Walking With Others Can Slow You Down, 4-Minute HIIT for Health, Cow Hugging, & More - What's New in Wellness
Another month means another installment of our What’s New in Wellness roundup — where we go over the fitness and wellness news that caught our eye or made us think. This month, we’re talking about the differences in leisure physical activity compared to work activity, how walking with a partner can actually slow you down, and the quirkiest wellness trend we’ve seen in a long time (hint: it involves cows!). Read on to learn more.
A Healthy Childhood Diet and Exercise are Linked to Less Anxiety in Adulthood
The importance of diet and exercise is no secret, but did you know that the early-life health habits children form can impact their mental health and brain size as adults? In a recent study on mice, researchers found that adults who ate a healthy diet and exercised in their youth had less anxiety and bigger brains than their less healthy counterparts. Help your child build healthy habits by practicing some of our kids yoga classes together on Alo Moves, then head to the kitchen to make these tropical green smoothie bowls.
Working Out For Leisure vs. For Work Has Two Different Effects
If you work a manual job, you’re likely familiar with the fatigue that can come after a long shift, especially when that means you’ve been doing hours of standing or lifting. In the first large study of its kind, researchers found that physical activity we do for leisure and physical activity we do for occupational reasons have opposite effects on our cardiovascular health — namely that our leisure physical activity is beneficial, while our occupational physical activity can be detrimental. One of the study’s authors, Professor Holtermann, said: "Many people with manual jobs believe they get fit and healthy by their physical activity at work and therefore can relax when they get home. Unfortunately, our results suggest that this is not the case. And while these workers could benefit from leisure physical activity, after walking 10,000 steps while cleaning or standing seven hours in a production line, people tend to feel tired so that's a barrier." Holtermann notes that they aren’t sure exactly why occupational physician activity has a negative effect on cardiovascular health but suspects it could have something to do with the heart rate not being sufficiently increased.
Take this as your reminder to take frequent, quick breaks throughout your workday — regardless if you’re working from home or at the office — like these 6 classes you can take on your lunch break or these 8 yoga poses you can do at your desk.
Speed Up, Buttercup
Walking with your partner is a great way to decompress together at the end of a long day without the distractions of home, but did you know it can slow you down? A new study by Purdue University revealed that couples who walk together end up decreasing their speed instead of the slower partner increasing their speed to match, and they go even slower if they’re holding hands. While exercising with a partner or friend is a great way to keep each other motivated, researcher Libby Richards says, "If someone substantially slows down when they are walking with someone else, that could negate some of the health benefits recognized if they walked alone at a faster pace." Combine a more leisurely walk with an intense fitness class, like Jacy Cunningham’s Total Tabata on Alo Moves, and you’ll be good to go.
A 4-Minute HIIT Workout Can Do Wonders For Your Health
Now there’s really no excuse to cite a lack of time as an excuse for skipping your workout. In news that sounds too good to be true, researchers that collated and analyzed over 10 year’s worth of research on this topic have found that doing HIIT for as little as 4 minutes (without a warm-up or cool-down) at three times a week for 12 weeks “significantly improved blood sugar levels, fat in the liver, and cardiorespiratory fitness in adults with type 2 diabetes.” The study additionally noted that the health results were comparable to 45 minutes of a more moderate workout. If you want to try it for yourself, our new Alo in the Wild series features plenty of quick HIIT workouts you can either stack and combine, or do individually.
Bovine Bonding
A wellness trend that has taken off during the pandemic? Cow hugging — yep, you read that right. Farmers have opened up their fields to lonely people in search of a good hug that the social distancing and isolation of the pandemic hasn’t allowed them to get from friends and family. The trend is not new — it originated in Holland decades ago, and its popularity is growing within the US and beyond with some people paying upwards of $200 an hour for a cow cuddle. The benefits? While not proven, many people claim it lowers their stress and anxiety, and some say it boosts oxytocin, the love hormone.
Keep up with your wellness here each month, as well as on Alo Moves. Start your free 14-day trial today.
