A report released to be released on April 14 by the University of Minnesota’s Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport shows that girls are participating in sports in record numbers, but their participation in physical activity outside of organized sports is declining, especially as they move from childhood into adolescence.

For years, scientists have been proclaiming the benefits of exercise. Studies showing that regular exercise benefits human health have exploded in number, examining many health problems ranging from cancer and diabetes to arthritis and pre-mature death.

Overweight but active men responded dramatically better compared to their inactive counterparts in a first-of-its kind study from Indiana University that examined the vascular response to exercise in overweight men.

The neighborhoods people live in can help inspire – or discourage – their residents to exercise and keep physically active, new research suggests.

Afterschool programs can modestly increase the amount of physical activity among girls in middle school, according to new results from the Trial of Activity for Adolescent Girls (TAAG), a multiple site, community based study supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

Sedentary, overweight or obese women can improve their quality of life by exercising as little as 10 to 30 minutes a day, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Conference on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism.

Studies have shown that youthful playtime—running in the park or playing ball in the schoolyard—fades by the time children enter middle school years, sometimes with dangerous effects to their health. This is especially true if those children are low-income and Hispanic, studies show. Researchers with the University of Houston Department of Health and Human Performance want to know why, and what can be done about it.

A landmark University of Alberta study, analyzing a sample of over 275,000 individuals, has found that when it comes to participation in physical activity, one size does not fit all.

Participating in school-based physical education and certain extracurricular physical activities during adolescence may be associated with a lower risk of being overweight as a young adult, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

New generation active computer games stimulate greater energy expenditure than sedentary games, but are no substitute for playing real sports, according to a study in this week’s Christmas issue of the BMJ.

Elderly adults at risk for physical disabilities are able to adhere to a regular program of moderate exercise for one year, a recent study of 213 men and women suggests.

Eating a Mediterranean diet and following national recommendations for physical activity are each associated with a reduced risk of death over a five-year period, according to two reports in the December 10/24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.