
Owning a dog from breeds originally bred for hunting, such as terriers, retrievers and scent hounds, was associated with the lowest risk of cardiovascular disorder.
Mike Knapton of the British Heart Foundation said: “Dog ownership has many benefi ts, and we may now be able to count better heart health as one of them. However, as many dog owners may agree, the main reason for owning a dog is the sheer joy.
“Whether you’re a dog owner or not, keeping active is a great way to help improve your heart health.”
(SD-Agencies)
Why you should take more
rest daysworkout, the body initiates an infl ammatory response to help you recover. But if you do too much high-intensity exercise, that infl ammatory response can work against you. “High-inten-sity exercise increases infl am-mation in the body and actually weakens the immune system,” McCall says, which makes you much more susceptible to germs, especially during fl u season. That could easily translate to more sick days and less gym-time. So don’t be afraid to take it easy in order to stay healthy.
On the fl ipside, “take it easy” doesn’t mean “do nothing.” The point of an active rest day is to be active. So instead of grinding out heavy lifting reps or sprinting until you’re out of breath, fl ow through yoga poses or take a light jog.
The benefi t of staying active — versus lounging on the couch for hours — is that you’ll keep blood fl owing so you can get rid of the metabolic waste that accumulates in your tissues after a hard workout. “It’s like fl ushing out a car engine,” McCall explains. Moderate-intensity activity will also boost your circulation, intro-ducing new oxygen and nutrients
into your muscles, he adds. As a result, you’ll be ready to hit it hard again the next day — most likely without nagging soreness.
What your active rest day should look like
•If you’re a heavy-lifterInclude gentle yoga (like Hatha),
core exercises (think: planks, reverse crunches, hanging leg raises), and bodyweight exercises like lunges, squats, pushups and pull-ups in your rest day. “You’re still using the same muscles as you were before,” McCall explains. “You’re just not placing the same mechanical forces on them.”
•If you’re a snow sport enthusiast
You’ll benefi t from taking a brisk walk, or a bodyweight strength class like TRX. Even sitting in a sauna or hot tub for 20 minutes will aid recovery, as the heat helps improve circulation, McCall says.
•If you’re training for a marathonFollow a long run at race pace
with an easy, four-mile jog the next day. Keep the intensity low to moderate, and don’t let your jog turn into another training run. After all, the goal here is recovery.
Are you resting enough?
One way to gauge intensity on an active rest day is to use the rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale, or how hard you feel like your body is working. Simply rate your exertion on a 0-to-10 scale.
Zero means you’re doing noth-ing at all, while 10 refers to an all-out effort. On active recovery days, aim for a 5 or 6 on the 0-to-10 scale.
At this level, you should be breathing harder than normal, but not out of breath.
Whether you’re a weight lifter, runner, cyclist, swimmer or fi t-ness class junkie, you want to alternate intense workouts with low to moderate ones lasting 20 to 40 minutes. And try to take one complete rest day per week.
Also aim to be as active as pos-sible on your days off to hit that active recovery goal.
That could mean taking the stairs instead of the elevator, walking to your co-worker’s offi ce instead of sending an email and standing up during phone calls.
(SD-Agencies)
Dog ownership lowers early death risk, study fi nds
