Why “Survival of the fittest”?

We all know that a sedentary lifestyle is unhealthy and that we should be physical active. However, why is that? Why does evolutionary biologist describe natural selection as survival of the fittest meaning that the “fit” has a greater probability for survival than the “unfit”.  Under follows a brief and simplified history lesson on why we become “born to be active”.

Once superior locomotive skills and physical capacity were essential for human survival and certainly a reason that Homo sapiens developed and prospered. Physical capacity was important in order to evade predators and secures food supply. Comparative physiologists (Hochachka et al., 1999) together with anthropologist (Bramble and Lieberman, 2004) has hypothesized that superior traits of endurance capacity together with an impressive ability to thermoregulate was essential for ancestral humans from the high plains of East Africa to succeed as game hunters. A success which ensured high protein sources of food which again was important for the development of larger brains and complex cooperative behavior compared to other primates. Simply stated: Physical capacity was necessary for human survival and development.

Which training effects are obtained by following our 7-week program?

On our website we have a seven-week training program present to give you who follow us a simple recipe for improved fitness and health. This program is designed as an aid to getting started with exercise, and is designed both for those who hate and those who love to exercise. It is based on our previous studies on effective training, but is deliberately made more time-efficient to fit into a busy schedule. We’ve however never really tested exactly whether this program gives a good training effect – Until now.

PAI – Personal Activity Intelligence – introduced to the world

Close to 175 000 attendees, including 6000 journalists, visited to the worlds largest convention for consumer electronics, CES, last week in Las Vegas. Among them was head of CERG, professor Ulrik Wisløff, who together with Canadian wearable company Mio Global introduced PAI, Personal Activity Intelligence to the worlds technology press.

PAI is a result of research based on the HUNT study where more than 60 000 individuals has been monitored over a period of more than 20 years. The goal is to make PAI the new world standard of activity tracking. PAI is an individual metric that makes sense of measured heart rate data, and significantly reduces the risk of lifestyle related diseases.

A Revolutionary Metric System to Help Your Lifestyle – CERG research in new Fitness app

January 6th, the fitness app Mio PAI is launched during CES 2016 in Las Vegas. The app is based on CERG research.

“This is based on solid medical research. We have developed an algorithm, PAI – personal activity intelligence, which relies on the data from The HUNT Study,” CERG leader, Professor Ulrik Wisløff, explained to Adresseavisen.

Wisløff thinks the app could revolutionize the measurement of exercise effects.

“PAI score adapts the individual user’s lifestyle and creates customized targets that are realistic to achieve. As long as the heart rate reaches a certain zone for a certain period, the user will achieve maximum health impact”, Wisløff told the Norwegian newspaper.

PAI is based on incredibly robust data. With a large population we have studied over many years, through The Hunt Study, this is unique.

Enjoy the Christmas holiday, but stay active!

In 1966 a legendary study from Dallas was published where they studied the effect of total inactivity for 3 weeks. After this 3 week period, the so-called “Dallas bed-rest study” found an increase in body weight, body-fat and a marked decline in fitness level. 30 years later they followed up the same participants and re-examined their health status. As one might expect after 30 years of aging, both body weight, body fat percentage and fitness declined from the happy 20s (before the 3 weeks of bed-rest). However, they found that they were in better shape after 30 years of aging than they were after 3 weeks of inactivity! What many researchers are asking now is if the decline in fitness associated with aging is caused by lower activity level with aging compared to activity level as young.

Some of this we are trying to answer with the Generation 100 study, which you can read more about in our blog here!

Idar (72) on 800 kilometer long walk

Idar Gjertsen (72) is a participant in our major research project on exercise in the elderly, Generation 100. Last year he impressed the young pilgrims in Spain during his two week pilgrimage, and now he has started on a new tour. It began in St. Jean de Pied de Port in France close to the Spainish border on April 28th. His goal is the famous pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela about 815 km away. Also this year, we will share some glimpses of his trip here on the blog.

April 27th:
Now my pulse is high. Am I sure this is a smart plan…?
Tomorrow I will go to the airport. I will stay for one night in Bayonne. The next morning I shall proceed to St. Jean de Pied de Port where I will stamp in my pilgrim passport, firmly grasp my new light poles and then I start this year’s Camino.

Should we pay people to work out?

Non-adherence to exercise programmes and guidelines continues to be a massive public health challenge. As few as 5% of American adults achieve the current recommendation of 30 minutes a day of physical activity. The reasons for such widespread low activity levels are complex, but the prospects of a longer life expectancy and higher quality of life don’t seem to be enough to get a lot of people exercising.

Money makes the world go around, so the saying goes… but can it also get the scales to go down as well? The costs associated with obesity related illness are mind-boggling. A recent report by McKinsey Global Institute estimated the global economic burden of obesity to be around US$2 trillion a year, equivalent to 2.8% of global GDP, and nearly as costly as smoking, or armed violence, war and terrorism. If the costs of paying people to be active is less than the costs of an inactive lifestyle, then such a program would pay for itself.

Trondheim as a smart, healthy and active city

Is it possible to build a new part of Trondheim into a health and environmental friendly city for its inhabitants?

Trondheim health cluster and NTNU recently hosted a 2 day work shop discussing how to develop the Rotvoll area into a smart healthy city part. Through an interdisciplinary discussion, several key focus areas including health, mobility in town, road and housing structure, pollution, noise and new innovative technologies were presented and discussed.

Through interdisciplinary planning it is possible to develop a moving city, allowing for walking and biking as the main mode of transportation, availability of healthy food and environmentally sustainable choices. To achieve this, the smart choices need to be the easiest choice to make.

CERG in Japanese running magazine

The Japanese magazine “Running Style” has two pages about 4×4 intervall training based on the research we do her on CERG in their last issue. Interviewed in the article is Shigenori Ito M.D., Ph. D., who visited us last September.

 

Read also: Taking 4×4 intervaltraining to Japan

“Since my fantastic visit to CERG in September last year, I have studied high intensity interval training (HIT) and tried to spread HIT in cardiac rehabilitation as well as sport medicne in Japan. This article in a popular Japanese running magazine is the first step.
The content includes that increasing VO2max by 4×4 HIT is a beneficial way for

beginner runners using Heart Rate monitor to improve their records. To know peak Heart Rate is very important and we can know VO2max and peak Heart Rate easily by using the calculators at CERG’s web sites!”, Ito says.

Find our HRmax calculator and our Fitness calculator on our websites here!

 

– The feeling in the shower is pretty hard to beat

“There are several reasons why I exercise. Here are the top three:
1) It clears my head.
2) It will probably help me live longer.
3) The feeling I have in the shower after a good exercise is pretty hard to beat!;)”
Lasse Berre, Norwegian photographer

 

Why do you exercise? Share your reason along with a picture under the hashtag #CERGxmas on Instagram to join our Advent Calendar. If you have a private Instagram profile, you can upload your photo to our International Facebookpage.

Follow us on Instagram as CERG_ntnu, Twitter as CERG_ntnu and on our International Facebookpage

People from all over the world can participate and win. Read more about the prizes and the rules here!