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Tag: Exercise & Fitness

  • Do Recovery Shoes Actually Work?

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    Slipping achy feet into recovery shoes after a long day or tough workout can feel like getting a mini-massage with every step. It’s a luxe experience, and, clearly, people are into it: The recovery footwear market is predicted to hit $18 billion this year—and jump up to over $28 billion by 2034. 

    But do these cushy, slipper-like shoes actually speed up recovery, or do they just feel good? Here’s what experts have to say about the trend. 

    What makes recovery shoes unique

    To the naked eye, the thick soles of recovery shoes don’t look all that different from what you see in maximally cushioned sneakers. But while athletic shoes are meant to keep your feet safe and your movements efficient during activities like running, playing pickleball, or walking around all day at work, recovery shoes are designed to help your muscles and joints recuperate from those activities, says sports medicine foot and ankle surgeon Gideon J. Lewis. 

    “Compared to other shoes, recovery shoes are giving your feet a break,” says Sally Crawford, a biomechanical expert who’s conducted research commissioned by OOFOS, the brand that popularized recovery shoes. 

    Although the exact design of recovery shoes can vary, there are a number of common features intended to help your feet bounce back from whatever kinds of stress you put them through.  

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    For starters, whether it’s a sandal or sneaker, a recovery shoe is typically made with an extra-wide toe box to give your forefoot plenty of space to spread out. There’s usually arch support and often a heel drop (meaning the heel sits higher up than the toes). Many recovery shoes are also designed with a curved rocker bottom, which rolls underneath you as you step through your stride, and that means your foot doesn’t have to move as much while you walk. These elements place the foot in a position that allows the plantar fascia along the bottom of the sole and the flexor tendons of the toes to relax and stretch out, says Dr. Sean Bryan, a primary sports medicine physician at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

    Almost all of these shoes offer lots of cushy foam for ample shock absorption. “The thought is that by having extra cushioning and that positioning, it allows the tissues to rest and feel better, and possibly recover from repetitive stress,” Bryan says. 

    Most recovery shoes are also made to let your sweaty feet air out, either through a sandal design or breathable materials in the upper fabric of a sneaker. “It’s not just recovering from a musculoskeletal issue or pain—it’s also for skin protection as well,” Lewis says. 

    Some footwear manufacturers have recently begun taking things a step further, injecting more advanced tech into these shoes. Last year, Nike and the athletic recovery brand Hyperice released the “Hyperboot,” a $799 battery-powered shoe that blasts your feet with heat and compressed air as you walk around. There are also some shoes that integrate red light therapy that claim to bring more blood flow to your feet. Lewis predicts we’ll soon see shoes with vibration and cooling mechanisms. 

    Do recovery shoes actually help you recover?

    Unfortunately, there’s not much hard data on recovery shoes outside of research funded by footwear companies. “I’m not aware of any clear scientific evidence that proves that recovery shoes actually speed recovery at a cellular level or a tissue level,” Bryan says. 

    That doesn’t necessarily mean they have nothing to offer. Plenty of anecdotal evidence suggests that recovery shoes can help reduce symptoms like foot pain, muscle fatigue, tightness, and soreness in people who repeatedly subject their feet to large amounts of stress, Bryan says. He also points out that several recovery sandals and sneakers have been given the American Podiatric Medical Association’s Seal of Acceptance, a distinction awarded by a committee of podiatrists to products that promote good foot health. 

    Read More: 7 Ways to Reduce Fatigue Naturally

    When it comes to the more high-tech recovery shoes, some small studies have found that air compression can temporarily reduce muscle soreness, while heat can speed up post-workout muscle recovery, and red light therapy can decrease inflammation and oxidative stress in muscles. But research is early, and these futuristic shoes are still more likely to be found on the feet of pro athletes than everyday exercisers on a budget. 

    How to get the most out of recovery shoes

    If you’re looking to make your feet and legs feel a bit better after exercise, experts agree that wearing recovery shoes might help. But only in moderation. For the most part, these shoes are not designed to support long bouts of walking around, since they’re typically pretty unstable. Also, because they can alter your gait and posture, Bryan believes long-term wear could put abnormal kinds of stress on soft tissues like the plantar fascia and ankle tendons, which could lead to “degeneration, discomfort, and pain,” he says.

    Lewis says he typically tells his clients to only wear a recovery sandal at home after a big workout or competition. That way they’re not wearing them for too long (or trying to walk far), and they’re in a controlled environment where the instability is less likely to make them trip. 

    Bryan also reminds patients that recovery shoes don’t magically erase all the strain you put on your feet and legs throughout the day. “I try to encourage [patients] to use them appropriately, not thinking that they can get away with as much standing, walking, and running as they want just because they have recovery shoes,” he says. He adds that to truly let your tissues recover, you need adequate time off from whatever activity is stressing them, as well as sleep and proper nutrition—not just another pair of shoes.   

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    Jennifer Heimlich

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  • What’s the Easiest Way to Start Strength Training?

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    Imagine there was something you could do that would not only improve your mood, cognition, and energy, but also lower your chances of cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and even death.

    It’s not taking a pill: it’s strength training.

    Strength training offers “a multitude of benefits,” says Craig Hensley, associate professor of physical therapy and human movement sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Research keeps revealing them: One study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine linked strength training to a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, lung cancer, and early death. Another 2024 study published in Biology found that adults who did strength training had a lower biological age—suggesting that their bodies were deteriorating more slowly than is typical for their chronological age. A study published in Frontiers in Physiology found that strength training improved metabolic health markers, like cholesterol, blood pressure, and body fat percentage, in older adults. 

    Here’s how experts recommend beginners incorporate strength training into their exercise routines. 

    Prioritize safety 

    “The No. 1 thing we tell patients is that strength training is not something to just dive into, because it poses an injury risk if you’re not doing it correctly,” says Dr. Derrick Knapik, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery in the division of sports medicine at WashU Medicine.  

    If you have the resources, consider working with a physical therapist or personal trainer to get a strength training plan in place, says Dr. Andrew Gregory, associate professor of orthopedics and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He recommends finding someone who is certified by a major organization, such as the American College of Sports Medicine or the National Strength and Conditioning Association. You can also take a strength training orientation class at a local gym or the YMCA, Knapik adds. 

    Read More: Do You Need More Vitamin D in Winter?

    Social media can be a useful way to spark strength training ideas. But make sure you’re only taking inspiration from people with the right kind of credentials, Gregory advises. “What I think is dangerous are influencers who work out and give their recommendations, but they don’t necessarily have any training or certification,” he says.

    Once you’ve worked with a professional to learn good form and exercise safety, you can do your strength training routine either at a gym or at home.

    Create a personalized routine

    Strength training can either involve body-weight exercises—like push-ups, squats, tricep dips, planks, and lunges—weightlifting, or both. What works for you will depend on your health, strength, and goals. The type of strength training exercise you do doesn’t matter as much as actually doing it; one 2025 study published in The Journal of Physiology found that people were able to increase their strength regardless of the weight size they used.

    While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to the best routine, there are some best practices to keep in mind. 

    Three sets of 10 is a good starting place for most exercises, experts say. It’s best to alternate muscle groups. For example, Knapik recommends people do chest and shoulders one day; legs the next day; and back, abdominals, and arms the following day. This allows each muscle group to rest. “When you get more advanced, 24 hours of [rest] is enough,” Knapik says. “But typically when you’re starting off, your best bet is to give at least 48 hours between strength training exercise regimens in order to allow for recovery.”

    On rest days, consider doing other forms of light exercise. “Strength training has clear benefits, but there are also other things that are useful, like cardio and yoga,” Gregory says.

    If you’re interested in weightlifting and you have access to a gym, Knapik recommends starting with machines, since free weights pose an increased risk of injury, especially for beginners. Once you’ve gained experience with machines, you can progress to free weights. If you use them correctly, Hensley says, they can be an effective form of strengthening.

    Start off slow

    Anytime you’re beginning a strength training routine, it’s important to ease in, Gregory says. As you get stronger and more comfortable with certain exercises, you can increase resistance and the number of repetitions.

    Warming up is crucial. Knapik recommends five to 10 minutes of cardio or stretching before strength training to get your muscles loose and ready to move.

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    Don’t overdo it early on. If you’re lifting weights and you lift too much too quickly, you’re more prone to injury and rhabdomyolysis, Gregory says, or exercise-induced muscle breakdown. “That can cause kidney damage, and it can be a medical emergency.”

    Listen to your body

    If you’re doing body-weight exercises, you might be unsure whether to do 10, 20, or 40 crunches. Or, if you’re lifting weights, you might be unsure whether to use 5-pound, 8-pound, or 10-pound weights. The sweet spot, Knapik says, is when you feel like you’re exerting yourself, but not too much. 

    Hensley’s rule of thumb is that once you can do three sets of 10 of your targeted exercise easily, whether it’s bicep curls or push-ups, it’s time to either increase your weight or your number of repetitions. 

    Muscle soreness a day or two after strength training is normal, but pain—especially if it comes on immediately—is not. “If you’re experiencing pain with any specific exercises, I would recommend you stop and modify it or seek medical advice,” Gregory says. Knapik agrees. “Never lift through pain,” he says. “If it hurts, stop right away.” 

    Remember the added benefits for women

    Decades ago, strength training was a male-dominated activity, but this imbalance has narrowed over time. One in four women now regularly engage in strength training, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Women are more likely to develop osteoporosis and osteopenia, Knapik says, especially during and after menopause. Strength training can help women increase their bone density and minimize the risk of fractures to their hip and lower back. 

    You won’t reap all of these benefits overnight. With strength training, results aren’t immediate. “It really is a marathon, not a sprint,” Knapik says. “You have to give it time.”

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    Jamie Friedlander Serrano

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  • What Are Vibration Plates, and Do They Really Work?

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    All over TikTok and other social-media platforms, influencers are hopping on vibration plates. One sits on hers daily to “drain my thyroid.” Another says her “vibe plate” means she no longer needs to work out. 

    It’s a fitness fad that’s easy to roll your eyes at. Whole-body vibration plates don’t look all that different from the 1960s’ “exercise” belts that promised to shake off fat. But pro athletes and even astronauts use these machines, and scientists have been looking into them seriously for decades. So could the benefits be legitimate? 

    “What we’re seeing on TikTok is a loose interpretation of the data,” says exercise scientist Rachele Pojednic, director of education at Stanford Lifestyle Medicine. She says that while studies show that hopping on a whole-body vibration plate can move the needle in a few different areas of health and fitness, it’s a pretty tiny change.

    “Research does support a modest level of benefits in some pretty specific contexts,” says Brent Feland, an exercise science professor at Brigham Young University who has studied the effects of vibration on things like stretching, sprinting, and blood flow. But, he adds, “whole-body vibration is not some magic little tool.” 

    How vibration plates work

    There are two main types of whole-body vibration platforms: linear plates that move up and down in one piece like a tiny elevator, and oscillating plates that tilt side to side like a seesaw (which can get more intense the farther you step out to the sides). Both move in a pretty small range of motion—up to about 14 millimeters, max—but they can do it anywhere from 5 to 50 times per second.

    These quick movements force your muscles to rapidly contract and release, says exercise physiologist Rachelle Acitelli Reed. Just like during traditional exercise, those muscle contractions set off physiological responses, like increased blood flow, a higher body temperature, and the release of proteins called myokines that help bring glucose into the muscles.   

    Read More: Is Eating Too Fast Hurting Your Health?

    Additionally, because the plate keeps pushing you upwards over and over again so quickly, Feland says it creates a stronger gravitational load, meaning there’s an extra pull on your bones and muscles.

    Proven benefits vs. Hype

    So what does science say about the potential of vibration plates? 

    There’s a good amount of data showing that they can help improve balance, likely because they activate the neuromuscular system. “The catch is the population where the most beneficial effects have been found for are older, deconditioned individuals, or those with physical debilitations or neurological limitations,” Feland says. If someone has a condition that prevents them from doing traditional exercise, standing on a plate can trigger those muscle contractions without them having to actively move their large muscles or joints, explains Darryl Cochrane, an exercise and health science professor at Massey University in New Zealand who’s published a number of studies on whether vibration can enhance athletic performance. This is why you’ll often see vibration plates used in rehabilitation settings. 

    There’s also some data behind the possibility for whole-body vibration to improve bone mineral density, particularly in post-menopausal women and geriatric populations. “The thought is that those little contractions and relaxations are in some way loading the bone,” Reed says. Feland adds that the additional gravitational load gives an extra stimulus for the bone to build more tissue in people who don’t get that through weight-bearing exercise or resistance training. 

    Some research shows that whole-body vibration can also help a little with certain aspects of athletic performance, like muscular strength and power and range of motion. Cochrane’s research has found it can warm up the muscles faster than cycling or jogging, without using up as much energy. “You go do five 30- or 60-second bouts on a whole-body vibration platform, and you’ll actually get a semi-decent warm-up from it,” Feland says. 

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    Plus, it just feels good. “That’s the magic of being bombarded with vibration,” Feland says. “Every joint segment and every tissue in you is moving and oscillating at this frequency. You’re firing off a ton of neurosensory receptors, and that’s interfering with some of your other sensory signaling that’s normally going on.” If your knee is bothering you, for instance, the vibration might distract your brain enough for the pain to temporarily retreat. (That said, a good dynamic warmup can have the same outcome, he adds.)

    Unfortunately, influencers’ claims around “wobbling your weight away” by simply standing on a vibration plate aren’t really backed up by evidence, experts say. Compared to standing still, “you get just a little more calorie burn because your muscles have to work a bit harder against that external force,” Pojednic says. But research shows you’d burn more simply by going on a brisk walk. 

    Another claim that experts find to be misleading is that vibration can spur lymphatic drainage. “It is moving the fluid around. However, so does going for a walk,” Reed says. Feland adds that even though whole-body vibration companies themselves often tout the lymphatic benefits, “there is not one study that has ever measured lymphatic drainage and lymphatic improvement” with these devices.

    Who might benefit most from vibration plates 

    Based on the proven benefits, experts mainly recommend vibration plates for two distinct populations on opposite ends of the spectrum: People who aren’t strong enough to do a traditional workout, and serious athletes looking to eke out a little extra performance enhancement. 

    “The maximum benefit is for the compromised population, the ones that are having trouble with balance, mobility issues—it could be an entrée in terms of starting a fitness program,” Cochrane says. He adds that for athletes, the plates can offer a new way to challenge the body to get past a plateau or just keep workouts from getting monotonous. 

    Read More: The 1-Minute Trick to Calming Down Your Nervous System

    That said, as long as you’re using them correctly, vibration plates are unlikely to cause harm, so there’s no reason for the average adult not to use one if they want. “If this is really jazzing up your routine enough for you to be motivated, cool, I love that for you,” Reed says. Just treat it as an additional tool rather than a replacement for exercise, she and Cochrane both add.  

    How to use a vibration plate

    Many vibration plates come with all kinds of settings: dialing up amplitude increases intensity, for example, and a higher frequency ups the number of vibrations per second. But there is not yet enough research to know the ideal settings or even duration of use. The best approach might differ from person to person. “We do think that people have different frequency responses,” Feland says. “We just haven’t figured out how to tap into that yet.”

    Experts recommend starting small until you get used to vibration: Cochrane suggests beginning with the frequency set to 10 to 15 hertz, and doing five sets of 30-second intervals while standing in a shallow squat. Eventually, you can bump up the frequency and start to do strength training on the platform (like squats, lunges, planks, or bridges). Just be sure to work up to trickier moves gradually so the vibrations don’t knock you off balance, Pojednic adds. 

    And always use proper form. “The right way to stand on these is bending at the knees and bending over at the hips, because you want to minimize vibration to the head,” Feland says. There have been case studies of negative effects to tissues in the head (like a torn retina) when people stood on these with straight legs. 

    Most of all, remember that whole-body vibration is not a get-fit-quick scheme. As Cochrane says: “You still need the motivation to [use] it, just as if you’re jumping on an exercise cycle or going out for a brisk walk or anything. You still have to find time to do this.” But it could give you just a little boost—and make getting fit a bit more fun.  

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    Jennifer Heimlich

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  • Want to Live Longer? Mix Up Your Exercise Routine

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    Exercise is one of the keys to living well—and longer—along with eating a nutritious diet and managing your stress. But exactly which exercise regimen is best for you isn’t easy to figure out.

    A new study published in BMJ Medicine might provide some guidance. The researchers studied more than 100,000 people who reported their physical activity for about 30 years and found that varying the way you move could be important for living a longer life.

    The scientists analyzed data from the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study that included healthy health professionals who reported on their exercise habits—what type of physical activity they did, and how long they exercised—every few years for 30 years. The researchers then compared deaths from various causes, like heart disease, cancer, and respiratory illnesses, to these exercise patterns to determine which were linked to longer life.

    Not surprisingly, people who exercised more on average had anywhere from 4% to 17% lower risk of death during the study period, depending on the type of activity they did, compared to those who exercised less. But when the scientists broke down the data by exercise type, they found that even among people who reported similar amounts of physical activity, those who engaged in a combination of exercise types had an additional 19% lower risk of death compared to those who stuck to the same regimen.

    Read More: How to Train Your Brain to Be More Patient

    “Keeping up the total amount of activity is still the most important,” says Yang Hu, a research scientist at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and one of the authors of the paper. “But on top of that, maybe you can try to diversify the types of activities you do by trying different things, which may gain you additional benefit.”

    In the study, walking vigorously was linked to the highest reduction in risk of early death (17%) compared to those who walked less, followed by running (13%), climbing stairs (10%), and resistance training (9%).

    (Swimming was not associated with a measurable benefit in the study, but Hu says that may be because people define swimming in different ways, ranging from leisurely floating in the pool to doing vigorous laps.)

    There’s a reason why switching things up might maximize your benefits. Previous studies have documented the varying benefits of different types of exercise—things like running, swimming, and walking can be good for the heart and respiratory system, lowering risk of heart disease and hypertension, while strength training can better maintain muscle mass and is important for preventing falls, especially among older people. Hu says that individual physical activities also generally max out at a certain point, beyond which people don’t accrue much additional health benefit. Combining different exercises can optimize the benefits of these activities and lead to added benefits in reducing the risk of early death.

    “We speculate that the variety of physical activities means that people are able to take advantage of two or even more dimensions of exercise,” Hu says. “We want to make the case that it’s possible that the mix of aerobic and resistance or strength training has complementary benefits.”

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    Alice Park

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  • Walking a Little Each Day Can Slow Down Alzheimer’s Disease

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    Being physically active is good for every part of you—including your brain. The latest research shows that it can help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people who are at higher risk of developing the neurodegenerative condition.

    Other recent studies have made this connection between exercise and better cognitive health, and those results suggest that people with Alzheimer’s disease who are more physically active may be able to slow down cognitive decline and memory issues. But those studies are limited by a number of factors that the latest analysis addressed.

    In the current study, published in Nature Medicine, scientists used a more objective way to measure physical activity among people at higher risk of Alzheimer’s and tracked signs of the disease using advanced imaging techniques to show that those who were more active reduced their risk of cognitive decline by up to 54%. They also saw slower cognitive and functional decline beginning at around 3,000 steps per day for people who were relatively sedentary.

    The study included nearly 300 people who were still cognitively normal but at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s because their brain scans showed evidence of amyloid plaques, the clumps of protein that are the hallmark of Alzheimer’s. When amyloid plaques build up, they start to damage neurons involved in higher thinking and memory and eventually lead to the accumulation of another protein, tau, that is toxic to nerve cells. In the study, the researchers, led by Dr. Wai-Ying Wendy Yau, a neurologist at Mass General Brigham, followed the transition from amyloid to tau as an indicator of advancing disease for about nine years on average for participants.

    “What we show is that amyloid and physical activity seem to be working together to impact tau and cognitive decline,” says Yau. “And in people who have high levels of amyloid in their brain and are at higher risk of developing tau and cognitive decline—but are still asymptomatic—our study shows that high levels of physical activity may be able to slow down disease progression.”

    Read More: Changing Your Diet and Lifestyle May Slow Down Alzheimer’s

    While people’s amyloid levels did not change significantly over the study period, their accumulation of tau, an indicator of Alzheimer’s progression, differed depending on how physically active people were. That translated into slower cognitive decline as measured by a number of cognitive and functional tests.

    Those who recorded the most steps on average daily, measured by a pedometer, lowered their rate of cognitive decline by up to 54% compared to those who were inactive. Those who were most active also saw similar benefits on measures of functional decline, which focus more on tasks such as being able to dress and take care of daily activities. In the fittest people, that type of decline slowed by up to 51% compared to people who were inactive.

    “Amyloid is a way of assessing whether somebody is on the Alzheimer’s disease trajectory,” says Dr. Jasmeer Chhatwal, associate professor of neurology at Mass General Brigham and Harvard Medical School and senior author of the study. “But even with that high risk factor of having amyloid, these results suggest that physical activity can modulate the connection between amyloid and tau. That’s a critical piece that impacts cognitive performance because tau seems to be tightly associated with cognitive performance.”

    Read More: The Surprising Power of a 10-Minute Walk

    The effect was especially strong among those who were inactive and started walking daily. That’s encouraging, says Chhatwal, since these are the people who are at highest risk of developing rapid cognitive decline.

    The study showed that the benefits of exercise do plateau, so after about 5,000 to 7,500 steps a day, the slowing of decline leveled off. Still, he and Yau say that the findings should encourage people that even relatively small amounts of activity can benefit the brain, especially for those who are sedentary.

    Yau and Chhatwal stress that the findings do not suggest that physical activity is the cure-all for Alzheimer’s. Instead, the results make a strong case that exercise should be a part of any prevention strategy for people who already have amyloid in the brain but who do not yet show symptoms of the disease. Combining recent anti-amyloid medications with physical activity, for example, could be a way to hold off progression of Alzheimer’s. And with advances in detecting signs of amyloid—now with PET brain scans and increasingly with improved blood tests—more people will become aware that they are at risk for the disease. 

    “These results empower people and let them know that there is not an inevitable connection between being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and rapid cognitive decline,” says Chhatwal. “These findings reinforce that lifestyle factors are not necessarily just working around the edges of larger Alzheimer’s disease processes but that they can have a profound effect on how amyloid leads to cognitive decline.” 

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    Alice Park

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  • The Surprising Power of a 10-Minute Walk

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    On average, Americans take just under 5,000 steps a day. It’s a concerning number, given that public-health researchers consider a daily step count of less than 5,000 to be sedentary, and sedentary living erodes health, leading to earlier death.

    Researchers are therefore motivated to find out how best to get people moving. Do all steps count? Should they be quick steps, or are slow ones OK? Does it matter how many days of the week you take longer walks? They’ve turned to enormous databases to link people’s health with details of their steps. In a study published October 28 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, scientists found that among more than 30,000 people in the U.K. who took fewer than 8,000 steps a day, getting steps in longer walks rather than accruing them bit by bit was linked to a lower risk of death and heart disease.

    For many people, daily steps are split up into myriad tiny walks to the kitchen or forays to the garage. And those short bursts of activity are certainly beneficial to some extent, says Borja del Poro Cruz, a professor at Universidad Europea de Madrid and an author of the study. “What we’ve found essentially is that any number of steps was associated with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality,” he says.

    But when people took slightly longer walks—for 10 or 15 minutes at a time—the researchers saw a larger decrease in their risk numbers than they did for people whose brief bouts of movement added up to the same number of steps.

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    Past research on this topic has largely relied on either self-reported questionnaires or device-measured step counts. This study considers richer data: walk length and step count together, wrote Dr. Carl Lavie, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at the Ochsner Clinical School in Louisiana, in an email to TIME. Studies like these help make the case that tweaking the way you work out—without necessarily having to exercise more—can yield benefits. While more is better, every little bit helps.

    When even small numbers of steps are linked to improved health, why is it so difficult for people to get up and move? In some parts of the world, including much of the U.S., the deck is stacked against walking, says del Poro Cruz. He lives in a historic town in Spain where cars aren’t practical, and so he walks everywhere—to his kids’ school, to get groceries, to work—racking up 15,000 steps a day without really trying. It’s not so easy to build movement into the day in an environment where walking to the grocery store means a five-mile trek on the shoulder of the highway.

    But some people find a way. Public-policy researcher Chris Wielga, author of the Substack How to Walk in America, has a few rules for beginners, including this one: Start from where you are. You don’t need to drive somewhere to have a walk; that divides the world into places for walking and places that are not for walking. The world is, in fact, always there, just outside the car window. You might be surprised at what you find, on the way to better health.

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    Veronique Greenwood

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  • Exercise May Benefit Women’s Hearts More Than Men’s

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    Do some people benefit from exercise more than others? A study published Oct. 27 in Nature Cardiovascular Research finds that women may have an edge over men when it comes to heart health.

    Researchers in China analyzed data from 85,000 people without heart disease who were registered in the UK Biobank, a dataset that tracked participants’ physical activity levels using accelerometers and recorded heart events and deaths over an average of seven years.

    Women who met exercise guidelines from the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association—175 minutes per week of moderate-to-vigorous activity, or 75 minutes per week of intense activity—had a 22% lower risk of heart events compared to those who didn’t meet the guidelines, while men had a 17% lower risk.

    Further analysis showed that women were able to lower their heart risk with smaller amounts of exercise than men were. To lower their risk by 30%, men had to exercise for 530 minutes a week, while women had to be physically active for only 250 minutes a week: about half as long.

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    “We are quite surprised that females achieved cardiovascular benefits comparable to those of males with only about half” of the physical activity, says Jiajin Chen, a researcher at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases at Xiamen University Cardiovascular Hospital, who led the study. What’s more, women who did the recommended amount of exercise “experienced a striking threefold reduction in mortality risk compared with males.”

    Dr. Emily Lau, director of women’s heart health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Heart and Vascular Institute, wrote a commentary on the findings and their implications. “Women appear to have a physical activity advantage,” she says. “Yet we see time and time again that women are less physically active and less likely to achieve the recommended physical activity targets. This highlights an opportunity for the medical community to think about how we can tailor our recommendations to women. Because what we are doing now is not quite working.”

    Read More: Why Strength Training Is the Best Anti-Ager

    The results are a starting point for additional studies to better understand why women might be deriving more benefit from exercise than men, even at lower amounts. While the study did not explore potential explanations for the findings, Chen says that scientists have some theories. First, women have higher estrogen levels than men, and before menopause, estrogen may be protecting cardiovascular health—which in part may explain why women tend to develop heart events at later ages than men. Trials also show that men who take estrogen supplements can improve their coronary heart disease since it helps to break down lipids during exercise. There are also differences in muscle makeup among men and women and in muscle metabolism.

    Chen did not analyze whether menopause, after which estrogen levels drop in women, led to any differences in the exercise benefit women achieved. However, the women in the study were generally older—likely past menopause—with a mean age of nearly 62. The number of pre-menopausal women was too small to provide a reliable comparison.

    Based on the results, “our findings provide valuable evidence for sex-specific prevention of coronary heart disease by using wearable devices,” Chen says. “We believe that in the era of personalized medicine, future interventions will increasingly be tailored to individual characteristics to maximize cardiovascular benefits.”

    Lau agrees, saying that “we have to stop treating men and women as the same,” Lau says. “It’s 2025, and we are still doing the same things where we take data from men and extrapolate them to women. We see studies telling us men and women are different, yet the guidelines for them are all the same.”

    That could lead to more refined advice for improving heart health that may not look exactly the same for women and men—not just on exercise but for other heart health risk factors as well. “It’s time for us to really change the framework for how we think about sex-specific research and clinical recommendations,” Lau says.

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  • Is 4,000 Steps Enough? A New Study Suggests It May Be

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    You’ve probably heard this one a few times before: Research suggests that exercise is linked to a longer life.

    What’s more surprising is that a tiny amount of activity could have a noticeable effect, according to a study published Tuesday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine that included more than 13,000 women with an average age of 72. For these women, walking just 4,000 steps one day a week was enough to start seeing a decline in likelihood of dying or developing heart disease over the course of the study. The findings suggest that walking a mile or two once a week is still beneficial, even if your other days are less active. 

    Small steps, big change

    Fitness apps and wearable trackers often set a goal for users to reach 10,000 steps per day. Yet many experts agree that number is arbitrary. Amanda Paluch, a professor of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst who studies step counts as a measure of physical exercise, says the popular benchmark seems to have been inspired by a Japanese pedometer device made decades ago. “It has not been backed up by scientific evidence,” she says.

    Still, steps are a handy way to think about physical activity, so researchers have been working to understand exactly how many per day are linked to improved health.

    Read More: What Experts Think About the Japanese Walking Trend

    In the new study, participants wore step counters for a week, and the researchers recorded the number of days each woman achieved step counts greater than 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, and 7,000. Then, for more than a decade, they tracked whether the women developed cardiovascular disease or died.

    The goal was to determine whether even relatively small numbers of steps, logged on just a handful of days, would affect the women’s health, says study author Dr. Rikuta Hamaya, an instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

    Women who walked 4,000 steps once or twice a week experienced a 27% lower risk of developing cardiovascular disease and a 26% lower risk of dying during the study period, compared to those who didn’t—a substantial difference.

    Shifting from an all-or-nothing mindset

    The new study suggests “it’s not all or nothing…even just starting with one day can be incredibly meaningful for your health,” said Paluch, who was not involved in the work. The findings are similar to her own previous research suggesting that even 6,000 steps a day are linked to lower risk of heart disease in adults aged about 60. The new research is also reminiscent of other teams’ work on “Weekend Warriors,” or people who pack their exercise into just a day or two a week but see better health outcomes than those who don’t exercise.

    Dr. Shaan Khurshid, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, agrees that even a modest amount of exercise can have meaningful health benefits. “[That finding] enables us to empower patients by saying…even if you’re not exercising every day or walking every day, you’re still getting a benefit from that,” he says.

    Read More: Backward Walking Is the Best Workout You’re Not Doing

    Other factors might influence the link between movement and health. The researchers can’t conclude, based on observing study participants, that movement definitively caused their better health outcomes. Preexisting frailty could have been at play, as well—although the researchers did their best to control for this, there’s always the chance that some of the people who walked very little did so because they were already not in the best of health.

    Plus, Hamaya points out, this study followed only older, mostly white women. More diverse studies with younger people are needed to determine the effects of step counts for other groups. 

    Still, as studies suggesting even small amounts of exercise are beneficial continue to pile up, the latest findings are an encouraging sign that, if you’re considering upping your activity level, even a little bit can make a difference.

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    Veronique Greenwood

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  • Is the NFL Safer Than High School Football?

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    Near the end of the high-school football season a few years ago, John Pizzi realized he had a problem. Because of season-ending injuries, the football team at Riverdale Country School, the New York private high school where he is the athletic director, did not have enough kids to finish the season.

    He canceled the team’s last game and then called Chris Nowinski, the CEO and co-founder of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, who has been talking for years about the need to better protect athletes of all ages from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the degenerative brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head.

    “I said to him, ‘You have to help me: football is either not going to continue here or we have to figure something out,’” Pizzi says.

    Nowinski dove into research and looked at how Riverdale and its sports league, the Metropolitan Independent Football League, might tweak the game so that players were injured less frequently. He found there were some easy wins—research had found that college kickoffs in the Ivy League specifically made up 6% of plays but 21% of concussions, so getting rid of kickoffs could help easily avoid some injuries—and put together a presentation with about a dozen suggestions.

    Some of the changes were minimal, like limiting teams to 6 hours of full-contact practice in the preseason and 20 minutes per week in the regular season. Some were bigger, like eliminating kickoffs. Pizzi and Nowinski presented the ideas to the league and then to parents, and though many people were skeptical, most understood that they needed to do something to get participation up and injuries down. So they decided to try out the new rules. 

    Their changes were extremely unusual outside of the world of professional football. Although the NFL, pushed by the players’ union, has made some significant changes in recent years to try to reduce head injuries, youth leagues like Pop Warner, the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), and even the NCAA have done very little. 

    “Everybody in football is aware of what the NFL has done and has made an active choice not to follow,” Nowinski says. “It’s just a dramatic failure of leadership.”

    Participation in Riverdale’s football program has increased since the school changed some rules to make the game safer. Jim Anness—Riverdale Country School

    Changes to make football safer have met resistance at all levels—even from the highest office. In a September social-media post, President Donald Trump called the league’s new kickoff policy “‘sissy’ football” and said that “the NFL has to get rid of that ridiculous looking new Kickoff Rule.”

    Scientists, meanwhile, are starting to better understand CTE as more athletes say they believe they have it. “Our best understanding of what causes CTE is that it’s the cumulative force that a person gets exposed to,” says Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, chief of the division of brain injury rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School. 

    CTE is closer to Alzheimer’s disease than it is to a traumatic brain injury, Daneshvar says. Scientists believe that repeated hits to the head damage the brain cells, which causes chronic inflammation and cells to convert into a diseased and dying state. That type of diseased brain cell is similar to the type found in Alzheimer’s and a host of other neurodegenerative diseases. 

    Because CTE is caused by cumulative head impacts and not just one big blow, people who start playing football as kids—and who often don’t play past high school—can end up with CTE. One 2011 study found that high-school players in some positions experienced as many as 868 impacts to the head over one 14-week season. Another Boston University study found that the risk of developing CTE doubles for every 2.6 years of playing football. 

    Shane Tamura, the gunman who killed four people in Manhattan in July before taking his own life, believed that he had developed CTE even though he never played professionally or even in college. (CTE can currently be diagnosed only after a person has died.) Tamura, who started football at age 6 and played through high school, reported having frequent, debilitating headaches as an adult. He left a three-page note in his wallet referencing CTE and asking researchers—including, reportedly, Nowinski— to study his brain. In September, New York City’s medical examiner released a statement saying that it had found “unambiguous diagnostic evidence” of CTE in Tamura’s brain.

    What the NFL changed to reduce injuries

    In recent years, as research about CTE has become more conclusive, some sports leagues have begun to concede that head impacts are a problem. In 2016, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged that football-related head trauma was linked to brain disease, a big step for a league that had been reluctant to admit any connection. 

    Since then, the NFL has made a number of changes to game rules and practice guidelines to try to reduce head impacts. The league has prohibited tackling during offseason practices and in early stages of preseason, and allows only one full-contact practice per week. It reduced the length of overtime in the preseason and regular season to 10 minutes from 15, and prohibited players from lowering their heads to make contact with an opponent using their helmet. Perhaps most importantly, the NFL significantly changed the kickoff in the 2024 season, moving teams closer together to limit how fast players run at one another.

    The changes appear to be reducing concussions. Recorded concussions decreased 17% in 2024, the year the new kickoff rules went into place, compared to 2023.

    But aside from Pizzi’s Metropolitan Independent Football League, few college, high school, or youth leagues have made major changes to how the game is played—or even acknowledged the connection between the game and CTE. 

    “If the same rule changes that have been implemented at the NFL level were implemented at the college, high school, and youth level, it would substantially reduce the number of individuals who develop CTE and the severity of CTE for those who develop it,” said Daneshvar. 

    Fewer changes at the college level

    The NCAA, for example, still allows a relatively high number of live contact practices—those in which players wear full pads and practice tackling and blocking—according to its Division I manual. While preseason starts with five days of practice without live contact, students can practice in full pads beginning on the sixth day. After that, schools are allowed to have eight full-contact practices in the preseason, and they are allowed to practice tackling and blocking for as long as 75 minutes in each practice. 

    The NCAA has also not adopted the NFL’s kickoff changes. (Trump alluded to this in his post: “Fortunately, college football will remain the same, hopefully forever!!” he wrote.)

    “The NFL makes changes to the kickoff rule, and that seems like a rule that can be implemented widely. I always wonder why that hasn’t been implemented across other levels,” says Dr. Michael Alosco, a neuropsychologist who is the co-director of clinical research at Boston University’s CTE Center. “When you think about CTE, the best way to mitigate it is to reduce your amount of exposure.” 

    The NCAA has made some changes, though far fewer than the NFL. Certain drills—like the Oklahoma drill, in which two players essentially collide head-on—have been prohibited in college football since 2021, the NCAA says. Back in 2012, the NCAA also moved kickoffs to the 35-yard line from the 30 in the hope that more balls would be kicked out of play and not returned. Still, many kickoffs are still returned, and NCAA kickoffs are vastly different from those in the NFL today because they still involve players running at each other from great distances, allowing them to build up speed that can lead to hard hits. 

    The NCAA declined to comment for this story. Its Division 1 manual outlines one way it sets itself apart from leagues like the NFL: “College football is different from professional football and collegiate coaches rely on these practice opportunities to teach their student-athletes the fundamentals of the game,” the manual says.

    Nominal changes to high school football

    High school football has done even less than college. Although every high school and league can change its own rules, like the Metropolitan League did, most look to the NFHS for guidance on player health and safety. 

    When asked whether it had changed any aspects to the game, like kickoff, to reduce head impact, a NFHS spokesperson cited a 1975 rule change that defined “spearing”—using the top of a player’s helmet to initiate contact—as a disqualifying personal foul. 

    In 2014, NFHS issued recommendations for minimizing head impact exposure and concussions in football that included limiting full-contact practice to the regular season and limiting contact in practices. But the recommendations still allowed full-contact practices two to three times a week and limited full-contact time to about 90 minutes per week. The recommendations also acknowledged that preseason practices might require “more full-contact time” than practices in the regular season. 

    It’s not enough, says Nowinski, of the Concussion Legacy Foundation. “There is still an extraordinary culture of CTE denial at the college, high school, and youth levels,” Nowkinski says.

    Karissa Niehoff, CEO of NFHS, wrote in a 2019 blog post that there was no link between CTE and playing high school football. She says she still believes that today, and that there’s no way for researchers to disentangle the possible effects of playing other sports when they study this question. “It’s really hard to strictly pinpoint high-school football with CTE, because we often see that the concussion injury is like a snowflake,” she says. “It’s different for everybody.” (Scientists say that CTE is caused not only by concussions but also by repeated head impacts.)

    “I think we have to remember that at the lower levels, from youth to high school, these are not elite athletes,” says Niehoff. “We’ve got to really help our athletes learn the sport, and then as they become more skilled and they get bigger and faster and stronger, we just have to watch how the rules help protect them.”

    In her blog post, Niehoff cited a study by Munro Cullum and colleagues that studied 35 former NFL players over the age of 50 who had sustained at least one concussion in their careers. It found no association between the number of years they had played or number of head impacts they had sustained and their cognitive function later in life. (The study did not have the brains of the players so it could not report on CTE.) 

    Cullum, a professor of psychiatry, neurology, and neurological surgery at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, says that although there’s a correlation between repeated head hits and CTE, that doesn’t mean that one causes the other. It could be that some people are at greater risk for CTE because of genetic or other factors. He also believes there’s not enough evidence to link repeated head hits to abnormal behavior or cognitive decline later in life.

    “We believe that concussions and head hits can be a risk factor for cognitive decline later in life, but not for most people,” he said. CTE is still very rare, he says, and many NFL players do not have any cognitive difficulties when they get older. 

    Some recent research, however, suggests that CTE may not be as rare among professional football players as once thought. One 2023 study from the Boston University CTE Center studied the brains of 376 former NFL players and found that 345, or 91.7%, had CTE. 

    NFHS has taken some steps to reduce contact, such as limiting the amount of playing time kids have in a week, because some kids on both the varsity and junior varsity teams had been playing in two games on a weekend, Niehoff says. Every state has a sports medicine advisory committee that is involved in thinking about protecting kids, she says.

    But some states go even further than NFHS requires. In 2019, New Jersey’s Interscholastic Athletic Association reduced the amount of time that teams could engage in full-contact drills to 15 minutes per week, down from the limit of 90 minutes that NFHS suggests. The state also limited preseason contact drills to six hours total and banned spring and summer practices. In 2019, Michigan set a limit of 30 minutes of full-contact practice a week.

    Minimal protections for football’s youngest players

    Experts argue that youth football is the least regulated of all. “Unlike just about every other sport in America, nobody sets the rules of youth football,” Nowinski says. “You have a bunch of small, capitalist fiefdoms that are rewarded by enrollment, so nobody is willing to be a leader on these changes because they don’t want to scare away clients.”

    It’s easy to find TikTok videos of kids in youth football leagues running the Oklahoma drill or the bull in the ring drill, both of which pit two players against each other in close contact. Both lead to high incidents of injury and are not allowed at the professional level. But even without those drills, youth football can result in serious injuries. In 2024, a 13-year-old died from brain trauma after making a tackle during middle-school football practice; in 2023, three young football players died of head injuries.

    Unlike at the college or high school level, there often are no medical professionals on the field during youth football games or practices, which can mean that when someone does get hurt, their injuries can turn fatal. In 2023, a 12-year-old New Jersey boy died after collapsing at football practice; no one on the field knew CPR.

    Pop Warner, one of the largest youth football leagues in the U.S., made some changes to limit exposure to head impact. In 2012, it banned full-speed head-on blocking or tackling drills where players lined up more than three yards apart. In 2016, it announced that contact is restricted to 25% of practice time and said that if a team has practice on two consecutive days, it can have live contact in only one of them. In 2016 it also eliminated kickoffs for its youngest divisions, according to a spokesperson. But it still allows tackling for even its 6-and-under division. 

    The best strategy to protect youth, Nowinski and other experts say, is to set minimum ages for the most dangerous activities, like tackling. In 2011, USA Hockey banned body checking in the 12-and-under leagues, and in 2016, U.S. Club Soccer banned heading for players under 12. There seems to be little interest in banning tackling in football for kids under 12, though, Nowinski says. 

    “American football may be the only sport in the world that has zero discussion of—and will probably never themselves create—an age minimum for tackling,” he says.  

    The only way for bans on youth tackling to reach all the kids who play would be state or national legislation. In 2023, the Concussion Legacy Foundation worked with legislators in California on a bill banning tackle football for children under 12. The bill had the support of legislators and cleared a key legislative committee, Nowinski says, but in January 2024, Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed that he would not sign it if it reached his desk. (Newsom has said that he believes it’s possible to “strengthen” tackle football and grow flag football in California “without implementing bans that infringe on parents’ rights.”) If California won’t pass such a bill, Nowinski says, it’s unlikely any other state will. 

    But making changes at the individual league level is doable—just ask John Pizzi. The Riverdale athletic director says that although some other coaches and parents were hesitant at first, the league has fully embraced the safer game rules. That’s probably because they have led to decreased concussions and increased enrollment. As high school football nationally sees its numbers slip, enrollment in the football program at Riverdale is increasing, Pizzi says.

    Some families who had prohibited their kids from playing football have relented under the new rules, he says. 

    The school has figured out ways to make the game safer while still helping players get better, he says; using a tackling wheel—essentially a big foam donut—instead of a person helps teach technique without risking kids’ health, he says. Not having to practice kickoffs frees up more time to practice other aspects of the game. The school now also runs junior-varsity practices as “controlled practices,” essentially having the coaches walk players through what they’re doing rather than just presiding over chaos, Pizzi says.

    Now, some players and parents at Riverdale’s games have never experienced a season where the team does a kickoff—they just place the ball on the field and start playing. 

    Pizzi has heard from parents of kids in other football leagues who are envious of the changes that Riverdale has made, wishing their school would do the same. But, he says, he hasn’t heard from other coaches or leagues who want to implement what Riverdale has done, and make football safer for kids to play.  

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    Alana Semuels

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  • Why Strength Training Is the Best Anti-Ager

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    If you want to age well, you probably already know the basics: eat a balanced diet, go for walks, stay socially engaged. But there’s one habit that experts say matters just as much—and in some cases, more—for long-term health: strength training.

    For decades, weightlifting was viewed as the domain of bodybuilders, powerlifters, or young athletes. But research over the past 20 years has flipped that assumption. Lifting weights—or using your own bodyweight against resistance—turns out to be one of the most powerful tools we have for protecting health as the decades pass. It’s not about chasing bigger biceps or a six-pack. It’s about reinforcing bones, keeping metabolism humming, preventing falls, and even lowering the risk of chronic disease.

    Stronger bones mean fewer breaks

    Bones may feel solid, but they’re surprisingly dynamic. They respond to the stresses you put on them, getting stronger when they’re challenged and weaker when they’re not. 

    “Every time you do a squat, a pushup, or pick up a weight, you’re putting gentle stress on your skeleton,” says Kristen Lettenberger, a physical therapist in New York. 

    She explains that pressure acts like a signal to your body to reinforce the bone, activating the cells that build new bone tissue. Over time, bone density increases and its structure gets stronger. 

    Bone density naturally peaks in our 20s and starts to decline by our 30s, and that decline is slow at first but accelerates as hormones shift.

    “While bone loss impacts both men and women, menopause or any decrease in estrogen such as early postpartum accelerates the decline,” says Lettenberger. “The drop in estrogen decreases bone density, causing bone loss, and increases the risk of osteoporosis and fractures.”

    Read More: 9 Doctor-Approved Ways to Use ChatGPT for Health Advice

    For women in particular, strength training can be one of the most effective ways to push back against those changes. 

    Dr. Rahul Shah, an orthopedic spine surgeon at Premier Orthopaedic Associates in New Jersey,  emphasized that this isn’t just a theory—it’s been observed for more than a century. “By loading the joints and bones with increased load and progressive overload, the cells within the bones respond to the stress,” he says. 

    Known as Wolff’s Law, described by the orthopedic surgeon Dr. Julius Wolff in 19th-century Germany, the bone tissue adapts and remodels to increasing stress.

    “This becomes a good counterweight to the natural changes that occur as we age,” says Shah.

    Muscle is your metabolic engine

    The benefits of strength training don’t stop with bones. Muscle itself is metabolically active tissue, meaning it burns calories even when you’re sitting still. Think of it as the body’s built-in engine, quietly humming along to keep your metabolism running.

    “Muscles are thermogenic by nature,” says Lettenberger. “They burn more calories at rest.”

    Compared with fat, muscle is far more efficient at burning energy both at rest and during activity. That efficiency translates into a higher basal metabolic rate (BMR)—the body’s calorie-burn even when you’re not moving.

    Dr. Lauren Borowski, a sports-medicine physician at the Center for Women’s Sports Medicine at NYU Langone Health, adds that as we age, we lose both bone density and muscle mass.

    Read More: What Happens to the Plastic in Dishwasher Pods?

    “Most people know about osteoporosis and the loss of bone density, but they may not realize there is an actual loss of lean muscle mass called sarcopenia that begins happening at around 40 years old,” she says. 

    Clinicians see the impact of this firsthand. According to Borowski and Lettenberger, patients with more lean muscle tend to have better insulin sensitivity and glucose metabolism, which in turn reduces their risk for metabolic syndrome and diabetes. In other words, maintaining muscle isn’t just about looking strong—it’s a safeguard for long-term health.

    But here’s the challenge: muscle mass doesn’t stay constant. Beginning in your 30s, the average person loses about 3-8% of muscle each decade. That decline doesn’t just reduce strength—it slows the metabolism, making weight gain more likely even if eating habits haven’t changed since young adulthood.

    The key to balance and independence

    For older adults, one of the greatest fears isn’t just disease—it’s falling. A single fall can trigger a cascade of health challenges, from broken bones to lost confidence in moving freely. The statistics are sobering: falls are the leading cause of injury-related ER visits for people over 65.

    Strength training helps change that equation. “Falls often happen when strength and stability (Proprioception) give way,” says Lettenberger. “Resistance training, more specifically single leg exercises, build the muscles and proprioceptive cues that support posture and movement, in the legs, hips, and core.”

    Read More: How to Keep Your Heart Healthy in Your 20s, 30s, 40s, and Beyond

    Tom Connolly, a personal trainer at Oak Park Tennis and Fitness Centre in Illinois, explains that balance is about more than just strong legs. “Good balance has two major components,” says Connolly, who’s a spry 74. “One is how quickly the brain reacts when its proprioceptive inputs signal we are out of balance. The second is having the quickness and strength to regain balance.” Strength training, he says, helps with both of these. 

    That combination—faster brain-body reactions and stronger muscles—can mean the difference between a harmless stumble and a life-altering fall.

    Lifting for longevity 

    Strength training also offers protection against many of the most common chronic diseases of aging. Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and even some cancers have all been linked to inactivity.

    “Strength training increases muscle mass, which in turn improves how the body uses insulin and helps move glucose out of the blood and into cells for energy,” says Lettenberger. “This can lower blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and reduce the risk of Type 2 diabetes or help manage the condition.”

    Dr. Chirag Panchal, a family-medicine physician in Florida, adds that muscle helps improve your use of glucose, which is one of the “keys to preventing and managing diabetes.”

    Read More: Unlocking the Secrets to Living to 100

    Research also shows that strength training helps improve cardiovascular health and reduce risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure and cholesterol. Large studies also link resistance training with a lower risk of certain cancers. Evidence also suggests it may support brain health by improving blood flow and reducing inflammation, potentially lowering the risk of dementia. It can also reduce your risk of dying from any cause by about 15%.

    You don’t need to lift the heaviest weights in the gym or push yourself to exhaustion. What matters more is showing up regularly, building strength gradually, and making it a habit you can sustain for years. Even short, steady sessions a few times a week can add up to meaningful gains in muscle, metabolism, and overall health.

    “Bone health is something to prioritize earlier than many people realize,” says Lettenberger. “Muscles can be the greatest gift you give yourself as you age.”

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    Lauryn Higgins

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  • Weighted Vests Are the Latest Fitness Trend. Do They Work?

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    When the fitness company Peloton added weighted-vest classes to its streaming exercise offerings in May 2025, its members rejoiced, says instructor Rebecca Kennedy. “They were like, ‘Finally! You answered my prayers’!” she laughs. “The appetite has been really wild.”

    Strapping extra weight to your body while working out is nothing new; the practice of “rucking”—walking with a weighted backpack—has roots in military training and has been shown to help improve endurance and build muscle power and stamina.

    But wearing a weighted vest to exercise has surged in popularity over the last few years, with the global market for weighted vests predicted to grow from $199 million in 2024 to $313 million by 2031. 

    Adding mechanical load onto your skeleton means your muscles have to work harder for support, Kennedy says. “Our metabolic output naturally increases, because the load is heavier. We’re getting higher use of oxygen, we’re burning more calories, we have more strain over our entire body, and especially because it’s on our trunk, our postural muscles are working quite a bit more.”

    Put simply, wearing a weighted vest is a “great way to, at the very core element of it, increase the difficulty of whichever exercise you’re doing,” says Mathias Sorensen, an exercise physiologist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Human Performance Center.

    When to wear a weighted vest

    Adding a weighted vest to walking, hiking, or mat-based cardiovascular activities like aerobics allows you to reap the benefits of low-impact exercise while ramping up the intensity, Kennedy says. “A lot of us are limited with our time and maybe are loving cardio, but know that we also need to optimize and include strength in it, and this is a great entry point.”

    Read More: Can Creatine Keep Your Brain Sharp?

    Mike Hayes, a certified personal trainer at Crunch Fitness in New York, wears his vest during strength training, for moves like push-ups, pull-ups, jump squats, and lunges. “I do it to make my body-weight exercises a little bit harder, so I’m required to exert a lot more power and force,” he says. From an ergonomic perspective, explains Sorensen, “it’s a lot easier to put on a weighted vest than it is to have somebody put a giant plate on your back to create the same effect.”

    But there are some activities that aren’t suited to weighted vests, Kennedy says, like Pilates, yoga, any sort of inverted movements, and anything with rapid twisting, like pickleball or tennis. And make sure you take it off for your cool-down stretch, too. “Anytime you’re trying to load a stretch, it should be through exhale and time, versus adding a weight to it,” she says.

    How to get started

    As with any change to your exercise routine, go slow. If you roll out of bed “and you go buy the 30-pound weighted vest on Amazon and start doing 30 squats a day, there’s an irrefutable likelihood that an injury is going to happen,” Sorensen says.

    The general rule of thumb, Kennedy explains, is to choose a vest that’s 5-10% of your body weight. Wear it for 10 minutes the first time to see how your body responds, then increase your usage gradually. “I might wear it two or three days in week one,” she says.

    Read More: Your Quest for Perfect Sleep Is Keeping You Awake

    As for whether to buy a fixed weight or adjustable vest, decide whether you’ll use it more for cardio or strength training, Kennedy advises. A fixed weight vest will fit more snugly and jostle around less as you move, while an adjustable one allows you to progressively increase the resistance as you get stronger.

    Though weighted vests are generally safe for the majority of people, Kennedy says, seek clearance from your doctor if you have issues with balance, or neck, shoulder, or back injuries; placing additional stress on the spine can exacerbate conditions like degenerative disc disease. Pregnant women, particularly in the second and third trimester, should avoid adding more load to their trunk.

    Weighted vests and bone health 

    As we get older, we begin to lose bone mass or density; women are more likely to develop osteoporosis than men, because estrogen, which plays a crucial role in protecting bones, decreases sharply in menopause. 

    While it’s well-established that exercise can help strengthen our bones as we age, the research on weighted vests and bone health is scant. Most studies have been small with varying or unclear results, and even the recent 12-month INVEST in Bone Health trial, which followed 150 older adults, found that daily weighted vest use did not prevent weight loss-associated bone loss at the hip. 

    “There’s a lot of buzz around the weighted vest, that it’s this bone-density hack,” says Michele Bird, a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist and assistant professor of applied exercise science at the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. “I just don’t think that the evidence has supported that at this time.”

    Still, she says, “if that vest is getting someone to be more active, I think that’s great.”

    Upcoming research

    As more people strap in for the first time, research into the potential effectiveness of weighted vests continues to come down the pike.

    Kristen Beavers, an associate professor in the department of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University and one of the researchers in the INVEST trial, says the team is currently working on other studies related to weighted vests, including the impact on muscle and the difference in outcomes between men and women. 

    In March, they published a small pilot study suggesting that wearing a weighted vest during active weight loss may help people maintain that loss over the long term. 

    “I don’t think the story is done,” she says. 

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    Holly Burns

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  • More Americans Are Playing Sports—Especially This One

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    Never mind the popular image of Americans as sedentary, housebound, and living on the couch. It turns out a whopping 80% of us are physically active, according to a new report from the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. That’s 247 million people getting up and breaking a sweat as opposed to just 20%, or 62 million, who remain exercise averse. It’s a continuation of a recent trend in the U.S.—and it’s fueled in part by the astonishing growth in one sport in particular.

    Pickleball saw a 46% increase in players from 2023 to 2024—and a jump of 311% in just the past three years.

    The authors of the report surveyed participation in 124 sports and activities from 2019 to 2024, analyzing online interviews with 18,000 people. Far and away, the researchers found, the most popular physical activity Americans choose is walking for fitness—it’s free, easy, and requires no investment at all beyond a comfortable pair of shoes. For more than 115 million active Americans, this is the exercise of choice. Next in line is trail hiking, with 63 million participants; treadmill running, at 56 million; free weights, also at 56 million; and jogging, at 51 million. Also making the top 25 are yoga (37 million), swimming (29 million), and wildlife viewing that requires considerable walking (21 million).

    Read More: What’s the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?

    In terms of the fastest-growing physical activities, “racquet sports are number-one,” says Alex Kerman, senior director of research operations and business development at the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. “Tennis has been doing pretty well, and pickleball is at an unprecedented level.” Also growing quickly are pilates, trail running, and golf.

    The trends in the report are heartening for Americans’ health, and, not for nothing, good news too for the marketers who supply the balls, helmets, paddles, and bats that keep us out on the greens, courts, tracks, and fields. “Profitability among companies reached new heights,” the authors of the report wrote, “with 65% reporting increased profitability in 2024—the highest percentage recorded in the past decade.”

    It’s not clear what kickstarted the rise in Americans’ activity levels, but Kerman believes the pandemic contributed. With people in sudden isolation—and gyms, fitness centers, public pools, and golf courses closed for a time—Americans filled part of their downtime with activities they could do masked or alone.

    “When people were staying home, one of the only things they could do was exercise,” says Kerman. “You couldn’t do every form of activity, but you could go out for a walk or a run or a bike ride.” As people began to socialize more, albeit while keeping their distance, sports like tennis and pickleball began to thrive. “We’ve been tracking pickleball since 2014,” says Kerman. “It’s risen every single year, but you didn’t see these enormous jumps til 2021 or 2022.”

    Income, too, plays a role in how active people are. Jogging, walking, and hiking might be free, but activities like skiing, golfing, and scuba diving can be pricey, and that showed up in the study’s results. Among people with an annual income of $25,000 or less at the time of the study, just over 63% were active in 2024. One bracket higher, in the $25,000 to $49,999 cohort, that figure was over 73%. The numbers rise steadily into the $100,000 and up bracket, where 87% qualify as active.

    Read More: What Experts Think About the Japanese Walking Trend

    “Cost is the largest barrier to participation,” says Kerman. “There’s a significant difference between the lowest income level and the highest. In the past few years that gap has gotten smaller, which is great, but it clearly is still there.”

    The rising tide of active Americans is lifting the boats of the recreation sector. Last year, the industry expanded by 2.9%, beating the rise in the GDP, which was 2.8%—an important benchmark of growth. “This was just the fourth time in 15 years where the industry grew more than the GDP,” says Kerman. 

    The report does come with some important qualifiers. The 80% of the population labeled as active was inflated by including people who engaged in a sport or activity as little as once a year. Roughly 77 million Americans, aged six and over, are considered casual participants, which is about 30% of the 247 million people classified as active. And since 20% of us are not active at all, that means tens of millions of people facing a higher risk of obesity, heart disease, and other conditions that can be associated with a sedentary lifestyle. Nonetheless, the fitness trendlines are improving—and that can pay off big. “More and more people are realizing that being physical leads to well-being,” says Kerman. “Activity means living a healthier life.”

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    Jeffrey Kluger

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  • Does Face Yoga Really Work? 

    Does Face Yoga Really Work? 

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    Yoga practitioners know that poses like downward-facing dog, warrior, bridge, and others can improve flexibility, reduce stress, and build strength in your body. Face yoga can offer similar benefits for your complexion.

    Face yoga—including moves like the eyebrow lifter, happy cheeks sculpting, and temple developer—refers to stretching, massaging, and exercising the face, says Dr. Joshua Zeichner, an associate professor of dermatology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “The goal is to enhance facial muscle tone to minimize signs of skin aging.” 

    The technique involves repeatedly moving facial muscles in certain ways. By practicing making these expressions, face yoga claims to improve how well those muscles function and boost your appearance, says Dr. Murad Alam, vice-chair of the dermatology department at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, who’s conducted research on face yoga. 

    So, if you’ve seen people making funny faces on TikTok, where there are more than 77,000 videos tagged #faceyoga, that’s why. If you’re considering trying it yourself, here’s how to do it and the benefits face yoga might offer. 

    Does face yoga really make you look younger? 

    Aging drives a number of changes that affect your complexion. You can lose muscle tone, which may make the skin on your face appear loose and saggy, Zeichner says. 

    As you age, the fat pads under your skin thin out, and you lose collagen, Alam adds. This typically makes your skin less elastic and gives it a less-full appearance.

    “With facial yoga, you’re trying to grow your muscles, which are underneath the fat pads,” he says. “Kind of like bodybuilding, you exercise the same muscles over and over again, and they become bigger.”

    Read More: Why You Should Change Your Exercise Routine—and How to Do It

    The bulked-up facial muscles can fill in some of the volume that’s been depleted by age-related fat, muscle, and collagen loss, Alam says.

    As you might imagine, there is very limited research on face yoga. But in a small study led by Alam and published in JAMA Dermatology in 2018, women ages 40 to 65 performed facial exercises for 30 minutes daily or every other day for 20 weeks. After comparing before-and-after photos, researchers noted that the people had fuller upper and lower cheeks and appeared younger after doing face yoga.

    Other benefits of face yoga

    Exercise of any kind can improve circulation, so strengthening face muscles likely has the same effect, explains Dr. Anetta Reszko, a dermatologist in New York City.

    “Increased facial muscle strength results in a more natural ‘face-lift’ effect by creating a lifted and toned look, while improved blood circulation adds to a naturally radiant and healthy complexion,” she says. 

    Enhanced blood flow to the skin and better circulation are essential for cell turnover, the natural process where dead skin cells are replaced with new ones, Zeichner says. Improved cell turnover ensures the skin has a smooth texture and even tone and encourages collagen production.

    Read More: How to Stop Checking Your Phone Every 10 Seconds

    Face yoga can also tap into the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for promoting relaxation and reducing stress, Reszko adds. This helps lower your heart rate and blood pressure and contributes to your overall well-being. 

    A small 2018 study found that facial exercises improved mental health for older people. The exercises also enhanced facial expressions and tongue muscle power, which the researchers concluded could be a useful therapy for this age group. Movement, in general, has been shown to release endorphins and decrease stress, improving mood. 

    “Any activity that helps improve relaxation and reduce stress can be of benefit to the body in general as well as the skin specifically,” Zeichner says. “We know that emotional stress has a negative impact on the skin, impairing wound healing and leading to worsening of conditions like eczema or rosacea.” 

    Are there any risks? 

    Face yoga is safe for most people who are looking for a non-invasive way to improve skin firmness, reduce wrinkles, and relieve facial tension, Reszko says. It could be uncomfortable if you have sensitive skin, though. 

    If you have facial injuries, like bruises or cuts, she recommends not trying the technique until these heal. You could inadvertently put extra strain on the skin if you don’t do the moves correctly, which could also worsen conditions such as acne, as the movements could irritate the skin.

    Read More: 8 Signs You’re in Perimenopause

    Talk to your dermatologist before trying face yoga if you’ve had dermal fillers or other cosmetic procedures to make sure you’re not interfering with the results, she adds. 

    Another issue is that continuous facial movements might end up causing more wrinkles if you do them too much, Reszko says. Repeating certain facial expressions could overwork some muscles and lead to skin folding and worsen the appearance of wrinkles in between the eyebrows, horizontal forehead lines, and crow’s feet, Zeichner says.  

    How to get started with face yoga

    Just like regular yoga, a face yoga practice consists of many different moves. Research showing the anti-aging benefits of face yoga featured some Happy Face Yoga exercises, developed by Gary Sikorski, who co-authored the study. These include: 

    • The Cheek Lifter: Shape your mouth into an “O” and drape your upper lip over your teeth. Then, smile, lifting your cheek muscles up; place your fingers on the top of your cheeks and release your lips to a neutral posture. Repeat the lowering and lifting 10 times. 
    • Happy Cheeks Sculpting: Smile with your lips pursed together without showing your teeth. Smile again, focusing on the corners of your mouth, which forces your cheeks up. Place your index fingers on the corners of your mouth and apply mild pressure as you push your fingers up to your cheekbones. Hold each rep for 20 seconds. 
    • The Eyebrow Lifter: Place three fingers from each hand just underneath each eyebrow, then force your eyes to open. Smile and try to push your eyebrows down like you’re furrowing your brow. Close your eyes and roll your eyeballs up toward the top of your head. Hold each rep for 20 seconds. 

    Research suggests that practicing face yoga for 30 minutes several times a week can offer anti-aging results, Alam says. That’s a lot of fake smiling and funny faces. “At least in our study, it required a fair amount of commitment.” 

    When to see a dermatologist 

    If you’re not getting the results you’re looking for with face yoga, see a dermatologist. They can recommend treatments like Botox, fillers, retinol, or other therapies, to help smooth wrinkles and stimulate collagen production, Zeichner says.

    A dermatologist can also identify any underlying skin issues that you might have and offer the best remedy, Reszko adds. 

    “Face yoga can be a good recommendation for those looking for natural, non-invasive methods to improve facial tone and reduce stress,” she says. “However, it’s important to emphasize proper technique and manage expectations regarding gradual results.” 

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    Erica Sweeney

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  • Why You Should Change Your Exercise Routine—And How to Do It

    Why You Should Change Your Exercise Routine—And How to Do It

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    The alarm clock blares, and you reach for your running shoes without thinking about it. Next thing you know, you’re jogging through your neighborhood on the same route as every other morning.

    You are a creature of exercise habit. And there’s nothing wrong with that—in fact, you’re much healthier because of it. “The best exercise is the one you will do,” says Stella Volpe, a professor of exercise and nutrition at Virginia Tech.

    At some point, though, there’s a decent chance you’ll stop doing it. What was once a fun challenge may lose its luster. Repeated hundreds of times, your rock-steady workout may start feeling like a Sisyphean rock, an obligation lingering in your life like a former crush who can’t take the hint that it’s over.

    Science points to the best reasons to break up with a dissatisfying routine and how to switch to a new one.

    Break the plateau

    It could be time to change if you perform the same workout daily and you’re no longer increasing your strength, speed, or endurance. This plateau means the body has adapted to the challenge, possibly spelling boredom and less vigorous exercise. Yet we often continue grinding the same stone, day-in, day-out, simply out of habit.

    Health is boosted with practically any exercise, even if you’ve plateaued. But revamping your routine could “perturb the body, stopping it from getting overly comfortable,” spurring cellular changes for greater health, says Shane Shapiro, a professor of orthopedics at Mayo Clinic in Florida and fellow of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine.

    “Variety is the spice of an active life, and the data seem to support that,” says Mark Beauchamp, a health and exercise psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. With his colleagues, Beauchamp found routines that mix several workouts lead to more physical activity and feelings of well-being, compared to just one type of workout. 

    Change is hard. It takes time and entails risk that the new workout won’t work out, possibly turning a bored exerciser into a non-exerciser.

    Read More: How to Stop Checking Your Phone Every 10 Seconds

    But people can reduce the risk by keeping their go-to workout, while connecting it to a new one. For example, someone who uses an elliptical for 40 minutes every day could stay with that machine, but stop at 20 minutes to bike around town (or on a stationary one at the gym) for the remaining minutes. This “chunking” strategy is effective at making your new workout as automatic to perform as the older one, because the mind unconsciously links the two activities, says Phillippa Lally, a senior lecturer at the University of Surrey in England, who has written about this phenomenon.

    People do better with making these changes when they maintain their “instigation habit”—whatever they always do right before working out that helps them transition from non-exercise activities. If you always pick your workout clothes the night before or create an exercise playlist, for example, keep it up.

    Add balance

    Exercise benefits health in multiple ways, but it helps more if you’re actually exercising in multiple ways, especially by doing cardio, strength conditioning, and balance training. “If people stick to just one of the three, often cardio, they miss out on physical and mental-health benefits” of more diverse routines, says Jen Carter, a sport psychologist at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Sports Medicine.

    Even within these three domains, it’s good to be well-rounded to get the full benefits. For instance, cardio at only low or moderate intensity won’t provide the additional health benefits of higher intensity—and vice-versa. 

    Volpe, who is also president of the American College of Sports Medicine, recommends the acronym FIT when tweaking exercise routines for cardio, weights, and balance: try switching the frequency of these workouts, their intensity, and the amount of time you perform them. Carter, a dedicated swimmer, alternates long-distance swims with intense sprints.

    Read More: Do You Need to Take Electrolytes to Stay Hydrated?

    One activity won’t deliver the full range of benefits, Volpe notes. Take swimming: great for cardio and strength, but less so for improving balance and getting the bone health benefits of higher impact workouts.

    Some exercise regimens call for diverse activities that support several fitness domains. Volpe has done CrossFit for 16 years, combining various movements that target different aspects of physical performance. Carter notes other examples of all-in-one workout protocols: TRX, Zumba, and bootcamp classes. 

    An annual blood workup might signal that your routine is too focused on one domain. If you’re working out but still falling short on metrics that exercise should improve—like fasting blood glucose or fats in the blood linked to heart disease—maybe it’s time to balance out your routine.

    Find a new sauce 

    Instead of supplementing your current routine with other activities, consider dipping it into a new “sauce”: accompany your exercise with a tempting new podcast, TV show, or community of exercisers. A spicy dip could help make a stale routine more palatable.

    Katy Milkman, an economist at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, studies these types of changes, called temptation bundling. The added pieces “complement your workout in ways that make the activity more enjoyable,” she says, boosting average weekly workouts by 10-12%. When you tire of a podcast, picking a new one is easier than upsetting the whole exercise apple cart. “Variety is created through shifting the bundle,” says Milkman, author of the book How to Change. 

    Temptation bundling does not mean donut parties on the treadmill, Milkman adds. Healthier bundles can lean on personal quirks. Love cleaning? Wear a weighted vest while washing your car. Or try working out in an unfamiliar location. “Instead of walking in the city, try the same walk in a country environment,” suggests Ben Singh, a research fellow in health and human performance at the University of South Australia. 

    Try something totally new

    Rather than including variety or sauces, the brave exerciser could start a completely new chapter of their workout playbook. If you’re an explorer at heart, novelty may be what you crave most. 

    Novel activities may increase enjoyment, life satisfaction, and the experience of flow. With repetition, novelty wears off, but with a little strategy, it can be extended. One approach is to choose a new training regimen every few weeks or with each new season, pairing it with a specific goal, says Dr. Matthew Kraeutler, an assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.

    Read More: Green Tea Is Even Better For You Than You Think

    Studies show that this method, called periodization, prevents boredom and improves health outcomes. Kraeutler swears by it. “By focusing on something in a short timeframe, I reach levels that would be impossible if I just did it occasionally,” he says. During a recent “period,” he set a personal record for squat clean. “I used to get on the same machines every time at the gym. Now I have something to work toward.” Other goals include training for a 10K, executing a sun salutation on a paddleboard, or improving important health metrics like your VO2 max.

    Before attempting unfamiliar workouts, develop a base level of fitness by meeting the minimum guidelines. Then “you can go to the next level,” Shapiro says, “and start doing goal-specific periodization to make additional gains” with less injury risk. Even so, train-up gradually. “Start low, go slow” with any novel workout, Shapiro advises, increasing exercise duration and intensity by no more than about 10% each week.

    Beware of novelty exhaustion. Research shows that well-being is eroded by introducing too many new activities at once—plus, you’ll soon run out of innovative ideas.

    Adapt to life’s surprises  

    Sometimes novelty is freely chosen. Other times, life disrupts a routine, requiring change. A new job might require an earlier arrival, sabotaging your morning trampoline workout. Instead of stopping exercise altogether, view it as a cosmic intervention to try a new routine. 

    “Often life forces us to make changes,” Singh says. “Being adaptable to changing the program is extremely important.” 

    With life’s curveballs, “there’s opportunity,” says Milkman, “but also risk.” In Milkman’s research on college students, exercise routines go well until they’re disrupted by school breaks. When the kids return, maybe especially after going to Thanksgiving or Cancun, “it’s back to square one,” she says. Or a workout partner who motivates you to exercise could disappear. “What if your friend Bonnie moves to Japan?” Milkman says.

    Maintaining flexibility is key, Milkman has found. To roll with the punches, it’s important to cultivate substitutes for your main workouts and exercise buddies. “The concept of backup habits is a really good idea,” Lally says. She prefers to exercise before work, but knowing that some mornings may be too busy, she takes her exercise gear to the office for lunchtime sessions.

    Sidestep pain

    Another factor is whether a one-dimensional routine is causing pain. “If you’re doing the same thing every day, you’re at much higher risk of developing overuse injuries,” Kraeutler says.

    This is especially true for activities with prolonged, repetitive impact to the same joints. Kraeutler has compared the rates at which runners and non-runners go on to develop knee osteoarthritis. Runners were less likely to get osteoarthritis than non-runners, but that was only for “mild to moderate” running, under 200 minutes per week. (Some of the non-runners didn’t exercise at all, which can contribute to obesity, an independent risk factor for joint pain.) If you’re staying under this threshold, you may be “in the safe zone,” Kraeutler says.

    Read More: Here’s How Much Sleep You Need According to Your Age

    If you’re over this mark with running—or overdoing anything else—it’s worth considering a change. “Taking at least one day off per week from exercise will reset the mind and prevent compulsive exercise,” Carter says. South American hunter-gatherers have alternated rest days with days full of movement for eons. They’re probably onto something.

    Note the difference between problematic pain and just being sore. The latter is the inevitable side effect of a new exercise program, not a reason to shut it down. “You’ll have some discomfort when using muscles in novel ways, but it should dissipate within a day or two,” Shapiro says.

    If you’re already injured, view it as another opportunity to change your routine. Instead of being sidelined by a lower-body injury, opt for upper-body workouts, Volpe says.

    Let your mental health guide you

    If your mental health is suffering, think about changing your routine to better meet your mood. When going through periods of anxiety, try more yoga. In a research review, Singh found that mind-body exercises like yoga were associated with lower anxiety. Aerobic exercise and strength training were linked to less depression.

    Increasingly, fitness apps can assess whether we’re underperforming, perhaps due to boredom, or stressed. “If you don’t feel like doing your typical workout, a fitness app might suggest alternatives,” says Singh, who studies these technologies. Just don’t follow exercise apps blindly. Carter recommends “intuitive exercise”: listening to your body to find routines that suit you best.

    Remember what you liked in high school

    Part of building up your exercise intuition is recognizing activities that intrigue you. When starting a routine, initial enthusiasm goes a long way. “Positive expectations shape positive outcomes,” Milkman says. 

    So does having some degree of competence in the activity, Beauchamp says. Lack of improvement is a main reason people quit new activities in the first six months. Maybe you were decent at a sport in high school and daydream of playing again. Or maybe something at the Paris Olympics caught your eye. Handball or badminton, anyone? “Many more sports are available than people think,” Volpe says.

    Don’t underestimate the power of play; mammals like us have enjoyed it for 80 million years. Volpe played field hockey in high school. Decades later, she’s on the masters national team. Recently, she’s gotten into curling. 

    “It’s never too late to add a sport,” she says. “People might not realize how fun it can be to make the change.” 

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    Matt Fuchs

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  • Climbing Stairs Might Be the Most Effective Exercise for You

    Climbing Stairs Might Be the Most Effective Exercise for You

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    (TOKYO) — If you’re trying to lose weight and want a new way to do it, stair-climbing as a regular exercise — or just adding a few flights a day — might be for you.

    It’s accessible, and research shows it’s more effective than walking on level ground.

    “Overall, it is a fact that stair-climbing gets you fit faster and consumes more calories,” said Lauri van Houten, vice president of the International Skyrunning Federation, which oversees a wide range of disciplines that involve vertical climbing.

    This includes disciplines like mountain running above 2,000 meters (about 6,500 feet) or events like the Stairclimbing World Championships.

    These competitions are for the very fit, but we’re talking here about adding a few minutes of stair-climbing as a daily routine and raising awareness about its effectiveness for all ages.

    “How many calories will I burn is the question everyone wants to know,” van Houten said. “Here’s the good news: The overall energy expenditure of the exercise depends on your weight. Therefore, the more you weigh, the more you burn.”

    Stair-climbing burns calories — fast

    Research shows you burn about 20 times more calories going up stairs than walking on flat ground. Even going down stairs you burn roughly five times more, the muscles being worked to slow the body’s descent.

    That might be all you need to know if you are trying to lose weight.

    Dr. Alberto Minetti, a physiologist and biomechanist at the University of Milan, has done extensive research of human locomotion — including stair-climbing.

    “It is an exercise everybody can do,” Minetti told The Associated Press. “You always have stairs nearby you — free of charge compared to a gym.”

    Minetti did the math to explain why going up stairs is so effective for burning calories in a short amount of time.

    Read More: What’s the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?

    “To move 1 kilogram of body mass over 1 horizontal meter, you expend 0.5 calories,” he said. “If you move 1 kilogram of body mass vertically on stairs it’s 10 calories. So it’s 20 times the calories moving vertically rather than horizontally.”

    Trained as a physician, Minetti has spent his career in research rather than treating patients. He suggested “watching your speed” for the not-so-young and beginners. He does his own stair-climbing at his third-floor residence in Milan. He said he often takes a few deep breaths before ascending, which makes him feel fresher at the top.

    In a scientific study, Minetti makes the point that using the arms in stair-climbing adds extra power. Handrails offer safety, too.

    The journal notes that handrails are available in most stairwells in skyscrapers, which maximizes “the muscle mass involved and, consequently, the mechanical/metabolic power of the ascent” by getting the arms involved.

    “They are relatively small muscles in the arms, but better than nothing,” Minetti said.

    Stairs are everywhere

    If stair-climbing was an Olympic sport, Suzy Walsham would own a handful of gold medals.

    She’s won 10 races up New York’s Empire State Building — officially 1,576 stairs. She’s claimed titles in more than 100 international stair races, and was once regarded as the No. 1 woman in the discipline.

    Five times, the Australian has won climbs up the Eiffel Tower.

    This was all too easy, apparently.

    When she was living in Singapore, Walsham climbed up her 29-story building — 37 consecutive times. It took over four hours, riding the elevator down each time after reaching the top with short breaks for coffee or water. She covered a vertical distance of 3,200 meters (10,500 feet).

    But let’s get grounded. What are the advantages of stair-climbing as a regular exercise routine for the rest of us?

    Read More: TIME Guide to Exercise

    “You get a lot of bang for your buck,” Walsham told the AP. “Many people struggle to run as they age. The impact of running gets harder on the joints. But stair training is a great alternative.”

    Stairs are everywhere — one flight, two flights at home, inside skyscrapers, in stadiums and arenas, at work, in shopping malls, in the subway.

    One giant advantage of stair-climbing is it doesn’t take much time. It’s easy to build up, adding a few flights of stairs every day or week, and it improves balance.

    On the down side, it’s not very scenic, particularly in the stairways of towering skyscrapers.

    Stair-climbing can be worked into your daily routine

    Yuri Yoshizumi won last year’s women’s division of the Stairclimbing World Championships in her native Osaka, Japan, a 285-meter (935 feet) climb — 1,610 stairs — that she finished in 10 minutes, 20.06 seconds.

    Read More: 9 Ways to Squeeze in More Steps Every Day

    “Stair-climbing is an easy sport for beginners and the general public to get into,” Yoshizumi told the AP in an email. “Elite athletes push themselves pretty hard, so it’s pretty tough. But it’s good for you to strengthen your muscles and your cardiovascular system in a short amount of time.”

    She added another advantage, particularly living in a large metropolis like Osaka.

    “It’s possible to do it in the city,” she said. “Just using the stairs instead of the escalators at (subway) stations and department stores is a good way to get some exercise.”

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    STEPHEN WADE / AP

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  • What It’s Like to Take an Adult Gymnastics Class—with Zero Experience

    What It’s Like to Take an Adult Gymnastics Class—with Zero Experience

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    Every four years, I become a gymnastics fan. It’s the only summer Olympic sport I reliably seek out, gawking from my couch as the athletes perform tricks that seem to defy the laws of physics and human capability. Since my own gymnastics career ended around the time I entered elementary school—in other words, around the time classes began to involve more than diving into a pit filled with foam blocks—I assumed this occasional experience was as close as I’d ever get to the sport in my adult life.

    Until a recent Monday evening, when I joined about 20 other people for an all-levels adult gymnastics class at the Chelsea Piers Field House in Brooklyn, New York. Even though the summer Olympics had already ended, enthusiasm for gymnastics hadn’t died down. I was lucky to get into the class, as I overheard multiple people saying the waitlist had been filling up fast lately. And apparently, a similar trend is playing out across the country.

    “So many classes are waitlist-only right now, and that rarely happened before this past Olympics,” says Gina Paulhus, who keeps a list of adult gymnastics classes on her website. That list has grown dramatically over the years, from 231 gyms offering adult classes in 2015 to 590 this year, Paulhus says. She also runs a Facebook group for adult gymnasts that has grown from 300 members in 2014 to almost 14,000 a decade later.

    Read More: Green Tea Is Even Better For You Than You Think

    Why are so many adults suddenly trying to become gymnasts? It could be that people simply want fun, community-oriented ways to work out, Paulhus says. Or it could be because some of the U.S. team’s stars, like 27-year-old Simone Biles and 25-year-old Stephen “the Pommel Horse Guy” Nedoroscik, are proving that grown adults can succeed in a sport once dominated by teens, she says. Former Olympic gymnast Chellsie Memmel also made national news a few years ago when she un-retired from competitive gymnastics in her 30s.

    If Memmel could do that, surely this 30-something could attempt a cartwheel for the first time in decades.

    As I nervously waited for my class to begin, I chatted up a couple people idling outside, trying to get a sense for what brought them out to flip and tumble—and whether I was about to be humiliated by my lack of experience. The first person I spoke with was a newbie with zero gymnastics background who signed up just because the class sounded fun, which made me feel better. The second was a professional dancer, which did not.

    “Is the class hard?” I asked the dancer, who said she’d taken it a few times before.

    “No,” she replied—before adding that some of the warmup exercises would “make you realize how weak you are.” Great! 

    Her assessment turned out to be correct. The warmup started out like a high school sports practice—high knees, butt kicks, lunges—before moving into a series of humbling strength exercises, like scooting across the floor in plank position with my feet on a glider disc. I was fully sweating by the end of warmups, at which point we began stretching. As we did, the pair of instructors asked if anyone was brand new. My hand, along with a few others, went up. Was anyone a former gymnast? Only a few hesitant hands. Okay, I thought, maybe I can do this after all.

    Read More: Does Text Therapy Really Work?

    After stretching, we split up into two roughly equal-sized groups: beginners and advanced students. While the advanced group worked on tricks like handsprings and flips, we beginners tried to master basics like handstands, cartwheels, and roundoffs.

    Here, I will let you in on my delusion. Despite a) not being very flexible or having particularly good upper-body strength and b) not having done gymnastics for 25 years, a tiny part of me hoped that I would be surprisingly good at it. Not Simone Biles good, obviously, but passable. Maybe all those Pilates and yoga classes over the years would somehow translate and I would stun everyone with my grace and skill!

    Those hopes came crashing down during our second exercise: backward somersaults. When the instructor demonstrated the move, he rolled over smoothly and popped up into a standing position like it was nothing. When I tried it, I got stuck with my feet over my head, like a turtle flipped onto its back. Medal-worthy, this was not.

    Despite my devastating lack of hidden talent, I enjoyed the rest of class. The instructors were unfailingly patient and supportive, and none of my fellow beginners seemed to take anything too seriously. I’ve taken plenty of group fitness classes that felt silent and serious, but in this one, students complimented each other and chatted between exercises. We were all in it together, maybe because we were pretty far outside our comfort zones.

    Were my handstands perfectly straight or my cartwheels smooth by the end of the hour? Not at all. But it was fun to give it a shot and try exercises totally different from what I normally do at the gym, with each marginal improvement feeling like a victory. Who cares that I needed to brace myself against a wall to hold a handstand for longer than a second? I was still upside down. I felt a little bit like a kid again, in a good way. 

    At least, until I realized I’d tweaked a muscle in my leg doing a cartwheel. Then, I remembered I’m in my 30s.

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    Jamie Ducharme

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  • Should You Work Out If Your Muscles Are Sore?

    Should You Work Out If Your Muscles Are Sore?

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    A hard workout can come back to haunt you. When you wake up the next morning and try to get out of bed, everyday motions like rolling over and standing up can make your muscles whine in pain. You might have wanted to exercise again, but now you’re wondering: Can I still work out if I’m this sore?

    Well, it depends. 

    “Soreness isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” says exercise physiologist Alyssa Olenick. Some degree of soreness is normal when you train hard or challenge your muscles in new ways. It’s a natural effect known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), in which discomfort typically peaks within 48 hours post-exercise, then usually goes away within 72 hours. It happens because putting different or higher demands than usual on our muscles can lead to tissue breakdown, which triggers an inflammatory response. (Don’t worry—that breakdown isn’t bad; the repair process that follows is actually how our muscles grow stronger.) 

    “Your body basically brings a ton of immune cells to that muscle tissue, because it wants to go in and clean up that muscle breakdown,” Olenick explains. “And the soreness that you feel is actually just the swelling and all those cells coming in to clean up that breakdown, putting pressure on your nerves in your muscles.”

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    The key thing to pay attention to is just how sore you feel. If the pain is up to about a “three” on a scale of one to 10, that’s perfectly fine to push through, according to Rick Richey, faculty instructor for the National Academy of Sports Medicine. You might just need to adjust your workout based on your soreness level, Olenick adds, lifting lighter weights or running a little easier, for instance.

    However, if your soreness is more than just a mild ache, take it as a sign to back off. “Your body is smart: It’s telling you that you’re sore so you don’t do it again,” Richey says. 

    In this instance, it’s best to give your body time to recover—even if your fitness tracker says it’s time to push hard. Some trackers are equipped with a “recovery” or “readiness” score based on your heart rate variability, which picks up on total systemic stress in your body. (A reduced variation between heart beats is a signal that your nervous system is in more of a fight-or-flight mode.) “Your heart rate response doesn’t necessarily know that your muscles hurt,” Olenick says. 

    If you do try to push through extreme soreness, that could mess with the recovery process, undercutting the work you put in. “The recovery from the workout is [when] the protein synthesis actually takes place and you start to build muscle and build strength,” Richey adds. “If you cut the recovery too short, then you’re not going to get the benefits you want.”

    Read More: 7 Metrics Everyone Should Know About Their Own Health

    What’s more, working out on super-sore muscles simply isn’t very beneficial. “If you’re very sore, that impacts the strength of your muscles,” says Carol Ewing Garber, professor of movement science and education at Columbia University Teachers College. Sore muscles are not able to produce as much force and will usually fatigue more quickly. So even if you wanted to do 20 push-ups, you might not be able to get through them all or go as deep as usual. Richey adds that intense soreness can throw off your form, so you might not get the intended benefit of the exercises you’re doing—and could even end up injuring yourself.      

    There’s also a rare but serious condition called rhabdomyolysis—often shortened to “rhabdo”—that can happen. “It occurs when somebody really overdoes it and causes very significant damage to the muscle,” Garber says. Rapid muscle breakdown can lead to kidney damage that, in extreme cases, can be life-threatening.

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    So what should you do when you’re so sore you can hardly move? Listen to what your body is craving, and take a rest day. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be stationary, though. It can actually be helpful to do a little light movement like walking, low-intensity cycling, or a gentle yoga flow. Although it might hurt initially to get up off the sofa and start, you’ll likely feel a little better by the time you sit back down. “Getting blood flow to those tissues can help the body do that cellular cleanup it’s trying to do,” Olenick says. Massage might also be useful for the same reason, Garber adds. 

    If you’re really itching for another hard workout, you can focus on muscles that don’t hurt—for instance, do a leg day if your arms are aching. “If you’re sore in one muscle, it’s localized,” Richey says. “You’ve got a whole different portion of your body that you can start looking at exercising.”

    Yet even if you’re following a dedicated workout program or training for something big like a triathlon, taking a day or two off won’t ruin all your hard work. Remember, recovery is where the magic happens. “Some muscle soreness is a good thing in the long-term because then as the muscle repairs, it becomes stronger and becomes more resistant to soreness occurring in the future,” Garber says. So give your body the time it needs to heal. “It’s good to be a little patient.”

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    Jennifer Heimlich

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  • What’s the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?

    What’s the Least Amount of Exercise I Can Get Away With?

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    A few years ago, personal trainer Anna Maltby cut back on exercise as she juggled work with being a new mother. Like some of her clients, she suddenly lacked the time and energy to work out the way she used to. She could manage no more than several 15-minute workouts per week, “but I actually felt like I got my minimum effective dose for that stage of my life,” she says.

    Many of us feel like we’re too busy for exercise. Others actively avoid it. But research shows that doing at least some exercise is important for longer, healthier lives without dementia, heart disease, diabetes, or cancer. Other advantages are reaped right away: we’re happier and more energetic on a daily basis.  

    So, just how little exercise can you get away with, while still getting these benefits? Here’s how low you can go, according to experts. Getting there may require changing how we define exercise in the first place.

    Meet the minimum guidelines

    Official guidelines from the World Health Organization, the U.S. government, and other groups give adults a few choices for how low they can go with aerobic physical activity on a weekly basis. One option is getting at least 75 to 150 minutes of “vigorous” activity, meaning your level of huffing and puffing makes conversation difficult, and your heart rate rises to about 80% of its peak. Another option takes longer, but it’s less intense: 150 to 300 minutes of “moderate” activity, at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. 

    You could also combine just enough vigorous and moderate exercise so they add up to the weekly minimum. Because tougher workouts are especially health-giving, they count more toward your weekly goal; every minute of vigorous activity is equivalent to two minutes of moderate activity. (This means that if you got 50 minutes of vigorous activity, that would count 100 minutes toward the 150-minute requirement for moderate activity. Then, you’d only need to add 50 minutes of moderate activity to meet your weekly minimum.)

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    These bare-minimum amounts deliver the biggest rewards for the fewest drops of sweat, according to decades of research. “If you look at the statistical curve, the increase in benefits is most dramatic” when these minimums are achieved, says Regina Guthold, an epidemiologist at the WHO. If you go higher—over 300 minutes of moderate exercise, for example—you’ll keep accruing greater health, but the gains become smaller. 

    Similar thresholds also support mental health, says Mary de Groot, a psychologist and associate professor of medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. In a study with more than one million people, those who exercised 120 to 360 minutes per week had the best mental health, compared to those who did more or less. 

    Save time with hybrid workouts

    But here’s the catch: On top of cardio, strength training is a must, no less than twice per week. If you neglect it, some unsavory effects of older age may await you, like muscle atrophy and osteoporosis. 

    Now, the time-saving loophole: strength training can be mixed into cardio sessions. By using your own body weight as resistance (instead of heavier barbells), you can do more repetitions, upping your heart rate along with building muscle. Seniors in particular should focus on this “multicomponent activity,” the guidelines say, including moves that improve balance to help reduce the risk of falls.  

    Cardio-strength workouts include pushups, Turkish get-ups, mountain climbers, burpees, air squats, and lunges. With this hybrid approach, you could still wrap up exercise for the week in as few as 75 minutes.

    Skip days, not months

    Work gets busy; parenthood, vacations, and colds disrupt routines. We often need to skip exercise for several days in a row. (After all, we’re only human—not exercise robots.) So, how do the weekly minimums translate into everyday life? Must we bust a move every single day or face imminent demise? 

    Thankfully, no, Guthold says, as long as you catch up later in the week. “Weekend warriors get the same benefits as those who are active every day for less time,” she says. “There’s no evidence it needs to be spread out.”

    How about if you skip a week or two at a time? Well, if you reach the minimum amount of physical activity for only, say, three out of every four weeks, that’s much better than never reaching it. “It’s normal for people to have highs and lows with physical activity, even if they love it,” adds Stella Volpe, a professor of exercise and nutrition at Virginia Tech and president of the American College of Sports Medicine, another influential organization that publishes activity guidelines.

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    “Life happens,” says Katrina Piercy, an exercise physiologist at HHS who leads development of the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. “But if you’re working toward meeting the guidelines in a typical week, you’re going to see benefits.” 

    Even on your off-weeks, just five minutes of activity per day will send more blood pumping through the body, which supports health by preventing blood vessels from stiffening. It could also improve blood sugar and sleep quality, Piercy says. But the more weeks that pass without meeting the guidelines, the more your health may eventually suffer, notes Volpe. Just two weeks straight being very sedentary causes aerobic fitness and muscle mass to decline significantly, potentially paving the way for disease. 

    Combine exercise with movement breaks

    Stay still for over an hour, and your feet may start tingling as the blood pools there, compelling you to get up and stretch. This light movement is important, but for most people, it’s not taxing enough to count toward their weekly exercise minimum. So here’s another way to save time on exercise: use these breaks to get your heart rate up so it qualifies as moderate or even vigorous exercise.

    Studies show that the more movement breaks you take, the lower your risk of death (at least anytime soon), says Keith Diaz, an associate professor of behavioral medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. It’s necessary to take these breaks even if you also exercise. “The other 98% of the day you’re not moving does matter,” Diaz says. 

    To save time, you can use four or five of these breaks as mini-exercise sessions, each about five minutes long. If you’re healthy enough to ramp up the intensity, try one-minute exercise snacks, 20 times per week or more, says Martin Gibala, a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University, who wrote a book called The One-Minute Workout. That could mean walking quickly or running up some stairs, depending on your fitness level. “Your total time spent exercising will be reduced, and there’s the simultaneous benefit of breaking up periods of prolonged sedentary behavior,” Gibala says. 

    We shouldn’t “blow off exercise completely” on days we’re too busy for one long workout, Gibala says. “Exercise doesn’t have to be this special thing you do at a special place.” In a study with over 25,000 people wearing fitness trackers, Gibala and colleagues found that people who didn’t formally exercise but got three separate bouts of vigorous activity, each lasting only 1 to 2 minutes, during their everyday lives lowered their risk of dying from cancer by about 40% and heart disease by 50% over a period of about seven years.

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    Diaz found that adults who engaged in five minutes of walking every 30 minutes improved their blood sugar, blood pressure, mood, and energy levels. Taking such breaks actually leads to more productivity at work, not less, according to Diaz’s preliminary findings. “Humans tend to have trouble focusing for longer than 20 minutes at a time anyway,” he notes.  

    You could have speed-walking meetings, or run from your office to the coffee shop. Volpe, the ACSM president, has a friend who watches TV with his kid but mutes the commercials, puts on music, and dances with the kid until the show resumes. “You’ll be amazed how good you feel by dancing a little instead of getting a snack,” Volpe says. 

    Piercy, the HHS physiologist, turns supermarket shopping into races, timing herself while carrying her groceries in a basket for muscle-strengthening. “Some days I don’t have a formal workout,” she says, “but I grocery shopped, or found other ways to multitask some activity.” 

    Redefine “exercise”

    Here’s the ultimate hack to reduce exercise time: find physical activities that don’t feel like exercise at all. (Warning: This may involve being social, having fun, and bonding with nature.) For example, you could ask a friend to join sessions of high-intensity interval training at a park. HIIT mixes bursts of activity with recovery breaks. When you can talk with people you like during the rest intervals, exercise drudgery transforms into a mobile hangout. 

    Sports like tennis count as HIIT. So does interval walking if it gets your heart rate up. The kicker is that the recovery intervals also go toward your minimum weekly exercise goal. “The rest intervals certainly count toward total minutes because your heart rate stays high during the breaks,” Volpe says. Magically, your 75 minutes of vigorous exercise could drop below 40.

    You may forget you’re exercising when distracted by the park’s natural beauty, leading to more benefits. “The improvements in mood…are even better when people exercise outside,” Diaz says, “away from their tech.” So-called “green exercise” improves emotions and self-esteem, and protects against depression, de Groot says.

    Find your ME

    This game of exercise limbo—how low can you go—involves more than the official guidelines. Your level of minimum exercise—your “ME”—depends on who you are. “When working with people on physical activity plans, the first thing I do is encourage them to think about their goals and values,” de Groot says.

    If you prioritize longevity and defying your age, your self-chosen ME will be higher than others’ minimums. “The more you exercise, the longer you’ll live free of chronic disease,” Diaz says. “But that’s not everyone’s goal.” Some care more about finding a sustainable amount that helps them feel good in the present moment, Diaz says, so they can carry groceries or climb steps without fatigue or pain.

    Here are some factors to consider in setting your ME: 

    • Time commitments: Some of Maltby’s clients are pregnant. “What counted as a great workout before this season of life just may not be possible in a few months,” she says.
    • Physical capacity: Activity guidelines may differ for those with illness or disability.
    • Stage of development. Kids need more activity than adults—they should average at least 60 minutes per day. 
    • Psychological makeup: Teens with ADHD, for instance, may need more exercise to “optimize their brain functioning,” says Erin Gonzalez, a clinical psychologist specializing in ADHD and health behaviors at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

    Fitness trackers and mood apps can show how different MEs translate into heart health, sleep quality, and positive emotions, and HHS created a “Move Your Way” weekly activity planner. “Monitoring your health data and progress objectively is very helpful,” Gonzalez explains. 

    Fitness wearables can also make exercise more efficient by turning it into family time through family fitness tracking. Instead of telling your teen to run around the house, strive toward your minimum goals together. “Doing so can sustain family lifestyle change,” Gonzalez says.

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    Matt Fuchs

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  • Are Walking Pads Worth It?

    Are Walking Pads Worth It?

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    Kenneth Luczko works remotely as an engineer for a tech company—which means his fingers dance across his keyboard all day. One might assume that’s the extent of his on-the-clock exercise. But by the time 5 p.m. rolls around, he’s logged at least 15,000 to 25,000 steps without even leaving his apartment.

    Luczko, 26, is a walking pad fanatic. He bought one about a year and a half ago after seeing a TikTok video, and he now uses it every day. It’s basically a portable under-desk treadmill: less bulky than the kind you might have in your basement, and without any handrails. Walking pads have more limited speed options than regular treadmills, and they usually have a smaller incline, so you’re walking on a flat surface. Sometimes Luczko slowly plods along at 0.5 or 1 mile per hour on his, and other times he speeds up to 3 m.p.h. Doesn’t all that motion make it difficult to, well, work? “It actually helps put me into an awesome flow state when I’m programming,” he says. Plus, Luczko credits the walking pad with kickstarting his recent 100-pound weight loss: “It was like a gateway drug to going to the gym and going for walks outside.”

    Walking pads—which cost about $150-$200—are trending on social-media platforms as a way to get your heart rate up and incorporate some movement into an otherwise sedentary day. While experts agree the devices should supplement, not replace, your regular exercise routine, they can be a smart alternative to plopping down on your office chair and staying there.

    The health benefits of walking pads

    Walking is one of the simplest ways for many people to get more exercise—but it’s also one of the easiest things to eliminate from our daily routines, says Akinkunle Oye-Somefun, a doctoral candidate at York University in Toronto who authored a recent meta-analysis of treadmill-desk research. Since the pandemic-related shift to remote work, he says, more people are sitting for at least eight hours a day—rather than walking to and from the office, out for lunch, or around the block for a breath of fresh air. That’s a problem. Sitting all day leads to a number of “detrimental outcomes,” Oye-Somefun says, including weight gain, heightened disease risk, and stress of the back, neck, arms, and legs. “Stress on the extremities begins to show after just one hour of sitting,” he adds. “It’s good to interrupt sitting,” and walking is superior to simply standing.

    In addition to reducing sitting time, treadmill desks can lead to an array of benefits. They increase steps, and research suggests that logging at least 4,000 a day can reduce the risk of dying from any cause, including heart disease. You don’t even have to go that fast: Researchers have found that office workers who walked 1 mile per hour on a treadmill desk burned an extra 100 calories per hour. There’s now even walking-pad specific research. One small study, published in 2023, concluded that using one during the workday improved people’s energy levels, helped them feel less sore, reduced hip and back pain, boosted their mood, and made them feel more focused and creative.

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    Plus, it (probably) won’t impair your work. One study found that people on treadmill desks perform cognitive tasks nearly as well as those who are sitting—and the researchers concluded that the benefits outweighed any concern about concentration. “Everyone’s realizing, ‘I can walk while working, and it doesn’t impact my productivity,’” Oye-Somefun says. “‘I get mental clarity, I’m able to answer calls, I’m able to type.’”

    What to look for when you’re picking one

    James Rethaber went through three or four walking pads before finding one that checked all his boxes—and now, he uses it every day, usually while listening to webinars or taking a quick break. As the vice president of technical operations at Fit For Work, a company that specializes in industrial ergonomics and workplace injury prevention, he helps people understand what to look for when choosing a walking pad.

    For starters: weight capacity. “I’m not a smaller person, so I needed to make sure it had a great capacity,” Rethaber says. Some walking pads can only accommodate 200 pounds; others are designed for people who weigh 300 pounds and up. The higher the weight capacity, he points out, the heavier duty the treadmill desk will be. The width of the belt—where you walk on the machine—also matters. Traditional treadmills typically have a belt width of 18 to 22 inches, while walking pads are in the 12 to 18 inches range. If you have limited space, look for one on the narrow side, Rethaber advises. But if you have a wider walking stance, and room to spare, you might appreciate a bigger belt, which also reduces the risk of accidentally stepping (or slipping) off the track.

    Functionality varies between walking pads, too. Some are single purpose: designed to be used only under your desk, with a maximum speed of about 4 m.p.h. Others are dual purpose and can be used while working, or for faster walking, jogging, or running while moved away from the desk. In those cases, speed capacity is typically 8 to at least 10 m.p.h, Rethaber says, and you can attach collapsible handrails when you go fast.

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    While some walking pads are nearly silent, others “sound like jet engines”—so check the decibel rating of whichever one you’re considering, Rethaber advises. “If you’re in proximity to others, I always recommend looking for a treadmill that has a lower decibel rating,” he says. “And having a sound-absorbing pad underneath it, like a rubber mat, can really make a difference.”

    It’s also helpful to consider whether a prospective walking pad is equipped with special features. Some include a tracker that displays the amount of time and number of steps you’ve completed in a day. You can also find models that have the ability to sync the number of steps you’ve logged on your walking pad with popular fitness apps, so all of your day’s activity is in one place.

    Ergonomics matter, too

    Walking pads should be comfortable to use, stresses Rethaber, who’s a certified professional ergonomist—which means he specializes in optimizing how people interact with their equipment and workspaces. He recommends building your work station around your walking pad, rather than trying to squeeze it into an established space. If you just slide it in, “things will be too low or too far away,” he says, opening the door to muscle strain and pain.

    Ideally, your keyboard should be situated at a height that allows your elbows to be flexed to slightly below 90 degrees, he says. Frequently handled items—like your mouse, phone, and a notepad—should be within easy reaching distance. And the top third of your monitor should be at eye level. (If you wear corrective lenses like bifocals, you might find that having the monitor lower than eye level is more comfortable, Rethaber adds.)

    Luczko, the engineer who works from home, selected a walking pad with two wheels in the front that fits nicely underneath his standing desk. “The desk has an automated feature to raise or lower it, so I just press the button, it raises it, and I roll [the pad] right under there,” he says. At the end of the workday, he folds it up and rolls it to the side of his office space until he’s ready to spring back into action.

    Ensuring safety

    If you don’t have balance issues, walking pads are just as safe as walking on a normal surface, Rethaber says—especially given that most people utilize theirs at a slow speed. Unlike with a regular treadmill, there are no handrails; clients sometimes ask him if that’s concerning. He tells them that if they feel a need for handles, it’s probably a sign that they’re walking too fast or while performing a task that requires intense focus. In those cases, it’s best to either slow down or sit down.

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    It’s also important to consider what shoes you’re wearing. “I always recommend wearing your exercise shoes, because they have the soles that are built for this and give you the cushion you need,” he says. Slippers and flip-flops aren’t appropriate for the walking pad—and neither is going barefoot.

    How to get the most out of your walking pad

    Madelyn Driver, 30, bought a walking pad about a year and a half ago. It allows her to exercise inside during the workday when the weather is unpredictable. “I mix it into my routine for a quick energy boost before a meeting, or sometimes I have these longer all-hand meetings,” she says. “It allows me to take multiple short walks, and sometimes longer walks, without any disruption to my workflow.” Just one hour of walking at a slow pace can mean an extra 5,000 to 6,000 steps, she adds.

    Driver has noticed that when she uses her walking pad, her mood is elevated throughout the day, and she’s dropped a few pounds because of the extra calorie burn. “I think the biggest misconception I had was that I had to be exercising at the same intensity as when I’m at the gym,” she says. “You’re not trying to log marathon miles, and you’re not trying to be out of breath when you’re on these walking pads. I’m just moving slowly.”

    Read More: Backward Walking Is the Best Workout You’re Not Doing

    If you’re new to walking pads, Rethaber advises following Driver’s lead and starting at a low speed, like 1 mile per hour. “See how you react to that,” he says—you’ll quickly figure out which tasks are feasible for you to do while walking, and which require sitting down. You can adjust your speed as you become more comfortable. The same goes for duration: Walk for 5 minutes here and there as your body adjusts to your new routine.

    There’s some etiquette at play, too. It can be helpful to consider your company’s culture when deciding exactly when to walk, Rethaber points out. For video calls, “I don’t utilize it as much out of respect for others,” he says. “So they’re not hearing the impact, or if they’re susceptible to motion sickness, they’re not seeing me move up and down.”

    There’s trial-and-error involved with figuring out exactly how to make a walking pad a regular part of your workday. But the payoff is worth it, Rethaber says—the devices make stepping into better health a feasible part of the workday.

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    Angela Haupt

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  • What to Eat Before and After Your Workout

    What to Eat Before and After Your Workout

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    Through the ages, humans have fueled their most physically demanding efforts with meaty proteins. Ancient Greeks loaded up on red meat before Olympic contests, and medieval knights recovered from war with venison and pork. The tradition continues today, with world-record-setting weightlifters breakfasting on chicken thighs, eggs, and bacon.

    But experts recommend that the modern, average person eat several other foods before and after tough workouts, even if the knights may have tossed them from their castle windows.

    The missing ingredients

    During exercise, blood carries the nutrients we’ve consumed to our strained muscles, where they’re absorbed. “We are what we eat,” says Keith Baar, a molecular exercise physiologist at the University of California, Davis. “And when we exercise, we’re more of what we just ate.” With proper nourishment, our muscles perform better, exercise feels easier, and we recover faster.

    The ancients weren’t exactly wrong about protein. It’s critical in forming the building blocks of muscle tissues during exercise and afterward, when the fibers are beaten up and need repairs. But many athletes and weekend warriors focus too much on protein, says David Nieman, who leads research on exercise and nutrition at Appalachian State University’s Human Performance Lab. “Unfortunately, a lot of people still act like protein is everything,” he says.

    Carbohydrates matter just as much, especially for cardio workouts. (And high-fiber carbs, in particular, tend to support long-term health compared to carbs with fewer nutrients.) “We’ve known since the 1960s that the muscles want carbs,” Nieman says. After we eat carbs, they’re converted into something called glycogen, which is stored in muscles until it’s needed for energy. “The research is so strong, you’d be foolish not to use it,” Nieman adds.

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    But the best exercise fuel you’re not eating may be fruits, nuts, dark greens, and other plants. They’re full of essential nutrients like folate, magnesium, and vitamins A, D, and E, which can reduce stress and inflammation from exercise. Yet most Americans don’t get enough. “Over 90% of our recommendations for many people come down to eating more whole plant-based foods,” Nieman says. For light exercisers, “everything else is minor.”

    For people who are just trying to meet the minimum exercise recommendations of 150 minutes per week, try to follow the baseline, daily recommendations for vegetables, protein, and carbs. It doesn’t really matter whether you eat them before or after your workout, experts agree.

    For more intensive exercise, though, you’ll want to adjust nutrition before and after—or your workout could involve more rigor than vigor.

    Before your workout

    Power up with nuts and berries

    You may be surprised to find a ream of sports nutrition research pointing to a humble bowl of blueberries and almonds. Many ancient warriors overlooked these foods, but they offer an unusually high variety of polyphenols, compounds found in plant-based foods that reduce inflammation from prolonged workouts.

    Blueberries, especially wild ones that you can find frozen, have this effect in competitive cyclists and untrained athletes alike. Their polyphenols are antioxidants, meaning they counter harmful molecules caused by inflammation during exercise—like firefighters putting out flames. This speeds up the recovery process. Jenna Stangland, team dietitian for the Minnesota Timberwolves, infuses the NBA players’ diets with polyphenols, she says; the Timberwolves’ second-best regular season in franchise history was powered by blueberry vinaigrettes, added recently to the team’s salad station. (Stangland is also an advisor to Momentous, a supplement company.)

    Nieman also has found that snacking on about 40 almonds per day for four weeks before heavy exercise contributed to less muscle damage. In a study this year, people who ate almonds for two weeks weren’t as sore after running 30 minutes downhill. Because almonds are high in calories, stay very active when upping your intake.

    Decades of research support the general health benefits of polyphenols, but their role in exercise is a recent discovery. “They’re the future of sports nutrition,” Nieman says.

    Eat a slice of sourdough two hours before

    For tough exercise, increase your intake of carbs above the minimum guidelines. Swimmer Michael Phelps set a world record after having three slices of sugar-covered French toast (plus a five-egg omelet). However, Phelps isn’t your average human. Healthier sources of carbs are chickpeas, lentils, and sourdough bread. They take longer to digest, providing a slow, steady release of energy to fuel exercise later in the day. Aim to have these types of carbs about two hours before working out, says Elaine Lee, a kinesiologist who directs the University of Connecticut’s Human Performance Laboratory.

    Eat a banana immediately before

    Carbs with more sugar and less fiber, such as bananas, get broken down faster. If you time them just before or during your sweat session, the body can use them right away. (Bananas, a high-carb, polyphenol-rich fruit, promote recovery as well as sports drinks according to Nieman’s research.) 

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    Stangland likes honey for her players because it contains the right mix of simple sugars for energy. “I give out honey sticks right before tipoff and at halftime,” she says. Eating these foods too early, by contrast, “can cause blood sugar to crash before exercise,” Baar says. “Then your performance will be very poor.”

    Sate your hunger with eggs

    You may benefit from combining pre-workout carbs with protein, such as eggs or Greek yogurt.  Because protein is more filling than other foods, it overcomes a big obstacle to exercise: hunger. “You’ll feel sated for longer, which can play a role in how you perform,” Baar says.

    Vegetarians, worry not; recreational athletes do just as well with plant-based protein compared to meat. Lentils pack ample amounts. “We have some players who prefer plant protein,” says Stangland. Brown rice and pea protein powder is the perfect mix for them, since these two plant powders combined provide all of the amino acids that support exercise.

    Consider coffee and collagen an hour before exercise

    Research supports only a few pre-workout supplements, found in food, as safe and effective for athletic performance. One is caffeine. Fewer studies point to a protein called collagen for reducing joint pain; mixing it with orange juice, an hour before exercise, may increase absorption. (Stangland makes a pre-game “watermelon collagen shot” for her players, especially the ones who are more prone to tendon injuries.) Amy Bream, an adaptive CrossFit athlete from Nashville, says collagen has helped her back pain. “It’s in my coffee every morning,” she says.

    After your workout

    Refuel with sweet potatoes 1 to 4 hours after

    Post-exercise, it’s key to start replacing the fuel that was exhausted—especially the glycogen—to prepare for future workouts. Lee, who coached and rowed at the NCAA division 1 level, recommends combining high-fiber carbs, protein, dark greens, and hydration within 1 to 4 hours after exercise, saying, “That’s when your tissues are most metabolically active.” Sweet potatoes are ideal as the carb portion, offering plenty of fiber and nutrients such as polyphenols and electrolytes, good for rehydration. Stangland serves the Timberwolves sweet potatoes at least twice per day. “It’s great for them, and they like them—a win-win,” says Stangland.

    If you’re older, have protein immediately after

    Protein can be enjoyed when convenient throughout the day. Scientists used to think you had to eat it right after the gym to gain muscle, but recent studies find that the timing makes little or no difference in healthy younger people. Seniors benefit more from protein immediately following exercise, Baar says, because their bodies target it better to the muscles at this time. Another strategy that helps with protein absorption: chewing food thoroughly and opting for ground meats instead of steaks, Baar says.

    Don’t overdo it with the vitamins

    It’s possible to get too many antioxidants, including vitamins. If consumed post-workout, they could block the benefits of exercise. Studies show that athletes supplementing with excess vitamins C and E have more inflammation and molecular stress during their recoveries. But that’s no reason to skip your veggies. It’s next-to-impossible to reach this threshold from food alone, experts say.

    Read More: Why Walking Isn’t Enough When It Comes to Exercise

    Many studies do support taking a post-workout supplement called creatine, based on a natural compound in muscle cells. Taken daily, it boosts recovery and performance in weightlifting and high-intensity interval training.

    Experiment with recovery shakes and other combinations

    “We don’t yet have a magic shake” for exercise recovery, Lee says. “Everyone has a different tolerance for what they can eat and how much.”

    But you can test one dietary change at a time to see how it affects your performance and recovery. Maybe try having a post-workout, polyphenol-rich bowl of almonds, blueberries, and greens—an AB&G instead of a PB&J—each day to see if it improves your exercise over two weeks. If you measure your heart rate during and after exercise, keep track of the answers to questions like: can you push your heart rate higher than before the change? Or achieve the same workout at a lower heart rate? Afterward, does your heart rate return to normal faster than usual?

    Stangland makes a different recovery shake for every player on the team, with extra carbs for Edwards’s all-out performances, for instance. Like all of nutrition science, ultimately “it’s a customization,” Lee says. “You have to find what works for you.”

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    Matt Fuchs

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