Better Together

In this edition of The Rundown, you can't separate diet and exercise and expect a good outcome and self-talk matters, physiologically speaking.

The Rundown

Better Together. According to new research (read the abstract) published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, a workout won’t counteract a bad diet and a healthy diet won’t get you off the hook for a sedentary lifestyle.

Using information from the medical database U.K. Biobank, researchers from the University of Sydney tracked health data for nearly 350,000 people for a decade. The study participants were average age 57 and had no cardiovascular disease, cancer or chronic pain at the beginning of the study.

The team classified high quality diets as having at least 4.5 cups of fruit and vegetables a day, two or more servings of fish per week, less than two servings of processed meats per week and no more than five servings of red meat a week. One limitation of the study was that it did not track things like sodas, desserts or fast food.

For activity levels, the researchers used a questionnaire to ask about the total minutes the participants spent doing both moderate physical activity and strenuous activity that lasted more than 10 minutes at a time.

The researchers then looked at all-cause mortality along with specific metrics of cardiovascular and cancer mortality. They found that while people who exercised but still ate badly were better off than those who didn’t exercise at all, the benefits of exercise were less when combined with an unhealthy diet. Alternatively, the study participants who had the most nutritious diets had worse health outcomes without exercise.

So physical activity is important and whatever your level of exercise, diet is important. Lead author Dr. Melody Ding suggests that we need to view exercise as more than figuring out how many miles “cancel out” a sugary treat. “It’s not just about burning calories,” she says. “We need to shift that thinking.”

Self-Talk Strategy. If what you say to yourself during a workout matters, does positive self-talk versus a negative inner monologue give you a physical advantage?

A study (read the abstract) published earlier this year in the journal Psychophysiology gave 29 volunteers self-talk training before separating them into three groups and having them complete an hour-long treadmill run at a moderate pace (70% of their VO2 max).

One group used their positive self-talk training. Another was given negative self-talk statements including, “My energy feels low,” and “I want to quit.” The final group listened to a Stephen Hawking audio-documentary meant to distract them from positive or negative thoughts.

There was no difference between the positive self-talk runners and those who listened to Hawking talk about physics. The negative self-talk runners however, had a faster breathing rate and higher levels of cortisol, a stress hormone, in their saliva. The negative chatter lead to anxiety, stress and physiological changes.

It’s important to note that the training effort might skew these results. At a moderate pace, distraction may work but at an all-out pace, simply distracting yourself may not keep negative self-talk at bay and it may be helpful to have positive phrases at the ready.

If you find it too difficult to get rid of negative thoughts during a grueling activity, maybe try what one mountain biker told a researcher was his solution: Shout the negative phrases that are running through your mind at the competition.

Replay

This week’s vintage moment in fitness culture is brought to you by the Jane Fonda workout, 1982.