GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) – Sometimes when working out, the best thing you can do to improve your workout is trying something new.

Trainer Adam from Gainesville Health and Fitness shows you a new way to exercise your glutes and hamstrings in this week’s Your Fitness.

RELATED: Gainesville Health and Fitness: Squat rack exercises

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2025 WCJB. All rights reserved.

A study from the University of Agder in Norway and the University of Birmingham in the UK, published in Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, uncovered a link between increased fitness levels and better language processing abilities. As one age, regions of the brain responsible for memory begin to deteriorate, but staying physically active is one way to preserve language comprehension.

ALSO READ: Intense 30-minute exercise gives you more brain power than regular workout durations

Link between exercise and language

The study observed that in older adults, their language comprehension skills increased with exercise. The researchers examined these older adults by putting them in a six-month home-based exercise program. They had to do circuit training or cardio, which included a variety of exercises like uphill walking, jogging, and running, completed two or three times every week. All these exercises gradually increased their fitness levels and helped them better understand language, recognizing words and their meanings and replying more quickly. However, this exercise-language association is only applicable to monolinguals (people who speak only one language).

As the study participants completed the six-month program, they showed a 7% improvement in their ability to identify the correct words. This improvement suggests that increasing fitness has a positive effect on the brain’s language-processing capabilities. It is especially beneficial for ageing adults, as cognitive functions like language processing tend to decline with age.

Doesn’t work for bilinguals

As their fitness levels increased, the older adults who were monolinguals could quickly understand words and respond more adeptly. The change was gradual, with participants showing a 7% improvement, according to the study’s findings. However, this effect was only seen in monolinguals, not in bilinguals (people who speak two or more languages). This is because bilingual people’s brains are already engaged in the complex task of juggling between two languages, so exercise does not enhance the benefits in the same way.

ALSO READ: Longevity to weight loss; 6 wonderful health benefits of regular exercise

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.

This is a warning for all avid gym-goers.

Fitness enthusiast Hillary Nguyen recently shared a video on TikTok describing the health crisis she dealt with after interacting dirty gym equipment.

“PSA to all my gym girlies, if you’re not wiping down every single piece of equipment before you use it you’re gonna want to start,” Nguyen said, per Daily Dot, in a clip shared on the now-defunct video-sharing platform.

“Three months ago I discovered that I had scalp ringworm and it literally made go bald,” she explained

Nguyen continued, “That same day I went to the doctor’s and they did a black light test on me and that’s how they discovered that it was ringworm. She asked me if I go to the gym and I said basically every day, so that was most likely why.”

In another video, Nguyen said that her scalp improved after three months of treatment.

Nguyen’s first video had over 40,000 likes and over 491,000 views on Saturday before TikTok was shut down that night following a temporary federal ban on the app.

Viewers weighed in on her PSA about gym sanitation in the comments section.

“I sanitize my phone with alcohol wipes and wash my hands right after the gym. I’m so scared to catch something!!! No one wipes stuff down at my gym,” one person wrote.

Another said, “Well new fear re-unlocked. I do wipe all equipment but this was like not an active conscious thought about ringworm avoidance til now.”

Someone else commented, “I got ringworm from the mats at my gym a while back it sucked! Def bring wipes and disinfectant if you can [i know] some gyms don’t keep up with it like they should.”

According to the American Academy of Dermatology Association (AAD), people are at risk of getting ringworm at the gym.

“This is because bacteria, viruses, and fungi that cause skin infections to develop, thrive in warm, moist places like sweaty exercise equipment and locker room showers,” the AAD’s website says.

The AAD recommends several tips for preventing skin infections at the gym, including wearing loose-fitting, moisture-wicking clothes, always wearing shoes, disinfecting equipment before and after using it, washing or sanitizing your hands immediately after working out, and showering as soon as possible.