How Much Exercise Do We Really Need?

 

Exercising more than the recommended amounts yields the longest life 

(a medical study)

A longer life may mean scheduling in even more than the recommended amount of weekly exercise, according to a new study by the American Heart Association (AHA). But you don’t have to add it all in at once - just 20 minute of exercise a day made a difference on life span, according to a 2021 study.

Ideally, adults should get 1.5 - 5 hours of moderate physical activity or 1.5 - 2.5 hours of vigorous physical activity a week, according to the World Health Organization. But people who surpass those levels live longer than those who don’t.

Researchers analyzed more than 116,000 adults in a study published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Participants self-reported their leisure time activity in questionnaires several times over the course of 30 years, and researchers estimated the association between the time and intensity of exercise with rates of death.

The highest reduction in early death was in people who reported 2.5 - 5 hours a week of vigorous physical activity or 5 - 10 hours of moderate physical activity -- or an equivalent mix of the two, said study author Dong Hoon Lee, a research associate in the department of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.  "It is also important to note that we found no harmful association among individuals who reported (more than four times) the recommended minimum levels of long-term leisure-time moderate and vigorous physical activity," he added in an email.

Examples of moderate activity include a very brisk walk, yoga, mowing the lawn or playing tennis doubles, while vigorous activity includes cardio activities like hiking, jogging or playing soccer, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study results support WHO's current physical activity guidelines, but also push for higher levels to see even more benefit in living a longer life, Lee said.

How to add more movement

You may be thinking, "10 hours a week of moderate activity sounds like a lot. There is no way I can work that in with all my other responsibilities.”  And yes, it may take some intentionality and effort. But studies have also shown the best ways to work in exercise into routines so that they stick. Set up your fitness time as you would set up a doctor’s appointment - a firm time on your calendar, worked into the flow of your day.

A megastudy published in December 2021 showed that the best exercise programs include planning when you work out, getting reminders, offering incentives and discouraging missing more than one planned workout in a row.

"If people are hoping to boost their physical activity or change their health behaviors, there are very low-cost behavioral insights that can be built into programs to help them achieve greater success," said the December study's lead author Katy Milkman, the James G. Dinan Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and author of "How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be."

Again, remember that don’t have to add it all in at once - just 20 minutes of exercise a day (walk, yoga, gardening, hand-weight workout, dancing to an upbeat song)  made a difference on life span said Dana Santas, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports.

In your calendar, prioritize your health and set up your fitness breaks to fit into your day. 

Poor Diet choices & Exercise vs Good Diet Choice & Exercise, a scientific study

 You can't exercise away poor dietary choices, study finds

Adapted article in the Medical News Today 7/24/2022

• A new study finds that exercising to make up for eating poorly doesn’t really work in terms of lowering mortality risks.
• Similarly, eating well but remaining inactive may help lower your risk of dying from certain cancers to a degree, but does nothing for all-cause or cardiovascular disease mortality, the researchers found.
• Researchers also observed that those who exercised the most and consumed the healthiest food significantly reduced their risk of dying from all causes, from cardiovascular disease, or from certain cancers.

There has been a lot of conversation — and a great deal of research — attempting to determine whether exercise or a healthy diet is more important for longevity. A new study led by researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia analyzing UK Biobank data may provide the answer.

Researchers found that people who engaged in high levels of physical activity and also ate a high quality diet had lower mortality risks.

For anyone who believed that one can exercise away poor dietary choices, this study suggests otherwise.

People who engage in one or the other lowered the risk of mortality to a lesser degree. Study corresponding author, associate professor Dr. Melody Ding, told Medical News Today:

“These groups still do better (and statistically significant) than the group with poor diet and lowest physical activity, but the group with the best diet and moderate or high physical activity levels do the best!”

The study focused on deaths due to all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and adiposity-related (PDAR) cancers

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Cardiology dietician Michelle Routhenstein, who specializes in heart health, and was not involved in the study, told MNT:

“The study results are no surprise to me. Many people have come to see me in my private practice after suffering a heart attack when training for their fourth or fifth marathon, or right after doing a CrossFit exercise.”

“When I do a comprehensive evaluation of their lifestyle, it is apparent that they thought their intense daily exercise regimen would make up for their poor, unbalanced diet, and it simply doesn’t.”
— Michelle Routhenstein, cardiology dietician

The study is published in BMJ Sports Medicine.

Analyzing exercise and diet habits

The researchers analyzed existing health records for 346, 627 U.K. residents that enrolled in the UK Biobank between April 2007 to December 2010. The health of these individuals was followed for an average of 11.2 years. For this study, the UK Biobank data were linked to the National Health Service death records until 30 April 2020.

For the purposes of their analysis, researchers considered the number of minutes people engaged in walking, moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and vigorous-intensity physical activity (VPA). For both MVPA and VPA, they used a 1-4 ranking system.

A high quality diet consisted of 4.5 cups or more of vegetables or fruit per day, two or more servings of fish weekly, and less than two servings of processed meat or less than five servings of red meat weekly.

The selection of target foods reflects recommendations from the American Heart Association, with the authors noting:

“These food groups were selected as markers for overall diet quality because other important dietary components and/or nutrient groups, such as whole grains and dairy, were not measured during baseline assessment.”

The researchers rated the individuals’ diet quality poor, medium, or one of two levels of best.

The best results

Compared to physically inactive individuals who ate the lowest-quality diet, those engaging in the highest activity levels and eating the highest-quality diet reduced their risk of all-cause mortality by 17%. They also reduced their mortality risk of cardiovascular disease by 19% and of PDAR cancers by 27%.

The higher the level of MVPA, the greater the reduction in all-cause and PDAR cancer mortality risk, with the most active group attaining a 13% to 14% reduction over the least active group.

The same was true for VPA, although it also had a beneficial effect on cardiovascular disease mortality risk. However, the two middle levels curiously reduced individuals’ risk more than the highest level of activity.

As for the reason behind vigorous activities’ larger effect on cardiovascular disease mortality risk, the authors note:

“It has been argued that VPA may lead to more physiological adaptations and elicit more insulin-sensitizing and anti-inflammatory effects than lower-intensity physical activity, which may explain why the stronger association with VPA are particularly pronounced for CVD mortality in our study.”

The highest-quality diet by itself — without MVPA or VPA — had no statistically significant bearing on all-cause mortality risk or cardiovascular mortality risk. It did, however, reduce their chances of PDAR cancer mortality by 14%.

In terms of the interaction between physical activity and diet, Dr. Ding said, “Diet plays a similar role in mortality risk in those who are physically active and those who are inactive, and vice versa.”

Living longer

As far as optimizing one’s chance of a long life based on the study’s insights, Dr. Ding said:

“I guess the simplest answer is to adhere to public health guidelines, such as The Eatwell Guide for eating, and the WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behavior

Trusted Source

. These guidelines are based on solid evidence.”

Taking physical activity and diet separately, Routhenstein noted:

“I need to assess where the person is in their exercise journey, their medical conditions, and their limitations to guide them appropriately. Too much too fast or too heavy of intensity both in aerobic or anaerobic exercise can lead to negative side effects.”

“When it comes to exercise, we are looking ideally for 150 to 225 minutes of weekly moderate-intensity cardiovascular activity, about 60 minutes of low to medium intensity resistance exercise and regular stretching. [Start] your day with a balanced breakfast and [have] therapeutic foods, such as lean protein, vegetables and fruits, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes, in line with your hunger/satiety cues.”

— Michelle Routhenstein, nutritionist

“In order for your diet to be truly heart healthy, it needs to be long-lasting,” added Routhenstein. “Quick fixes do not work, and starting a diet plan that won’t last long term isn’t effective.”

Negative Inner Narrative - what to do when our thoughts turn dark

 

The Unbearable Heaviness of Negative Inner Narrative

6/5/2022

I have been thinking about the unbearable heaviness of negative personal narrative. All of us, no matter what age, have made choices that did not turn out 100% well for us. Or perhaps we experienced things beyond our control that have become a life-long cross to bear. When our mind is triggered by something and revisits those dark places, it can bring other unwelcome visitors into our soul -  harsh words,  judgments, criticism, thoughts of our limitations and powerlessness. 

This can happen to any of us, any time. Letting go of the past is,  of course, the best way to go, but non-attachment is often hard to practice as we suffer and wallow in the unfairness of it all. Then it all mushrooms into an all-encompassing misery as the dark, negative thoughts start impacting our emotions and behavior, affecting our loved ones: our parents, spouses, children, all the way down to our pets.

When and if that happens, I want to invite you to become your very own best friend, right then and there. Think of someone that you love very much, unconditionally, and imagine that they have come to you with all this darkness and misery. What will you tell them? Will you affirm and reinforce their darkest thoughts and words about their life, or will you offer less judgment, more compassion, kindness, a soothing tone of voice, empowering words? Be that friend to yourself, that good friend that you need; be gentle and kind as you soothe your inner turmoil.  As the rabbinic sage Hillel the Elder famously said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?”

The world around us, the forever-changing world, is both the most beautiful and the most hellish place. We owe it to ourselves, our family, our community, and the whole world to fight the darkness everywhere, starting with our own souls.

Practical Points on Meditation Practice

 

Dear Yogis and Yoginis,

   Last week I participated in a webinar  titled “Scientific Research on Yoga and Meditation” and I’d like to share its most interesting points with you. The western medical side was presented by Dr. John Denninger of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine and the Ayurveda side by Ayurvedic healer/ Yogic Wisdom teacher Indu Aurora (btw for those of you who don’t sleep well at night, she will teach “Yoga Practices for Better Sleep” at Kripalu in mid-September) . 

   Dr. Denninger presented studies showing that people who meditate at least 20 minutes daily experience changes in the brain’s gray matter (compared to people who don’t meditate or meditate just occasionally).  These changes influence the function of genes for inflammatory response, and thus the meditation practitioners experienced fewer non-communicable diseases (NCDs) afflicting global populace: cardiovascular and respiratory ailments, arthritis, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, as well as psychiatric ailments - depression, anxiety, psychosis. The meditators were also able to activate their Relaxation Response (the opposite of the Stress Response), bringing on physiological changes such as decreased heart, rate decreased blood pressure and decreased oxygen consumption (no hyperventilation.) Chronic stress kills, so these findings are very important.

   Indu Aurora gave a few wonderful points on how to meditate. First, choose a pleasant focal point. Second, our body position should be governed by ease: ease of facial expression, ease of posture and limbs and ease of breath -  our meditation breath should be “QSEC” - quiet, smooth, even, continuous. Then, meditation.  Thoughts will come and go.  When they come, Indu recommends focusing on our breath and saying a little Sanskrit mantra such as “niti niti” (not this, not this), “naham naham” (I am not that). She points out that both our meditation and yoga practice should be pleasant, allowing us to step into a pose or movement effortlessly, focusing on contentment and steadiness in our physical asanas. This is the reason I always stress to you, during our practice together, to pay attention to your body and stop when your body says “stop”. 

Anyway, I could go on and on, since this topic is so important to me personally. But I wanted to challenge you today - do you want to try meditating for 20 minutes every day? I am planning to and I hope you can join me in this “tapas”, as we say in yoga. 

A Short Home Mental Health Practice

A  Short Home Practice for Mental Health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month (established shortly after the end of WWII, which makes sense, doesn’t it?). It’s clear that our nation is keenly tuned into the importance of good mental health: May is also Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month and National Teen Self-Esteem Month.  The first week in May is National Anxiety and Depression Awareness Week.  

Why am I telling you all this? As yoga practitioners, most of us have probably used yoga as a mental health crutch at some point, and with a good reason - the twin actions of both physical and mental effort in our yoga practice allow us to develop a deeper awareness of ourselves as “jīva” (pronounced jeeva) -  a living being imbued with a life force. Yoga is a tool and a practice with a goal in mind - the release from the vagaries and fluctuations of our mind so we can enjoy a content life no matter what comes our way. That’s why it fits so well in the mental health equation and is used frequently, along with therapy and/or medication, by mental health professionals. 

So what would constitute a dependable mental health yoga routine for us all?  

Practice asana, pranayama, and meditation daily. When you can’t get to a yoga class, use the yoga tools that you know,  at home. Let your body be the guide of what you need. 

1. Have a home asana and pranayama  practice of 20 or so minutes (try bed yoga if you never have.)  
2. After asana practice, meditate for 10 or so minutes, either sitting or lying down. 
3. After meditation, take a few minutes to reflect on the state of your being, as it is now.  Reflect on anything that lends itself to reflection that day: actions you took today, your mental well-being, anything. Try to end the practice with your soul at peace.

Do this on a regular basis, don’t shortchange yourself -  allot the 30 or so minutes to yourself daily. Consider the 30 minutes to be a practice of self-care hygiene, to be practiced as any other hygiene, routinely, like brushing teeth. 

I’m wishing you all a wonderful Mother’s Day,  whether you celebrate or not. Holidays are wonderful but they can be tough if our family situation is less than ideal. When that happens to me, I return to the practice of gratitude for all I have and Santosha - contentment with all I have.  Stay well and thrive.

Zoom Yoga Class Sign on Information

 

Away on vacation from 6/30/2022 - 7/17/2022

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Private or In-Person Classes upon request 

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Tips for Healthy Spines

            Postural Habits for Good Spinal Health

The body is as young as the spine is flexible - an old yogic mantra.

Last week I participated in a webinar on posture and although I didn’t learn anything too revolutionary or new, it was the little tweaks in knowledge that made me happy.

Especially important to us is preventing the progressive emergence of hyperkyphosis (the rounding of our thoracic spine) after the age of 40. Hyperkyphosis can lead to degenerative disc disease, lung and breathing problems, balance issues, poor movement patterns and joint pain due to muscle imbalances. Here are a few tips on how to maintain a healthy spine:

Our spinal health, manifested by a long erect spine, depends on good daily postural habits, specifically how we manage three horizontal areas: 

Ribcage:  if your habit is to lift your chest, you’ll have a swayback.

Shoulder girdle:  if you routinely let your shoulder blades wing out and you carry your upper arms forward, your upper back will round.

Head:  if you lift your chin and poke it forward, your upper back will round more, and the rounding will be close to your neck. This is the habit that helps create a dowager’s hump (hyperkyphosis).

 New recommended postural habits:  carry your upper arms further back than you used to (shoulder blades together), and lift the back of your skull to keep your chin back and slightly down, not protruding forward. Make it a habit to take your weight into your heels when you stand and keep your abdominals engaged. Feel how long and erect your spine is when you put all these together. Now you have the foundation to create a long, erect spine.

Since these are new postural habits, we have to consciously remember them.  It takes about 60 days of diligent daily practice to reliably form a new habit.