In 2025, Vânia Aparecida Leandro-Merhi and a team from Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas studied 211 hospitalized adults in Brazil’s public health system. They used the Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria and handgrip strength (HGS) to spot nutritional risks, comparing them to standard tools like Nutritional Risk Screening-2002, measuring muscle strength and body composition.

In 2025, J. Zeng and a team from China reviewed 9 randomized trials with 514 adults battling depression. They compared high-intensity exercise (like intense running or weight lifting) to control groups, measuring depression with standard scales like the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD). Workouts lasted from weeks to months.

In 2025, Jingfeng Chen and a team from Chinese universities reviewed animal and human studies on how vitamin D and exercise together help keep brains healthy as people age. They looked at things like brain growth proteins, blood flow, and swelling in the brain, focusing on older adults with memory problems.

In 2025, Takuji Kawamura and a team from Tohoku University reviewed studies on how exercise affects epigenetic aging, which shows how fast your body ages at the DNA level. They looked at human and animal research, focusing on structured workouts like running or weightlifting, using epigenetic clocks to measure DNA changes in blood, muscles, and other organs.

In 2025, Ewelina Młynarska and a team from the Medical University of Lodz reviewed studies on creatine monohydrate supplementation combined with exercise for preventing type 2 diabetes. They focused on how skeletal muscle, which handles most body glucose, loses function in type 2 diabetes due to insulin resistance and sarcopenia (muscle wasting), and how creatine monohydrate—found in meat/fish or supplements—might help alongside workouts like weights or aerobics.

In 2023, Mark Hyman from the UltraWellness Center reviewed research on mitochondria, the cell powerhouses that convert food to energy. They decline with age, causing fatigue, brain fog, muscle weakness, and inflammation linked to diseases like Parkinson's, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Exercise triggers mitophagy, clearing damaged mitochondria, with studies showing 20-30% better mitochondrial function in active people vs. sedentary.

In 2023, Ben Singh and a team reviewed 97 meta-analyses covering 1,039 trials with 128,119 adults to compare exercise against psychotherapy or medications for mental health issues like depression and anxiety. They looked at various workouts—brisk walking, weights, yoga—measuring effects on mood, stress, and brain chemicals.

In 2016, Sal Di Stefano from Mind Pump Media reviewed what sore muscles mean for fitness, drawing on exercise science. He explained that soreness, often linked to inflammation or lactic acid buildup, happens when you try new workouts or push too hard, not necessarily from effective training. For example, even advanced lifters get sore from unfamiliar activities like swimming, but this doesn’t mean better muscle gains.

In 2015, Jose Antonio and a team from Nova Southeastern University studied 48 healthy, trained adults (men and women). They split them into two groups: one ate a normal protein diet (1.04 g/lb/day), the other a high protein diet (1.54 g/lb/day) from foods like beef protein, while both did the same heavy weight training program for 8 weeks.

In 2023, Hao Li and a team from China reviewed 22 randomized trials with 1,537 people battling substance use disorder. They explored how light, moderate, and high-intensity workouts like walking, jogging, or weight lifting reduce withdrawal symptoms such as cravings, depression, anxiety, and insomnia during detox.

In 2025, Francesco Bettariga and a team from Edith Cowan University studied breast cancer survivors. They tested a single 30-minute session of resistance training (like weights) or high-intensity interval training (HIIT), measuring myokines—proteins from muscles that fight cancer. Blood samples were taken before, right after, and 30 minutes post-workout to see effects on cancer cells in a lab.

In 2021, Yumeng Xie and a team from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University reviewed many studies on how exercise helps people with depression. They looked at different kinds of workouts like running, swimming, or yoga, and how they change brain chemicals, reduce swelling, and improve mood. Exercise works by boosting happy brain signals like serotonin and dopamine, growing new brain cells, and cutting down harmful stress.

In 2025, Xiaorong Ji and team from Shanghai University of Sport reviewed 21 studies with 1,200+ healthy adults. They looked at how whey protein, taken with exercise like weight lifting or running, helps build muscle. The studies compared groups using whey (20-40g per dose) to those doing exercise alone or with other proteins, measuring muscle protein synthesis (how muscles repair and grow) and the AKT/mTOR pathway, a cell signal that turns on muscle building.

In 2025, Li Ding and team from Shanghai University of Sport studied 16 trained men. In a double-blind test, they chewed caffeinated gum (4 mg/kg) or fake gum, then did bench press and back squat lifts. They measured max strength (1RM), power at different weights (25–90%), and muscle activity.

In 2025, a study from AnnalsofIM and others tracked 50,000+ adults with diabetes over years, using health records to compare exercise habits. They grouped people as inactive, insufficiently active, weekend warriors (≥150 min/week in 1–2 sessions), or regularly active, measuring heart-related deaths and overall mortality.

Based on studies from 2015 to 2024 by researchers like Llion A. Roberts from the University of Queensland and Emma S. Malta from Victoria University, cold water immersion was tested after workouts. Trials involved people doing strength training, then plunging in cold water or doing active recovery, measuring muscle gains, soreness, and performance over weeks.

“Eat Your Protein And Lift Weights. I'd say from a simple standpoint, those are the two most important things.” ~Danica Patrick

A systematic review and meta-analysis from the University of New South Wales (2021) examined 58 studies with 3,000 beginner participants and found that pure strength training alone led to around 1.4% total body fat loss—almost identical to what you’d see from cardio.