Justin G. Walls, Certified Personal Athletic Trainer

Recent studies have demonstrated that it may be possible to achieve more weight loss with shorter exercise sessions. The studies compared equivalent workout levels (each burning 600 calories per hour) with different lengths of workouts (one group worked out for 30 minutes and the other, 60 minutes). Normally, we associate more calories burned with more weight loss. In this case, the opposite happened: the 30 minutes group lost 20% more weight than the 60 minute group. One suggestion as to why this may have been the case is that the group with the shorter workout tended to be more active throughout the day. They also considered the fact that the 60 minute group simply had less energy after their workouts, and therefore their cumulative calorie burn over the course of the day would be less. In my opinion, this is probably the most likely explanation. Fat storage is zero sum: you can only store from what you have extra. If you eat fewer calories than what you burn, then you burn up ...

Childhood Obesity Linked to BPA, Study Suggests | Fox News Latino Plastic Bottles and Toxins| Livestrong.com Public Health Focus: Bisphenol A | FDA The articles cited above are for guidelines on how to prevent possible effects of chemical toxins that could be affecting how our bodies function. The science isn't there yet, but one thing is for sure- BPA enters your body and is finally excreted. My suggestion is to follow the guidelines as best you can to ensure that these foreign toxins do not get into your diet regularly.

NYT: Why Waiting in Line Is Torture

In today's NY Times Health Blog , the discussion is about the benefits of different fruit and vegetable juices for major athlete's performance enhancement. Beetroot juice can make you pedal faster. Tim Tebow would swig massive amounts of tart cherry juice before running the stairs at Gator's stadium "The Swamp". Some serious clinical studies were conducted, with the best discovery being the decreased muscle recovery time resulting from (specifically) the consumption of tart cherry juice. Maybe it's the iron content? I know that I will be adding tart cherry to my routine soon. What do you think? Comment below

The Defense department has gone on the offensive against obesity since it's landmark "Too Fat to Fight" study from 2010 (which you can access at the link provided). 75% of young adults do not meet the military requirements of fitness. 50 years ago, the concern was vitamin intake. Now, it's poor food choices and inactivity. D.O.D. has some good online resources which you can find on the link above. They include nutrition and activity ideas for families, not just soldiers. Basically, they are making the case for national security by encouraging a healthy population. Can't fight if you're not fit. One of the best suggestions from the article is slowing down from the fast pace and thinking more about what you are eating, as well as budgeting time to prepare fresh meals instead of frozen ones. It also suggests that "kid-friendly" meals are too chicken nugget and pizza heavy. Preparing foods yourself allows the family to have better decisions into how...

Now that's an odd title... Yes, it appears that, based on some observational research, these things are related. In some research released today during the International Conference of the Alzheimer's Association, poor walking habits and awkward gait can be signs of cognitive inhibition. There is no longer sensitivity integration between different parts of the brain and the rest of the body. You can read more about this  at USA TODAY But Strength Training... According to another study released at the same conference, major improvements were found in test subjects that engaged in weight training: Participants were tested for cognitive executive functions such as attention, memory and planning. According to [a lead investigator], “the cognitive executive function and associated memory – those are the two traits most linked to dementia.” At the end of the trial, those in the weight lifting group were most improved. So what's the point... The goal is early d...

The Washington Post  quotes a survey that many people, for various reasons, are reporting trouble with getting a good night's sleep. Sleep is an important part of normal biological function, helps with recovery, and contributes to proper metabolic function. Not sleeping enough at night can impact a person's ability to think clearly, perform tasks efficiently, affects focus and attention, and it makes you yawn an awful lot! Sleep- it's good for you! A excellent research project of the NIH in its Sport's Medicine journal chronicals many of the issues related to interupted sleep patterns as a result of shift work ( link for article ). Some negative affects of altered behavioral patterns, such as eating at night (mentioned in section 2.2) have links to obesity because of the low metabolic trends during the night hours. As the paper does note, there was some difficulty in gaining access to enough participants to fully study the effects of nocturnal workers versus th...