National Institutes of Health Spends $400K to Send Exercise Text Messages to Latino Men; 3 Easy Exercises you can do at Home

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The US National Institutes of Health is spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to send text reminders about exercise to Latino men.

Around $400,000 in taxpayer's money will be spent by the government agency to help Latino men become more physically active. The study by University of California researchers calls this a "high-reach, low-cost" intervention to help encourage exercise among Mexican-American men.

"Due to cultural, SES, educational, and language differences, Mexican American (MA) men may have limited access to public health interventions promoting PA. To address these rising health disparities, effective interventions that leverage state-of-the-art technology, theory, and methods are needed for MA men," the researchers wrote on their project page on the NIH website.

The project information adds that Mexican-American demographic, particularly in men have one of the highest rates of health conditions brought about by a semi-sedentary lifestyle. Researchers aim to have the text message reminders influence the understudied and at-risk demographic to become more physically active through exercise.

Headlines & Global News reports that the study is still ongoing. The preliminary study involved using Latino-relevant print ads that give encouraging messages for Latinos to start exercising. However, only 40 percent of the study participants were able to meet the required 150 minutes exercise on a weekly basis while 30 percent were not able to do so at all. A suggestion of a text messaging campaign in addition to the prints was hoped to be able to get more men to exercise.

For the first phase, researchers will determine how best to let their reminders come across the demographic. They will look into how often they send their reminders and look for new relevant and helpful content. For the second phase, there will be a randomized trial that will be held for 6 months.

Examiner points out that the project has not moved to its first official phase and taxpayers may be paying more than $400k in the ongoing research.

For those who are ready to incorporate light physical activities in their everyday routines, here are easy and simple exercises you can do without leaving the comfort of home:

1.) Spine stretch

There are many different exercise routines that can be done at home and one of this is the spine stretch. According to the Art of Manliness, this exercise will help keep the back flexible.

2.) Calf raise

To work on your legs, calf raises can do wonders in helping stretching the leg muscles.

3.) Dips

Nothing like keeping the core muscles taut with dips. This is a great way to keep the whole body engaged as well.

Why stop at three when you can always add more? Here is a simple 7-minute workout that is doable at home: