Good Morning! 🌞 

An old trend is coming back: Having a rebounder (mini-trampoline) in your office!

It can offer several benefits: It provides a convenient way to incorporate physical activity into your day without needing to leave the office. Regular use can help improve cardiovascular health, increase lymphatic circulation, and enhance balance and coordination. Additionally, rebounding can serve as a quick method to boost energy levels and reduce stress during breaks, promoting overall productivity and mental clarity.

I recently added one to my office, and it's been a fantastic addition! It's a quick, fun way to incorporate some healthy movement into my day. 😉 

Health

Add Years to Your Life!

Incorporating vigorous physical activity into your exercise regimen could significantly extend your lifespan, suggests research published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The study analyzed data from over 403,000 adults, gathered through the National Health Interview Survey from 1997 to 2013, focusing on their self-reported exercise habits. Findings indicated that individuals who engaged in a greater proportion of vigorous activity within their overall workout routine had a lower risk of mortality from all causes, implying that intense exercise contributes to a longer life. Notably, 150 minutes of vigorous exercise per week was identified as the optimal amount for health benefits.

However, Carol Mack, D.P.T., C.S.C.S., points out a few limitations to consider. The reliance on self-reported data may lead to inaccuracies, as participants could overestimate the intensity of their workouts without objective measures like heart rate monitoring. Additionally, the definition of "vigorous" activity was somewhat vague, described as any exercise causing significant sweating or increases in breathing or heart rate for at least 10 minutes.

Despite these limitations, Mack isn't surprised by the findings, highlighting that vigorous exercise is known to offer substantial benefits over moderate activities. This includes improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness, functional capacity, oxygen consumption, blood pressure, and body composition, all of which contribute to reduced chronic disease risk and potentially lower early mortality rates.

Mack emphasizes that while vigorous activity is beneficial, it doesn't mean you should abandon moderate, steady-state cardio exercises like running. Instead, incorporating some high-intensity work into your routine could enhance overall health benefits. Vigorous exercise challenges the body's cardiovascular and musculoskeletal systems more intensely than moderate activity, making it a valuable component of a balanced fitness program.

If you want to incorporate some vigorous exercise into your life but are not sure what you want to do, try short sprint intervals. The usual recommendations for intervals is 20 seconds of sprinting or running as fast as you can. Then about 2-4 minutes of walking in-between sprints. Do this 3-5 times and that is a pretty good amount for most people. Of course, if you are wanting do something a little closer to the 10 minutes they described in the study, cycling or some other type of vigorous cardio like pushing a weighted sled also works great.

U.S News

Teacher Fulfills 50-Year-Old Eclipse Party Promise.

Retired high school science teacher Patrick Moriarty kept his word by hosting a gathering to watch the 2024 solar eclipse with his former students.

Back in 1978, Moriarty, a young earth science teacher at Spry Junior High School in Webster, New York, noticed Rochester would be in the path of totality for the 2024 eclipse. He told his students to mark their calendars and join him to watch it together.

Over the years, Moriarty invited each new class to join him, eventually using social media to organize the event. More than 100 former students, some from far away, showed up at his home for the reunion.
Despite time passing, Moriarty's care for his students was clear as they shared memories and watched the eclipse.

Moriarty thanked everyone for coming, saying the event was about more than just the eclipse—it was about the connections formed through education. Reflecting on the gathering, attendees like Kendra Denson saw it as more than just watching an eclipse—it was a chance for different classes to come together.

For Moriarty, the event was a reminder of the power of teaching and the bonds it creates between educators and students.

Entertainment

$6 Million for Superman’s First Appearance; Sets New World Record

The inaugural appearance of Superman in a comic book, featured in Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, has achieved a record-breaking sale price of $6 million, establishing it as the most expensive comic book ever sold.

Heritage Auctions, based in Texas, announced on Thursday that this sale exceeded the prior highest sale for a comic book, which was $5.3 million for a privately sold copy of Superman No. 1 in 2022.

Previously, the auction record was held by "Amazing Fantasy No. 15," the comic book that introduced Spider-Man, with a sale price of $3.6 million at Heritage as well.

The sold copy of Action Comics originates from the Kansas City Pedigree collection, discovered in the late 1960s. This collection boasts nearly 250 first-edition issues from 1937 to the 1940s.

Superman, the brainchild of writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, evolved through various early versions before making a landmark debut in Action Comics in June 1938. Initially sold for 10 cents, equivalent to around $2 today, this edition was part of an approximately 200,000 copy run by National Allied Publications, now known as DC Comics.

The auction, held in Dallas but also open to online bidders, was part of an event where over $28 million worth of comics were sold.

You can read the comic for free on the Internet Archive.

Sports

Polar Ultramarathon Record Breaker Inspires Youth

Donna Urquhart, an Australian pain scientist and ultrarunner, braved brutal Antarctic conditions to smash the world record for the longest run. She's determined to serve as a role model for young girls, especially as research shows fewer of them are engaging in sports.

Mind Stretchers

⁉️ 

What breaks and never falls, and what falls and never breaks?

Answers to yesterday’s Mind Stretchers:
Meat.

Eugene Hostetler, Laura Frantz, and Martin Walter all sent their answers in on the exact same minute only seconds apart!

p.s. They arrived in the order above in case you want to know who actually won. 😉 

Be the first to send us the correct answer for today’s mind stretcher for a shout-out with the answer tomorrow. Just send us the answer and your name to [email protected] or reply to the email.

If you have any uplifting stories and experience you might want to share, send those over to [email protected] for the chance to be featured.