Here's a great twofer: Be a good dad and get a good cardio workout. Playing with your kids can be as beneficial as certain workouts, according to a study in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. Just 20 minutes of playing soccer and dodgeball raised adults' heartbeats to 88 percent of their maximum and burned 160 calories, researchers found; half an hour burned 240 calories—about the same as a moderate bike ride. The games were more than enough "to produce training effects and benefits from physical activity," says study coauthor Phillip Watts, Ph.D., of Northern Michigan University.
Caffeinate Correctly
Consider switching to tea for your prerace caffeine jolt. A study review in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports confirms that ingesting caffeine improves athletic performance, but tea is a better delivery system than coffee. Java may be less efficient because of "the interaction of caffeine with the hundreds of other chemicals contained in coffee," says review author Mike Doherty, Ph.D. He surveyed 21 caffeine studies and concluded that caffeine reduces perceived exertion by 6 percent, meaning you can go harder over a longer period. Overall performance rose by 11 percent. The ideal dosage ranges from 140 milligrams (the amount found in 24 ounces of tea) to 400 mg. Drink your tea roughly 60 minutes before exercise for maximum effect.
Fat is Not Fit
Overweight men who can keep up with skinny guys may be fooling themselves. The strongest predictor of cardiovascular-disease risk is fatness, rather than aerobic fitness. University of Colorado researchers screened 135 healthy men for 18 heart-disease risk factors and found that body fat was associated with higher scores in all categories, independent of aerobic capacity. One-third of the participants were vigorous exercisers with a wide range of body fat. Of course, it's better to be fat and fit than fat and wheezy, but overweight men should still strive to lose pounds, says study author Demetra Christou, Ph.D., of Texas A&M’s department of health and kinesiology.
Massage Myth?
There's no proof that massages improve sports performance or prevent injury, according to a study review in the Journal of Sports Medicine. Patria Hume, Ph.D., says massage can have psychological benefits, but on the downside, it can hinder a muscle's explosive power.
Tearing it Up
Here are two reasons to lose weight: your knees. If your body-mass index is 27.5 or higher, the odds of torn knee cartilage triple compared with those for men of healthy weight, according to a study at the University of Utah. A BMI over 40 increases risk 15-fold. "But don't avoid exercise for fear of suffering a tear, unless you're already having twinges of pain in the knee," says study author Kurt Hegmann, M.D. So start walking.
