The Rundown

AI Exercise. When it comes to designing a workout, ChatGPT might not be the best resource just yet. According to an analysis published in JMIR Medical Education, ChatGPT’s workout recommendations didn’t reflect the guidelines that medical professionals consider standard, were not comprehensive enough, misinformed users about whether they should exercise at all and were generally “difficult to read.”

For the analysis, a researcher asked ChatGPT to provide exercise recommendations for 26 populations identified in the American College of Sports Medicine’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. These populations included healthy adults, older adults, children and teens, people with cardiovascular disease and those with obesity.

While the AI’s recommendations were factually correct and had a 90.7 percent accuracy rate when compared with a “gold-standard reference source,” the recommendations weren’t comprehensive and covered only 41.2 percent of the guidelines.

For people with hypertension, fibromyalgia, cancer and other conditions, ChatGPT generated misinformation and was the least accurate for those with hypertension. It also prompted groups to get medical clearance before exercising 53 percent of the time, even when the population in question didn’t need to ask a doctor before starting a workout program.

Yoga and the Brain. A new study out of UCLA has found that Kundalini yoga resulted in a range of measurable brain benefits including improved memory, anti-aging and anti-inflammatory effects for older women.

UCLA Health researchers recruited 79 women aged 50 and over with self-reported cognitive decline (compared to the previous year’s functioning) and one or more cardiovascular risk factors, including a history of heart attack, prior diabetes diagnosis, current blood pressure medications or current medications for high cholesterol.

Forty of the women were randomly chosen for the 12 week yoga intervention, which consisted of weekly, one-hour in-person sessions with a certified Kundalini yoga instructor. (Kundalini yoga focuses on meditation and breath work more than physical poses). The remaining 39 participants attended a 12 week memory training intervention, which involved in-person classes that taught memory strategies.

The researchers tested the women’s cognitive function and took blood samples to look for gene expression of aging markers and molecules related to inflammation. A small group also had MRIs to study changes in brain matter.

At 24 weeks, only the Kundalini yoga group showed improvements in subjective memory. The yoga intervention produced an increase in the volume of the hippocampus (which manages stress-related memories) and better functional connectivity in that region.

At 12 and 24 weeks, the yoga but not the memory group showed a reversal of aging biomarkers, including an improvement of gene expression of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules.

The main improvements in the memory group were to the women’s long-term memory.

The study’s corresponding author sums it up this way, “Ideally, people should do both (yoga and memory training) because they do train different parts of the brain and have different overall health effects. Yoga has this anti-inflammatory, stress reducing, anti-aging neuroplasticity brain effect which would be complimentary to memory training.”

Extra Point

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Drive to Survive. And they’re back. The behind-the-scenes drama of F1 drivers continues in the latest installment of this popular series, which looks at 2023’s one-sided championship. It does offer some compelling storylines beyond the predictable domination of Red Bull Racing. Plus, it has fan favorite and (former) Haas team principal Guenther Steiner one last time! Season six of Drive to Survive is streaming on Netflix.

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Fitness and Philosophy. This podcast discusses how exercise and philosophical concepts relate to “coaching fitness, participating in fitness as an individual, and fitness culture at large.” Recent episodes cover habit, ease, difficulty and beauty.

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How a Netflix Show Has Become a Key Driver Behind F1’s Rising Popularity. Sticking with the Formula One theme, this article discusses how Drive to Survive, despite focusing on a sport that in many ways is “ill-suited to television,” has managed to increase its audience and importantly, drive down the age of F1 TV viewers.