News You Can Use

Exercise

The benefits of movement

If your boss is giving you a hard time – lying, making fun of you in public and generally putting you down, he or she may benefit from some exercise, according to a new study by James Burton from Northern Illinois University in the US and his team. Their work shows that stressed supervisors, struggling with time pressures, vent their frustrations on their employees less when they get regular, moderate exercise.

In the current economic climate, it is not unusual to come across stressed supervisors. But does that mean that they have to transfer their frustrations onto the people they supervise? Research shows that when a supervisor experiences workplace stress, his or her subordinates feel they bear the brunt of that frustration. Burton and his team’s study is the first to examine how exercise can buffer the relationship between supervisor stress and employee perceptions of abusive supervision or hostile behaviour towards them.

A total of 98 MBA students from two universities in the Midwestern United States and their 98 supervisors completed questionnaires. Students rated their perceptions of how abusive their current supervisor was, for example “my supervisor tells me my thoughts or feelings are stupid” or “my supervisor puts me down in front of others.” Supervisors answered questions about how often they exercised and about their workplace stress, for example “working my current job leaves me little time for other activities” or “I have too much work and too little time to do it in.”

The researchers found that, as expected, when supervisors were stressed, their subordinates felt more victimized. However, analyses also showed that when supervisors experienced stress, but engaged in exercise, their subordinates reported lower levels of abusive supervision. Interestingly, only moderate levels of exercise were necessary to minimize abusive supervision, such as one to two days of exercise per week, and the type of exercise seemed to make little difference.

The authors conclude: “It appears that the simple act of exercising minimizes the negative effects of supervisor workplace stress on subordinates. Wellness programs, often inclusive of exercise components, have been advocated to control workplace stress for years. This study adds support to their specific relevancy in smoothing supervisor-subordinate relationships.”

The research is published online in Springer’s Journal of Business and Psychology.

Source: Springer

There may be a positive relationship between physical activity and the academic performance of children, says a review of research

Just two 20-second cycle sprints, performed three times per week helped volunteers get a 28% improvement in their insulin function, after 6 weeks, new University of Bath research shows.

A 15-minute walk can cut snacking on chocolate at work by half, according to research by the University of Exeter. The study showed that, even in stressful situations, workers eat only half as much chocolate as they normally would after this short burst of physical activity.

Researchers have long known that regular exercise increases the number of organelles called mitochondria in muscle cells. Since mitochondria are responsible for generating energy, this numerical boost is thought to underlie many of the positive physical effects of exercise, such as increased strength or endurance. Exercise also has a number of positive mental effects, such as relieving depression and improving memory. However, the mechanism behind these mental effects has been unclear. In a new study in mice, researchers at the University of South Carolina have discovered that regular exercise also increases mitochondrial numbers in brain cells, a potential cause for exercise’s beneficial mental effects.

Nearly half of recreational runners may be drinking too much fluid during races, according to a survey of runners by Loyola University Health System researchers.

Exercise can be as effective as a second medication for as many as half of depressed patients whose condition have not been cured by a single antidepressant medication.

Multi taskers may loose concentration, discipline Multi-taskers may lose self control, or concentration.
People required to switch focus or mind-set frequently may lose their temper, cheat on their diet, or give up on their exercise regime, the research suggests, adding more evidence to the dangers of mul-titasking.

The new study by Emory University’s Ryan Hamilton studied 300 people in 5 experiments where they were allowed to concentrate, or required to shift mind set. Then their self control, discipline and endurance were assessed.

In one experiment, after a game where the method of scoring could be changed, participants were asked to solve another problem. Those who had to switch mind-set often were far less persistent in solving the second problem.

"The group that switched mind-sets wasn’t as persistent. That shows a failure of concentration, which requires self control," Ryan Hamilton said.

Another group of bilingual people were asked to use two different languages for a task, then tested on how long they could hold a hand grip. The people who used both languages didn’t hold the grip as long. This suggested to the experimenters that their physical endurance and self control had dropped because of the attention splitting. And it has implications for how much we exercise after multi-tasking.

The News You Can Use: Concentrate on the task at hand, and preserve your self control.

Tim Ferriss may initially come across as an overconfident body-built jock looking for simplistic answers.
And in part this 33 year old may be, but there’s a lot more to this former school boy national sporting champion and Princeton graduate than that. Watch the Fora.tv interview from the Commonwealth Club to find out more about him.

One of his principles is to get the maximum value from his exercise regime, and this book abounds with suggestions on how to be time and effort efficient in getting the body you want (as the title so succinctly suggests).

And his slow carb diet has atracted a lot of attention and a lot of followers.

There’s also an intriguing section in the book about the 15 minute female orgasm.

If you’ve decided it’s time to change your body, this book is an innovative and challenging read.

Marijuana smoker - cravings can be reduced through exercise Heavy dope smokers who exercised cut their consumption and cravings significantly, a new Vanderbilt University study shows. It’s the first time that exercise has been shown to reduce drug use among smokers who don’t want to stop.

The 12 participants who had been smoking on average around 6 joints a day, reported that their use dropped by half during the program. They exercised on a treadmill for 10 30 minute sessions over the two week trial, getting up to 60 – 70% of their maximum heart rate.

By half way through the trial they were already reporting less use and less craving.

The researchers are studying heavy users of marijuana to help understand what exercise does for the brain, contributing to a field of research that uses exercise for prevention and treatment.

News You Can Use

Exercise

Bosses benefit from exercise too

Physical activity and school performance linked

Just a minute’s exercise a day could slow diabetes

Exercise can cut snack appetite

Exercise helps your brain too – here’s how…

How much water do runners need?

Exercise may beat drugs for depression

Multi-tasking loses concentration, self control

The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss – some useful approaches to getting fitter

Exercise can curb marijuana use and cravings

Nutrition

Living Longer

In other research

Your Brain

Psychology of Health

Meditation

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