New Year’s Resolution: Get More Exercise

Have you made a New Year’s Resolution to get more exercise in 2019? Professor Lane Yahiro’s top tip for getting into shape is to hire a personal trainer. Researcher Steve Amireault’s suggests choosing something you really care about and keep to just one, or a very short list, of resolutions in order to be successful.

Steve Amireault, Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Kinesiology, College of Health and Human Sciences, Purdue University

Many individuals engage in physical activity programs following advice from friends, their physician or for personal reasons. However, the majority will not maintain an active lifestyle without external support. Relapse can have negative impact on health and well-being as stopping or reducing physical activity may result in a reversal of initial benefits.

The primary goal of Dr. Amireault’s research program is to develop behavior change interventions and evaluate their impacts for sustained health and well-being.

Dr. Amireault’s research activities focus on the (1) validation of physical activity measurement instruments, (2) association between physical activity and health, (3) identification of factors influencing the adoption and maintenance of an active lifestyle, and (4) development and evaluation of physical activity behavior change interventions. Dr. Amireault’s has examined these lines of research in overweight and obese individuals, cancer survivors, older adults, and apparently healthy adults. His work is theory-driven and informed by empirical research on exercise and health psychology.

Lane Yahiro, Clinical Associate Professor and Director of the Ismail Center

Lane Yahiro has designed and implemented an exercise program for patients with peripheral arterial disease. During his five years at Rush Hospital in Chicago, he helped many patients recover from heart-related events and encouraged individuals in making healthy lifestyle changes to help prevent disease. Throughout the past 18 years, Yahiro has continued to help patients recover from heart-related events and to make healthy lifestyle changes as a team member of Greater Lafayette Health Services. He has worked as an exercise physiologist for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program serving both St. Franciscan Health Lafayette and IU Health Arnett Hospital.