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Have you ever began the day feeling exhausted, unmotivated, and negative, just to find yourself full of energy, determined, and positive just a few hours later? This is because energy and mood are fluid. No matter what state we are in, we can almost always find a way out of it. A lot of times, it’s a matter of finding out how. For many people, the answer is exercise. The link between exercise and mood has been at the top of the research list for almost 100 years now, and the findings have...

Although we sometimes want to avoid sweating all together, there are several reasons why we sweat…and also several benefits. The main purpose of perspiration is to cool the body. When our core temperature spikes (either through the generation of heat from exercise, the environment, or both), our body works to send this heat to our extremities to be dissipated. From here, we go through “evaporative cooling,” where the heat energy is used to transform our liquid sweat into gas....

Exercise and Cognition Just when we thought the benefits couldn’t get any better, recent research has indicated that exercise has a significant impact on the efficacy of our cognition. According to Gomez-Pinilla and Hillman, “aerobic fitness spares age-related loss of brain tissue during aging, and enhances functional aspects of higher order regions involved in the control of cognition.” This seems to have a dose-response relationship, since more fit people have been shown to ...

With exercise and nutrition, there is a whirlwind of differing and contradicting information out there: high carb low fat vs. low carb high fat diets, strength training vs. cardio, crunches vs. no crunches, and so on. To clear some of the air, below are some common myths explained and backed up by extensive research and analyses: 1.) “Strength training will make me bulky” Many women are hesitant to do any sort of resistance training because they are afraid they will “bulk up.&...

Here’s a staggering statistic: according to the New York Times, “(a) study concluded that inactivity costs the world economy almost $68 billion annually in medical expenses and lost productivity.” Even worse, although the United States only accounts for less than 5 of these costs ($28 billion). Here’s part of the issue - most of us look at broad statistics like this and immediately turn outward. We begin to blame the society we live in and the people around us rather loo...