Fitness
US FDA to limit regulation of health and fitness wearables, commissioner says
Jan 6 (Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Tuesday that it will limit regulation of wearable devices and software designed to support healthy lifestyles, issuing new guidance to clarify its regulatory approach.
The guidance, along with comments from FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, adds to existing policy that classifies low-risk wellness tools, such as fitness apps and activity trackers that encourage exercise, as non-medical devices exempt from stringent regulation, provided they do not make claims related to disease diagnosis or treatment.
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“We have to promote these products and at the same time, just guard against major safety concerns,” Makary said in an interview with Fox Business about artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT, adding that “if people are looking up a symptom on an AI-based tool, let’s have that conversation when they come in to see their doctor or do a virtual visit.”
“We want to let companies know, with very clear guidance, that if their device or software is simply providing information, they can do that without FDA regulation,” Makary told Fox Business.
“The only stipulation is if they make claims of something being medical grade … like blood pressure measurement. We don’t want people changing their medicines based on something that’s just a screening tool or an estimate of a physiologic parameter.”
The agency also sent out a broader warning to consumers about the risks posed by unauthorized devices.
Reporting by Puyaan Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Henderson and Sherry Jacob-Phillips
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Fitness
I’m a Pilates instructor – planks are great, but this roll-up exercise improves core strength and control more efficiently
Pilates can be a game-changer for core strength, and the plank exercise is a popular exercise that many instructors include in their training. It has all the benefits for strength and stability, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll have a love/hate relationship with the move. So, imagine my delight when an instructor told me about how effective roll-ups can be in a bodyweight Pilates workout.
Pilates roll-ups involve lying on your back, slowly raising your back off the ground, and coming up to a seated position, explains Helen O’Leary, a certified Pilates instructor at Complete Pilates. She’s a big fan of the exercise as it stretches the intercostal muscles in your back while engaging your upper and lower abdominal muscles and your obliques.
As well as improving core strength, it helps improve spine flexibility and stretches your hamstrings. Even after a 10-minute Pilates workout, when I do roll-ups, I often feel like I sit and stand taller afterwards, so I know it’s also helping with my posture and back mobility.
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How to do Pilates roll-ups
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- Lie on your back with your legs straight and reach your arms over your head. Lay on a thick yoga mat if you feel pressure on your lower back or hip joints.
- Take a deep breath through your nose and as you exhale, start to lift your arms off the floor.
- As your arms pass your ears, start to curl your head forward and look towards your thighs as your upper back peels off the mat.
- Keep your legs heavy as you continue to roll forward and reach your arms forward to pull the rest of your back off the floor.
- As you come up into sitting, roll your pelvis right up on top of your sitting bones, and sit up tall, with your head floating over the ribcage and your ribcage over the hips.
- If you struggle to sit up tall in this position, you may need to bend your knees to get there. If you experience neck pain during this exercise, you may need to have your hands behind your head to support the weight of your head.
- Roll back down again, slowly, to start the move all over again.
Are Pilates roll ups difficult?
Like the plank, this exercise can take some practice and is not something everyone can do straight away, says the instructor. “People struggle with Pilates roll-ups, partly because it is a novel movement that we don’t perform every day, and partly because it is quite technical,” says Helen.
“You need to understand the movement to be able to do it. The roll-up is a combination of abdominals and hip flexors working, the abdominals more through the early part of the roll-up, and the hip flexors during the latter part of the roll-up.”
Tips for doing the Pilates roll up
- Stay in control: Helen says the biggest mistake people make is “trying to use momentum to do this movement, similar to the way that most people do sit-ups” and other core exercises. The movement is all about control and going slow because this makes your stomach and hip flexor muscles work harder.
- Focus on your breath: Helen says, “If you hold your breath whilst you’re rolling up or down, you will create rigidity through your torso, and this interferes with the controlled spinal mobility that you need for the movement, and even prevents you from even getting up off the floor.” Breath control is key in all Pilates exercises, so the more you practice, the easier you will find it to.
- Watch out for your neck: It’s important not to crane your neck or overuse your neck muscles, says Helen. “During a roll up or curl up, you want to have a sense of lengthening through the back of the neck. To help with this, think of slightly nodding the head on top of the neck, as if to give yourself a slight double chin. As you start to curl up, direct your gaze towards the mid thigh, rather than up towards the ceiling. The rest of your body travels where your gaze goes, so this will make it easier,” she explains.
Fitness
We Tested More Than A Dozen Popular Fitness Trackers—Our Favorite Is $120
After testing a dozen fitness trackers, the Fitbit Charge 6 won a gold star for its premium features at an affordable price point of $120. The price also includes a six-month membership to Fitbit Premium, which features a library of cardio and strength training workouts and a monthly analysis of 10 sleep metrics—that’s an easy sell! The Charge 2 was my first ever fitness tracker, so I have a soft spot for the Charge line. Instead of manually recording workouts, it automatically records movement such as walking, swimming, and biking, which is nice instead of fiddling around with a watch interface (although it’s a simple swipe). Speaking of swimming, the tracker can be submerged in water up to 50 meters so I never have to take it off when showering.
It has a sensor on the back of the slim rectangular watch case to track heart rate, which never disrupts my range of motion during weight lifting or mat Pilates. When comparing against higher-end models like the Garmin Vivioactive, my heart rate data matched up, which proves its lower price tag doesn’t equal lower quality. Aside from heart rate, stress levels, period, fertility insights, and sleep are also tracked.
I’m not a fan of wearing a watch to bed, but this model is so lightweight (30 grams) and thin that I barely notice it. It provides a sleep score breakdown of all your cycles and whether or not it was optimal for recovery, which is especially helpful if you’re in the process of training for a race or going hard at the gym. Your duration of sleep is also recorded, but I found it recognizes sedentary activities such as watching TV as sleeping, which got on my nerves slightly. Post-snooze, it delivers a personalized daily readiness score, which shows if you’re ready for a sweat sesh.
It pairs perfectly with Android smartphones, given that Google owns Fitbit (a Google account is also required to set up). It seamlessly interacts with calendar and weather apps, plus you can receive texts, notifications, calls, and access Spotify. Fitbit Pay is built in, too, for easy access to cardless payments.
The biggest con with the Charge 6 is that the battery drains fast. Fitbit says it lasts up to a week, but I found it needs to be charged by day four. It’s not a huge deal, just make sure to carry a charger if you’re traveling. As for the warranty, it lasts one year and provides coverage in the event the hardware is defective, so make sure you don’t lose it!
Read More: Best Workout Apps
Fitness
How Heidi Klum stays fit and strong at 52 – ‘I never exercise too much’
Heidi Klum has been highly active throughout her career, but nowadays she prefers to rely on her lifestyle to keep her fit incidentally rather than on dedicated gym sessions.
The 52-year-old supermodel counts keeping up with her family as her primary form of movement. ‘I run around a lot, having four kids. I have a younger husband,’ she told Us Weekly. ‘I get plenty of movement from running around after two dogs and a cat,’ she added to the Daily Mail.
This kind of non-intentional or informal activity is known as Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, or NEAT. It can include housework, walking, taking the stairs instead of the lift, carrying the shopping instead of using a trolley, gardening and even fidgeting.
NEAT makes up between 15 – 50% of your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) – how many calories you burn throughout the day, says Hannah Baugh, nutritionist and sports performance nutritionist at Hannah Rose Nutrition. By contrast, formal exercise like a workout class or going for a run makes up around 5-10% (though this varies between individuals).
Calorie burning is a big benefit, but there’s considerably more to it. It can also help build cardiovascular fitness and muscle as you lift and carry things and move, and for Heidi, it’s convenient and sustainable, meaning she can stay consistent.
‘I never over-exercise or lift heavy weights,’ she explained. ‘People often push themselves too hard. I listen to my body. I have no back or knee pain. I eat right.’
Adding that she doesn’t ‘really exercise’ that much, she said, ‘I don’t think you have to do a lot, but if you do a little bit [regularly], that’s important’.
Heidi’s low-impact exercise routine
When she does incorporate formal exercise into her day, Heidi prefers more low-impact, joint-friendly movements that she can do on the go.
At the beginning of this year, she shared a video of herself performing bicep curls with resistance bands by the pool. Generally, bands are gentler on your joints compared to dumbbells as they start with very little resistance and increase gradually as the band stretches – the weight isn’t fixed. In contrast, a dumbbell requires you to bear a fixed weight from the start of the movement. There’s also less stress on the way down (eccentric) with a band as the tension releases as you return.
‘Bands create constant tension through the full range of motion, and they’re light enough to throw in a suitcase, so ideal for someone like Heidi who is constantly travelling,’ agrees Daniel Booth, high-performance coach and consultant, and the co-founder of MyoLab Performance Concierge. ‘Anyone can do this at home to build their biceps and triceps without a lot of equipment.’
He stressed the importance of lifelong resistance training. ‘After 40, women lose muscle faster, oestrogen drops and their metabolism shifts, meaning they gain weight easier, making training consistently like Heidi especially important.’
Heidi’s previous training routines
Heidi’s preference for low-impact movement extends back to the covid pandemic. ‘I jump on the trampoline in the garden at my home in LA and do bodyweight exercises – including lots of squats,’ she said to Daily Mail about her routine. The one exception would be running – a high-impact activity that places stress on your bones – which she counted as her main form of cardio.
As a Victoria’s Secret Angel, Heidi was known to work out with celebrity trainer David Kirsch, whose sessions involved more conventional weight-based gym training.
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Daniel Booth is a high-performance coach and consultant, and the co-founder of MyoLab Performance Concierge, which cultivates excellence within elite performers, working on everything from strength and conditioning to injury-risk reduction and competition preparation. He previously led performance management as head coach at Warner Bros. and Watford FC Women. Find him on Instagram.
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