No time to exercise? Then this training programme might be for you

When it comes to exercise, what’s your excuse? Whether it’s lack of time, money or motivation – sometimes the lure of the sofa can just be too strong – it can be all too easy to put off that run for another day. But whatever your reason, it’s still recommended that adults aged between 19 and 64 should be getting at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity exercise a week. This roughly works out at about half an hour of brisk walking or cycling five times a week.

Improving sport performance through collaboration with Australian universities

A sport and exercise biomechanics expert from the University of Hull has been invited to visit two Australian universities, to bolster existing projects and develop new collaborations.

Dr Max Ditroilo has previously successfully collaborated with Dr Mark Watsford from the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS). Their research focussed on musculo-tendinous stiffness – the ability of the muscle-tendon unit to resist a stretching episode – and how it is related to muscular performance and injury risk.

The research has been published in many well-regarded journals, such as Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology and Sports Medicine.

‘Leafy greens’ may be the key to minimising damage caused during exercise

The saying “no pain, no gain” holds a lot more credence than simply being an old motivational comment to encourage more effort when exercising.

Research by Dr Mark Fogarty has identified natural dietary sources as a potential alternative to nutritional supplements, to stimulate important repair processes. Dr Fogarty’s research highlighted that 85g of raw watercress two hours before an exhaustive bout of exercise helped reduce damage to cellular DNA.

Research suggests that the fibrous nature of this vegetable, and others such as broccoli, allows a much slower transit time during digestion compared with a vitamin supplement. It is, therefore, likely that the nutritional compounds are released at a lower and more steady rate during digestion, rather than flooding the blood stream with very high concentrations.