KICK CANCER WHERE IT HURTS
Evade the midweek ‘ fitterati’ and relegate your cancer risk to Sunday league levels
Instagram has a lot to answer for – selfies, belfies and swolfies spring to mind. But the pervasive, all-consuming, ‘rise and grind’ ethos of wellness is perhaps its most mind-frying; the idea that the only route to a long and healthy life is via multiple daily workouts and a hypoallergenically clean diet. It’s a theory MH does not ‘like’. Which is why we were happy to hear a kick-around at the weekend can be as potent as seven days of self-aware fitnessing.
An analysis into the exercise routines of over 60,000 adults in England and Scotland found that cramming your weekly workout quota – 75 minutes – into one or two weekend sessions is equally beneficial to spreading it across the week. In the study, those who met the physical activity target by exercising daily saw their risk of death from cardiovascular disease drop by 41%, with a 21% lower chance of cancer death. But the weekend warriors’ overall mortality risk barely differed, with their chance of cardiovascular and cancer deaths lowered by 40% and 18% respectively.
Which means a football match – followed by a beer and a sausage and beans tea, naturally – easily racks up enough to score you the cancer-reducing results. Now that’s what we call #squadgoals.
Work too often seems like the longest of slogs. With meetings, reports and deadlines stretching out before you, it can feel like a marathon rather than a sprint. But for those chasing after a mental boost in the office, longdistance efforts are exactly what you should be running toward.
Because new research from the University of Arizona has unlaced the science of the long-lasting effects of the runner’s high. By comparing brain scans of young adult cross-country runners to those who don’t engage in regular activity, they discovered that long-distance endurance athletes possess greater connections between areas in the frontal cortex – the principal area for decisionmaking, planning and multitasking. In other words, everything you need to take the lead in the race for your next promotion.
But before you pull on your flats for a self-flagellating 26.2-mile cardio commute, your knees will be relieved to discover that the same study found 60 minutes on the run was sufficient to garner the professional performanceboosting rewards of an ultramarathon. And, one can assume, with a lot less chafing, too.