It's All Uphill From Here
'Steeper is cheaper' for climbing hills, a lactate study says it's all in the hands, strength training is good for sleep and your recommendations.
The Rundown
It’s All Uphill From Here. Research on running to the top of a hill has found that it takes less energy to ascend directly up steeper slopes rather than go back and forth at a gentler incline. But does that hold true for walkers and backpackers? A team from the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine decided to find out.
Their study looked at four different climbing rates of between 1.9 and 7.8 meters per minute and the overall results were similar to the previous findings on runners. For each climbing rate, choosing a steeper slope meant burning fewer calories. (The steepest slope was about 13 degrees, and in that range, steeper was always better).
The team also added three different temperatures to the mix: 32, 50 and 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The data at 50 and 68 degrees was about the same but at 32 degrees things were different. At slower vertical climb rates, calorie burn rates were higher than normal at 32 degrees (presumably) because the participants were using extra energy by shivering to keep themselves warm. At higher vertical climb rates, calorie burn was about the same regardless of temperature (likely because the subjects were working hard enough to stay warm even at 32 degrees).
The results are based on a fixed climbing rate so if you want to reach the top in a specific amount of time choosing the steeper route will generally save you energy.
Investigating Lactate. The relationship between the length of a person’s index and ring fingers is known as the 2D:4D ratio and it has been correlated with performance in distance running. Now, researchers at Swansea University’s Applied Sports, Technology, Exercise and Medicine team, along with colleagues in Cyprus, Poland and Spain, are trying to discover if it’s possible to predict just how much lactate a person will produce based on the ratio. Their work focuses on male and female soccer players.
Lactate is regarded as the preferred fuel for nerve and muscle cells. Vigorous exercise results in lactate being released into the blood stream but high levels may indicate that the body is in a state of stress. Two recent studies have found a quick accumulation of lactate in both male and female players during treadmill tests with running speeds up to 16 Km/h.
In a paper published last year examining male soccer players, the team found the 2D:4D ratio was the strongest predictor of lactate. Men with a long ring finger relative to their index finger produced a small amount of lactate in a treadmill test. For women, there were two predictors, height and 2D:4D. (These results are the team’s latest findings, recently published in the journal Early Human Development).
The link here is thought to be the testosterone-estrogen balance in the womb and at puberty. A long ring finger is a marker of higher levels of prenatal testosterone and a long index finger is a marker of higher levels of prenatal estrogen.
Lead researcher, John Manning, sums up the results: “Men who have experienced high testosterone and low estrogen (long ring fingers) before birth and women who have experienced high testosterone and low estrogen before birth and at puberty (tall women) produced low levels of lactate in an incremental treadmill test.”
He adds that the findings have implications beyond soccer, including in sports such as distance running and in clinical settings where high lactate is found in serious medical conditions.
Exercise for Better Sleep. Cognitive behavioral therapy is the first-line treatment for insomnia but it can be time-consuming, expensive and a challenge to find qualified therapists. Looking for an easier to implement alternative, Thai researchers led a study that examined exercise’s impact on sleep quality. Overall, they found that people slept better when they exercised but one form was more effective than others.
Using a systematic review and meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials held between 1996 and 2021 and featuring 2,170 participants, the study evaluated and compared the impact of different types of physical exercise on sleep quality in adults aged 60 and older who had been diagnosed with insomnia.
To measure sleep quality outcomes, the researchers turned to the Global Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (GPSQI). The index asks participants 19 self-rated questions about seven components: sleep quality, duration, time it takes to fall asleep, time spent in bed actually sleeping, sleep disturbances, use of sleeping medication and degree of dysfunction during the day. The GPSQI combines all seven components into a single overall score. The lower the score, the better the quality of sleep.
In 54% of the studies, exercise intensity was mild to moderate and the average workout time per session was around 54 minutes. In 48% of the studies, the number of exercise sessions per week was three. In 35% of the studies, it was twice a week.
Aerobic exercise like running, cycling or swimming, saw a GPSQI drop of 4.36 points, meaning significantly better sleep. However, the variation between results suggested that different studies produced mixed outcomes so the effect of aerobic exercise on sleep quality is strong but not consistent across all trials.
Strength training, including free weights, weight machines or resistance bands, produced the best effect on sleep quality, lowering the GPSQI by 5.75 points.
The team acknowledged that exercise, particularly strength training, is beneficial for enhancing subjective sleep quality at a clinically significant level compared with normal activities, but noted that “caution” should be applied when interpreting the results because of the small number of studies examined and the high risk of bias among them. Future research, they suggest, could incorporate both subjective and objective measures, like heart rate and oxygen consumption, to validate the effect of exercise on sleep.
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There’s also this piece from TechRadar that offers seven AI prompts to help you reach your exercise goals.