Here are a few relevant fitness and health stories that I ran across this week:
Why Are Back Pain and Spinal Injuries Plaguing The Game? The Answer Is Complicated.
Why the apparent scourge … ? Consensus concentrates around a confluence of factors, from the repetitive strains of youth-sports specialization to the wraparound demands of the Tour season. Adding to the mix are changes in technology, training and tournament setups that are meant to either furnish or favor power, which, in turn, encourages more violent swings. Eye-popping purses only reinforce the cycle of bigger, stronger players trying to hit it farther and cash in faster, regardless of the physical toll it takes. Longevity is a less urgent goal than length. It’s a perfect storm, and swirling at its center, many experts say, are fundamental shifts in the golf swing itself.
This Golf.Com article uses the story of golf prodigy Philip Francis to examine the controversy over whether the modern golf swing is causing an outbreak of back problems and other physical injuries. What is the difference between the swings of Sam Snead and Tom Watson, who played relatively injury free into their sixties, and of Tiger, Rory and Jason Day?
Your Heart Can Get Younger With Exercise — Even In Middle Age
After two years, the group doing the higher-intensity exercise saw dramatic improvements in heart health.
“We took these 50-year-old hearts and turned the clock back to 30- or 35-year-old hearts,” says Levine. Their hearts processed oxygen more efficiently and were notably less stiff.
“And the reason they got so much stronger and fitter,” he says, “was because their hearts could now fill a lot better and pump a lot more blood during exercise.”
As it turns out, High Intensity Interval Training — bursts of high energy exercise followed by a few minutes of rest — can help to turn back the clock. It’s got to be done by late middle age, though, or the effect wears off.
A longer, healthier life means more time for more golf.
Listen to the podcast and read the article on NPR
Where Does The Fat Go When You Lose Weight?
So if not energy, muscles or the loo, where does fat go?
The correct answer is that fat is converted to carbon dioxide and water. You exhale the carbon dioxide and the water mixes into your circulation until it’s lost as urine or sweat.
If you lose 10 pounds of fat, precisely 8.4 pounds comes out through your lungs and the remaining 1.6 pounds turns into water. In other words, nearly all the weight we lose is exhaled.
So … in other words, if you’re losing weight, you’re contributing to carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere.
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