Stuck in Your Squat?

Initial trepidation aside, fear is not an emotion often faced in the friendly confines of the gym. Sure, a room packed with burly dudes and an array of gleaming metal may be intimidating for a rookie, but after a few workouts, a seated press or barbell curl won’t scare you.

All bets are off, however, when it comes to the squat. Doubt me? Next time you’re there, keep an eye on the squat rack. You’ll likely see a parade of people who cut their squat short well before their thighs go parallel with the floor.

No one wants to get caught “in the hole” — the area in which a squat descends down to parallel or (gulp) past it into “ass to grass” territory. Yet, those last few frightening inches are where the real growth and development lie. Try it once and you’ll discover the sweet pain of complete quadriceps, hamstring and glute engagement … the kind that leaves you limping the next day thanks to a job well done.

How can you build your confidence and get deep every single leg day? We asked Michael Wolf, member of the Platform Staff at Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength Seminars, head strength coach at CrossFit Solace (solacenewyork.com) in New York City, and a former collegiate strength-and-conditioning coach, for his advice. Incorporate these three tips into to your regular routine, and you’ll soon be accelerating out of the hole with authority.

1. Give your squats a bounce. 

“I’m a big fan of specificity, and I think you can get the most bang for the buck by doing below-parallel squats with an emphasis on using the bounce at the bottom,” Wolf explains. “I see a lot of people slow down as they get into the hole, feeling and reaching for the bottom. You have to have the bottom position memorized so you can be tight but aggressive in hitting it and bouncing out, rather than tentatively slowing down and easing out of the hole.”

2. Stop, then go. 

Wolf suggests using pauses during the lowering phase of your reps, before you get to the bottommost position. “You can try a shorter or longer stop, like a one-count, a two-count, a three-count, etc.,” he says. “These help you learn to stay tight going into the hole. Imagine if a trampoline just sagged down with no recoil when you jumped on it — you can only bounce off of tightness, and the same holds true for bouncing out of the bottom of a squat.”

Pause squats also help your body memorize that all-important “bottom-but-still tight position” so it can be repeated reliably when doing regular squats, Wolf adds. “During a pause squat you’re forced to explode out of the hole with no bounce at all, so with these you’re training that volitional explosion. That will only enhance your ability to generate a powerful bounce when doing regular squats.”

3. Use deadlifts strategically. 

“It seems counterintuitive that a lift that involves less range of motion and begins with a bar in your hands from a dead stop would help the bounce in the squat,” Wolf admits. “But both lifts essentially start with a knee extension, wherein the back angle is held constant and rigidly anchored by the erectors and hamstrings. The deadlift trains this musculature very well, and often with a heavier load than can be used to squat deep. Obviously, the stretch reflex isn’t present, but the force production requirements in the deadlift are high, and so these muscles will be ready to go when called upon to stay tight and bounce in the squat.”

In addition to the regular deadlift, Wolf recommends a “halting deadlift,” in which the rep stops right above the knee. “Unlike the regular deadlift, the lifter maintains a more horizontal back angle even longer, so the back and hamstrings really have to work hard to maintain the back angle and stay rigid,” he says.

The Unconventional Workout for Arm Size

Think you can only grow massive biceps and triceps with curls and extensions? Think again.

To a lot of strength- or performance-minded lifters, doing arm workouts is the most redundant part of their routine — if their routine even asks for an arm-specific workout in the first place. Droning through biceps curls and triceps pressdowns may be fun for gym bros, but it can be a giant snorefest for a lifter who has built his foundation around compound movements that provide more bang for their buck.

Let’s be honest — there’s good to be found in both crowds. You won’t get strong and develop that very foundation without having solid experience with compound movements such as deadlifts, squats and overhead presses. Alternatively, even though those lifts are good for building muscle, bringing cosmetic physique changes to the next level will require more isolation, which is where zeroing in on certain muscle groups — arms, for example — has plenty of validity. Applying a little science to get the best of both worlds may be just what it takes to satisfy everyone who’s after a big set of guns.

Exercise 1: Chin-Ups

This is considered the king of arm exercises for a couple of reasons. The supinated grip (palms facing you) will stimulate the biceps like no one’s business. Beyond that, things get a bit more technical. The brachialis muscle sits under the biceps muscles and is typically more difficult to target using conventional curls. When it’s developed, it contributes to building the coveted “peak” so many athletes are after.

The good news is that doing work from overhead places a pre-stretch on this muscle and therefore targets it much more effectively. For evidence of this, find some high-level competitive gymnasts and examine their biceps development and peak. Regardless of overall size, they likely have otherworldly development in this area. The frequency and volume of their overhead pulling (as part of their athletic programming) speaks for itself where the gun show is concerned.

To take things a step further, it’s not just a matter of doing chin-ups. And, in a departure from good training advice, we’ll offer this:

Abandoning good back-dominant form in favor of just pulling with the arms would actually be a smart move if you really want the biceps and brachialis to work hard. Just sayin’.

Exercise 2: Dips

Compound exercises create more muscle. Who knew? By including dips in your workout, you’re allowing for a greater overload on the triceps than you normally would in isolation. Plus, you are training your triceps to work in concert with other muscles, which satisfies the performance-trainer sect mentioned in the beginning of this article. The dip, which also can be trained to greater overload using a weighted vest or dipping belt, emphasizes that ever-visible outer head of the triceps. 

In order to keep the triceps fully engaged and to minimize the contribution from the pecs, it’s important to keep your body posture as upright as possible and your elbows tight to the body throughout.

Exercise 3: Band-Resisted Curls

If you’re a sucker for biceps curls and need them to be in your program, then upping the octane by attaching some bands to your barbell or dumbbells would be a smart move. The science here is simple: In most weight-bearing exercises, there are different parts to the force curve. The amount of effort your muscles have to go through isn’t equal as you progress through the rep. In conventional curls, the biceps usually have very little work to do in the last 15 to 20 degrees of the movement. The hard part comes from the fully extended arm position until just inside 90 degrees. 

Since bands increase in tension as you stretch them — a principle known as linear variable tension — they’re the perfect additives to make the final segment of your curls more stimulating for the arms. Wrap one end of a band around your dumbbells or barbell, and stand on the band creating adequate tension. Next, go to town and curl to oblivion. As an added bonus, feel free to drop the bands off mid-set and burn out with just the weights for a great hybrid set. As an alternative, you also can try dedicated band training with a cool set like the SPRI Exertube Heavy 

Exercise 4: Skullcrusher Plus

Many serious trainers rely upon the conventional skullcrusher — or lying triceps extension — for triceps development. But if you’ve had to deal with elbow stress when doing this movement, understand the biomechanics of the movement rather than sidelining it altogether. 

First, using gravity to your advantage can be a good initial step, so put the bench on a slight decline. This will change the force angle a bit and allow your elbows to point back farther naturally rather than pointing directly up or even forward. Second, remember your anatomy: The triceps have three heads. The most elusive of the three for most lifters is the long head, which is most effectively hit — you guessed it — via overhead movements. Take that tip and run with it by adding a “pullover” component to your skullcrushers. 

As soon as you get to skull level with the weight on your eccentric phase, reach the weight down toward the floor by flexing at the shoulder joint to move the arms behind the head. You’ll feel a huge stretch in the triceps by doing this. Remember to keep the elbows facing forward; don’t let them flare outward. Once you feel a good stretch, reverse the movement and mimic a soccer throw-in pattern to return to the full extension position. 

It’s OK if you use a touch of momentum here, but be careful. You might even consider using a lighter weight than usual. But prepare for your upper arms to be lit all the way up to your armpits.

Diet can impact migraines

Eliminating that morning 'Cup of Joe,' consuming processed foods high in nitrites or monosodium glutamate (MSG) and enjoying too much alcohol are potential headache triggers for individuals battling migraines, says Vincent Martin, MD, professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.

There are two different approaches to preventing headaches with diet. The first approach would be an elimination diet that avoids foods and beverages known to trigger headaches. The second approach would be follow a comprehensive diet whose very composition may prevent headaches, explains Martin, co-director of the Headache and Facial Pain Center at UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute and an expert in the area of migraine. His conclusions and others for migraineurs come after performing an exhaustive literature review of more than 180 research studies on the subject of migraine and diet.

Martin's two-part review, "Diet and Headache" is available online in the scholarly publication Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain. It is co-authored by Brinder Vij, MD, associate professor in the UC Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine.

"One of the most important triggers for headache is the withdrawal of caffeine," says Martin, who also sees patients at UC Health. "Let's say you regularly pound down three or four cups of coffee every morning and you decide to skip your morning routine one day, you will likely have full-fledged caffeine withdrawal headache that day."

That said, too much coffee may also present a risk, no more than 400 milligrams daily -- one cup is 125 milligrams -- is probably the maximum for migraine patients, says Martin. "Large amounts of caffeine can bring on anxiety and depressive symptoms as well as headaches," he explains.

Another trigger for migraine is MSG, which is a flavor enhancer used in a variety of processed foods, including frozen or canned foods, soups, international foods, snack foods, salad dressing, seasoning salts, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and heavily in Chinese cooking, says Martin, also a UC Health physician.

"You eliminate it by eating fewer processed foods," explains Martin. "You eat more natural things such as fresh vegetables, fresh fruits and fresh meats. MSG is most provocative when consumed in liquids such as soups."

Nitrites are preservatives food in processed meats such as bacon, sausage, ham and lunch meat to preserve color and flavor. Martin says a diary study found that five percent of individuals with migraine were statistically more likely to have an attack on days when they consume nitrites. Use of nitrites in foods has declined with stronger government regulation though checking labels remains a good idea, he explains.

Alcohol is one of the most commonly reported dietary trigger factors for migraine and studies suggest vodka and red wines, especially those with highest histamine content are problematic, says Martin.

There is a lot of interest in gluten-free diets, but they are only helpful in lessening headaches if the individuals suffer from celiac disease, which can be established by a positive blood test or intestinal biopsy, he adds.

There have been three comprehensive diets whose very composition may prevent headaches such as low fat and low carbohydrate diets as well as those that increase the amount of omega-3 fatty acids and decrease the amount of omega-6 fatty acids, according to Martin.

Vij, who is also associate director of the Headache and Facial Pain Center at the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute, says low fat diets restrict the amount of fat in the diet to less than 20 percent of your daily energy requirements.

"The beauty of these diets is that they not only reduce headaches, but may produce weight loss and prevent heart disease," says Vij ,a UC Health physician.

Low carbohydrate diets such as ketogenic diets can reduce headache frequency, but it's not something to consider without strict physician supervision. The diet limits carbohydrates more than the well-known Atkins diet, Vij explains.

One of the most promising diets for those with more frequent attacks of migraine is one that boosts your omega-3 fats while lessoning your omega-6 levels and that means tossing out polyunsaturated vegetable oils (corn, sunflower, safflower, canola and soy) in favor of flaxseed oil, says Martin. Foods to consume would include flaxseed, salmon, halibut, cod and scallops while those to avoid would be peanuts and cashews.

"Persons with headache and migraine have more dietary options than ever. Ultimately a healthy headache diet excludes processed foods, minimizes caffeine and includes a lot of fruits, vegetables, fish and lean meats," Martin says. He adds, "After all, you are what you eat."

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Materials provided by University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Vincent T. Martin, Brinder Vij. Diet and Headache: Part 1. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 2016; 56 (9): 1543 DOI: 10.1111/head.12953

Silencing SIRT2, a sirtuin enzyme, reduces malignancy in deadly breast cancer subtype

Silencing SIRT2, a member of the sirtuin family of enzymes, reduces the invasiveness of basal-like breast cancer cells in culture and inhibits tumor growth in mice, according to new research led by scientists from Tufts University School of Medicine and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts in Boston. The absence of SIRT2 appears to accelerate the degradation of Slug, a transcription factor that has previously been implicated in tumor progression and metastasis.

The findings, published online in Cell Reports on Oct. 25, reveal underlying molecular mechanisms and potential new approaches to treat one of the deadliest breast cancer subtypes.

"Breast cancer is not one disease, and of the several distinct subtypes, basal-like breast cancer represents the most aggressive form. By targeting a master transcription factor regulator in basal-like cells, we were able to reduce malignant behaviors," said senior study author Charlotte Kuperwasser, Ph.D., professor of developmental, molecular and chemical biology at Tufts University School of Medicine and director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Laboratory for the Convergence of Biomedical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences at Tufts. "Our findings now provide a molecular rationale for new approaches to help improve the poor clinical outcomes currently associated with these cancers."

Estimated to account for up to 20 percent of all breast cancers, basal-like breast cancers are typically triple-negative (lacking HER2 and hormone receptors) and are often resistant to conventional chemo- or radiotherapy. As a result, few effective treatment options currently exist. A number of prior studies, including by Kuperwasser and colleagues, have indicated that the transcription factor Slug plays a central role -- basal-like tumor cells commonly have an abnormal overabundance of Slug protein, and depleting Slug in laboratory experiments reduces tumor growth and aggressiveness. However, transcription factors are extremely difficult to target with drugs due to complex interactions with other genes and proteins.

An Achilles' Heel?

In the current study, Kuperwasser and her team worked to identify new targets better suited for therapeutic development by examining the molecular mechanisms that regulate Slug abundance. The researchers found that the sirtuin enzyme SIRT2 had the strongest stabilizing effect. In cultured basal-like tumor cells, silencing SIRT2 through the use of RNA interference molecules led to the rapid degradation of Slug, and caused Slug turnover rates to resemble those seen in normal, non-tumorous cells.

This in turn significantly weakened key characteristics of malignant behavior. Without SIRT2, tumor cells had a more than 60 percent reduction in invasive capacity compared to normal basal-like tumor cells. SIRT2-depleted cells also had significantly decreased capacity for growth and self-renewal. This diminished malignancy could be reversed by artificially introducing Slug protein back into cells, demonstrating the direct and necessary relationship between SIRT2, Slug stability and malignant behavior. When the team transplanted SIRT2-depleted basal-like cancer cells into a mouse model of breast cancer, they found that tumor sizes were on average 80 percent smaller than those formed by normal basal-like cells.

"The molecular interplay that drives aggressive basal-like breast cancer is quite complex and encompasses processes beyond the genetic level. It was unexpected that SIRT2, a sirtuin family member historically known for playing a role in metabolism and aging, also acts to regulate Slug protein and malignant tumor traits," said study author Wenhui Zhou, a M.D./Ph.D. student at Tufts University School of Medicine and the Cell, Molecular & Developmental Biology program at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts.

Sirtuin enzymes have previously been implicated in a wide range of cellular processes, such as aging, inflammation and energy expenditure. Their role in cancer is still unclear, but the team found that SIRT2 is highly expressed in basal-like breast cancers compared to other subtypes, based on data from almost 1,000 breast cancer cases from National Cancer Institute's The Cancer Genome Atlas.

Due to the widespread presence of sirtuin enzymes, inhibiting SIRT2 directly in humans is likely to affect many other cellular processes, and targeting it requires highly specific inhibitors. Kuperwasser and her team are now exploring candidate inhibitors for efficacy and toxicity in animal tumor models. However, the team's work also revealed the mechanism by which SIRT2 stabilizes Slug -- a process known as deacetylation, in which chemical modifications are made to Slug protein after it is created in the cell. Compounds that block specific sites involved in deacetylation on the Slug and SIRT2 proteins could interfere with their interaction, and may represent another effective strategy to target malignancy, according to the authors.

"Cancer cells find sophisticated ways to regulate essential proteins they need for their survival and growth. The transcriptional factor Slug is one such protein and is often tightly regulated in both normal and cancer cells. While we have found that SIRT2 plays an important role in prolonging Slug expression, it is too soon to know whether targeting Sirt2 will be sufficient to abolish Slug entirely in cancer cells and therefore lead to tumor regression," said Kuperwasser, who is also a member of the genetics and cell, molecular & developmental biology program faculties at the Sackler School. "A significant amount of work remains to be done before we can verify if targeting SIRT2 can be an Achilles' heel for treating basal-like breast cancers."

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Tufts University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Wenhui Zhou, Thomas K. Ni, Ania Wronski, Benjamin Glass, Adam Skibinski, Andrew Beck, Charlotte Kuperwasser. The SIRT2 Deacetylase Stabilizes Slug to Control Malignancy of Basal-like Breast Cancer. Cell Reports, 2016; 17 (5): 1302 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2016.10.006

Raising 'good cholesterol' not as effective as lowering 'bad cholesterol'

Low and very high levels of HDL, or "good cholesterol" are associated with a higher risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other causes, according to a study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The findings from the first of its kind study suggest that a low level of good cholesterol may not be a heart disease risk factor on its own and that raising HDL does not likely reduce a person's risk of heart disease.

To reduce risk of suffering a cardiac episode, many patients are treated to lower their LDL, or "bad cholesterol," with statins -- a medication used to block the enzyme needed in the body to produce cholesterol. However, some people don't respond to this treatment, so researchers have been studying HDL and whether raising levels of "good cholesterol" could have the same benefits as lowering "bad cholesterol."

Researchers studied over 631,000 individuals without prior cardiovascular conditions through the CANHEART cohort, a research database that links together multiple individual-level population-based datasets on sociodemographics, cardiac risk factors and comorbidities, medications, etc., in Ontario, Canada. Patients were between 40 and 105 years old, with an average age of 57.2, and lived in Ontario for at least two years as of January 1, 2008. This was the first study to evaluate the association between HDL and death in individuals living in the same environment and exposed to the same health care system.

The study cohort was divided into groups based on their HDL to allow researchers to examine the relationship between HDL levels and mortality. Researchers compared the HDL levels of people with healthier lifestyles to those with less healthy habits. The lowest levels of HDL were seen in people who were socioeconomically disadvantaged and who had less healthy lifestyle behaviors, more cardiac risk factors and more medical comorbidities.

However, even when adjusting for lifestyle factors, lower HDL levels were still associated with increased risk of both cardiovascular death and non-cardiovascular related death, such as death from cancer. Individuals with very high HDL levels had an increased risk of non-cardiovascular related death.

Researchers said their findings are similar to other studies showing low HDL levels are associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease death, but this study is among the first to show a similar relationship between HDL and cancer death and other causes of death.

Researchers said they are unsure why very high levels of HDL increased levels of non-cardiovascular related death, but other studies have suggested this could be related to increased alcohol intake.

In conclusion, researchers said this study casts doubt on HDL being used as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease or for raising HDL levels to be used by itself as an intervention to reduce the risk of dying from heart disease.

"The link between good cholesterol and heart disease is complex, but it seems certain that there is a connection between people with low good cholesterol levels and other well-known risk factors for heart disease such as poor diet and exercise habits and other medical conditions," said Dennis T. Ko, M.D., M.Sc., lead author of the study and an associate professor at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto. "Focusing on raising HDL is likely not going to help these patients, but these findings show that one of the best interventions in treating and preventing heart disease continues to be lifestyle changes."

Limitations of the study include that researchers were unable to examine some potentially important aspects of HDL such as the relationship of particle sizes, subclasses or function with cardiovascular or non-cardiovascular mortality because these data are not available at the population level. Also, they did not have smoking status or alcohol use data for the entire population studied, but were able to supplement that data from an additional survey.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by American College of Cardiology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Dennis T. Ko, David A. Alter, Helen Guo, Maria Koh, Geoffrey Lau, Peter C. Austin, Gillian L. Booth, William Hogg, Cynthia A. Jackevicius, Douglas S. Lee, Harindra C. Wijeysundera, John T. Wilkins, Jack V. Tu. High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Cause-Specific Mortality in Individuals Without Previous Cardiovascular Conditions. Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 2016; 68 (19): 2073 DOI: 10.1016/j.jacc.2016.08.038

How autoimmune disease is prevented: Mechanism discovered

A previously unknown safety mechanism in our immune system keeps the body free from autoimmune diseases. Researchers from Karolinska Institutet have discovered that a cell in our inherited immune system can prevent our adaptive (learned) immune system from reacting to the body's native cells, which can otherwise lead to autoimmune diseases such as SLE. The study is published in the academic journal Nature Immunology.

Autoimmune diseases and allergies, in which the immune system triggers an immunological reaction in sufferers, are becoming increasingly common. In some cases, such as the rheumatic disease SLE, the immune system reacts to the body's own cells. One of the most important components of our learned (adaptive) immune system is the white blood cells called B lymphocytes, which are one of the main causal factors of many autoimmune diseases, including SLE, since it is these cells that start to react to the body's native structures, giving rise to the symptoms.

"Our research group has been interested in B lymphocytes and what goes wrong in the regulation of different types of autoimmune disease," says Professor Mikael Karlsson at the Department of Microbiology, Cell and Tumour Biology.

It has long been known that a certain type of cell in the inherited immune system called a neutrophil plays an important part in wound healing and the early stages of the immune response. Through their studies on laboratory mice, the team from KI has now discovered that neutrophils have another crucial function in their interaction with B lymphocytes. What they found was a safety mechanism that prevents B lymphocytes from reacting to endogenous antigens.

"We have discovered a previously unknown mechanism in the immune system that prevents autoimmune disease and that could be lacking, we think, in people with autoimmune diseases such as SLE," says Professor Karlsson.

When an inflammation occurs in the body, the neutrophils cause the B lymphocytes in the spleen to start producing antibodies that retard an infection. At the same time, however, the neutrophils also communicate with a kind of immune cell called an NKT cell, instructing it to regulate the response to prevent over-reaction.

It is known that SLE patients do not have as many NKT cells as other people, which could be a contributing factor to the failure of the body to regulate B lymphocytes.

"Apart from our discovery being interesting in general terms of how the immune system works, it can also be very important for people with other autoimmune diseases," says Professor Karlsson. "We think that this mechanism could be used to regulate B lymphocytes in different morbid conditions and that it could be a way forward for stopping SLE."

The study was financed with grants from several bodies, including the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Rheumatism Association and the Olle Engkvist Byggmästare Foundation.

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Materials provided by Karolinska Institutet. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Thomas Hägglöf, Saikiran K Sedimbi, Jennifer L Yates, Roham Parsa, Briana Hauff Salas, Robert A Harris, Elizabeth A Leadbetter, Mikael C I Karlsson. Neutrophils license iNKT cells to regulate self-reactive mouse B cell responses. Nature Immunology, 2016; DOI: 10.1038/ni.3583

Being fit protects against health risks caused by stress at work

It is a well-known fact that fitness and well-being go hand in hand. But being in good shape also protects against the health problems that arise when we feel particularly stressed at work. As reported by sports scientists from the University of Basel and colleagues from Sweden, it therefore pays to stay physically active, especially during periods of high stress.

Psychosocial stress is one of the key factors leading to illness-related absences from work. This type of stress is accompanied by impaired mental well-being and an increase in depressive symptoms. It also raises the likelihood of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and an unfavorable blood lipid profile. Conversely, a high fitness level is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and fewer cardiovascular risk factors.

Fitness, risk factors, and self-perceived stress

The data from the study published in the US journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise shows that a high fitness level offers particularly effective protection for professionals who experience a high degree of stress in the workplace. To obtain this data, the researchers recorded the fitness levels of almost 200 Swedish employees -- 51% men, mean age 39 years -- using a so-called bicycle ergometer test. In addition, they measured various known cardiovascular risk factors such as blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol, triglycerides and glycated hemoglobin. The participants were then asked to provide information on their current perception of stress.

As expected, the study conducted by the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health at the University of Basel, the Institute of Stress Medicine, and Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg illustrates that stressed individuals exhibit higher values of most cardiovascular risk factors. Furthermore, it was confirmed that cardiovascular fitness is linked to virtually all risk factors, with the risk factors being less high in people who are physically fit.

Clinical cut-offs exceeded in unfit individuals

The researchers demonstrated for the first time that the relationship between the subjective perception of stress and cardiovascular risk factors is moderated, so to speak, by fitness. In other words, among the stressed employees, there were particularly large differences between individuals with a high, medium, and low fitness level.

For example, when stress levels were high, the LDL cholesterol values exceeded the clinically relevant limit in employees with a low fitness level -- but not in those with a high fitness level. By contrast, where the exposure to stress was low, far smaller differences were observed between fitness levels.

Promotion of an active lifestyle

"Above all, these findings are significant because it is precisely when people are stressed that they tend to engage in physical activity less often," says Professor Markus Gerber of the University of Basel. Furthermore, he says that the study has direct implications for the therapy and treatment of stress-related disorders. To promote a physically active lifestyle, a high priority should be attached to the systematic measurement of cardiorespiratory fitness and the provision of theoretically sound and evidence-based physical activity counseling.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Universität Basel. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ingibjörg H. Jonsdottir et al. Fitness Moderates the Relationship between Stress and Cardiovascular Risk Factors. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 2016; 48 (11): 2075 DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001005