Masters in Exercise

In this episode, we talk with Prof. Claude Bouchard, who is a Chair in Genetics and Nutrition at Louisiana State University. His research focuses on the genetics of obesity and co-morbidities as well as on the genetics of cardiorespiratory fitness and adaptation to exercise. We speak with him about how our genetic makeup can affect the individual variability in the response to different types of exercise. We discuss the evidence that our genes can affect our response to exercise, especially in relation to cardiorespiratory fitness. We then talk about which specific groups of genes could drive the effect and to what extent exercise can change the behavior of our genes through epigenetic modifications. We also talk about using genetic information in the context of precision medicine and in the identification of athletic talent. A wonderful conversation with one of the best exercise geneticists in the world.

In this episode, we talk with Professor Nicolette Bishop, who is a Professor in Exercise Immunology at Loughborough University (UK). Her research is focused on studying the effects of exercise on inflammation and the immune system.Professor Bishop is also interested in studying infection risk in elite athletes. We speak with her about the interaction between exercise, chronic inflammation, and the immune system in the context of health and disease. We start discussing how exercise impacts inflammation and the immune system and why too much exercise can increase infection risk. We also talk about some studies that suggest that having a high cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2) can reduce the risk of hospitalization due to COVID. We talk about the parameters of exercise that can help reduce chronic inflammation, whether some types of exercise could be more effective than others and how we can monitor the effects of exercise on our immune system.

In this episode, we talked with Dr. Robert Ross, who is a Professor in the School of Kinesiology at Queen’s University (Canada). His research is focused on the development and testing of lifestyle-based interventions designed to manage obesity and related health risks. We speak with him about the use of exercise to reduce body weight and cardiometabolic risk factors such as abdominal fat and insulin resistance. We start by discussing the different types of fat in our body and why they pose different risk to our health. We then discuss the evidence that supports the use of exercise alone, or in combination with caloric restriction diet, as intervention to manage overweight and obesity. We talk about the parameters of exercise that can drive a positive change and discuss whether some types of exercise could be more effective than others. We also discuss why exercise, even if it does not lead to weight loss is still beneficial. Lots of useful information in this conversation. During our talk Dr. Ross mentions a website that allows you to estimate your cardiorespiratory fitness. Give it a try: https://www.worldfitnesslevel.org/#/  

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ana Abrantes, who is a Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. Her research is focused on the development and testing of novel interventions for decreasing relapse risk among individuals with alcohol and other drug abuse problems. She also conducts research in the area of physical activity promotion for individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders. We speak with her about how exercise can help in the management of different types of addictions. We start by trying to understand addictions and how we diagnose them clinically. We discuss the evidence that supports the use of exercise as an intervention to manage different addictions. We talk about what types of addictions could be more susceptible to benefit from exercise, the potential mechanisms underlying the positive effect, and whether some types of exercise could be more effective than others. You can follow Dr. Ana Abrantes on twitter at @ana_m_abrantes

In this episode we spoke with Dr. Lori Ploutz-snyder about how to exercise during spaceflight missions. Dr. Ploutz-snyder is a professor of Movement Science and the Dean of the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Previously, she was the Lead Scientist for the Exercise Physiology and Countermeasures Project at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Her research focuses on studying how to counteract the negative effects of unloading on muscle and bone physiology that occur during spaceflights and how to use this information to create countermeasures to protect the well-being of astronauts. During our conversation we talk about how and why our bodies change during spaceflights, how long these changes last after space missions and if some of these changes can be irreversible. We talk about using exercise as a countermeasure to maintain the health of crew members during these long-term missions and the main challenges that we encounter when we need to design training interventions for people while they are in the space. This and much more in a fascinating conversation that I hope you will enjoy. Dr. Ploutz-snyder's research can be followed at https://www.kines.umich.edu/directory/lori-ploutz-snyder.

In this episode, I talked to Dr. Isabelle Gagnon, who is an Associate Professor in the School of Physical and Occupation Therapy at McGill University, in Montreal, Canada. She is an expert in the study of concussion in children and adolescents and, the use of exercise as a potential intervention to reduce post-concussion symptoms. We start this episode talking about how frequent concussions are, how it is diagnosed, and the most common signs and symptoms. We also talk about why, in some cases, post-concussion symptoms are persistent and are difficult to get rid of including the psychological component of this type of event. We discuss if exercise can be used as a rehabilitation tool, how early can exercise be introduced after the concussion and if it really matters at all. This episode is interesting because it shows the bad and the good of exercise. Concussions tend to happen during exercise, symptoms post-concussion can be triggered with exercise, but we can potentially use exercise to reduce the persistent symptoms of concussion in some individuals. You can follow Isabelle's work at: https://www.mcgill.ca/spot/isabelle-gagnon

In this episode I talked to Dr. Martin Gibala, who is a Professor in the department of Kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario (Canada). He is a world renown scientist who has done pioneering work to understand the physiological effects of interval training in general and, more specifically, high intensity interval training (HIIT). HIIT is a very time efficient type of training that is characterized by short bouts of high intensity exercise combined with short periods of complete rest or active recovery. We start talking about how time efficient really this type of training is. We also talk about recent studies showing that, even very short sessions of HIIT involving only three bouts of exercise of 20 seconds, can trigger very strong physiological adaptations. We discuss the mechanisms behind HIIT and whether this type of exercise could be a viable alternative to more traditional types of training. Dr. Gibala is the author of the book: The one minute workout. You can follow his research at https://martingibala.com or on twitter https://twitter.com/gibalam.   

Autism is one of the fastest-growing diagnosed developmental disabilities in the world. In this episode, I interviewed David Geslak. David is an American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Certified Exercise Physiologist and the founder of Exercise Connection, a great initiative that aims to create exercise tools and programs to engage and improve the lives of those with autism. David also created the Autism Exercise Specialist Certificate (AESC), a program sponsored by the ACSM, to educate those interested in using exercise for people with autism. Our conversation is precisely about exercise in this population. We start talking about how David started to work in this field and how exercise can help these individuals. We talk about the use of different types of exercise, the importance of creating a relationship, a connection, with the person with autism, the use of visual cues, the impact of medications and many more other things. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did. Learn more about David and Exercise Connection at http://www.exerciseconnection.com. 

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Charles Hillman, a professor in the Department of Psychology at Northeastern University, in Boston (USA). Dr. Hillman has devoted most of his research career to study how physical activity affects different aspects of cognition and brain health in children. In this episode we talk, among many other things, about the importance of physical activity for the developing brain and how exercise impacts academic performance in the youth. We also discuss how where we exercise can influence the benefits that exercise has on cognition and the role of technology in the promotion of physical activity. You can follow Dr. Hillman's research on twitter at @CBHLab.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Mark Tremblay. Dr. Tremblay is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at University of Ottawa, in Canada. He has devoted most of his career to study how physical activity affects different aspects of health in children, childhood obesity and the factors that can increase or reduce PA in this population. In this episode we cover many topics. We first talk about the trends of PA, overweight and obesity in children. We discuss the difference between lack of physical activity and sedentary behaviour and the price that we can pay for the latter. We also discuss the association between screen time and PA, the use of active-video games to promote PA, the importance of exercising in natural environments and what can we do to ensure that our children exercise enough. The conversation is truly fascinating. You can follow Dr. Tremblay's research at https://www.haloresearch.ca/dr-mark-tremblay/.