Exercise answer: Research shows it's how often you do it, not how much

We all know exercise is important, but is it better to do a little every day, or a lot a few times a week?

August 15, 2022

Science Daily/Edith Cowan University

So… should I exercise a little bit every day, or exercise for longer once a week?

It's a dilemma faced by many health-conscious people -- and new research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) is answering the question.

This latest research indicates a little bit of daily activity could well be the most beneficial approach, at least for muscle strength.

And happily, it also suggests you don't have to put in a mountain of work every day.

In collaboration with Niigata University and Nishi Kyushu University in Japan, the four-week training study had three groups of participants performing an arm resistance exercise and changes in muscle strength and muscle thickness were measured and compared.

The exercise consisted of 'maximal voluntary eccentric bicep contractions' performed on a machine which measures muscle strength in each muscle contraction you would do at the gym.

An eccentric contraction is when the muscle is lengthening; in this case, like lowering a heavy dumbbell in a bicep curl.

Two groups performed 30 contractions per week, with one group doing six contractions a day for five days a week (6x5 group), while the other crammed all 30 into a single day, once a week (30x1 group).

Another group only performed six contractions one day a week.

After four weeks, the group doing 30 contractions in a single day did not show any increase in muscle strength, although muscle thickness (an indicator of increase in muscle size) increased 5.8 per cent.

The group doing six contractions once a week did not show any changes in muscle strength and muscle thickness.

However, the 6x5 group saw significant increases in muscle strength -- more than 10 per cent -- with an increase in muscle thickness similar to the 30x1 group.

Frequency, not volume

Importantly, the increase in muscle strength of the 6x5 group was similar to the group in a previous study that performed only one three-second maximal eccentric contraction per day for five days a week for four weeks.

ECU Exercise and Sports Science Professor Ken Nosaka said these studies continue to suggest very manageable amounts of exercise done regularly can have a real effect on people's strength.

"People think they have to do a lengthy session of resistance training in the gym, but that's not the case," he said.

"Just lowering a heavy dumbbell slowly once or six times a day is enough."

Professor Nosaka said while the study required participants to exert maximum effort, early findings from current, ongoing research indicated similar results could be achieved without needing to push as hard as possible.

"We only used the bicep curl exercise in this study, but we believe this would be the case for other muscles also, at least to some extent," he said.

"Muscle strength is important to our health. This could help prevent a decrease in muscle mass and strength with ageing.

"A decrease in muscle mass is a cause of many chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, dementia, plus musculoskeletal problems such as osteoporosis."

Rest up

It is not yet known precisely why the body responds better to resistance exercises with eccentric contractions in smaller doses rather than bigger loads less frequently.

Professor Nosaka said it may relate to how often the brain is asked to make a muscle perform in a particular manner.

However, he stressed it was also important to include rest in an exercise regimen.

"In this study, the 6x5 group had two days off per week," he said.

"Muscle adaptions occur when we are resting; if someone was able to somehow train 24 hours a day, there would actually be no improvement at all.

"Muscles need rest to improve their strength and their muscle mass, but muscles appear to like to be stimulated more frequently."

He also highlighted if someone was unable to exercise for a period, there was no value in trying to "make up" for it with a longer session later.

"If someone's sick and can't exercise for a week, that's fine, but it is better to just return to regular exercise routine when you're feeling better" he said.

Clarifying advice

Current Australian Government guidelines already indicate adults should try to be active every day and perform 2.5-5 hours of moderate physical activity per week.

Professor Nosaka said there needed to be more emphasis on the importance of making exercise a daily activity, rather than hitting a weekly minute goal.

"If you're just going to the gym once a week, it's not as effective as doing a bit of exercise every day at home," he said.

"This research, together with our previous study, suggests the importance of accumulating a small amount of exercise a week, than just spending hours exercising once a week.

"We need to know that every muscle contraction counts, and it's how regularly you perform them that counts."

'Greater effects by performing a small number of eccentric contractions daily than a larger number of them once a week' was published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220815085707.htm

Vegans who lift weights may have stronger bones than other people on a plant-based diet

Vegans and omnivores who do resistance training may have similar bone structure

August 4, 2022

Science Daily/The Endocrine Society

People on a plant-based diet who do strength training as opposed to other forms of exercise such as biking or swimming may have stronger bones than other people on a vegan diet, according to new research published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

About 6 percent of people in the United States are vegans. Recent research shows a plant-based diet can be associated with lower bone mineral density and increased fracture risk.

"Veganism is a global trend with strongly increasing numbers of people worldwide adhering to a purely plant-based diet," said Christian Muschitz, M.D., of St. Vincent Hospital Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna in Vienna, Austria. "Our study showed resistance training offsets diminished bone structure in vegan people when compared to omnivores."

The authors compared data from 43 men and women on a plant-based diet for at least five years and 45 men and women on an omnivore diet for at least five years. Omnivores eat meat as well as plant-based foods.

The researchers found vegan participants who did resistance training exercises such as using machines, free weights, or bodyweight resistance exercises at least once a week had stronger bones than those who did not. They also found vegans and omnivores who engaged in resistance training had similar bone structure.

"People who adhere to a vegan lifestyle should perform resistance training on a regular basis to preserve bone strength," Muschitz said.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/08/220804102619.htm

Chores, exercise, and social visits linked to lower risk of dementia

July 27, 2022

Science Daily/American Academy of Neurology

Physical and mental activities, such as household chores, exercise, and visiting with family and friends, may help lower the risk of dementia, according to a new study published in the July 27, 2022, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study looked at the effects of these activities, as well as mental activities and use of electronic devices in people both with and without higher genetic risk for dementia.

"Many studies have identified potential risk factors for dementia, but we wanted to know more about a wide variety of lifestyle habits and their potential role in the prevention of dementia," said study author Huan Song, MD, PhD, of Sichuan University in Chengdu, China. "Our study found that exercise, household chores, and social visits were linked to a reduced risk of various types of dementia."

The study involved 501,376 people from a UK database without dementia with an average age of 56.

Participants filled out questionnaires at the beginning of the study, including one on physical activities. They were asked how often they participated in activities such as climbing a flight of stairs, walking, and participating in strenuous sports. They were also asked about household chores, job-related activities, and what kind of transportation they used, including walking or biking to work.

Participants completed another questionnaire on mental activities. They were asked about their education level, whether they attend adult education classes, how often they visit with friends and family, visit pubs or social clubs or religious groups, and how often they use electronic devices such as playing computer games, watching TV, and talking on the phone.

Additionally, participants reported whether they had any immediate family members with dementia. This helped researchers determine if they had a genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease. Study participants were followed an average of 11 years. At the end of the study, 5,185 people had developed dementia.

After adjusting for multiple factors such as age, income, and smoking, researchers found that most physical and mental activities studied showed links to the risk of dementia. Importantly, the findings remain after considering the high correlations and interactions of these activities. People who were highly engaged in activity patterns including frequent exercises, household chores, and daily visits of family and friends had 35%, 21%, and 15% lower risk of dementia, respectively, compared to people who were the least engaged in these activity patterns.

Researchers also looked at dementia incidence rates by identified activity patterns. The rate in people who exercised frequently was 0.45 cases for every 1,000 person-years compared to 1.59 for people who rarely exercised. Person-years take into account the number of people in a study as well as the amount of time spent in the study. Those who frequently did household chores had a rate of 0.86 cases for every 1,000 person-years compared to 1.02 for people who rarely did household chores. People who visited family daily had a rate of 0.62 cases for every 1,000 person-years compared to 0.8 cases for those who only visited friends and family once every few months.

"Our study has found that by engaging more frequently in healthy physical and mental activities people may reduce their risk of dementia," Song said. "More research is needed to confirm our findings. However, our results are encouraging that making these simple lifestyle changes may be beneficial."

The researchers found that all participants benefited from the protective effect of physical and mental activities, whether or not they had a family history of dementia.

A limitation of the study was that people reported their own physical and mental activity, so they may not have remembered and reported these activities correctly.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220727163109.htm

Sports help kids develop important trait linked to adult success

July 27, 2022

Science Daily/Ohio State University

Here's another good reason for kids to participate in organized sports: They can develop the "grit" that helps them overcome challenges as adults, a new study suggests.

Grit is defined as the combination of passion and perseverance that helps people achieve their long-term goals. This new research found that adults who played sports as a kid scored higher on a measurement of grit than adults who didn't play at all or said they quit.

The results suggest that the lessons children learn in sports can have a positive impact on their lives long after they grow up, said Emily Nothnagle, lead author of the study and recent graduate of The Ohio State University.

"Kids who participate in sports learn what it is like to struggle as they learn new skills, overcome challenges and bounce back from failure to try again," Nothnagle said.

"The grit they develop playing sports can help them the rest of their lives."

But all is not lost for adults who didn't play as children -- the study also found that adults who said they participated in sports during the past year showed more grit than those who didn't, said study co-author Chris Knoester, associate professor of sociology at Ohio State.

The study was published recently in the journal Leisure Sciences.

Survey data came from the National Sports and Society Survey (NSASS), sponsored by Ohio State's Sports and Society Initiative.

The survey was completed by 3,993 adults who volunteered to participate through the American Population Panel, run by Ohio State's Center for Human Resource Research.

Participants, who live in all 50 states, answered the survey online between the fall of 2018 and spring of 2019. Because NSASS participants are disproportionately female, white and Midwestern, the researchers weighted the survey results to reflect the U.S. population more accurately.

Grit was measured by asking participants to rate themselves on a scale of 1-5 on eight statements, including "I am diligent. I never give up" and "I am a hard worker." None of the statements was directly related to sports.

Initial results showed that 34% of those who played sports as a youth scored high on the grit scale, compared to only 23% of those who didn't play sports.

And 25% of those who never played sports scored low on the grit scale, compared to just 17% of those who did play sports.

More sophisticated statistical analyses that accounted for respondents' demographic characteristics supported these findings, too.

But to get the benefit of sports participation, kids have to keep at it and play continually, results suggested.

"Adults who played youth sports but dropped out did not show higher levels of grit. They actually demonstrated lower levels of grit after we included a proxy measure of how sports mattered for the development of grit while growing up," Knoester said.

The proxy measure was based on respondents' perceptions of how their athletic experience affected their work ethic.

"Quitting could reflect a lack of perseverance, which is a crucial component of grit. It could also make quitting an activity, and not persevering, easier the next time."

Adults who played sports as kids generally perceived that the experience helped improve their work ethic. And that perception was linked to their grit scores as adults.

But even after taking this finding into account, sports participation boosted grit scores, findings showed.

"Sport participation seems to have improved people's development of grit even more than they realized," Nothnagle said.

But could some people just be born with the grit to help them succeed at sports as a young person and then continue to benefit from that trait as an adult? Knoester said this study can't definitively prove the answer to that question, but the results suggest that people can gain or lose grit throughout life.

Adults who said they participated in sports regularly within the last year exhibited higher levels of grit, regardless of whether they played sports early in life and the extent to which they felt that their athletic experiences affected their work ethic while growing up.

"This additional finding about sports participation in adulthood suggests that you can build and perhaps lose grit during different points in your life," Knoester said. "It is not a static quality."

Participants in the study weren't asked how they participated in sports as an adult. It may be that many challenged themselves through personal training or workouts, rather than in organized sports as they did as kids, the researchers said.

The results shouldn't be interpreted as meaning that grit doesn't have a downside, though, Nothnagle noted.

"There can be issues if you use grit without some limits. An overemphasis on applying grit in sports activities can lead some people to overtrain and injure themselves, for example," she said.

But overall, the results suggest that along with the health and other benefits of sports, the development of grit could be another positive impact.

"Sports offer this valuable place in society where you can work hard and practice and take it seriously, but it is also not real life to some extent- typically, sports are thought of as a separate sphere of life and the stakes in sports are not as far-reaching and extreme," Knoester said.

"But you can take those lessons you learn and practice in sports, such as building grit, and apply them in your life outside of sports in very useful ways."

Exercise-induced central fatigue -- low oxygen supply clouds judgment

June 29, 2022

Science Daily/University of Tsukuba

Research on the effects of exercise in low-oxygen environments on the brain demonstrated that cognitive performance worsens when lower-than-usual amounts of oxygen are carried by the blood. Consequently, tissue in brain regions with less critical functions may receive inadequate oxygen supply to maintain normal activity levels.

When physically demanding activities are performed at high altitude or in other low-oxygen environments, excellent coordination, judgment, and decision-making are important. In some cases, such as when mountaineering, these capabilities may be the difference between life and death.

What is executive function and why is it important? Executive functions control and coordinate other brain functions, like memory, emotions, and movement control, to enable more complex behaviors -- for example, learning, planning, judgment, and decision-making.

In a study published this month in Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Tsukuba showed that reductions in neural activity in brain regions responsible for executive control-related cognitive functions and cognitive performance during exercise in low-oxygen conditions could be prevented by maintaining oxygen saturation.

Demonstrating causality -- that the decreases in neural activity and performance are caused by low oxygen availability to brain tissue -- is not straightforward because of the complexity exhibited by the brain and all its functions. Yet the University of Tsukuba research team have done just that. "We compared the effects of hypoxic conditions in which blood oxygen levels is reduced with those in which blood oxygen levels remains stable during exercise," says senior author Professor Hideaki Soya. "By doing this, we isolated low oxygen saturation as a factor for decreased neural activity and decreased performance."

Neural activity in the prefrontal cortex was measured with functional near-infrared spectroscopy to show change in oxygenated hemoglobin (i.e., oxygen usage from regional blood supply). Cognitive performance was assessed using Stroop interference, which is the difference in completion time (or number of errors) between neutral and incongruent trials. In incongruent trials, the color of the text must be identified when, for example, the word red is written in green. In neutral trials, only the color of a swatch must be identified.

"When blood oxygen levels remained stable during exercise, the Stroop effect was not as pronounced," says senior author Dr. Genta Ochi. "In the brain region of interest -- the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex -- there was less of a decrease in activation from the neutral to the incongruent trial."

The study suggests that oxygen supply is important for maintaining cognitive function during exercise in low-oxygen environments. Furthermore, regions of the brain with newer (from an evolutionary point of view), less critical functions may be lower priority than those responsible for functions that keep us alive. Thus, the effects of cognitive fatigue must be taken into account when physical activities that require judgment and critical thinking are performed in low-oxygen environments.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220629121051.htm

Team sports linked to fewer mental health difficulties for kids

However, kids who exclusively play individual sports more likely to face mental health challenges

June 1, 2022

Science Daily/PLOS

A large-scale study of U.S. children and adolescents has found that participation in a team sport is associated with fewer mental health difficulties, but that kids who are exclusively involved in an individual sport -- such as tennis or wrestling -- may face greater mental health difficulties than kids who do no sports at all. Matt Hoffmann of California State University, U.S.A., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on June 1, 2022.

Previous research has consistently suggested that youth participation in organized sports might help protect against mental health difficulties. However, some studies have linked youth sports participation to worse mental health, so more detailed research is needed to determine which approaches to sports might be most beneficial.

To shed new light, Hoffmann and colleagues analyzed data on the sports habits and mental health of 11,235 kids aged 9 to 13. Parents and guardians reported on several aspects of the children's mental health by filling out a form known as the Child Behavior Checklist. The researchers looked for any associations between the mental health data and the kids' sports habits, while also accounting for other factors that might impact mental health, such as household income and overall physical activity.

In line with the researchers' expectations, the analysis showed that kids involved in team sports were less likely to have signs of anxiety, depression, withdrawal, social problems, and attention problems.

The researchers also expected individual sports to be associated with fewer mental health difficulties, even if to a lesser extent than for team sports. However, they instead found that children who exclusively played individual sports tended to have greater mental health difficulties than those who did not play sports at all. Nonetheless, for female kids, participation in both team and individual sports was associated with a lower likelihood of rule-breaking behavior than non-sports participation.

Overall, these findings add to a growing body of evidence that playing team sports is positively associated with mental health for children and adolescents. The authors suggest that further research could help clarify the link they observed between individual sports and worse mental health difficulties, and longitudinal observations are needed to investigate any causal relationships between sport participation and mental health.

The authors add: "Children and adolescents who played exclusively team sports, like basketball or soccer, had fewer mental health difficulties than those who did not participate in any organized sports. However, to our surprise, youth who participated in only individual sports, such as gymnastics or tennis, had more mental health difficulties compared to those who did not participate in organized sports."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/06/220601142809.htm

Reducing sedentary time mitigates the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases

May 2, 2022

Science Daily/University of Turku

A new study suggests that reducing daily sedentary time can have a positive effect on the risk factors of lifestyle diseases already in three months. Spending just one hour less sitting daily and increasing light physical activity can help in the prevention of these diseases.

Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are the most common chronic diseases globally. The risk of developing these diseases is increased particularly by overweight caused by physical inactivity and unhealthy diet, and metabolic disorders often associated with it.

Regular exercise is well known to be beneficial in weight management and disease prevention. However, many adults do not meet the weekly recommendation of 2.5 hours of moderate-intensity exercise, and the majority of the day is typically spent sitting.

In an intervention study of the Turku PET Centre and the UKK Institute in Finland, the researchers investigated whether health benefits can be achieved by reducing daily sedentary time during a three-month intervention period. The research participants were sedentary and physically inactive working-age adults with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The researchers compared two groups: the intervention group was guided to reduce their sitting time by one-hour per day through increasing standing and light-intensity physical activity, and the control group was instructed to maintain their usual habits and sedentary lifestyle.

"What makes our research design unique is that sedentary time and physical activity of both groups were measured with accelerometers throughout the entire three-month period, whereas in earlier studies activity has typically been measured only for a few days at the beginning and end of the study period. This makes it possible to receive more information on the actual behaviour changes over a longer time period," says Doctoral Candidate Taru Garthwaite from the University of Turku in Finland.

The intervention group managed to reduce sedentary time by 50 minutes per day on average, mainly by increasing the amount of light- and moderate-intensity physical activity. In the three-month period, the researchers observed benefits in health outcomes related to blood sugar regulation, insulin sensitivity and liver health in the intervention group.

"It is an encouraging thought that health benefits can be achieved by reducing the time spent sitting and increasing the amount of even light-intensity physical activity. For many, this may be an easier starting point than increasing actual exercise," says Garthwaite.

Particularly beneficial for physically inactive individuals 

It is likely that people who do not meet the weekly physical activity recommendations will benefit the most from replacing sedentary time with light physical activity. However, reducing sedentary time is probably not enough in itself to prevent diseases if the person has several risk factors of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

"Reducing the time spent sitting might still slow down the development of these diseases, but greater benefits can of course be gained by increasing the amount or intensity of physical activity in addition to sitting less," encourages Garthwaite.

The next step for the researchers is to study how changes in daily activity and sedentary time affect energy metabolism and body composition in addition to the risk factors of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases during a six-month study period.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/05/220502094810.htm

New evidence of how exercise can counter diabetes damage

April 26, 2022

Science Daily/Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University

One way exercise can counter the damage of diabetes is by enabling activation of a natural system we have to grow new blood vessels when existing ones are ravaged by this disease, scientists report.

Angiogenesis is the ability to form new blood vessels, and diabetes not only damages existing blood vessels, it hinders this innate ability to grow new ones in the face of disease and injury, say experts at the Vascular Biology Center at the Medical College of Georgia.

Endothelial cells line our blood vessels and are essential to that new blood vessel growth.

Now the MCG scientists have the first evidence that in the face of diabetes, even one 45-minute session of moderate intensity exercise enables more exosomes, submicroscopic packages filled with biologically active cargo, to deliver directly to those cells more of the protein, ATP7A, which can set angiogenesis in motion, they report in The FASEB Journal.

Not unlike the most sophisticated and efficient delivery services we have all come to rely upon, particularly during the pandemic, what exosomes carry depends on where they come from and where they are headed, says Dr. Tohru Fukai, MCG vascular biologist and cardiologist.

While he and co-corresponding author MCG vascular biologist Dr. Masuko Ushio-Fukai are not yet certain of the origin of these helpful exosomes, it's clear that one place they deliver is to endothelial cells, Fukai says.

In both an animal model of type 2 diabetes and a handful of healthy 50-something-year-olds, two weeks of volunteer running on a wheel for the mice and that one cardio session for the humans increased levels of ATP7A in the exosomes that attached to endothelial cells.

At that point, the activity did not significantly impact the weight of the mice, the scientists note, but it did also increase a marker of endothelial function and factors like, vascular endothelial growth factor, needed for angiogenesis.

Exercise also increased the amount of the powerful, natural antioxidant extracellular superoxide dismutase, or SOD3, but it's the heavier payload of ATP7A, which is also known to deliver the essential mineral copper to cells, that is key to making good use of the SOD3 present, Ushio-Fukai says.

SOD3, is an important natural antioxidant produced by vascular smooth muscle cells in the walls of blood vessels as well as skeletal muscle cells, which helps us maintain healthy levels of reactive oxygen species, or ROS. ROS is a natural byproduct of our use of oxygen that is an important cell signal, enabling a variety of functions. But in diabetes, high blood sugar levels result in high ROS levels that instead hinder important normal functions.

The Fukais have shown that ATP7A levels are reduced in diabetes. They also now have some of the first evidence that exosomes circulating in the plasma of sedentary animal models of type 2 diabetes actually impair angiogenesis when placed in a dish with human endothelial cells, as well as in an animal model of wound healing.

The scientists suggest that synthetic exosomes, already under study as drug-delivery mechanisms, could one day work as an "exercise mimetic" to improve patients' ability to grow new blood vessels when diabetes has damaged their innate ability.

In fact, they have already generated exosomes in which SOD3 is overexpressed and found improved angiogenesis and healing in a mouse model of diabetes.

The way it's supposed to work is SOD3 is naturally silenced in endothelial cells, so they must get it from other cells, notes Ushio-Fukai, hence the importance of exosome delivery. SOD3 must then bind to endothelial cells at its natural spot called the heparin-binding domain, and the copper transporter ATP7A must be present to enable SOD3 to be active there, Fukai says. Both ATP7A and the binding site are key, Fukai notes. For example, when they removed the binding site from the endothelial cells, which can happen in nature, the benefits were lost.

Once on the scene and active, SOD3 converts the ROS superoxide into hydrogen peroxide, or H2O2, another signaling ROS that helps support normal endothelial cell function. The Fukais have reported that in human endothelial cells, overexpressing SOD3 promotes angiogenesis by increasing H2O2.

A copper connection also runs throughout this process as endothelial cells regularly use a lot of copper, and ATP7A, known to transport the essential mineral that we consume in foods like nuts and whole grains, is dependent on copper itself.

Physical exercise, like running or walking on treadmill, prompts muscles to contract which in turn prompts release of exosomes into the blood.

When Fukai was a postdoc in the Emory University Section of Cardiology he was part of the research group that was the first to show that exercise increases SOD3 activity. SOD3 levels decrease with age and with some disease states like diabetes and hypertension.

Exosomes are being studied as biomarkers for a wide range of diseases like cancer and diabetes as well as precise treatment delivery tools. For example, exosomes produced by a cancer cell will hone right back to a cancer cell.

About 1 in 10 Americans have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220426101747.htm

Stop the clocks: Brisk walking may slow biological aging process

April 20, 2022

Science Daily/University of Leicester

A new study of genetic data published today (Wednesday) of more than 400,000 UK adults has revealed a clear link between walking pace and a genetic marker of biological age.

Confirming a causal link between walking pace and leucocyte telomere length (LTL) -- an indicator of biological age -- the Leicester-based team of researchers estimate that a lifetime of brisk walking could lead to the equivalent of 16 years younger biological age by midlife.

Researchers from the University of Leicester at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Leicester Biomedical Research Centre studied genetic data from 405,981 middle-aged UK Biobank participants and found that a faster walking pace, independent of the amount of physical activity, was associated with longer telomere.

Telomeres are the 'caps' at the end of each chromosome, and hold repetitive sequences of non-coding DNA that protect the chromosome from damage, similar to the way the cap at the end of a shoelace stops it from unravelling.

Each time a cell divides, these telomeres become shorter -- until a point where they become so short that the cell can no longer divide, known as 'replicative senescence'. Therefore, scientists consider LTL a strong marker for 'biological age', independent from when an individual was born.

Although the relationship between telomere length and disease is not fully understood, the build-up of these senescent cells is believed to contribute to a range of symptoms we associate with aging, such as frailty and age-related diseases.

While the physical, mental, social and health benefits of walking are well-documented, this study is one of the first of its kind to compare genetic data with both self-reported walking speeds, as well as actual measurements of movement intensity from wearable activity tracking devices worn by participants.

Dr Paddy Dempsey is a Lecturer and Research Fellow at the University of Leicester and within the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, part of the University Hospitals of Leicester (UHL) NHS Trust, and lead author on the study published in Communications Biology. He said:

"Previous research on associations between walking pace, physical activity and telomere length has been limited by inconsistent findings and a lack of high-quality data.

"This research uses genetic data to provide stronger evidence for a causal link between faster walking pace and longer telomere length. Data from wrist-worn wearable activity tracking devices used to measure habitual physical activity also supported a stronger role of habitual activity intensity (e.g. faster walking) in relation to telomere length.

"This suggests measures such as a habitually slower walking speed are a simple way of identifying people at greater risk of chronic disease or unhealthy ageing, and that activity intensity may play an important role in optimising interventions. For example, in addition to increasing overall walking, those who are able could aim to increase the number of steps completed in a given time (e.g. by walking faster to the bus stop). However, this requires further investigation."

Researchers from the University of Leicester have previously shown using UK Biobank that as little as 10 minutes of brisk walking a day is associated with longer life expectancy, and that brisk walkers have up to 20 years' greater life expectancy compared to slow walkers.

This new study demonstrates a causal link between brisk walking and telomere length and, significantly, not the other way round.

Tom Yates, senior author and Professor of Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Health at the University of Leicester and NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, added:

"Whilst we have previously shown that walking pace is a very strong predictor of health status, we have not been able to confirm that adopting a brisk walking pace actually causes better health. In this study we used information contained in people's genetic profile to show that a faster walking pace is indeed likely to lead to a younger biological age as measured by telomeres."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220420133538.htm

Obsession with failure and hunt for perfection linked to burnout, sports study uncovers

April 22, 2022

Science Daily/University of Essex

Athletes who strive for perfection and fixate on their mistakes risk burning out, a University of Essex-led study has revealed.

More than 250 sportspeople -- across individual and team sports -- were examined and it was discovered hyper self-critical competitors who react negatively to even minor failings are at risk of psychological difficulty.

It was discovered perfectionistic concerns -- an obsession and excessive reaction to perceived failure -- were strongly related to athlete burnout.

This fixation on failure may see them view any achievement as inadequate and upcoming competitions, as disproportionately stressful, and create a self-fulfilling performance prophecy.

It is hoped the study led by Luke Olsson, from the University's School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences will help shine a light on burnout.

He said: "Most people have come across the term burnout, with a lot of research focussing on the reason why it develops.

"There are many studies that have shown if an individual pursues perfection, whether that be in work, sport, or school, it can lead to burnout.

"However, our study was able to determine one potential explanation as to why this is the case in sport, which suggests that the stresses of pursuing perfection can lead those to mentally disengage with their sporting activities."

Mr Olsson worked with academics from York St John University on the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology-published study which examined those competing or training in the UK.

All men and women in the study had been competing for more than eight years and were on average 21 years old, spanning levels from university to international. They were measured for levels of stress, burnout and perfectionism.

The athletes competed in a variety of sports -- including athletics, golf, weightlifting, football, netball, and hockey.

Burnout is defined as athletes having a reduced sense of accomplishment, prolonged exhaustion, and falling out of love with their sport.

Cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness and developing a kinder mindset are all thought to reduce perfectionistic concerns and potentially prevent burnout.

Mr Olsson added: "There is a need to prevent athletes from experiencing burnout.

"In the case of our research, the athletes themselves should be wary that pursuing perfection and being overly self-critical is likely to be doing more harm than good.

"I believe athletes may be better served by being less self-critical which should allow them to celebrate successes in performance and embrace failures as an opportunity to reflect and improve rather than beat themselves up."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220422094337.htm