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Report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. Search index to help look for specific information eg older people, physical fitness. This is a large pdf document so be patient as it loads :)

A PASSIVE warm-up routine before competitive team sports harms performance but athletes continue to overuse the technique, research has found. James Zois, from Victoria University's school of sport and exercise science, said too many athletes were still using static stretching techniques such as calf, hamstring, quad and hip flex stretches before competing even though it has been shown to reduce power.

It's a message that's got louder over the last few years: exercise doesn't work for weight loss. There was the 2009 Time magazine cover story The Myth about Exercise featuring a photo of a woman pounding a treadmill, her eyes trained on a cream-topped cupcake. It symbolised the story's thrust: research suggesting exercise won't help weight loss because it makes us eat more to make up for the kilojoules we burn. It's a message repeated recently in the new book Big Fat Lies in which author David Gillespie - a lawyer - describes exercise for weight loss as 'pointless'. But is it really true?

Forget crunches. If you want to get faster, fitter, and stronger, you need to train your core like a runner.

That's how much longer adult Ontarians would live, on average, if they could collectively overcome five unhealthy habits: smoking, excess alcohol consumption, poor diet, sedentary behaviour and stressing out. That is the conclusion of a new report from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Public Health Ontario.

'Josef, what is the best time of day to exercise?" is one of the top 20 most frequently asked questions I get at parties. The answer to this question is on two levels: practicality and physiology. Practicality is about what you can do - do today, do tomorrow and continue doing. Physiology is about what works best for your body. They don't always agree.

The genesis of much of the ab work we do these days probably lies in the work done in an Australian physiotherapy lab during the mid-1990s.

If you are out of shape, you know it. Even climbing a flight of stairs can leave you out of breath! If you haven't been exercising regularly, even a little exercise, like going up steps, can put a strain on your body.

People who walk or jog for just a couple of hours each week are at lower risk of heart disease than those who don't exercise, suggests a new study.

There are people who will think you're somewhat insane when you tell them you get up at 6.15 am in order to go for a run each morning. They seem unable to comprehend why on earth you would want to miss staying in bed for an extra 45 minutes or so, just so you can work up a sweat.

One of the misconceptions in the sports world is that a sports person gets in shape by just playing or taking part in his/her chosen sport. If a stationary level of performance, consistent ability in executing a few limited skills is your goal, then engaging only in your sport will keep you there. However, if you want the utmost efficiency, consistent improvement, and balanced abilities sportsmen and women must participate in year round conditioning programs.