Fitness
Free exercise classes return to Troy’s Riverfront Park
![Free exercise classes return to Troy’s Riverfront Park](https://www.news10.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/64/2023/07/DSC00298.jpg?w=1280)
TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — “Fitness in the Park” is returning to Troy’s Riverfront Park this summer. The free classes start with Zumba at 8 a.m. and then Yoga at 9 a.m. each Sunday from July 7 to August 25.
“CDPHP is thrilled to continue our support of Fitness in the Park, which brings fun, free exercise
classes to people of all skill levels,” said Jennifer Cassidy, Director of Corporate Giving
at CDPHP. “We are pleased to partner with The Downtown Troy BID to promote healthy living
in the greater Troy area and we value our collective commitment to the health and well-being of
our community.”
The classes are free to everyone regardless of exercise level. No registration is required. Attendees should bring their yoga mats, water bottles, and other fitness essentials.
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Fitness
Exercise may lower the ALS risk for men — but not women: new study
![Exercise may lower the ALS risk for men — but not women: new study](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/spin-class-senior-man-bike-84458688.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024)
Moderate or vigorous exercise may lower the risk of ALS, a fatal disease, for men but not women, new research finds.
The study, published Wednesday in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, followed 373,696 Norwegian people for about 27 years.
Participants recorded their physical activity, ranging from sedentary to moderate to intense. During the follow-up period, 504 people developed ALS.
Adjusting for lifestyle factors that can affect the risk of ALS, like smoking and body weight, researchers found that male participants who reported moderate levels of physical activity had a 29% lower risk of ALS while high levels of physical activity meant a 41% lower risk.
The study only found an association between physical activity and the risk of ALS in male, not female participants.
Researchers also analyzed participants’ resting heart rates, an indicator of overall fitness, finding that those with the lowest rates had a 32% reduced risk of ALS compared to participants with higher rates.
Study author Dr. Anders Myhre Vaage, of Akershus University Hospital in Norway, notes that the diagnosis of ALS in high-profile athletes has spurred the thinking that strenuous physical activity is an environmental risk factor that leads to the development and early onset of the disease.
One study found that NFL players are four times more likely to develop and die from ALS than the general adult male population.
Research has also shown that ALS risk genes are activated by exercise, adding to the growing debate about the relationship between physical activity and ALS.
“There have been conflicting findings on levels of physical activity, fitness and ALS risk,” Myhre Vaage said. “Our study found that for men, living a more active lifestyle could be linked to a reduced risk of ALS more than 30 years later.”
What is ALS?
ALS, also referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, for the Hall of Fame baseball player who died of it in 1941, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. With ALS, the nerve cells that control muscle function deteriorate, and patients gradually become unable to walk, move, eat, speak and breathe, leading to partial or total paralysis and death.
There is no known cure for ALS — the average life expectancy after diagnosis is two to five years.
Myhre Vaage hopes the study’s findings lead to more research on ALS risk factors.
“Our findings show that, for men, not only do moderate to high levels of physical activity and fitness not increase the risk of ALS, but that they may be protective against the disease,” he said. “Future studies of the connection between ALS and exercise are needed to consider sex differences and higher or professional athlete physical activity levels.”
Other research suggests that the type of physical activity is an important factor in mitigating ALS risk. For example, one study proposed that golfing and gardening put men at three times greater risk of developing ALS.
That study found that golfers and gardeners are especially prone because of frequent exposure to pesticides, which prior research has tied to the disease’s development.
Famous people who have been diagnosed with ALS
According to the ALS Association, someone dies from ALS and someone is diagnosed with it every 90 minutes — and celebrities are not immune to its punishing effects.
Footballer Dwight Clark and physicist, cosmologist and author Stephen Hawking have lost their battles with the disease, while singer Roberta Flack, sportswriter Sarah Langs and former Chicago Bears football player Steve McMichael are still fighting.
Fitness
A personal trainer says this is the one exercise everyone should be doing to stay mobile and strong as you age
![A personal trainer says this is the one exercise everyone should be doing to stay mobile and strong as you age](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/Sw6Ggtb3sGy6PR5qWqiAPn-1200-80.jpg)
Did you know you may lose up to 8% of your muscle mass every decade after your 30s, and the speed of muscle loss increases after your 60s? But you can keep hold of that muscle—as well as staying strong and mobile and keeping aches and pains away—if you make strength exercises part of your routine. It doesn’t have to be complicated, either.
Personal trainer and founder of the women’s fitness franchise VICTRESS MVMT Stacy Orsborn says one simple exercise will help you maintain and build muscle mass, and keep your joints healthy no matter your age—the squat.
The benefits of squats for improving strength and mobility
“The squat is the best strength exercise I’d recommend as you get older because it’s all-encompassing,” says Osborn. That’s because it’s a compound movement, so it simultaneously engages different muscles, including the quads, glutes and the core. “Any type of compound lifting where you’re using the entire body structure is great,” says Osborn.
The squat is an exercise which will help you maintain your ability to perform everyday movements such as sitting down and getting up from a chair. “Prioritizing strength exercises as you get older is extremely important when it comes to quality of life,” says Osborn. “Having the strength to get up from the floor is very useful as you age.”
How to do a bodyweight squat
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes pointing slightly out.
- Push your hips back and bend your knees to lower, keeping your chest up and pushing your knees out so they don’t cave in.
- Pause once your hips are in line with your knees (or as low as your mobility allows).
- Push through your heels to stand back up.
“Think about having a string on your tailbone and a string on your knees, both of which are pulling upwards as you descend,” says Osborn.
Osborn also recommends that you inhale and brace your core before you lower, then exhale as you rise.
If you’re struggling to maintain good form, this could be because of a lack of mobility in other parts of your body. “Ankle mobility issues could potentially affect your form,” says Osborn, such as squatting low enough.
A lack of core strength can also have an effect. “Any weakness in your core could see your chest collapsing,” says Osborn. Try this beginner’s core workout if this is something you struggle with.
Take a look at our full guide on how to squat for more form tips.
How to modify and progress squats
Squatting onto a chair is a great place for beginners to start.
(Image credit: n.k.junky / Shutterstock)
The squat is easy to adjust to your level of strength and mobility, and you should aim to gradually increase the difficulty as you improve.
“Bodyweight air squats, or squatting to a chair or a bench might be enough for beginners,” says Osborn.
If you’re struggling to reach full depth—lowering your hips below your knees—in a squat, try squatting to a chair, box or bench that’s at knee height. When your butt taps the chair, immediately push through your heels to stand back up.
“From there, we would progress to the kettlebells or dumbbells,” says Osborn. “Then from there, make it a little bit harder by increasing weight over time.”
If you have a gym membership, Osborn says barbell squats are a great exercise to aim for. “Back squats work more of the posterior chain [the muscles located down the backside of the body] and the front squat works more of the core,” says Osborn.
Fitness
'Wake-up call': third of adults not doing enough physical activity
!['Wake-up call': third of adults not doing enough physical activity](https://imagevars.gulfnews.com/2023/11/18/exercise_18bdf55b5b4_medium.jpg)
Paris: Nearly a third of all adults are not doing enough physical activity, posing a growing threat to health across the world, a major study said on Wednesday.
More than 31 per cent of adults – 1.8 billion people – did not get the recommended amount of physical exercise in 2022, an increase of five percentage points from 2010, according to a study by the World Health Organization and other researchers.
“Physical inactivity is a silent threat to global health, contributing significantly to the burden of chronic diseases,” said Ruediger Krech, director of the WHO’s health promotion department.
“Unfortunately the world is not going in the right direction,” he told an online press conference.
To be healthy, the WHO recommends all adults spend at least 150 minutes every week doing moderate-intensity physical activity – which can include walking, cycling or even household chores – or at least 75 minutes of more vigorous exercise, such as running or competing in sport.
A combination of the two will also get people over the line.
Not getting this level of exercise increases the risk of people developing heart disease, diabetes, some cancers as well as mental health problems, Krech said.
If current trends continue, adult inactivity levels are projected to rise to 35 percent by 2030, according to the study in The Lancet Global Health.
This would fall far short of the WHO’s goal of reducing physical inactivity by 15 percent by the end of the decade.
Fiona Bull, head of the WHO’s physical activity unit, said the research was “a wake-up call that we’re not doing enough”.
Every step counts
There was also a gender gap. Nearly 34 percent of women worldwide do not reach the activity threshold, compared to 29 percent of men.
There are “multiple causes” for activity rates declining overall, including that people are walking less, working at computers more and generally spending more leisure time looking at screens, Bull said.
During a busy few months of world sport which includes the Olympics and the European and Copa America football championships, Krech reminded people that “watching sports does not equal being physically active”.
“Don’t just sit on (your) chairs, get up and be active – every step counts,” he said.
The WHO emphasised that changing individual behaviour is not enough, calling on countries to promote physical activity by boosting community sport as well as walking, cycling and public transport.
For the study, billed as the most comprehensive to look at the subject yet, an international team of researchers combined the findings from more than 500 studies involving 5.7 million people across 163 countries and territories.
Almost half of the countries had made progress over the last decade, and 22 are on track to reach the 2030 target – as long as they keep moving in the right direction.
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