The Playground Workout

Here's an inspiring article that shows how much time I've been wasting standing at the bottom of slides. When you take your kid to the park, don't just daydream as you hold the juice box, urges the author -- get on that playground and get fit.

If you can actually do a pull-up while wearing a 12-pound baby, you have my utmost admiration. While that's not going to happen anytime soon, the piece offers dozens of other great ideas to suit different fitness levels.

Exercise improves -- even cures -- heart condition

Exercise really is the miracle pill. In a new study in Dallas, researchers found that a program of vigorous exercise was more effective than medication in treating Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Sydrome (POTS), nicknamed "the Grinch syndrome" as it relates to the heart being too small and weak. 10 out of 19 patients were actually cured by the course of treatment.

This adds to the long, long list of conditions that exercise is effective in treating or preventing -- everything from high blood pressure to fibromyalgia to dementia.

Phrased another way, there are a great many things that can go wrong with your body if you don't exercise.

Are you warming up too much?

A new study at the University of Calgary finds that traditional warm-ups used by competitive athletes are too long and too intense, leading to diminished performance in the athletic event.

Most recreational athletes don't warm up as long as the competitors described in the study, but it's worth considering how much time and effort you put into warming up that could be better invested in your actual workout.

I suspect, however, that there are significant individual differences in warm-up needs. For example, many runners are ready to sprint out of the gate and have to restrain themselves from going so fast initially that they burn out early in the run. I have the opposite problem -- I feel so terrible at first that I tend to work below my capacity for miles, only reaching a respectable speed after 30 or 40 minutes. My last mile is invariably my fastest.

It's interesting to note that once upon a time exercise experts recommended stretching before warming up and only then beginning the workout proper. We now know it's unwise to stretch muscles that haven't been moving. The trend over time seems to be to dispense with preliminary activities and just get going already.

Only 12% of high schoolers exercise enough

A truly depressing statistic from the CDC: Roughly seven out of eight high schoolers are not sufficiently active. Here's the writeup on Web MD.

Though some teens are overweight, these statistics show that many teens stay thin despite their inactivity, either as a result of controlled eating or because their still-maturing bodies enjoy high metabolisms. Their apparently healthy weights can mask unhealthy habits that follow them into adulthood: Inactive high schoolers will likely become overweight adults.

Helping teens find physical activities they enjoy -- whether sports, dance, hiking, yoga, or a heart-pumping class at the gym -- should be a priority for schools and parents. But how do you motivate teens, who are famous for resisting well-meaning suggestions, to take responsibility for their lifelong health?

Early morning exercise: best for blood pressure

New research from Appalachian State College suggests that exercise first thing in the morning is more effective at lowering blood pressure than exercising in the evening -- it also seems to improve sleep more than exercising later in the day.

I'm an afternoon exerciser myself, but I keep hearing about the benefits of early morning exercise, from improved alertness to increased fat-burning. I might need to try the early-morning experiment for a month or so and see if anything changes for me... I'll post about it if I do.

When do you like to exercise? Why?