Exercise

A new study has provided the strongest evidence yet that a daily practice designed to strengthen breathing muscles can lower blood pressure and improve vascular health, just as effectively or perhaps even more so than aerobic exercise.

Engineers at MIT’s CSAIL have developed a smart carpet that can accurately estimate a person’s movements or body pose without needing cameras. The system could be useful for exercise feedback, monitoring falls, or tracking for VR and gaming.

Although some of us may see hula hoops as simple playthings, many people utilize them in serious workouts, or even in performance art. The HoopLoop was designed with such folks in mind, as it electronically counts rotations and assesses form.

Why do some people benefit from some types of exercise more than others? Scientists investigating this question have demonstrated how profiles of certain proteins in the blood can predict a person's "trainability."

Most home-use weight sets include both dumbbells and barbells with interchangeable plates, perhaps along with something like a kettlebell. The Hyperbell system is different, in that it allows a set of dumbbells to serve all three purposes.

We all know exercise is good for us, but recently, scientific studies have started to shine a light on how regular physical activity can benefit human health in ways you might not expect. Let's take a look at some interesting examples.

A unique study, published in the journal Science Advances, is suggesting antihistamines can blunt some of the beneficial effects of exercise. The research found histamine functioning may be vital to both the short and long-term benefits of exercise.

A new study reviewing a decade's worth of literature has added to our understanding of high-intensity interval training, showing how these short bouts can offer comparable benefits to longer sessions of moderate or vigorous exercise.

Healthy habits around diet and exercise are a good idea at any time, but a new study has emphasized the importance of forming them early in life, demonstrating in mice that they can lead to increased brain mass and lower levels of anxiety as adults.

A striking new study testing a number of over-the-counter weight loss and sports supplements has found they contain many combinations of stimulants that have either previously been prohibited by the FDA or never approved for human consumption.

Scientists in Spain have published a paper examining the fat-burning potential of coffee when consumed before aerobic exercise, and found that the effects are a lot more profound later in the afternoon than in the morning.

Inflammation in the human body is a complex physiological response to a complex range of triggers, and scientists have just uncovered some useful new details about how it works by experimenting with muscles grown in the lab.