Mechanistic Effects of Resistance Exercise on Cancer-induced Muscle Atrophy

Muscle atrophy is a hallmark of cancer cachexia, a complex multifactorial wasting disease highly associated with mortality. In recent years, we have learned a lot about the protective effects of exercise during cancer. Resistance exercise is now recognized as a…

Taking a Break from Dieting Reduces Hunger, Increases Adherence to Diet with No Detriment to Fat or Weight Loss

A sustained energy deficit with restricted food intake and increased physical activity is accepted as a reliable means to reduce body weight and body fat. However, most individuals find maintaining adherence to these conditions difficult in the face of increasing…

What Factors Put Runners at Risk for Exertional Heat Stroke During a Marathon?

Exertional heat stroke (EHS) can develop in participants at running events. A runner with EHS overheats beyond their capacity to cool and can suffer organ damage, and even death, if not rapidly cooled. Understanding the factors that may lead to…

Active Workstations Encourage Seated Workers to Sit Less, Move More

Prolonged workplace sitting has emerged as a major risk factor for chronic diseases. Standing and treadmill desks have become popular solutions among office workers to decrease workplace sitting. However, little is known about the long-term success of these desks in…

Exercise Reduces Medication for Metabolic Syndrome Management

Chances are that as we age, we will need to correct our blood pressure, blood sugar or blood fat with the help of medication. Thanks to such medication, an individual’s health span is extended by reducing cardiovascular and metabolic diseases…

Learning a New Exercise Can Improve Cognitive Function in Children with Autism

Cognitive deficits are commonly found in children with autism. Research shows that exercise could be an effective intervention to lessen such deficits, yet why and how physical activity impacts cognitive function remains unclear. Investigators believed that apart from physiological factors,…

ACSM Announces 2020 Paper of the Year Selections

The ACSM Publications Committee established an annual Paper of the Year Award in 2020 to recognize one scientific article from each of ACSM’s five journals. Award-winning articles are selected based on impact, research significance, conceptual design and/or technical innovation.

Prenatal Exercise and Cardiovascular Health

Prenatal exercise is associated with a 40% reduction of developing high blood pressure during pregnancy, yet the underlying reasons for this are not known. Investigators performed a randomized controlled trial to determine the effects of an aerobic exercise training program…

Exercise to Improve Health: Fast, Furious and Infrequent or Slow, Steady and Sustainable?

Exercise is well-known to reduce the risk of chronic diseases like hypertension, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. While moderate-intensity continuous exercise (END) has traditionally been recommended to achieve these meaningful benefits, the time-effective alternative of sprint interval training (SIT)…

Greening the Earth and Improving Health through Human-Powered Transport

Driving has become a way of life for people throughout the world. However, heavy reliance on gas-powered vehicles contributes to three problems (global climate change, air pollution and physical inactivity) that result in millions of deaths per year. As developing…

Can the Gut Cope with Night Exercise?

Gut issues are common with endurance exercise, ranging from mild discomfort to severe debilitating symptoms warranting reduced exercise workload or even cessation from activity. Considering the recent exponential growth of nighttime endurance and ultra-endurance events, athletes anecdotally report having more…

Train the Brain: How Stroboscopic Training Speeds Up the Brain’s Visual System

The brain’s visual system is a crucial performance determinant in elite sports. To reach a high level, athletes must rapidly transfer visual information into movement (i.e., fast reaction time). Consequently, this raises the question – how can we train the…

Insights about the Genetic Basis for Concussion

Despite significant advances in treatment, sports-related concussion continues to plague athletes. Part of the reason for this is that the biological basis of concussion is poorly understood. Genetics play a key role in the biology underlying concussion. In this study,…

Does a Ketogenic Diet Impair Athletic Performance?

A low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) or “ketogenic” diet has grown in popularity due to its ability to increase the rate of fat burning during exercise. For elite athletes this comes at the expense of athletic performance. The LCHF diet also increases…

Lifestyle Interventions to Reduce Blood Sugar: Don’t Forget Resistance Exercise

In the past 30 years, prediabetes (elevated fasting or post-meal blood sugar below the levels required for diagnosis of type 2 diabetes) has grown into a major epidemic affecting nearly one in three adults. Previous studies have shown that combining…

Get Off the Couch! Replacing Sedentary Time with Physical Activity or Sleep Improves Heart Health

National and international guidelines recommend replacing the amount of time spent being sedentary with physical activity to improve health. This message is especially important in the face of COVID-19, as overall sedentary behaviors have increased substantially. In fact, research suggests…

Effectiveness of HIIE versus MICT in Improving Cardiometabolic Risk Factors in Health and Disease

A healthy lifestyle is composed primarily of regular structured physical activity (i.e., exercise). As a result, there is vast research into the clinical benefits of exercise, in most cases showing a better effect than drug interventions. Current physical activity guidelines…

Does More Physical Activity and Less TV Viewing Reduce the Risk of Death?

Insufficient physical activity and sedentary behavior are both associated with higher risk of chronic disease and death. However, the long-term benefits of interventions to increase physical activity and reduce sitting time are unknown as randomized controlled trials are often infeasible…

Blood-flow Restriction Training Delay the Progression of Chronic Kidney Disease

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is recognized as a public health problem, affecting more than 15% of the population. Although CKD can drastically impair health, it is rarely diagnosed early due to its silent revelation. Identifying and proposing treatments to attenuate…

Reduced Sitting Time Improves Blood Flow in Brain and Legs

During a regular day, the average person sits for eight to 10 hours. These high levels of sitting time seem linked to an increased risk for both cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. First, researchers found that three hours of sitting results…

Attenuated Rapid-Onset Vasodilation to Forearm Muscle Contraction in Black Men

Kaur and colleagues reported that rapid onset vasodilation induced by a single contraction of the forearm muscles was significantly attenuated in non-Hispanic Black men, compared to white men, and this attenuation was evident even at low intensity muscle contractions. The…

Time-restricted Eating Reduces Body Weight in Runners without Impacting Performance

Intermittent fasting is becoming increasingly popular due to its simple advice: Don’t change what you eat; simply change when you eat. One popular method of intermittent fasting, 16:8 time-restricted eating (TRE), involves 16 hours fasting and eight hours eating each…

Detection of Blood Transfusion

Autologous blood transfusion is performance enhancing, and detection of abuse remains a major challenge in sports. To address this issue, investigators transfused a group of men with either blood or saline, and evaluated whether metabolites collected in urine before and…

BFFs: How Physical Exercise Impacts Brain Blood Flow, Memory after Paralysis

Thanks to advances in health care in the past several decades, more than 90% of people who have had a spinal cord injury survive beyond the first year. The focus now is managing the long-term impact of spinal cord injury…

Break Up Your Work Day with Healthy Stair Climbing Exercise Snacks

Sitting for long periods is known to have negative effects on metabolic and cardiovascular health. Building on recent work showing that brief bouts of vigorous exercise (exercise “snacks”) can improve fitness, investigators from the University of British Columbia in Canada…

New Year, New Weight Loss Program? Exercise More Important than Protein for Muscle Function in Older Women

In the U.S., most older women are overweight or obese, which can harm functional health like rising from a chair. Weight loss diets that are higher in protein are popular as they often cause greater body fat loss while keeping…

Move More or Sit Less: How to Maintain a Healthy Brain

Worldwide, a person is diagnosed with dementia every three seconds. Regular physical activity and limited sedentary behavior (i.e., time spent sitting or lying down) are two important lifestyle strategies for maintaining good brain health. However, we do not know which…

Menopause May Affect Improvements in Exercise Fitness

All women go through menopause, usually between the ages of 46 and 54. Their periods stop, and they can no longer get pregnant. Postmenopausal women also have lower heart function. This study investigated whether menopause influences heart function and exercise…

Quantity and Context of Physical Activity: Important Factors in the Relationship with Pain

Many people are affected by painful conditions like low back pain, arthritis and cancer. Pain can be difficult to treat, with few safe and effective options. Some research suggests that being physically active can reduce the severity and impact of…

Hourly 4-s Cycle Sprints Prevent Inactivity-Induced Impairment of Fat Metabolism

It is well known that daily exercise has health benefits, and physical inactivity is unhealthy. Inactivity, typically characterized by daily sitting time, needs to be interrupted periodically with physical activity. However, the most effective amount and type of activity have…

Exercise in Type 2 Diabetes: Does the Dose of Exercise Matter?

For people with type 2 diabetes, both aerobic exercise training (like walking or jogging) and resistance exercise training (strength training) lead to improvements in blood sugar control, and a combination of aerobic and resistance training results in larger improvements. In…

Does Protein Ingestion Support Muscle Connective Tissue Remodeling Following Exercise?

Resistance exercise stimulates the synthesis of muscle contractile proteins, which results in gains in muscle mass and strength. These training effects can be further stimulated by protein supplementation. The force generated during a muscle contraction is transferred through muscle connective…

Retirement Modifies Daily Physical Activity

Retirement changes daily routines. Time previously used for work and commuting is replaced by leisure time. In this study, more than 500 employees from Finland wore motion sensors before and after retirement. The results show that women’s physical activity decreased,…

Strong and Fit Older Adults Have Younger, Less Stiff Arteries

Large arteries like the aorta are flexible tubes that should easily stretch to accommodate blood flow. They tend to get less flexible with age and chronic medical conditions, a process called arterial stiffening that strongly predicts future cardiovascular disease like…

Athletes Should be Vaccinated Against Influenza

Athletes often fear undue side effects or a training-induced deficient immune response to vaccination – in particular when vaccination is carried out during ongoing training/competition. However, influenza is a virus disease which can lead to large health problems and interfere…

Does Leucine Supplementation Contribute to Muscle Growth in Exercising, Healthy Adults?

Protein intake and resistance exercise are the cornerstone to muscle growth. Following protein ingestion, increased blood and/or intramuscular leucine concentration is considered the main nutrient-derived driver of muscle protein synthesis, leading to a speculation that leucine supplementation could improve muscle…

New Recommendations Steer Doctors Away from Opioids to Treat Pain in Adolescent Athletes

Athletes commonly experience pain in practice and competition. Inadequate or inappropriate pain management in adolescent athletes can lead to a lifetime of consequences including increased risk of opioid misuse. A team physician consensus statement just released by ACSM and 5 other sports medicine organizations shares guidelines to identify and manage pain in athletes ages 10 to 18.

What Is the Best Type of Exercise Training to Improve Artery Health in Older Adults?

Inactive older adults are at greater risk of having stiff arteries and high blood pressure. Although regular exercise can help reduce these poor health outcomes, what type of exercise is best? Researchers from Nova Scotia, Canada compared how six weeks…

Is an Active Lifestyle Associated with Brain Health in Children with Overweight/Obesity?

Although the quality of white matter, which is responsible for providing fast and efficient nervous connectivity throughout the brain, appears to improve with increased physical activity in adults, this area of research in children is in its infancy. For instance,…

HIIT Gets Adolescents Fit. Asthma Doesn’t Change That!

High-intensity interval training (HIIT; alternating short, intense bouts of exercise with short rest periods) is known to accelerate fitness improvements in healthy populations. This could be an effective strategy for those with asthma, as rest periods are introduced before an…

Breaking Up Sitting Time: Should We All Stand Up, Sit Down or Keep Moving?

Sitting for prolonged periods can increase the risk of diabetes and other health problems. While physical activity recommendations suggest breaking up sitting time, it is not known if all individuals respond the same way. Therefore, investigators examined whether an individual’s…

High-Intensity Strength Training Improves Strength and Functional Performance During Early-Stage Breast Cancer Treatment

Although adjuvant breast cancer therapy (including chemotherapy and radiotherapy) increases survival rate, its side-effects can adversely affect patients’ health and functional performance. This study, which randomized 55 newly diagnosed early-stage breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant treatment into 12 weeks of…

Increasing Muscle Size and Strength, Exergames and Older Adults and Treadmills and Cancer Care from Medicine & Science in Sports & Science

If you’re looking for health and fitness story ideas, view these research highlights from ACSM’s flagship research journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise®.