See the picture below? That's me doing chin-ups at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Just kidding, but I did go through basic training at Fort Gordon, and we had to swing through a monkey bar every morning at 5 a.m. before we could have breakfast. I couldn't do it for the longest time, so the sergeant on duty would eventually have mercy and let me have about five minutes to chow down. Who knew that one day Gov. Charles Robb would name me to the Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports for Virginia?
Recently I have come to realize that Science Daily, a rich source of research news, can feed me all the new fodder on exercise I could possibly digest. Consider just a small sampling of SD's recent and archived headlines (and guys, try not to be distracted by the next photo):
More Physically Active Adults Have Improved Cardiorespiratory Fitness
Total Amount of Exercise Important, Not Frequency
Exercise-Induced Improvements in Glycemic Control and Type 2 Diabetes
Exercise May Affect Food Motivation
Some Exercise Is Better Than None
Intensity and Exercise Duration LInked to Improved Outcomes for Heart Failure Patients
Moderate Exercise Could Be Good for Your Tendons
Exercise Provides Some Benefits for Depression
Exercise Linked With Reduced Prostate Cancer Risk in Caucasians But Not African-Americans
Aerobic Exercise Benefits Memory in Persons With MS
Why Women Have Greater Shortness of Breath Than Men When Exercising
Exercise Beneficial for Dementia
Aerobic Exercise Boost Brain Power, Review Finds
Long, Low Intensity Exercise May Have More Health Benefits Relative to Short, Intense Workout
And on and on and on go the studies, some of them comparatively contradictory, but virtually all telling you in one way or another that exercise is good for you.
If you want to read any of these stories, you can find them in Science Daily on my bloglist over to the right of this page.
I dearly love to read the latest (or the oldest) about exercise and fitness. The more time I do that, the less time I have to do actual exercises. (Just kidding -- sorta.)
I believe this kind of knowledge empowers us. However, we have to take responsibility for our own fitness quest. The motto in the photo below has it about right. A statist nanny cannot do it for us in a free society.
© Robert G. Holland 2013
