The Rundown

Exercise + Storytelling. If you’re looking for a different kind of motivation to get moving, Marvel is releasing a superhero-themed fitness app. Called Marvel Move, the app tracks how far and how fast you go, either walking, jogging or running, while an audio narrative plays that will prompt you to move faster at certain points.

When it launches this summer, there will be five storylines available, one with specific fitness goals and four with less precise aims. They are: “Thor & Loki: Asgard 5K Training” (an eight-week couch to 5K program), “The Hulk: Hulkville,” “X-Men: Age of ORCHIS,” “Daredevil: Terminal Degree,” and “Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch: In Dreams.”

The app will launch for iPhone and Android as part of the ZRX app, which will collate audio from Marvel Move, Zombies, Run! and the sci-fi themed Venture.

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Better Breathing. Whatever type of workout you do, breathing is important to performance. But is it really possible to breath better? Researchers behind a new paper published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology wanted to find out so they reviewed the current evidence on respiratory interventions. Here are a few highlights from their work:

Nasal dilators: Those strips that look like small bandaids you wear across your nose do open your nasal passages but the review found that they don’t change any measurable health-related outcomes. For athletes, the research has not identified any benefits in heart rate, perceived effort, oxygen consumption, lactate, or recovery.

Nasal breathing: If you’ve ever tried to breathe through your nose during a workout, you know it’s challenging as the intensity increases. Evidence suggests that most people can only manage to breathe through their nose up to about 80 percent of VO2max. (Although, that percentage can improve with practice).

The review found a few studies that say breathing through your nose generates higher levels of nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels and potentially helps keep airways open. However, it’s not entirely clear whether this leads to clinically significant health improvements. Overall, they found that breathing through your nose is probably achievable, but there’s “little to no data” that it’s useful for athletes.

Respiratory muscle training: The muscles we use to breathe, like other muscles, get tired and start to work less efficiently. To strengthen them, athletes can do exercises with a kazoo-like device that makes it harder to inhale.

The researchers are upbeat about this one. They say it’s well-established that respiratory muscle training can improve the strength and endurance of those muscles and note that there’s “convincing evidence” that it can improve performance in athletes.

The paper also talks about canned oxygen, nutritional interventions and “systemized breathing strategies.” You can read more about their conclusions here.

Extra Point

Watch

100 Days To Indy. This new docuseries takes you behind-the-scenes of the 2023 NTT INDYCAR Series, as the sport’s top drivers take to the tracks of St. Petersburg, Dallas, and Long Beach before competing for the top prize at the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race. The action focuses on four-time winner Helio Castroneves, last year’s champion Marcus Ericsson, Team Penske leader Josef Newgarden, and rising stars from other rival teams. 100 Days to Indy premieres on Thursday, April 27 at 9 p.m. on The CW.

Listen

Arnold’s Pump Club. On this podcast, Arnold Schwarzenegger offers tips from his daily newsletter. Each short episode “helps make sense of the research that matters, shares workouts and healthy recipes, and delivers motivation straight from Arnold.”

Read

The Secret to a Great Workout is in Your Garden. Your backyard could be a great place to get in shape, says writer Karen Hugg. In this piece, she explores how “gardening is basically a superfood for fitness, combining the healthiest activities your body needs.”