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You know all about exercising?  


                                                                            

 

 

So you think you know all about exercise?  

Helen Franks tests your knowledge. You can check the answers at the end of the column

True or false?       

 

1 It is essential to stretch to warm up before exercising
2 Vitamin C is good for muscle soreness 
3 Regular exercising reduces chances of getting a cold
4 Ten minutes hard work on the treadmill is just as good as 20 minutes at a slower pace
5 Cycling is good for your sex life
6 Keeping fit cuts risk of dementia.  
7 No matter how much you exercise, you can never really regain the fitness you had in your youth
8 You can’t strengthen bones without going in for weight training,  jumping or skipping 

Answers

1

 

 

 

 

False. Sports scientists now say there’s little evidence for the protective benefits of the warmup/stretch routine. Tests with Australian army recruits showed that flexibility exercises before a training session offered no more protection against pulled muscles than sessions begun without the warmup.  Raising body temperature through gentle aerobic activity such as cycling, brisk walking or jogging is now thought the best way to start an exercise session. 

 

2

 

 

True. Antioxidants like vitamins A, C and E are considered important for athletes to help build up stamina. One study, in which athletes were given 200 mg of vitamin C twice daily, not only improved recovery time generally, but appeared to help reduce muscle soreness too.

 

3

 

 

 

True. Even moderate activity  like 30 minutes brisk walking two or three days a week is associated with reduced chances of getting a cold.  A report from the University of South Carolina School of Public Health observed that among 547 healthy men and women studied for a year, the more active ones were 20% less likely to get a cold over the 12 months and 32% less likely during the cold season.

 

4

 

 

 False. Fat burning kicks in after 20 minutes and works best when the exercise is moderate. One or two aerobic work-outs a week, each lasting half an hour, will be effective.

 

5

 

 

True. One study of cyclists  claimed that frequency of love-making went up by an average of 30% when compared to a group of non-cyclists. But then almost any exercise that keeps you fit is likely to do nothing but good for sex life.

 

6

 

 

True. Twenty-eight different studies point to the same conclusion:  keeping fit and controlling body weight reduce the risk of Alzheimers disease, memory loss and dementia in older people.

 

7

 

 

 

False. A Medical Centre in Dallas took on five men aged 50-plus and got them going on a routine of workouts, starting with two sessions of 15-minutes a week, building up gradually to 4.5 hours a week over a period of 6 months. The men were selected because doctors had a record of their aerobic levels from 30 years back. After the 6 months on a regime of modest jogging, walking or cycling, all five had regained their aerobic fitness levels of 30 years earlier.

 

8

 

Oh yes you can. While weight training, jumping or skipping increase impact on muscles and joints, some studies show that walking 30 minutes just three days a week increases a woman’s bone density by 2% - which makes walking as good as weightlifting.  

                   


 

laterlife interest

The above article is part of the features section of laterlife.com called laterlife interest. laterlife interest contains a variety of articles of interest for visitors to laterlife.com written by a number of experienced and new journalists.

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