Cameron Brewer was one of the members of White Dragon Martial Arts who performed the lion dance Thursday at Lindbergh Field. Howard Lipin u-t photos
Members of White Dragon Martial Arts performed for travelers and other spectators Thursday at Lindbergh Field’s Terminal 2 as the Chinese New Year approaches and also as part of the continuing performing arts program at the airport. Established in 1985, White Dragon is one of the oldest and largest martial arts schools in the region, with nine schools in San Diego and Riverside counties.
Members of White Dragon Martial Arts perform a lion dance Thursday at Lindbergh Field’s Terminal 2, in advance of the upcoming Chinese New Year in February, and part of the performing arts program at the airport.
By U-T San Diego JAN. 25, 2013 Read the original Union Tribune article here here.
In two recent studies by the British Medical Journal, researchers found that everyone could enjoy the “survival advantage” of elite athletes by simply meeting physical activity guidelines.
In the first study, researchers compared life expectancy among 15,174 Olympic athletes who won medals between 1896 and 2010 with general population groups matched by country, sex, and age. All medallists lived an average of 2.8 years longer – a significant survival advantage over the general population in eight out of the nine country groups studied.
In the second study, researchers measured the effect of high intensity exercise on mortality later in life among former Olympic athletes. They tracked 9,889 athletes with a known age at death, who took part in at least one Olympic Games between 1896 and 1936. Together they represented 43 disciplines requiring different levels of exercise intensity and physical contact.
After adjusting for sex, year of birth and nationality, they found that athletes from sports with high cardiovascular intensity (such as cycling and rowing) or moderate cardiovascular intensity (such as gymnastics and tennis) had similar mortality rates compared with athletes from low cardiovascular intensity sports, such as golf or cricket.
However, the researchers did find an 11% increased risk of mortality among athletes from disciplines with a high risk of body collision and with high levels of physical contact, such as boxing, rugby and ice hockey, compared with other athletes. They suggest this reflects the impact of repeated collisions and injuries over time.
In other words, there was no significant difference in overall life expectancy between the different athletes with the exception of high contact sports who on average had shorter life expectancy. If improving your health and increasing your overall longevity is the goal, moderate exercise performed regularly will wield the same benefits as extreme athletic efforts.
Research shows the lifestyle choices you make in middle age have a direct impact on how you’ll spend your Golden Years. If you’re fit at 50, you’re much more likely to be healthy into your 70s and 80s.
Exercise reduces inflammation, which is a driving force behind most chronic conditions; exercise also improves your strength and protects your brain as you age.
The older you get, the harder it is to get fit, especially after 40, and this is particularly true for women. Once you enter middle age, biological processes like hormone changes, decreased muscle mass, and AMPK decline make it extra challenging to become fit.
Research continues to prove that more exercise is not necessarily better; in a new Danish study, participants exercising for 30 minutes daily lost more weight than those exercising an hour a day.
