午夜福利1000集合

I AM lying on a table having my body scanned as part of a much-needed appraisal of my physical condition. Overhead, a machine whirs, using low-level X-rays to compute the precise proportions of my fat, bone and muscle.

The results aren鈥檛 great. I am carrying 8 kilograms too much body fat for a 33-year-old male, while my upper body clearly hasn鈥檛 seen the inside of a gym for some time. The scan showed that I should aim to get leaner and stronger, while some recent misadventures on a tennis court provided an acute reminder of how far my aerobic capacity has fallen.

I need to get fitter, that much is clear. But like many people, my job is largely sedentary and I often don鈥檛 find the time to exercise. Which made me wonder: what if there were ways to hack my fitness so that I get more out of the workouts I actually do 鈥� or, even better, get fitter without moving a muscle. I have heard it might be possible to sleep yourself fitter, for instance, or that some sports shoes can help you run faster. There has also been talk of an 鈥渆xercise pill鈥�, and of people who can build more muscle just by thinking about it. I decided to investigate some low-effort ways to get my fitness on track, starting with the most basic exercise hack of all: breathing.

For many years, yoga devotees have advocated nasal breathing, and researchers are now interested in its effect on performance during exercise. The main reason for this is that a substance called nitric oxide (NO) is produced in the nasal cavity and inhaled when breathing through the nose, which might hold benefits for the cardiovascular system because NO widens blood vessels to increase blood flow. But while , the NO boost in these studies came from supplements such as L-arginine, rather than breathing itself. Direct comparisons of oral and nasal breathing suggest that in terms of delivering oxygen to the bloodstream. However, it isn鈥檛 yet clear whether this could make your sprint to catch the bus any easier.

The breathing trick that improves endurance

Don鈥檛 give up on breathing training just yet, however. One technique with a long pedigree is respiratory muscle training, or 鈥渨eight training for the respiratory muscles鈥�, says at the University of Arizona. Taking inspiration from both high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and resistance exercises for other muscle groups in the body, she has designed experiments where participants take five sets of six breaths into a device called Powerbreathe, which makes them apply more force with their diaphragm in order to open a pressure-dependent valve.

In a , Bailey and her colleagues found that participants who carried out a six-week programme with this device gained endurance and even saw reductions in their blood pressure. 鈥淲e鈥檙e strengthening the diaphragm, which leads to a reduced perception of effort during exercise,鈥� says Bailey. 鈥淚t may also improve the mechanics of breathing during exercise and extend the time for which people can work out.鈥� Devices such as Powerbreathe can be bought online, so, in theory, anyone can try out this technique at home. 鈥淭he main challenge is figuring out how intense to set the resistance level,鈥� says Bailey, but she is currently working on this.

This is promising, but I was also intrigued by the fact that when I had previously tried breathing exercises they had helped me sleep better, a known benefit of exercise. Could it work the other way round 鈥� might some better-quality shut-eye also improve my fitness?

Sleep better for stronger muscles

I sleepily switch on Zoom and appears on my screen. A researcher at the Australian Catholic University, he investigates whether improving sleep can boost the performance of elite athletes.

Ironically for me, given that we are doing this interview in the middle of the night, UK time, Morrison explains that a major problem is that most of us are sleep deprived, so simply bringing that sleep deficit back up to baseline might make us stronger and improve the efficiency of our aerobic fitness 鈥� for example, how much oxygen we require to run at a given pace. This is because a lot of the body鈥檚 maintenance work takes place while we sleep, affecting metabolism, the growth and repair of tissues and the function of mitochondria, the tiny structures within cells that create the energy our muscles require during exercise.

Research shows that getting just four hours of sleep a night for five nights can have a . Restricted sleep also and , both of which are thought to be important for how the body recovers from and adapts to exercise.

One of the other consequences of repeated lack of sleep is that it seems to make us weaker, says Morrison. This is because it . 鈥淭here鈥檚 a relationship between muscle atrophy and insufficient sleep,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen that it slows down muscle protein synthesis, both over a single night of disrupted sleep and [over] five consecutive nights as well.鈥� Much of this data has come from rodents, but a study of 915 men and women in the Netherlands aged 45 to 65 found a . The take-home message is that a good night鈥檚 sleep is a crucial part of any fitness regime.

Another, perhaps unsurprising, aspect of sleep is that a lack of it seems to reduce our motivation to exercise, with insomnia and 鈥� just one example of the power of the mind on our physical health.

鈥淚 think the mind is an overlooked and underutilised factor in determining our fitness,鈥� says , who directs the Mind and Body Lab at Stanford University, California. 鈥淥ur beliefs about exercise can shape not only our motivation to exercise, but also influence the benefits of that exercise.鈥�

Shift your mindset to help reduce body fat

Crum is a pioneer in this area. Back in 2007, she and her colleague Ellen Langer published a study of female hotel-room attendants. At the start of the study, they all considered themselves inactive and worried about the consequences of that on their health. But once Crum and Langer pointed out that they were, in fact, very active and their daily work activities, from lifting to scrubbing, all counted as exercise, . Nothing in their lives had changed other than their mindset.

Studies have since shown that how we contributes to the extent to which our muscles might waste with disuse. When researchers at Ohio University examined the power of visualisation among a group of adults who agreed to have their wrists immobilised for a week to induce weakness, they found that performing daily mental imagery of strong muscle contractions reduced this loss in strength by 50 per cent.

Earlier this year, indicated how having a different mindset can maximise the benefits of all the incidental exercise we do each day, such as housework or walking around the shops. It appears that tracking our steps through smartwatches and other wearable technologies can make a difference to how we perceive our fitness. The study showed that people who had previously regarded themselves as inactive, but found that they were actually completing about 7000 steps a day, began to report improved mood, better self-esteem and even a boost in aerobic fitness measurements, even though they weren鈥檛 exercising any more than usual.

How gut bacteria can keep you fit

An even more unexpected fitness hack might come from our gut. It seems that having the right populations of gut bacteria makes you more likely to exercise. Last December, Christopher Thaiss at the University of Pennsylvania and his colleagues found that appeared to play a much greater role than genetics when it came to running performance in mice. They identified two particular bacteria, Eubacterium rectale and Coprococcus eutactus, as being especially important. When the mice were given these in supplements, it seemed to enhance their desire to exercise. Further investigation showed that the metabolites of these bacteria stimulate sensory nerves in the gut that can enhance activity in a brain region linked with motivation.

It remains to be seen whether this works as effectively in humans. We still have much to learn about whether altering microbial populations through probiotics, prebiotics or a better diet, can make us any fitter, says at the University of Calgary in Canada. 鈥淭he microbiome has been linked to metabolic, gastrointestinal, cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health, as well as immunity development, all of which contribute to improving physical fitness,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut more research is needed in diverse populations to establish the actions of gut microbiota on the physical performance of an individual.鈥�

This could be significant, as many of us struggle to find the motivation to exercise. For instance, a study of adults in Scotland and England aged 40 to 65 found that , such as playing sport or going to the gym, for more than 15 minutes a month.

However, this doesn鈥檛 mean that these people are sitting around doing nothing for the majority of their day. Until recently, it was unclear quite how much incidental activity we are doing and what its impact on our health is. Now though, wearable devices mean we are able to investigate the effects on our health of general pottering around, shopping and cleaning in unprecedented detail through large-scale, long-term studies, such as the UK鈥檚 Biobank project. The findings are music to the ears of gym-avoiders. Mostly.

We now know any activity that expends energy above the baseline level of sitting quietly is beneficial for our overall health. Although you get the largest positive impact from higher-intensity activities (ones that leave you out of breath), every step counts towards cardiovascular health. Multiple studies have shown a sharp drop in mortality as the amount of daily movement we undertake increases, eventually reaching a plateau at around five hours of light physical activity. , not just exercise classes or a run.

The suprising power of incidental activity

In particular, short bursts of higher-intensity movement in our daily lives have 鈥渢remendous potential, provided that they are repeated regularly鈥� and conducted with sufficient intensity, says Emmanuel Stamatakis at the University of Sydney, who last year published the of the health impacts of so-called vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity. Stamatakis and his colleagues found that just three 1-minute bouts of intense movement per day 鈥� such as a burst of fast walking to catch a bus 鈥� halved the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. In fact, the impact of these short bursts in non-exercisers resulted in similar effects to the vigorous physical activity of exercisers.

Stamatakis suggests thinking about how we can add a bit more vigour to our daily activities. This could be walking up the stairs a little quicker, carrying your shopping rather than using a trolley or putting a little bit more intensity into gardening or housework.

One way to help make these changes could be to get a dog. A 2019 study found that than those who don鈥檛. More radically, you could turn the thermostat down, because shivering counts as exercise too. In fact, exercise and exposure to the cold have more in common than you might realise: they both , prompting muscles to burn fat. This could mean that exercising in the cold, such as cold-water swimming, results in more bang for your buck.

If this is too daunting, there could be the option of tapping directly into the benefits of biochemicals released by the body in response to exercise without being active at all. Many drug development projects are looking into this (see 鈥�Exercise pills鈥�), but alas, no such tablets will be available any time soon.

Technology to make you faster and stronger

There might be other ways to boost fitness through technology. Our shoes could be capable of helping our exercise performance, for instance. After the Nike Vaporfly trainer was released to great fanfare in 2017, amateur runners began turning to 鈥渟uper shoes鈥� in their droves. Studies have demonstrated that by between 2.7 and 4.2 per cent compared with typical running shoes.

There is a catch, however. This only seems to apply to fast runners capable of achieving a sub-3-hour-15-minute marathon. Research from earlier this year indicated that, for slower runners who take around an hour longer to complete this distance, .

Don鈥檛 despair: help with running can come in other ways. Recent research shows that by 7 per cent.

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For the less athletic among us, electronic muscle stimulation (EMS) devices could be a way of building muscle from the comfort of the couch. These devices, available in various forms since the 1950s, use electrical impulses to directly stimulate your motor neurons, eliciting a muscle contraction. There is considerable evidence to show that and thickness, and even .

So where does all this leave me in my fitness quest? It seems that there are some surprising low-effort tweaks that all of us can make to improve our strength and stamina, whether we are regular exercisers or completely sedentary. For me, losing 8 kilograms of fat seems like an ambitious goal, but, as psychologists like Crum might tell me, the limitations are only in my mind.

Want to learn more about health and well-being?
Explore the latest research at New Scientist Instant Expert, 15 July in London