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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. It has become clear that the coronavirus does not discriminate. It strikes the young and the old. But senior citizens face specific challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. One such challenge is meeting their specific dietary needs. We sat down with Staci Gerken, a dietitian with the Area Agency on Aging, to talk about the help that is available for seniors right now. For more information, visit http://www.aaawm.org or call 616-456-5664.

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Area Agency on Aging of Western Michigan helps meet the dietary needs of seniors during COVID-19 pandemic - WZZM13.com

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Putting some fizz into a family vacation

Dropping a bunch of Mentos candies into a bottle of Diet Coke is a favorite science demonstration, as the action results in an impressive geyser of foam to rival Old Faithful. Thomas S. Kuntzleman, a chemistry professor at Spring Arbor University, says he first saw this demo in elementary school and that was itI was hooked. Now, he has taken the famous Diet Coke fountain demo to new heights by measuring the amount of foam produced at different altitudes (J. Chem. Educ. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.9b01177).

The rough surface of Mentos candies provides nucleation sites for bubbles to form and grow from the carbon dioxide dissolved in the Diet Coke. Kuntzleman hypothesized that atmospheric pressure should affect the frequency of bubble formation and was inspired to put this to the test.

He recruited a friend, chemistry teacher Ryan Johnson, to measure the foam produced during a climb up Pikes Peak in Colorado (4,300 m elevation). Kuntzleman also did the experiment himself during a summer vacation as he and his family drove through a range of altitudes, from Death Valley, California (13 m below sea level), to a snowy spot near Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park (3,260 m elevation). He used 500 mL bottles of Diet Coke, making sure they all came from the same manufacturing lot because carbon dioxide leaks out over time. He also made sure the bottles were at a consistent 27 C using the heat and air-conditioning from the car.

To his delight, he saw that the amount of foam did increase at the high altitudes, and he was able to model the bubble nucleation. Im tickled that we figured out how to do that, he says.

Brewing up a water filter

Some people partial to carbonated beverages enjoy imbibing kombucha, a fizzy, fermented drink made from tea, sugar, and a mushroom-like mother known as a SCOBYsymbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast. Katherine R. Zodrow, an assistant professor and head of the Environmental Engineering Department at Montana Technological University, saw a micrograph of the network of thin cellulose fibers in a SCOBY and thought that it looked a lot like a membrane. Ive wanted to make membranes that are alive for a long time, and this was the perfect place to start, she says.

So Zodrow and her colleagues grew kombucha SCOBYs about 11.5 mm thick and tested their ability to filter particles from water. They found that the living membranes could remove more than 98% of 50 nm particles and 99% of 100 nm particles, suggesting that a SCOBY filter could remove most bacteria and protozoa. Whats more, the membranes heal themselves when punctured (Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2020, DOI: 10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00019). With more optimization, perhaps SCOBYs will one day serve a dual purposefiltering water as well as making a bubbly drink.

Corinna Wu wrote this weeks column. Please send comments and suggestions to newscripts@acs.org.

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Taking the Diet Coke-and-Mentos demo to new heights, and testing a kombucha-based water filter - Chemical & Engineering News

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BLUEFIELD, Va (WVVA) In West Virginia, gyms were one of the first non-essential businesses to close. But that isn't a reason to stop exercising. With workout programs becoming available online, working out can be done in the comfort of your own home.

Greta Quesenberry with Define 139 Fitness and Training in Bluefield says there are tips to help keep you on track with any fitness and nutrition goals.

"First and its so important, get accountability," Quesenberry says. "Designate and area in your home and involve your family members, they need some movement too."

She says to also have a reward system in place, but one that doesn't involve food. When it comes to nutrition and eating right, she says "you can't eat what you don't have." Emphasizing the importance of shopping for healthier foods for your home.

Quesenberry says since moving her program to Facebook Live and FaceTime, her current and new members are giving positive feedback. Many clients tell her they enjoy this more, because they can do it on their own time.

For more information or tips to stay healthy, you can contact Greta on the Define 139 Facecbook page or http://www.define139.com

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Local fitness instructor gives tips on keeping up with home workouts and nutrition during COVID-19 - WVVA TV

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John Corteses wife was pregnant when a 6.0-magnitude earthquake shook Napa in 2014 and threatened his business by yellow-tagging his family-owned gym for two months.

So, when he got the message last month that all nonessential businesses had to cease operation, he was sure to act fast.

I feel like Im fairly used to a situation that is not pleasant or fun, and I know that we cant sit back and be scared, Cortese said. Id be lying if I said I wasnt anxious and nervous when this all started happening, but we dont have time to sit back and worry. We had to be proactive, adjust and try to make it work for our people.

Corteses CTS Fitness & Performance loaned out much of its exercise equipment to members and is offering daily training via video: a prime example of how the fitness industry has had to adapt on the fly to a surge of in-home workouts due to the coronavirus.

The $100 billion fitness industry has been dramatically impacted by the pandemic, forcing gyms to close, skyrocketing sales for at-home equipment, and calling for alterations in seemingly every aspect in between.

San Ramons 24 Hour Fitness closed its 400-plus gyms March 16, but it still charged its members for the March 17-April 15 billing cycle. The extra time will be added to the end of membership, and the company says it will suspend billings if gyms arent opened by next week.

In the meantime, 24 Hour Fitness launched 24GO LIVE, a virtual fitness experience on its YouTube channel.

During this critical time for our business, our goal has and will continue to be focused on surviving this crisis so that we can ultimately emerge and welcome our team and club members back when it is safe to do so, chief executive officer Tony Ueber said in a statement.

While 24 Hour Fitness is dealing with an overwhelming volume of requests to end membership, at-home services like Peloton and Mirror are soaring.

Mirror, a fitness system that allows users to follow virtual personal trainers in disciplines like yoga, Pilates and cardio, may have doubled its $300 million June valuation. Analysts believe Peloton will add 1 million subscribers by the end of 2021, and shares of the interactive stationary bike and treadmill company rose 3.5% to $28.45 Thursday.

According to Google Trends, interest in kettlebells went up 194% between the first week of March and the first week of this month. Interest in resistance bands vaulted by 368% during the same time frame.

Weve seen 10-fold increase in the sales of our fitness equipment over the course of the last couple of weeks, said Tomas Unikauskis, the CEO of Smart Brands Laboratory in San Francisco, which helps develop fitness gear like Victorem. Our preliminary demand data analysis indicates that at least 10 million Americans will have searched for products related to in-home exercise equipment by the end of the quarantine period. People are also searching for home workout programs online to stay active during their time at home.

Cortese predicted the demand and started recording workout videos a day after he closed the doors of CTS Fitness & Performance. By the end of the first week of Napas stay-at-home order, Cortese, his wife and four trainers were doing live workouts on Zoom for 10-25 people per session.

Last week, Cortese started loaning out the gyms dumbbells, kettlebells, jump ropes, resistance bands and medicine balls to members. He arrived at the gym at 1 p.m. Sunday to find a line of 10 physically distanced people and others waiting in their cars.

He created a sign-out sheet that allowed members to choose equipment, sanitized each piece of gear and brought it out bit by bit, until everyone had been served.

Its been crazy to see how fast we were able to pull this together. We went from a full, in-person coaching business to full-on remote and digital within one or two days, Cortese said. If we just continue to be creative and come up with ways to innovate and offer our services remotely, the business will survive. The product is still there. The delivery is just different.

I miss the in-person thing, but as a community-based business, we cant just let people idly wonder what the next move is.

Rusty Simmons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rsimmons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Rusty_SFChron

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Coronavirus: How fitness industry is having to stretch - San Francisco Chronicle

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Facts over fear: That's been our guiding light as the Source Media team works to navigate the uncharted waters of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid hundreds of questions every week, we saw themes emerge.

Connecting you to experts that can help answer your questions is what this series of daily webinars is all about.

In our season finale, our host, Source Media Properties president Jay Allred was joined by USA Olympic Tae Kwon Do coach Chris Hershberger of Black Belt Pro Fitness and Emily Freeman, supervisor of both the OhioHealth Ontario Health and Fitness Center as well as the OhioHealth Wellness and Prevention Center.

We'll talk about trends in virtual fitness, ways you can work out and stay healthy when the gym is closed, and strategies for keeping kids engaged and fit while traditional leagues are cancelled.

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My gym is closed, now what? - Fitness and fun during the coronavirus - Richland Source

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According to just about all prison movies, theres no better time to channel your pent-up energy into getting into the shape of your life, than when youre facing confinement. Now that were all living in a mild form of isolation, if youre thinking of seizing the day to get 5,000-press-ups-a-day ripped, but you lack the essential kit, weve got you covered.

Whether you want to attempt to get prison-cell stacked, or you just need some space-saving training tools to keep you off the couch, this is the gear you can buy right now to build an effective home workout set-up. Heres everything you need to get a daily sweat on, work off some stress and release the endorphins, all without having to open the front door.

Weight: 8.5g | Battery life: 12 months | Water resistance: IPX7

If you only have the space or the budget to invest in one piece of fitness tech during quarantine, the Fiit chest strap is a fantastic all-rounder for keeping a healthy body. And for feeling like youre not working out alone. Strap on the tracker, fire up the app on your screen of choice and youre instantly plugged into a world of fully-coached, on-demand, studio-style workouts. There are hundreds of sessions covering HIIT, core, strength as well as pilates, yoga and flexibility. The heart rate monitor tracks your reps and your real-time effort, so you can train at the right intensity, monitor your progress and maintain motivation. If you like the idea of leaving lockdown having hit a more ambitious fitness goal (though its also OK to just watch Netflix and drink gin), there are ready-made, two to ten week training plans, or you can easily stitch together different sessions to create your own.

Fancy a bit more competition? Check out the MyZone MZ-3 chest strap (130) which converts effort into points, rewarding endeavour rather than fitness. Friends and family can compete, regardless of the workout they do or their starting point and you get to see whos working hardest in an app-based lockdown league table.

Price: 45 per month/ 120 per year (includes Fiit HR belt) | Fiit

Weight: 1.3kg | Load: 158kg | Adjustable: Yes

The gold standard in suspension training systems, TRX is essentially a portable home gym. The Home2 (170) system is designed specifically for home workouts, letting you tap into the world of gravity-based resistance training to get you ripped. Its toughened, adjustable nylon straps can hold 158kg and it comes with a door anchor thats quick and easy to install over most doors. Though you can in fact use it anywhere youve got a space thats eight feet long and six feet wide, with a place to anchor the bands, making it perfect for outdoor workouts too.

Once rigged up, you can do just seven simple moves for a full body workout, or you can be as inventive as you like. Minor movements change the effort levels and you control the difficulty. The price includes a years free access to the TRX Trainer app which includes video tutorials to help you learn the best drills. You can also link an external tracker to the app, to monitor how hard youre working while hanging upside down from your bedroom door.

Price: 170 | TRX | Crucial Fitness | Fitdist

Weight: 1.5kg | Load: 10kg | Adjustable: Yes

Hyfits resistance training system uses similar fitness principles to the TRX but the beauty of the Gear 1 ($139) is that you can use it without any installation. Each set comprises two 1 metre adjustable resistance bands that can be attached to a door frame, or to your ankles and wrists, for full body home workouts. They also come with extra Bluetooth-enabled tracking smarts.

The anti-snap bands have a resistance range from 10-20kg, so you can control the difficulty of each exercise without swapping bands as you would with traditional resistance loops. But its the wrist-based heart rate monitor and sensors built into the cuffs that bring the real smarts. They automatically track your intensity, reps, resistance, force and calories burned. All the data is fired in real-time to a simple partner app which also features a range of easy-to-follow video drills, full training plans and a quick overview of your past workouts and overall activity.

Price: $139 | Hyfit

Battery life: 2.5 hours | Weight: 1.4kg | Oscillation: 2,400 RPM

Whether youre smashing a virtual home workout, or just suffering the aches and strains of a dodgy home working set-up, this percussive therapy gun offers a brilliant DIY antidote to grumbling muscles. Like a power tool for rehab and recovery, the massage magic of the Theragun G3 Pro (414) comes from a two-speed pummeling head that oscillates at 2,400 rotations per minute with the ability to withstand 60lbs of pressure. It includes two swappable batteries for 150-minute total battery life and theres no knot in the world that wont succumb to a few minutes of Theragunning with one of the six different attachments, designed to treat the whole body. A rotating arm means you can even reach the parts other massagers miss and do a full body blitz in just 15 minutes. So even when youre allowed back out, you may never go return to those 50-a-pop sports massages again.

Price: 414 | Theragun

Battery life: 17 hours (training mode) | Weight: 35g | Water resistance: 30m

If youre not sure how to make the most of that precious hour of outdoor exercise while youre still allowed it the lightweight Polar Ignite (166) is a lower-priced fitness watch with workout inspiration baked in. Like most multi-sport watches it features GPS, built-in and optical heart rate and tracks all the usual stuff like steps, calories and continuous heart rate. But a FitSpark workout recommendation feature really sets it apart. The watch reads your current vitals and suggests a daily selection of workouts based on how well you slept, your stress and recovery. You can choose between cardio, core or mobility sessions, making it easier to keep things fresh. Each workout comes with basic but simple-to-follow guidance and you can follow each drill on the watch without having to fire up a second screen.

Post-workout, the Ignites Nightly Recharge feature uses the built-in optical heart rate sensor to monitor your heart rate variability and your autonomic nervous system overnight, so you can see how well your body bounces back from the previous days exertions, be that a 45-minute HIIT sufferfest or a day being Head Teacher at Home School.

Alternatively, if youre still making the most of that hour to get outside for a serious run, ride or swim, the Garmin Forerunner 945 (520) is the best serious sports tracker you can buy right now with excellent battery life and an unrivalled suite of sports and stats tracked. Meanwhile, for some simple but powerful motivation, the Apple Watch Series 5 (from 399), with its addictive daily challenge to close your activity rings is excellent for ensuring you stand and move enough, even though youre housebound.

Price: 166 | Amazon | Polar | Wiggle

Weight: 20g | Water resistance: IPX7 | Drivers: 6mm

While the trend right now is for true wireless headphones, the versatile Bluetooth 5.0 Tarah Pro (140) are packed full of tricks that offer a versatility you wont get with the earbuds-only build. That includes unique twisting buds that allow you to wear them two ways: over the ear for a virtually true wireless feel or under for a more standard fit. The magnetic buds clip together for easy stowage around your neck and auto pause the music while theyre at it. One-piece gels and wingtips provide a lock-tight fit that copes with even the most vigorous of HIIT workouts. You get 14 hours of workout time on a single charge plus a handy rapid-charge that delivers two hours from just five minutes on the plug.

Theres no noise cancellation or transparency mode but the sound is rich and full bodied enough to boost any workout. EQ is also fully customisable in the partner app with the ability to create and store multiple sound profiles. However, if your lockdown set-up leaves you desperate to shut out the world during your workouts, its worth looking at the Apple AirPods Pro (249) which pack excellent noise cancellation. If you want 100 per cent stay put certainty, the new PowerBeats 4 (130) ear hook design and 15 hour battery life are also worth consideration.

Price: 140 | John Lewis | Jaybird | Currys

Weight: 1.36kg | Battery life: 6 hours | Size: 33.0 x 13.97 cm

Spending time on the foam roller after a workout or a day stuck at a makeshift workstation can help increase flexibility, mobility, pliability, circulation, not to mention reduce muscle soreness. And adding some good vibrations into the mix can increase the positive effects of your roller sessions.

The UrbnFit features five vibration levels from 900-3600 RPM up to so you can tweak the intensity to match your muscular needs. Theres a switching mode too that varies the vibrations every three seconds and the soft, smooth cushioned EVS foam is also split into with different firmness so you can work areas harder where necessary. The Pulse is built to support just short of 150kg with the vital digital innars well-protected in an interior plastic casing for good durability. You get up to 6 hours roll time with the vibes whacked up to full, its USB rechargeable and takes 3 hours to fully reload.

Price: $79 | Urbnfit

Weight: 13g | Battery life: 6 months

Zwift started life as a virtual training community for cyclists but now runners pound the pixel tarmac in Zwifts virtual world of Wattopia too. To join Zwift you need a treadmill, a screen and a footpod. You can use third party trackers like the Stryd Running pod to track your runs but the cheapest way to get into the game is Zwifts own Bluetooth RunPod (38). It attaches to your shoes and measures and broadcasts speed, cadence and distance. Calibration can be done quickly and easily and once youre up and running you can access structured goal-based workouts from elite coaches. Stick on a pair of Bluetooth headphones and you can also tap into a thriving community for mid-session support and a bit of social interaction from outside of self isolation.

Price: 38 | Amazon | Zwift

Treadmills take up a lot of floor space but this all-steel folding-frame running machine takes up less than most. With the TR5500i (1,699) you get a 22-inch by 60-inch running surface with a fold-away footprint at 40.5-inch (L) x 34.5-inch (W) x 65.5 (H). Theres a built-in 10-inch colour touchscreen display, physical controls for speed and incline, and a top speed of 13.5 mph thats 4.5 minutes per mile, quick enough for Eliud Kipchoge to break the sub-2-hour marathon. There are 13 levels of incline and two levels of decline and more than 50 different pre-programmed workouts, including races and fitness tests. You can also create and save your own sessions plus its Bluetooth compatible so you can add a heart rate monitor for improved tracking accuracy.

Price: 1,699 | Lifespan

Battery life: 6 months | Weight: 160g | Rope length: 3 metres

If you find yourself craving a decent cardio workout but you cant get out and run or ride, skipping is a great alternative. Research shows that just 10 minutes jumping rope is as effective as half an hours running. Skipping comes with extra benefits too, fast-foot rope sessions are lower impact and improve coordination and balance. This bluetooth-enabled smartrope, the Smart Rope Rookie (50), adds a little extra motivation, using magnetic sensors in the handles to track your jump count five times per second, calories and records in real time. The rope length is adjustable and you can set skip or duration targets and follow guided interval workouts.

Price: 50 | Apple | Tangram

Weight: 3kg | Battery life: 10 hours | Water resistance: IP56 rating

Theres plenty of research that tells us working out with music not only boosts motivation, it also improves our ability to push through fatigue. And if working out during lockdown involves switching from room to room to avoid the family circus, then you want a speaker you can take with you. The portable Sonos Move (379) is built exactly for that task, with Trueplay tuning, which adapts to the music youre listening to and wherever youre playing your tunes.

Its weatherproof, perfect if you decide to take your boot camp session into the garden. It also has a drop-proof shock resistant case which is handy if your overzealous burpees make it accidentally jump off the sideboard. Theres voice control so you can shout out your power song requests without breaking your wall squat position and you can stream via Bluetooth and wifi, ideal if your lockdown companions are squeezing the bandwidth while youre trying to make Joe Wicks proud.

Price: 379 | Amazon | John Lewis | Argos

Weight: 4.5kg | Load: 113kg

Theres a reason trainers love the plank, its uncomplicated, versatile and ideal for cultivating better core strength, improving balance and posture. But lets be honest, most of us arent big fans of staring at the floor while our midriff burns during this dullest of exercises. Stealth offers a way out of the boredom, if not the suffering. Essentially a balance board that you can slot any smartphone into, the Plankster (89) works with a partner app to unlock a range of ab-scorching games that bring an old-school arcade vibe to otherwise boring holds. You use minor core movements picked up by your phones motion sensors to do things like fly gliders around obstacles, shoot down asteroids and navigate labyrinths. While youre trying to beat your High Score youre also working up to 29 different muscles. The light and relatively compact board can support anyone up to 20 stone and has soft, easy-clean pads so at least your elbows wont hurt.

Price: 89 | Amazon | Stealth

Weight: 19kg | Size: 43 x 65 x 43cm | Battery life: 14 hours

If you know what to do with it, the kettlebell can be an incredibly versatile piece of gym kit but not many people have the space to store a full rack of weights. This adjustable smart kettlebell solves that problem by packing six selectable weights 12-42lb in one. A digital display on the Kettlebell Connect (229) makes it easy to see the weight youre working with, while the partner app also offers a range of guided drills that you can string together into your own full body workouts. Theres streamed video for train-along-style sessions and JaxJoxs built-in sensors record your reps, sets and power while youre shifting metal. You can connect a heart rate chest strap for added insights and you get 14 hours workout time on a single charge.

Price: 229 | Argos | Apple | JaxJox

Size: 40.1 x 23.6 x 21.9 cm | Bluetooth: Yes

If the dumbbell is your free-weight weapon of choice for body sculpting, the Bowflex SelectTech (599) is probably the worlds smartest option. Just like the JaxJox, this award-winning Bluetooth-powered weights set uses built in motion sensors to automatically count every rep, set and rest period. It also saves space with a full range of sixteen selectable weights from 5lbs to 60lbs in one compact piece of kit. No need for a full rack taking up an entire room and dramatically cutting any potential toe stubbing to a minimum.

Price: 599 | Amazon | Bowflex | Fitness Superstore

Weight: 229g | Drop: 6mm

The On Cloud X (130) is a training shoe designed with versatility in mind. At 229g this lightweight, fully-cushioned all-rounder performs well on the roads as a running shoe and is firm enough under foot to function equally well as a cross training shoe. It features Ons signature CloudTech those interesting looking half bubbles on the outsole along with a so-called zero-gravity midsole foam that flexes to support the quick changes of direction you encounter during floor drills. Theres good stability, decent support in the heel and the breathable engineered mesh upper leaves you plenty of freedom to make small adjustments to your foot and toe position when youre trying to hit perfect form.

Price: 130 | Amazon | On Running | Sigma Sports

Kieran Alger is a fitness tech expert; his YouTube channel is The Run Testers.

When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we earn a small affiliate commission. This does not impact the products we recommend.

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The home fitness gear to actually keep you fit during lockdown - Wired.co.uk

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Jackson Firer, Guest ContributorApril 11, 2020

By complete chance, I was able to have my voice heard on a topic that matters to me. An odd Monday morning where I found myself at local Global Grounds coffee shop, I overheard two women talking about the lack of male participation in UWLs REC fitness classes. Well, as male who has participated in REC fitness classes for three years, I thought I would offer my perspective. Julia Van Fleet was kind enough to interview me and reflect my thoughts in her article, UWL fitness classes working towards more balanced participation.

In response to that article, another student wrote a letter to the editor (Size Inclusivity Issues at the REC) acknowledging the lack of gender inclusivity (mainly mens lack of participation) in fitness classes but made it a point that the REC has neglected to ensure size inclusivity as well.

In response to that letter, which argued that UWL and the REC classes it provides do not offer enough support to create an inclusive environment for all, I had this to say:

It is definitely true that young men dominate the recreational center at UWL, and it can be intimidating. It is also true that the entire building could pose to work on creating more of an inclusive environment for people who struggle to get into fitness, or for people who want to get involved but dont feel comfortable. But that is one of the main catalysts of any fitness place. No matter how inclusive of an environment is created, fitness is driven by a desire to improve upon yourself; and at a place where machines are designed to improve your look, youre going to face some discouragement.

As individuals, thats something we all have to overcome. But when it comes to fitness classes at UWL, I have participated in enough of them to know that each one includes structured supports to help any and all students participate at their desired skill or physical level, without facing judgement from other people. You do not have to follow a strict plan of action or reach a certain level of achievement in any of the classes, nor is there an atmosphere where students are pushed beyond their limitations.

The few people who join fitness classes join to better themselves first and foremost, as well as join to feel part of a group of people all working to participate in the same goal or activityto exercise and become more mentally and physically in tune with their bodies. If anything, the fitness classes act as a refuge from the normal gym atmosphere which accompanies any normal workout facility.

My advice is this: Find your niche or be prepared to face some adversity while you work on improving. The world, but especially a gym can feel judgmental at times. Work on finding your place and make it feel comfortable to you. For me, UWLs fitness classes have always been my place to escape judgement.

Letters to the Editor do not reflect the beliefs or values of The Racquet Press.

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Letter to the Editor: Fitness classes as an escape from judgement - The Racquet

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Work and life overload. Injury or illness. Seemingly endless bad weather. Physical and mental fatigue after reaching a big goal. There are all sorts of reasons for us to go cold turkey under normal circumstances. And on top of all, we are now in the midst of a global pandemic, and coronavirus (COVID-19) is forcing us to stay inside as much as we possible. The fact is: we might not be able to train to our full potential right now.

In these situations, its natural to wonder: How long will it take to lose my fitness?

A partial answer is that your heart starts to show significant signs of detraining after just a few weeks of little to no exercise. Thats the key takeaway from a 2018 study on marathoners published in the Journal of Applied Physiology.

Researchers (somehow) found 21 people who, after completing the 2016 Boston Marathon as charity runners, were willing to almost entirely stop exercising for eight weeks. The study subjects agreed to exercise less than two hours per week during that time, with no workout to last more than an hour. During marathon training, they had averaged almost 32 miles per week, while after the marathon they averaged three to four miles per week. The researchers tested key aspects of their cardiovascular fitness two weeks before the marathon (i.e., at peak training), and repeated the tests four and eight weeks after the marathon.

After four weeks of relative inactivity, the runners had significant drops in blood volume and plasma volume, and the left ventricle of their hearts decreased in mass and thickness. Blood volume decreased by 3.6 percent. These changes can be thought of as the bodys blood-pumping system deteriorating, both in terms of the size and power of the pump (the left ventricle changes) and the resources available to pump (blood and plasma volume). One result would be a given pace feeling harder, because less oxygen would reach working muscles per heart beat than had been the case at the time of their marathon.

During the next four weeks of inactivity, the detraining changes regarding blood volume and the left ventricle stabilized. There were detraining effects in the right ventricle during this time, but, according to lead researcher Charles Pedlar, Ph.D., those changes are mostly of interest to sport cardiologists.

Interestingly, neither the runners VO2 max (a measure of maximal aerobic capacity) or total hemoglobin mass (a measure of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to working muscles) declined significantly during the study. (The study notes that red blood cells have an average lifespan of 110 days, or roughly twice as long as this study.)

Nonetheless, the runners performance on a treadmill test suffered. The test entailed the treadmill moving at five miles per hour and the gradient increasing 0.5 percent every 15 seconds until the runners quit. The average time to exhaustion decreased by five to six seconds per week in the eight weeks after the marathon. This test matches most runners anecdotal observations that, after a period of no running, their ability to sustain a hard pace has declined more than their ability to maintain their easy pace.

The runners detraining wasnt as severe as that observed in studies involving total inactivity (such as in people confined to bed for weeks at a time).

I think had we completely stopped them from exercising we would have seen a greater, more consistent detraining effect, Pedlar told Runners World. Maintaining a small amount of training can offset the losses. (Allowing some activity probably also helped in finding willing subjects, he acknowledged, and it better captured real-world practices.)

Pedlar said that the lack of decline in VO2 max and hemoglobin mass suggests that with the resumption of training we could see a fairly rapid return to form. Plasma volume can rapidly expand since it is composed mostly of water.

Its important to note that this study looked only at some key cardiovascular components of fitness. It didnt measure many other things that have a significant effect on how fast you are at any given moment, such as capillary density, muscular endurance, or neuromuscular coordination (how well your muscles communicate with your nervous system). This study was also small, with just 21 people.

[Stay injury free on the road by getting on the mat with Yoga for Runners.]

Plus, theres great variability among runners in how soon they feel off after not running. Roger Bannister didnt run for the five days before he became the first person to break 4:00 in the mile. Others feel like theyve forgotten how to run after a few days off. Because of all these factors, as well as others such as genetics and lifestyle, theres no one-size-fits-all predictor of lost fitness. Estimates of decreases in endurance performance range from 4 to 25 percent after three to four weeks of no exercise.

Pedlar suggests remaining minimally active, for both fitness and health reasons, even during a purposeful recovery phase. We previously reported how even small bits of exercise should help you navigate high-stress periods better than bagging your workouts altogether, despite how crazy things may seem. In a review of research on how peoples moods changed after voluntarily giving up exercise, the subjects anxiety and depressive symptoms began to worsen significantly after two weeks. Our bodies and minds seem to be in sync on this issuehaving more than a few weeks of inactivity means forfeiting some of the key benefits of running.

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How Long Does It Take to Lose Your Fitness When You Stop Running? - runnersworld.com

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TOWAMENCIN North Penn High Schools newest health and physical education teacher James Groff was only at school for 4 days before schools were closed amid COVID-19. He barely had the chance to meet his new students and have them learn things about him; however, in life, theres always a second chance to do anything.

Groff decided to work at North Penn to be closer to his wife, who works at North Penn as a special education teacher, and children.

For an opportunity to come about, it was a dream come true. It was something that me and my wife always talked about but definitely didnt think was going to be possible. [The job opportunity] was absolutely perfect, and it helps my family tremendously, said Groff.

After his first impression, he loved the school for the atmosphere, the activities that were being held, and the sense of community. With his wife already working there, he had a good idea of what it would be like beforehand.

As for his goals for the rest of the school year, he had initially planned to take some time to get to know his students and have them get to know him. However, distance learning has made it quite difficult.

Im really big on that student-teacher connection and building rapport with my students. That is something I would like to try and do even with distance learning. I want them to get to know a little about me and I want to get to know them so that when I see them around the building next year, even though I might not be teaching them, I want them to be comfortable with me, said Groff.

Prior to working at North Penn, Groff worked as a health and physical education teacher at the Philadelphia School District for 10 years. He taught students from Kindergarten to 12th grade.

It was the first school district I worked at. Being a young teacher in Philadelphia, they move you around a lot, so in my 10 years, I actually worked in 6 different schools. My longest tenure was at a K-8 school called Thomas K. Finletter Elementary, but Im coming from a high school called Building 21 where I was the only Health and P.E. teacher and athletic director, explained Groff.

His time working at Philadelphia was well spent. He spent a lot of time developing athletic programs at the schools he worked at.

We are very fortunate at North Penn to have a whole bunch of sports that you can choose from, but in the city, its a bit different. You have to build a program from scratch, so its a bit difficult. Many coaches dont stay with the program, they have a tough time, or theyre tired. It was my goal at my schools to try and develop an athletics program that was consistent and standing strong. My biggest impact at my schools was at my middle school when I started the whole athletics program, and they now have 10 sports at their school that the kids can choose from and play. At the high school I just left, I tried getting the kids to play different sports with the options that they had. I loved it and I wanted to build an athletics program for the kids so they could be active after school. I wanted to give them something to do instead of going home, and I wanted them to stay at school for as long as they could and athletics was my way of doing that, explained Groff.

Some of his best memories spent at his middle school was when he was a part of the students versus staff basketball game at the end of the year at their local recreational center.

It was always something fun for the kids to look forward to and something fun for the teachers to mess around and talk a little smack to the kids, he joked, that was always an enjoyable time of the year.

The Philadelphia Phillies had a program where the Phillie Phanatic would come to a school and a teacher would be selected to read one of his books in front of the students. He was the teacher that was selected one year, and he had a great experience being a part of it.

The Phillie Phanatic did some silly things like putting a hat on me and was hitting me with his belly, and it was really enjoyable having the entire school in the audience listening to me read and the Phanatic poke fun at me. It was a pretty awesome moment, recalled Groff.

At North Penn, students living in Lansdale and the surrounding areas would attend North Penn School District. For schools in Philadelphia, students can apply to certain schools similar to how you would for colleges. Because of that, he had students from different parts of the city, but the schools were also much smaller than North Penn.

The one thing that I kept telling my students at my last school was that Im only one teacher for 300 students, but Im going to a school with 3,000, so that was something that they found amazing, said Groff.

Other than the class size difference, Groff noticed the different energy levels present in gym classes.

Im used to kids with extreme energy levels and having to tone down their energy levels in gym class to get them to listen. Something I noticed at North Penn was that everybody seems to be pretty good listeners and I had to pump it up. Thats something I want to bring in to North Penn: my excitement for phys-ed and my enjoyment of teaching health. I want to pump you guys up a little bit because you guys were very good listeners but also very chill, said Groff.

Groff also has to adjust to a new schedule. There are so many various schedules with different things going on each day.

What I was telling my students my first week was the thing that they were going to have to help me out with was the different schedules. The schedules are crazy and there are so many of them, said Groff.

When he left his old school, it was a very interesting last day. With a lot of emotions coming from himself and his students, it was difficult to say goodbye.

Students sometimes rely so much on you. You dont realize how much your impact has on them and it was really nice on that final day with how many kids came up to me to say goodbye and how much they were going to miss me. It was very emotional for me that last day even though it was so fast. It was very emotional leaving that school district that I put my heart and soul into for 10 years. Hearing those kids tell me how much they were going to miss me was very special, and it was hard leaving 10 years of my life behind but Im still crazy excited to be at North Penn, said Groff.

Before Groff became a teacher, he attended West Chester University and majored in Health and Physical education. Initially, he went to school to become an engineer, and despite knowing it would consist of a lot of math, he realized that he didnt want to do math for the rest of his life. He took time to figure out what he was good at and found that, as a kid, he loved to help his friends in his neighborhood with sports.

We always played a lot of sports and I had a lot of kids in my neighborhood growing up and we were always outside doing something whether it was playing basketball, baseball, footballwe were always playing something. I always enjoyed trying to teach the younger kids in my neighborhood how to play, and I kind of knew that sports was something that I not necessarily excelled at but was good enough to play. It was what helped me make a lot of my friends in school, so I kind of ran with that idea and was like okay, so how can I take sports and teaching kids and making an impact, and that was the first thing I thought of: physical education. I transferred over to West Chester from Penn State, explained Groff.

After switching his major in college and working as a teacher, he realized he had a passion for physical education.

One of the best decisions Ive ever made was transferring to West Chester to become a teacher. Im very happy with my career choice and Im very happy with what I do. I cant wait to make an impact at North Penn. I also met my wife at West Chester and that changed my life, said Groff.

Groffs favorite thing about being a teacher is the connection between teachers and their students. He loves coaching and staying after with his students.

I always tell my classes that Im here to keep you safe, have a little fun, and have you take a little knowledge away after my lesson. I know that there are some students who are not too big of a fan of physical activity, and I really like to challenge that and let them know that its not just a push-up test, its having fun, moving a little bit, and learning about how to take care of your body, said Groff.

Teaching for 10 years has taught Groff how to be more outgoing. In high school, he was an introverted student and it was to the point where he received a superlative award for being the shyest kid during his senior year.

Now when you see me while I teach, I am definitely not shy. I am very outgoing. Teaching has pushed me in the opposite direction and also show the quiet individuals in class that look, you can become passionate in something and push yourself but keep who you are inside, said Groff.

He also learned that every student goes through something different and learns in a different way.

Each student is an individual. Thats something when you first get into teaching is very difficult to figure out. You just want to teach your lesson the way that you have it in your head, but youve got to realize that its not going to go that way. Each student is going through a different thing. One student might be going through a really bad day and they just dont want to come in and learn that day and others might be having the best day ever and they might go and answer every single question. Each student learns in different ways. One thing that I learned is that I need to be aware of my students: how are they feeling? What are they going through? How can I best reach them that day with my lesson? My students are all individuals and theyre all going to learn in different ways, said Groff.

Outside of school, he has 3 kids and one more on the way. His wife is due in September.

For hobbies, his life revolves around sports whether it is watching, playing, or teaching it. He enjoys going to different sporting events with his family and coaching his kids in baseball and soccer.

As soon as things get back to normal and he is able to teach students in person again, he hopes to build strong relationships with his students and let them have fun with his lessons.

Its important to be serious about your schooling and grades, but you should also come to class and have some fun. There can be enjoyable ways to learn. Lets learn something for the day, take it serious, but also have some fun, said Groff.

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Mr. James Groff building connections through health and fitness - Knight Crier

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Its easy to match the overall market return by buying an index fund. Active investors aim to buy stocks that vastly outperform the market but in the process, they risk under-performance. Investors in Chi Hua Fitness Co., Ltd. (GTSM:1593) have tasted that bitter downside in the last year, as the share price dropped 18%. That contrasts poorly with the market return of -2.5%. On the other hand, the stock is actually up 7.7% over three years. Furthermore, its down 13% in about a quarter. Thats not much fun for holders. But this could be related to the weak market, which is down 15% in the same period.

View our latest analysis for Chi Hua Fitness

In his essay The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville Warren Buffett described how share prices do not always rationally reflect the value of a business. One way to examine how market sentiment has changed over time is to look at the interaction between a companys share price and its earnings per share (EPS).

Unhappily, Chi Hua Fitness had to report a 1.7% decline in EPS over the last year. This reduction in EPS is not as bad as the 18% share price fall. So it seems the market was too confident about the business, a year ago. The less favorable sentiment is reflected in its current P/E ratio of 11.63.

The companys earnings per share (over time) is depicted in the image below (click to see the exact numbers).

Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here.

It is important to consider the total shareholder return, as well as the share price return, for any given stock. The TSR incorporates the value of any spin-offs or discounted capital raisings, along with any dividends, based on the assumption that the dividends are reinvested. Its fair to say that the TSR gives a more complete picture for stocks that pay a dividend. We note that for Chi Hua Fitness the TSR over the last year was -12%, which is better than the share price return mentioned above. And theres no prize for guessing that the dividend payments largely explain the divergence!

We regret to report that Chi Hua Fitness shareholders are down 12% for the year (even including dividends) . Unfortunately, thats worse than the broader market decline of 2.5%. However, it could simply be that the share price has been impacted by broader market jitters. It might be worth keeping an eye on the fundamentals, in case theres a good opportunity. On the bright side, long term shareholders have made money, with a gain of 4.4% per year over half a decade. If the fundamental data continues to indicate long term sustainable growth, the current sell-off could be an opportunity worth considering. I find it very interesting to look at share price over the long term as a proxy for business performance. But to truly gain insight, we need to consider other information, too. To that end, you should be aware of the 2 warning signs weve spotted with Chi Hua Fitness .

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of companies we expect will grow earnings.

Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on TW exchanges.

If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.

We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.

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Those Who Purchased Chi Hua Fitness (GTSM:1593) Shares A Year Ago Have A 18% Loss To Show For It - Simply Wall St

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