The Rundown

Stair Master. A new study from Tulane University says walking up more than five flights of stairs a day could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20 percent. Coronary artery disease, stroke and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally.

The research team used data collected from 450,000 adults via the UK Biobank and determined participants’ susceptibility to cardiovascular disease based on family history, established risk factors and genetic risk factors. They also surveyed participants about their lifestyle habits and how often they climbed stairs. The median follow-up time was 12.5 years.

Co-corresponding author, Dr. Lu Qi, said that climbing stairs daily, specifically “short bursts of high-intensity stair climbing,” reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease in people who were less susceptible. In more susceptible people, Qi said, the risk could be “effectively offset” by daily stair climbing.

AI Fitness Coach. WHOOP announced that it has created a conversational AI coach to help you meet your fitness goals. It’s the first of its kind available in a fitness wearable, says the company.

Powered by GPT4, the advanced generative AI system from OpenAI, WHOOP Coach uses the biometric data collected by WHOOP Bands to give you personalized fitness advice and recommendations. Basically, it offers on-demand, tailored to your data, answers to any questions you have about your training.

WHOOP says the AI coach can offer training plans and recommendations based on your strain, sleep and recovery data as well as help you understand what your performance data means. It can give insights into how you compare to other WHOOP members and answer questions like, “Why am I tired today?” by analyzing your data.

In terms of privacy, the company’s Large Language Model (LLM) partner has a zero retention/zero training policy, meaning the LLM will not store or retain your anonymized WHOOP data. It will also not use it to train any LLM algorithms or technology.

Extra Point

Watch

Messi Meets America. The legend that is Lionel Messi gets the documentary treatment in this six-part series that takes viewers behind the scenes as he joins his new Inter Miami CF team and “Messi Mania” hits America. The first three episodes premiere on Apple TV+ on October 11 with the final three episodes to follow.

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Give Me Strength. Host Alice Liveing focuses on the importance of building mental and physical resilience in this podcast featuring empowered female voices in sport and beyond.

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Actually, It Turns Out All Those Warnings Not to Stretch Before Working Out Were Wrong. Rajpal Brar discusses how the idea that static stretching hurts athletic performance “misses out on multiple nuances and details” in this article from Well + Good.