Science

We have searched for the formula for the definitive pre-workout breakfast. The answer from science is much simpler

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Everyone who gets up early to go to the gym has wondered on some occasion whether it is better to go to the gym without having any breakfast, just have a coffee to get energy, or prepare a large, very satiating breakfast. In this case, the quick information that we find on the Internet can lead to confusion, since depending on what you look at it will show very different advice, and that is why you have to focus. what the experts point out. The body’s gasoline. If you are going to do a high-intensity workout that is not limited to simply taking a morning walk, logically you have to offer some fuel to the body in the form of carbohydrates. These are the undisputed kings to have quick and efficient energy when, for example, starting to lift a lot of weight on a bench. Here the different guides agree that consuming carbohydrates before exercise helps maintain blood glucose levels and preserves glycogen reserves in the muscles, which are our most immediate fuel. That is, they prevent you from running out of “battery” in the middle of the session and end up giving the dreaded ‘bird’ when training. And this is what the famous ‘pre-workouts’ rely on in the form of quick doses of carbohydrates that are absorbed very quickly. The protein. In addition to fuel, it is also noted that adding a moderate amount of protein in the morning is appropriate. This is based on the need to prevent muscle damage and promote recovery, especially if the routine includes strength training. When to take it. The biggest mistake before training is not always ‘what’ you eat, but ‘when’. Here the evidence establishes an optimal window of 1 to 4 hours before exercise to make a solid intake rich in carbohydrates. However, in the real world, few get up at four in the morning to eat breakfast before hitting the gym at seven in the morning. The strategy. If the time frame is short, the strategy must change drastically, since organizations such as the United States Anti-Doping Agency they point Because there are several digestive enemies in pre-workout: Fiber should be avoided since it slows down gastric emptying and can cause serious intestinal discomfort with great effort. You should avoid fats due to heavy and energetically costly digestion, making foods that are easier to digest ideal before training. Just before starting training, it is not best to take protein, since it will not be digested and will not arrive in time to be useful in training, meaning it should be taken an hour before training or after it. There is no definitive breakfast. If someone offers a series of preparations without distinguishing the audience for which they are intended, the truth is that they are lying. The most important point here is that nutrition should always be individualized for the needs of each person, because breakfast for someone who is going to make a great effort is not the same as breakfast for another person who will limit themselves to taking a brisk walk. The time between breakfast and the start of exercise is also important, since the tighter it is, the more priority must be given to light foods that are absorbed quickly. All this means that it is not easy advice and should not be limited to a generic recipe book. Images | Anastase Maragos In Xataka | Walking does not count as “exercising”: for the 10,000 steps a day to be effective, the x3 rule must be applied

We believed that loneliness was just an emotional problem. Science points out that it is a risk factor for dozens of diseases.

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Loneliness is undoubtedly a scourge that is integrated into our society and that on many occasions goes unnoticed, especially affecting older people who are practically confined to being at home and with little social contact. And although this is something that a priori can remain in the psychological fieldthe reality is that loneliness emerges as a major public health threat as it is related to very serious diseases. A big risk. When we talk about risk factors in the field of medicine, we immediately think about nutrition or lack of exercise that are related to very serious diseases. But loneliness must also be added to this entire list, since numerous studies have found a direct association with cardiovascular, neurological and metabolic pathologies, although unraveling the exact cause continues to be one of the great challenges of current medical literature. The problem. In 2023, the United States Surgeon General public a devastating report pointing out that we were facing an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation.” And it was not a mere poetic metaphor, since the WHO has been warning that social disconnection not only affects us emotionally, but also alters our body to the point of increasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression, dementia and premature death. A measurable impact. When we talk about disease risk, cardiovascular health is the first to suffer. Here, a scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in it Journal of the American Heart Associationconcluded bluntly that loneliness and social isolation are independent risk factors for poorer heart and brain health. And the percentages are not anecdotal, since a meta-analysis pointed out that loneliness or social isolation is associated with a 29% increase in the risk of suffering from coronary heart disease and a 32% increase in the risk of stroke. It goes further. A massive analysis led by the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2026, after following more than 400,000 peopleconfirmed a strong association between isolation and multimorbidity, highlighting that physical social isolation is a relevant risk factor even if the person does not subjectively perceive that loneliness. The case of dementia. Among dementias, the most important disease is undoubtedly Alzheimer’s and the data are clear in pointing out that unwanted loneliness is an important risk factor for all dementias. Among the reasons that exist, the Alzheimer Center of Barcelona points out in a recent note as follows: “The relationship between isolation and cognitive decline is supported by research showing how a lack of social interaction impoverishes vocabulary, reduces cognitive flexibility, and accelerates brain decline.” Here the advice given to be less likely to suffer from this disease when you reach a risk age is to participate in group activities, take advantage of technology to maintain contact or create a social routine. In mental health. In addition to the organic section, if we move on to mental illnesses, the fact that there is no adequate social support network also leads to an increase in the probability of illnesses as important as depression or even the schizophrenia. Many causes can influence here, such as genetic factors, but in the end a cluster of situations can generate the final trigger for the disease. The great nuance. The question we must ask ourselves here is the following: do we get sick because of the biological impact of disconnection, or because loneliness is accompanied by other conditions? And here the science suggests that isolated people tend to do less physical activity, have poorer diets and have a greater propensity for smoking or alcoholism. Factors that can trigger a whole battery of serious diseases. Even with these factors in the equation, loneliness demonstrates surprising predictive strength. For example, recent research in patients with diabetes revealed that loneliness was associated with a greater probability of suffering from coronary heart disease, even outweighing several classic risk factors. Images | Anthony Tran In Xataka | Generation Z is both the most connected and the loneliest in history. And there is nothing casual about it

What science says about the bedroom hacking trend

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When there is a problem at bedtimewe try to do anything to get a restful sleep with the goal of being able to perform well throughout the day. Given this situation, on the Internet there are a large number of tricks almost miraculous that they promise us to sleep in a different way, such as the use of red lightswhite noise machines or even pillow sprays. The perspective. All this sounds good, almost like a biological hack within the reach of a purchase click, but the reality is that when we look at the scientific evidence that supports these tricks, we find a much less magical and much more boring reality. Most of these tricks do not induce sleep, and in the best cases the evidence points to a weak correlation at best. The red light. He using this type of light to sleepthe reality is that it is one of the most widespread practices or advice that is normally given in social circles. And the reality is that we are facing a scientific truth that has been misinterpreted until it has become a marketing claim. What we do know is that the blue light emitted by our cool LED lampshades and bulbs It is deeply harmful before sleeping because it stops the secretion of melatonin, the hormone that regulates our circadian clock, in its tracks. Given this, clinical guidelines explain that dim red light has a wavelength that has a much smaller impact on our circadian rhythm. You have a problem. Just because red light doesn’t ‘suppress melatonin’ doesn’t mean it ‘induces sleep’. Here various studies on the circadian response to light exposure conclude that red light does not have a hypnotic effect. That is, turning on a red light in your room is not going to magically make you sleepy, but rather the medically defensible use of red light is like a harm reduction mechanism. What we must stay with is that if we absolutely need to have a light on at night (to read a little or go to the bathroom), the red one is the one that will least destabilize the brain. But to sleep well, it is best not to have any type of light in the room. The white noise. This is the other great pillar that makes up the ideal sleeping environment. The premise here is that a constant sound like that of an untuned television or a waterfall helps relax the brain, but the reality is that we must be quite careful with this. Here is a compelling review published in Sleep Medicine analyzed the evidence behind the use of white noise as a sleep aid and was able to conclude that there is great heterogeneity between studies, so the evidence we have to say that this practice is good for sleep is very weak. In fact, the results ranged from people whose sleep improved slightly to people who slept worse because of the continuous noise. And there is more. A second study pointed to nocturnal auditory stimulation in order to have a better quality of sleep, but the reality is that, although there are small studies with positive results, there is no strong evidence to generally recommend the use of white or pink noise. The only truly defensible use of white noise is not as a “brain relaxant,” but as an acoustic masker. And if, for example, you live next to a road or have noisy neighbors, white noise creates a flat sound barrier that prevents the brain from registering those sudden noise peaks, which are what cause the hated awakenings. But using continuous white noise in an already quiet room not only lacks scientific support, but some specialists warn of possible long-term adverse effects on hearing and sleep architecture. The smells. Regarding pillow sprays, which generally have a lavender or chamomile base, we fully enter the field of aromatherapy. In this case it is logical that a pleasant smell can have a relaxing effect, but there is no clinical evidence that points to it affecting sleep architecture in any way. The best advice. What has been proven is that you should always be in a room with absolute darkness, no noise of any kind, and a cool temperature. Everything else is accessories for which there is still no sufficiently reliable evidence. Images | Pars Sahin In Xataka | We thought that sleeping was only good for rest. It actually helps us build new muscle.

Showering with cold water before sleeping in a heat wave seems like the best idea. Science warns that it is a big mistake

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Heat waves are already with us and in many places in recent days we have seen how they has far exceeded 40 ºC in many parts of our country. But the problem is not only that it is difficult to leave the house, but that sleeping becomes practically impossible for many peoplehaving a very fragmented sleep with different awakenings or even suffering from insomnia due to not being able to fall asleep. A solution. Faced with this great problem, common sense and desperation push us to get under the shower to be able to cool our body as much as possible just before entering bed to at least be a little cooler and try to fall asleep. But the problem here is that showering activates our body and can have a quite different effect than what we are looking for, making it very difficult to fall asleep. The mechanism of sleep. Something that we must keep in mind is that for our brain to understand that it is time to sleep, it needs a very specific physiological signal, which is the drop in the body’s core temperature. But when we take a shower of ice water, we get instant relief on the skin, but we cause our blood vessels to constrict so that our blood does not drop below its precious 36-37 ºC. In other words, the blood vessels They close to protect the internal heat of the body by sending less blood to our skin. The result. Although we get very fresh skin, a few minutes after getting out of the shower, the body experiences a rebound effect, retaining central heat and remaining in a state of alert because for the body there is a threat to which it has had to respond. On the other hand, warm or hot water does just the opposite, since, according to the group of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, hot water stimulates the thermoregulatory system, causing blood to travel from the inner core of the body to the extremities. This facilitates a massive dissipation of body heat once we leave the bathroom, and that subsequent drop in core temperature is the biological switch that induces sleep. The warm water. Knowing all this, we can conclude that we should not use hot or cold water when showering, but that the middle ground is what we should look for. This is what an exhaustive review published in the journal points out. Sleep Medicine, where it was analyzed thousands of data to reach the conclusion that the optimal water temperature to improve sleep quality is between 40 and 42.5 ºC. But in a context of great heat like the one we are experiencing, experts clarify that the ideal is to look for the point of warm water, since the objective is not to roast ourselves, but to relax the blood vessels to promote heat loss from inside the body. The time. Showering and immediately getting into bed (or getting on top of the sheets) doesn’t work at all, since the body needs time to cool down. This same study we were referring to showed that the optimal time to take this shower is between 1 and 2 hours before going to bed. And best of all, it is something that has been shown to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep. These data are reinforced by a large-scale observational study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, where, after analyzing more than 1,000 adultsresearchers confirmed that bathing between 61 and 180 minutes before going to bed is directly associated with faster falling asleep, thanks to physiological changes that are related to body heat. Images | Slaap In Xataka | An expert clarifies the main mistake of sleeping with air conditioning: “It is totally unnatural and we rest worse”

Science confirms how many minutes of weight training per week reduce the risk of mortality

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For decades, when we thought about doing physical exercise, our minds almost automatically went to get older. cardiovascular activity. Running, swimming or cycling have been star recommendations to keep the heart healthy and extend life expectancy. Or at least live with a better quality of life. However, little by little we are normalizing the need to prioritize strength exercises at any age. How long. This is one of the big questions that anyone who needs to quantify the amount of exercise they do per day can ask themselves. There are clear recommendations, such as walk one hour a day at a brisk pacebut in strength we were quite orphaned. Now a new and monumental analysis has come to put exact figures on what until now were general recommendations, establishing a precise time window to maximize our years of life. What has been seen. The finding comes from a large observational study which has had 147,374 participants and exhaustive follow-up that has extended up to 30 years. Its good results have been published in the magazine British Journal of Sports Medicine. And when it comes to lifting weights or doing resistance exercises, intuition could dictate that “the more, the better”, but human physiology provides more limited metrics. The study data found that spending between 90 and 119 minutes weekly in resistance training routines was directly associated with lower overall mortality. In other words, spending between an hour and a half and two hours a week working our muscles is linked to a lower risk of dying from any cause. We have to be adjusted. What is truly revealing about this study lies in what happens when those 120 minutes are exceeded of weekly exercise. Anyone might think that the longer the time, the less likely you are to develop a major disease, but the reality is that above this time the benefits seem to stagnate. This shows that maximum efficiency is achieved in that limited period of time, demystifying the need to spend endless days in the weight room to obtain many more protective advantages at the metabolic level that allow us to extend our life a little more or make it of a higher quality. You have to combine it. Although strength training shines in this study, abandoning cardiovascular exercises would be a profound mistake. Here the research group itself pointed out that combining strength exercises with aerobic activity offered the best possible results, since this duality confirms that a hybrid approach dramatically maximizes long-term survival benefits. It’s backed up. In the past there were reviews that explored the relationship between training and mortality, this being one more that gives it much more strength so that it ultimately continues to be recommended for consultation to anyone, regardless of age. Because exercise here does not understand age, and strength exercise can be for the youngest, but also for the elderly who need to preserve their muscle to have a better quality of life in their last years of life. Images | Anastase Maragos In Xataka | In the fever to train strength, the gym has faced competition: more and more people train on the street

This is how it ruins our rest according to science

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On the most suffocating nights of summer, leaving the air conditioning on until dawn seems like the only way to get some sleep. However, what begins as relief often turns into a sore throat, congestion, dry eyes, and a strange feeling of tiredness the next morning. And this is simply something that our elders already repeated to us: Continuous air conditioning is not good for your health. The alteration of rest. During the natural sleep cycle, core body temperature decreases physiologically, but subjecting the body to a continuous flow of cold air comes into direct conflict with this mechanism, so our rest is not entirely efficient. Here, a study published in Extreme Physiology & Medicine analyzed how air flow impacts the quality of rest, and they saw that people who slept with the air jet impacting their body had a greater number of micro-awakenings, which prevented them from achieving a deep and restful sleep. And there is more. Furthermore, this continuous air causes an increase in heart rate and body movements, especially affecting light sleep. The conclusion here is that the flow of cold air should never be directed directly towards a sleeping person, since they will wake up much more tired than they should. Added to this is also the mechanical effect on the musculoskeletal system that, by enduring constant cold, causes the contraction of blood vessels, which results in muscle hardening and the classic neck or back contractures as soon as you wake up. A paradise for viruses. One of the great mysteries of summer is why we get colds if it’s not cold. Here the Spanish Society of Otorhinolaryngology It is estimated that 20% of summer colds They are the fault of air conditioning, which lowers the temperature of our mucous membranes and makes them more susceptible to microorganisms. It is studied. In this case, pioneering research from Yale University demonstrated the thermal dependence of our antiviral response. It was clearly seen that when we breathe cold air, the temperature inside the nose drops from the usual 37-36 °C to about 33 °C. At this lower temperature, the local immune system collapses and the secretion of extracellular vesicles, which is our first line of defense, drops by 42%, losing up to 77% of the receptors that act as “decoys” to trap pathogens and destroy them before they cause disease. Given that approximately 20% of people carry asymptomatic rhinovirus in their nasal passages, this cooling allows the virus to find its way, doubling its replication capacity in infected cells and, therefore, becoming much more pathogenic. The humidity. The other great invisible enemy of air conditioning is extreme dehumidification, since for our respiratory system to function correctly, the relative humidity of the environment must be between 40% and 60%. The problem is that air conditioning equipment extracts that humidity and makes the environment much drier until this percentage plummets below 40%. Here we have studies that observed that in environments with humidity around 24%, there is a severe decrease in nasal permeability and an increase in mucosal inflammation. The explanation is that, as the humidity drops, the respiratory cilia lose their mobility, and this is essential because these cilia are small ‘hairs’ that move to prevent a virus or bacteria from settling on our mucosa. Its effects. Breathing this dry air all the time not only causes rhinitis or pharyngitis, but it can trigger attacks in patients with asthma or COPD. But in addition, it also affects the eyes, causing irritation, the skin and also makes us much more sensitive to allergens. How to use it. To avoid these unwanted effects, the correct thing to do would be to turn on the air conditioning 30 minutes before going to sleep to cool the room, and turn it off when the function is shortened or programmed. Sleep which modulates the temperature and ends up turning off the equipment. The temperature is also essential, and the correct thing would be to never drop below 22 ºC, staying between 23 and 25 ºC. And if we go further, a humidifier can be used to maintain that 40-60% humidity in the room, which is essential to keep our barriers in their optimal state. Images | Magnificent Slaapwijsheid.nl In Xataka | An expert clarifies the main mistake of sleeping with air conditioning: “It is totally unnatural and we rest worse”

We believed that açaí was pure Instagram posturing. Science has just confirmed that it is a nutritional beast

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In the era of well-being, we have become accustomed to seeing how our social networks are flooded with exotic and aesthetic foods. We have shied away from a sedentary lifestyle and have embraced trends that a few years ago seemed impossible to find. It happened with matcha tea, with coconut milk and, in recent years, the undisputed king of healthy “posturing” has been açaí, omnipresent in bowls colorful ones promoted by nutrition gurus. However, what seemed to be simply another fad imported from the United States has just made the definitive leap to mass consumption in Spain. Mercadona has joined this fever by launching an açaí sorbet with guarana flavor for this summer. The democratization of this product raises an inevitable question: behind this commercial and aesthetic maelstrom, are there real benefits or is it just smoke? The medical evidence is resounding: we are facing a superfood that literally crushes historical competitors such as blueberries. The true story of açaí. To understand the phenomenon, we must first clarify what exactly we are eating. The açaí (Euterpe oleracea) It’s not technically a berry.but a drupe (a fruit with a large central stone that occupies up to 80% of its volume). It grows high on palm trees in the rainforests of the central and South American Amazon, where it has been a staple food for indigenous communities for centuries. Why don’t we see it fresh in our neighborhood fruit shop? The answer is logistics. The fresh açaí It has a very short useful life and it spoils in just 24 hours after harvesting. Therefore, the only way to export it is through frozen pulp or freeze-dried powder. A true antioxidant bomb. The aesthetics of Instagram initially overshadowed what the medical community has long studied in amazement. “It is fashionable, yes, but it also has more antioxidants than blueberries,” says Dr. Sara Marín Berbell forcefully. in Women’s Health. The key to its power lies in anthocyanins, the plant pigment that gives it its characteristic dark purple color and that protects our cells against oxidative damage responsible for premature aging. Its nutritional profile is a rarity in the world of fruit. As health portals such as Healthlineaçaí is unusually high in healthy fats and very low in sugar (it barely contains about 2 grams per 100 naturally). Additionally, registered dietitian Julia Zumpano explains in Cleveland Clinic that açaí is rich in phytosterols, plant compounds that block the absorption of cholesterol into the bloodstream, protecting our cardiovascular health. Its impact goes further. It is an exceptional ally for blood sugar control; Its glycemic index is only 24, well below the 72 for watermelon or the 75 for white bread. And if that were not enough, its polyphenols act as a powerful prebiotic. By reaching the colon almost intact, they serve as a banquet for our microbiota, strengthening the intestinal barrier. On a neurological level, the antioxidants in açaí help protect brain cells from oxidative stress that leads to cognitive decline. The supermarket trap. With such an impeccable medical resume, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that any product with the word “açaí” on its label is healthy. And this is where experts issue a serious warning about its arrival in supermarkets and cafes. Mercadona’s recent sorbet has set off alarms among nutritionists. Dietitian Miguel Ángel Ruiz remove your labela: “If we look at the nutritional value we see that for every 100 grams it contains 11 grams of sugar (…) Natural fruit has around 2 or 3 grams.” Although the first ingredient is açaí pulp (55%), sugar comes in third place. For his part, nutritionist Carlos Ríos add in The Mail that the product includes problematic emulsifiers, such as carboxymethyl, which is inflammatory and alters the microbiota. It spreads in cafes. Dietitian Julie Harrington warns in EatingWell that the famous açaí bowls They can quickly become high-calorie bombs if they are not prepared carefully, especially when locals use sugary bases or abuse syrups and toppings. The solution? Go to supermarkets that offer real and pure alternatives, such as the 100% frozen açaí tablets with no added sugar sold by Alcampo, allowing the consumer to prepare their own truly healthy version at home. Purple gold at the crossroads. The impact of açaí has ​​transcended our diets to become a matter of State and ecological survival. The figures it moves (it is estimated that it generates more than a billion dollars annually worldwide) have attracted the attention of large corporations. According to reports France 24earlier this year Brazil declared açaí its “national fruit” in a desperate attempt to shield itself from international biopiracy. The danger is real since in 2003, a Japanese company registered the “açaí” trademark, and it took years of litigation to regain control of the name. But the secret of açaí does not lie only in the palm tree, but in those who take care of it. Research from the scientific journal Springer has revealed that the true heroines Behind this superfood are the native stingless bees (meliponines) of the Amazon. These insects are responsible for 60% of fruit pollination. This ecosystem has created a fascinating bioeconomy. How it documents Mongabay, Amazonian families are abandoning livestock farming and deforestation to dedicate themselves to the sustainable cultivation of açaí and the breeding of these bees. The propolis generated by these insects, enhanced by the pollen of the açaí palm tree, has been shown in clinical trials to have healing and anti-inflammatory properties comparable to commercial medications, opening a new economic avenue through natural cosmetics that protects, instead of destroying, the jungle. A superfood, not a miracle. In short, science has confirmed that açaí is, deservedly, a “purple gold.” Its cardiovascular, neurological and antioxidant benefits are not a mirage created by social networks. However, rigor requires caution. The expert Julia Zumpano He is categorical when it comes to rejecting the famous “detox diets” based exclusively on taking açaí supplements, warning that they lack scientific evidence and can be dangerous. As Dr. Marín … Read more

the “digestion cut” does not exist and science is clear why

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There are some very ‘mother’ phrases that are very well ingrained in our minds and without a doubt one of them is the obligation to wait strictly two hours after eating before entering the pool or the beach. Under the pretext of ‘digestion cut‘, there are many children (and also adults) who have to wait before taking a dip for fear of drowning. However, this is a myth. A popular fable. The concept of “digestion cut” It is not something that is included in the different medical guides nor is it categorized by the WHO as an existing disease. And this is what specialist societies such as the Spanish Society of Primary Care Physicians also point out, whose expert Ángel Jimeno Aranda clearly points out that cutting digestion is a popular term: It really has nothing to do with digestion, although it is true that when you feel so bad after suddenly entering cold water, you begin to have a headache, blurred vision, fatigue, nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain. The symptoms have caused this popular belief that the problem has a digestive origin, but it has nothing to do with digestion. It is more of a vascular process What really happens. If the ‘digestion cut’ does not exist, then… What happens? The answer lies in immersion syndrome, also technically called hydrocution or thermodifferential shock. This phenomenon is triggered when there is a large temperature difference between a bather’s skin and the water, usually when the latter is below 27°C or there is a thermal difference equal to or greater than 5 °C with respect to body temperature. In the body, This is instantly detected by the different receptors that begin to send signals to the brain to provoke an uncontrolled automatic response characterized by involuntary reflex inspiration, hyperventilation and severe cardiac arrhythmias that can lead to immediate drowning, regardless of the state of digestion. So, as we see, it is a completely vascular problem and has nothing to do with having had a sandwich just before going to the restaurant. Matches the food. Despite being a myth, the historical relationship between eating and immersion syncope has a hemodynamic explanation, since during the time after eating, the body redistributes blood flow to the areas that need it most, which at that time is the stomach to be able to digest. This means that there is not as much blood in other parts of the body. In this way, if a person is suddenly immersed in cold water in the middle of the digestive process, and especially if they have been in the sun, the body executes massive peripheral vasoconstriction to contain the heat in the body. Literally, there is a clash between the stomach’s demand for blood and this constricting response, which generates a conflict of signals for our brain, which does not know who to give priority to. The result It is nothing more than hyperstimulation of the vagus nerve that produces a drop in heart rate and also blood pressure. And lowering pressure is not good news because it generates cerebral hypoperfusion, resulting in dizziness, nausea, loss of vision and, in the worst case, syncope. The reality. With all this data it has become quite clear that waiting 2 clock hours after eating to bathe is false, since the determining factor is not the time, but the method of entering the water and the temperature difference. If we look at it from another perspective, if we talk about warm water, this is something almost impossible to happen, even if we have just eaten. The recommendations The steps to follow focus on entering the water slowly, allowing the skin receptors to acclimatize to the temperature to which we are exposing them, first wetting the extremities, the back of the neck and the abdomen. In addition, sudden changes must be avoided after physical exercise or sunstroke, since the body temperature here will be very high and can be a problem regardless of whether the stomach is full or empty. Images | Callum Hill In Xataka | It is increasingly common to find jellyfish on Mediterranean beaches before summer. And it’s a bad sign

What science says about mixing CrossFit, Hyrox and running to get you ‘clubs’

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Traditional weight rooms are changing, and where previously routines divided by muscle groups and the atrocious fear of doing cardio because it “destroys the muscle” reigned, today we have a hybrid training that aims to prevail among all gym lovers. New trend. Disciplines like CrossFitthe explosion of events like Hyrox and the fashion of combining heavy weight lifting with running They have created the figure of the total athlete who leaves nothing aside. But, beyond the marketing that this sports strategy may have, what really happens to our body when we try to be the strongest and the fastest at the same time? A myth. For years, a thought that has been on the minds of many athletes is that running has an “interference effect” with their bodybuilding routines. The reasoning here was that resistance training such as cardio sent molecular signals opposite to strength training, limiting muscle hypertrophy, which is what is sought in the gym. But now there are many nuances about it. For example, an analysis published in 2024 analyzed 59 studies with more than 1,300 participants and pointed out that in women, combining strength and cardio does not produce any interference significant in leg strength. In the case of men, there is a small interference in the development of lower body strength when mixing both modalities, but minimal. That is, it does not justify leaving it aside if we want to improve our health as a priority over hypertrophy. What is the best training? As we have mentioned, hybrid training groups traditional strength exercises with cardiovascular training, such as running on a treadmill. But the reality is that there are many options available, such as Hyrox or CrossFit, and each one has its own peculiarities. Hyrox. A hybrid training that combines 8 kilometers of running interspersed with 8 bodybuilding routines and is often defined as the definitive hybrid test. But here a study from 2025 pointed out that the aerobic factor is the undisputed kingthat is, Hyrox considerably increases people’s aerobic capacity and this is essential to determine the quality of life in old age, since, in addition to cardiorespiratory improvement, it also makes oxidative metabolism more efficient and muscular endurance. Contrary to what many believe when seeing heavy sleds, maximum strength is not a key predictor of success in this competition, but rather it is a systems sport where the entire body is mobilized and makes our cardiovascular system play a leading role. CrossFit. This presents a better metabolic profile, since, by addressing 10 different physical domains, it is postulated as a more complete but less specialized discipline. Here the science indicates that CrossFit dramatically improves cardiorespiratory fitnessoxidative metabolism and muscle resistance. But in addition to all this, it also stands out for the high levels of motivation and adherence thanks to the community component that it has associated. How to do it. If we want to join the hybrid fever, how do we prevent cardio from eating into our strength gains? Here the key seems not to be in stopping training, but in programming each of the steps we take in the gym, since the interference depends directly on the modality, frequency and duration of aerobic exercise. For example, running interferes much more with leg strength than cycling, due to the eccentric muscle damage caused by the stride. One of the most important points here is that, if we want to improve strength over cardiovascular endurance, the best always is to do strength exercises first before starting to run on a treadmill in order to have greater strength gains. When to start. If you want to join this combined exercise fever, the reality is that there is nothing that can stop a person as long as they do not have an injury or a doctor’s recommendation not to do high-intensity exercise. It is true that on the first occasions it may be interesting to go to a personal trainer or a gym where they also have specialists who can develop the best hybrid training plan. And, although this modality is not going to take us to a bodybuilding platform, it does prepare our body for any situation and above all for a much higher quality old age. Images | Alora Griffiths In Xataka | The 11 best apps for exercising at home

that’s why it’s back to science fiction

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Steven Spielberg has been using science fiction for almost fifty years as a reflection of the concerns of American fears (that is, planetary, because pop culture works the way it does). In 1977 he captured the post-Vietnam spiritual void with aliens coming in peace. In 2005, he processed 9/11 with aggressive invaders. ‘The Day of Revelation’ has some ingredients similar to all of them, although perhaps for the first time in his career, reality has gotten ahead of him. The constant. Of the 37 films Steven Spielberg has directed, about a quarter are fantasy or, more specifically, science fiction. And of them, six include aliens in their plots. Let’s review some of the most relevant ones: Encounters in the third phase (1977): Two years after the end of the Vietnam War. The United States saw the moral authority of its institutions plummet. Spielberg gave the public some hope with a film in which contact with the unknown did not end in war but in amazement: the aliens came in peace and the protagonist followed them into space. Decades later, the Library of Congress included the film in its archives as being “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.” ET the exterrestrial (1982): In the midst of the Reagan era, political discourse insisted on rebuilding the nuclear family as a central value of society. Spielberg put a broken family at the center of his film, with a mother raising her children alone after a divorce, and offered as reparation for domestic trauma the most unlikely friendship: a child and an alien. ‘ET’ claimed that solutions had to be found to heal a fractured society. As Spielberg himself has said, “My favorite science fiction is based on terrestrial problems”. ‘War of the worlds’ (2005): Spielberg once said of the 9/11 attacks that “the image that I can’t get out of my head It is that of all the people of Manhattan fleeing over the George Washington Bridge.” It is perfectly perceived in a film that is pure panic, nothing rooted in a specific policy, since as screenwriter David Koepp said in his day, it also functioned as an allegory of Iraqi fear of an American invasion. Koepp also signed ‘Jurassic Park’, the film that showed us the only good billionaire, and now he returns with ‘The Day of Revelation’. And even if it is outside the topic of invasions and dealing with social aspects that are not so clearly politicized, it is inevitable to remember science fiction films like ‘AI, Artificial Intelligence’where many first discovered the fashion acronym; ‘Minority Reportas a bridge between the paranoia of the fifties and the era of hypervigilance we live in now; and in a more (sadly) banal tone, ‘Ready Player One’about The Video Game and its implications. The secrets are over. In December 2017, The New York Times published a report about AATIP, the Pentagon’s secret program to investigate anomalous aerial phenomena with a budget of 22 million dollars. The report described objects that moved in ways that defied known engineering. That journalistic piece, according to Spielberg, restored his interest in the alien topic. In the summer of 2023 he spent two months writing a 50-60 page synopsis of what would happen the day that information became public. The project was officially announced in April 2024. The year when reality did not waitOn May 8, 2026, five weeks before the premiere of ‘Revelation Day’, the Trump administration ordered the publication of the first 162 declassified files on UAPsincluding diplomatic cables, FBI reports, NASA transcripts and graphic material, all accessible without prior authorization on the war.gov/UFO portal. On May 22, a second delivery arrived with six PDF files, seven audios and 51 videos. The portal intends to continue expanding. When NASA was worried. Spielberg himself has acknowledged that those congressional hearings “changed everything” for him and that “this stopped being sensationalism and became something that the mainstream media took very seriously.” In this way, ‘The Day of Revelation’ continues to be a social thermometer, although now it does so perhaps at the opposite pole to ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’, once the debate has been institutionalized. In fact, while preparing ‘Close Encounters…’ in the 1970s, Spielberg received a letter from NASA asking him not to make the film. “When I found out that the government was opposed to the film, I found my faith”declared in 1978: “If NASA took the time to write me a twenty-page letter, something was up.” It cannot be said that the Spielberg of today raises the same suspicions as the one from then, and perhaps his new film should be read under that code. In Xataka | When Spielberg heard one of the best soundtracks in history, he didn’t get it: “I thought it was a joke”

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