Gut Feeling

In this edition, Netflix does more than "chill," a gut-brain pathway might hold the secret to exercise motivation, REM sleep gets a mask and your weekly recommendations.

The Rundown

Netflix & Sweat. Just in time for your fitness resolutions, Netflix is giving you the chance to workout. In partnership with Nike, the streamer has launched an initial group of 46 exercise videos (eventually increasing to 90) that range in length and skill level, with most not requiring additional equipment. The workouts are produced by Nike Training Club and are available across all of Netflix’s subscription plans.

Gut Feeling. The mind body connection is often talked about in exercise research and a new study has added to the discussion by identifying a gut-brain pathway in mice that links specific gut bacteria with an animal’s motivation for exercise. If the same pathway is identified in people, it could mean that modifying your microbiome might kickstart a desire to workout.

Using several hundred genetically diverse mice, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that antibiotic treatment reduced the animals’ interest in exercising by about 50 percent and two specific bacterial species were influencing exercise preferences. But how exactly?

The team discovered that the two bacterial species were expressing fatty acid amides (FAAs) and these FAAs were stimulating sensory neurons in the gut that spoke to the brain. Basically, the sensory neurons in the colon were stimulated after exercise and sent signals to the brain that led to dopamine releases in the region that controls movement and reward.

If a similar gut-brain path is found in humans, it will offer significant potential for diet, lifestyle or metabolite supplementation to boost a person’s motivation to exercise.

REM Eye Mask. The rapid eye movement or REM stage of sleep plays an important part in learning, memory and brain development but currently, lab-based tests are needed to directly measure how much REM sleep you’re getting.

The SomaSleep mask wants to take REM sleep analysis from the lab to the bedroom. Developed by Seattle-based startup Somalytics, the mask tracks eye movements while you sleep by using integrated capacitive sensors made from a proprietary carbon-nanotube “paper” composite material. A group of four sensors is located below the foam padding in one of the mask’s two eye cups. As the foam is pressed to the eye when the mask is worn, the sensors detect electrical signals above, below and to either side of the eye.

The recorded data is sent to a paired smartphone, tablet or compatible fitness-tracking device to give you a sleep assessment. One charge of the mask’s battery lasts about eight hours. Somalytics says the mask should be commercially available by next December and prospective buyers can register for updates via the website.

Extra Point

Watch

Super League: The War for Football. On December 15, the European Court of Justice denied a lawsuit brought by the Super League, a breakaway football league, which claimed that the European regulatory bodies for the sport, including UEFA and FIFA, were an illegal monopoly under EU competition law.

This four-part series documents the battle that began when the league emerged, as European football’s most powerful leaders chose to defend or upend the sport’s traditions. Super League: The War for Football premieres on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 13.

Listen

Running for Real. Host Tina Muir covers general running topics in this highly rated running podcast that also includes issues that have “a meaningful impact on runners’ lives.” Recent episodes talk about injury “negotiation” versus injury “prevention,” and how sport is a vehicle for social change.

Read

The Odd Fitness Genius Behind “Buns of Steel.” In this article for Slate magazine, Heather Radke interviews Greg Smithey, the fitness entrepreneur who developed one of the most successful exercise phenomena of the last 40 years. As Radke writes, both Smithey and his “bun-based aerobics class were emblematic of a change that was happening in the 1970s and ‘80s in how Americans related to their bodies.”