|
Friday mail is the best.
Your notes pile up all week. I read each one with my coffee.
This batch was all about the body.
Most of you asked about three things: muscle, sleep, and time.
So I ran the best questions through my filter.
It costs me over $20,000 a year in the research hedge funds buy.
If a claim has no trial behind it, it goes in the bin.
Here’s what made it through…
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
// Reader Q&A
“I’m 52. Is creatine just for young guys at the gym?”
Not even close.
A 2017 review pooled 22 trials of adults aged 57 to 70 on average. Each group lifted weights two or three days a week. Half also took creatine, most at 3 to 5 grams a day.
The creatine group gained about 1.4 kg more lean mass than placebo. They got stronger on chest press and leg press, too.
I take 5 grams in my morning coffee. You can’t taste it. By the way, it works best with the lifting. Think partner, not shortcut.
TRIALS: 22 · ADULTS: 721 · LEAN MASS: +1.37 kg
→ Source: Chilibeck et al., Open Access J Sports Med, 2017
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
// Reader Q&A
“What kind of workout helps you sleep best?”
Lift something heavy.
Iowa State ran a year-long trial with 386 adults who did not work out. Some lifted, some did cardio, and some did a mix. A last group kept life as usual.
All three workout groups slept better. But for short sleepers, only the weights group slept longer. They gained 17 minutes a night. Falling asleep got about three minutes quicker, too.
Seventeen minutes may not sound like much. Over a year, that’s more than 100 extra hours of rest.
Here’s the thing… this was shared at a heart meeting. So it’s early data. I still lift three nights a week, and I sleep like a rock.
ADULTS: 386 · LENGTH: 12 months · EXTRA SLEEP: +17 min/night
→ Source: American Heart Association, 2022
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
// Reader Q&A
“I can’t find an hour for the gym. Do short bursts count?”
They count more than you’d think.
A 2022 Nature Medicine study put wrist trackers on 25,241 adults. None of them worked out. Their average age was close to 62.
The team looked for short bursts of hard effort in daily life. Think stairs taken fast, or a brisk climb with bags in hand.
Three bursts a day, each one or two minutes long, were linked to about 40% lower risk of death. For heart deaths, the link was close to 50%.
In other words, a few hard minutes add up. It’s a link from tracker data and not proof. Still, few things cost less.
ADULTS: 25,241 · BURSTS: 3 a day, 1 to 2 min · ALL-CAUSE RISK: 38 to 40% lower
→ Source: Stamatakis et al., Nature Medicine, 2022
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
