Assorted news from the research world to get your week kick started:

Green exercise? Really pressed for time? Is carving out 60 minutes a day to work out, as recommended by the National Institutes of Health,  beyond the pale of your schedule? Even 30 minutes broken into bite-size 10-minute segments isn’t doable? According to a study in the current issue of the American Chemical Society’s “Environmental Science & Technology” journal, just five minutes of “green” exercise a day can improve your health — your mental health, at least. Study authors Jules Pretty and Jo Barton say 10 studies involving 1,252 people in the United Kingdom found that just five minutes of gardening, hiking or other pursuits in a green setting decreases your risk of mental illness and improves your sense of well-being. Read more here.

Photo: Just five minutes a day behind the gardening trowel can lead to a happier you.

Exercise helps cholesterol. A recent study from the University of Nevada Las Vegas doesn’t come as revelation, rather affirmation. According to HealthDay TV *, 20 men enrolled in a daily 45-minute exercise class over a 20 year period all experienced lowered cholesterol. The men, all sedentary at the start of the program, experienced improvement in their LDL, HDL, total cholesterol and in their triglycerides. They experienced the most improvement during the first year of the program, but continued to witness improvement over the 20 years. The exercise class included stretching, muscle building and aerobics.

Are weight loss camps effective? Wonder if those summer camps for kids with weight issues actually work? At least one does, according to a study by the Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Dr. Nadim Kanafani, assistant professor of pediatrics at the school, studied kids ranging in age from 10 to 18 at Camp Jump Start, a residential weight-loss camp in Imperial, Missouri. The kids did physical activities, participated in group educational sessions and ate three main meals and two snacks a day, all approved by a registered dietitian. The structured environment and peer support helped the kids lose weight (eight pounds, on average), reduce their Body Mass Index (by an average of three points) and improve in various physical pursuits. Read more here.

National Physical Activity Plan. We, the people, now have a National Physical Activity Plan, which was announced last week in Washington. Now, this being a bureaucratic plan it’s hard to tell specifically what the plan is. The “Recreation” component, for instance, calls for government to “Enhance the existing parks and recreation infrastructure with effective policy and environmental changes to promote physical activity.” (More swingsets?) Under “Transportation/Planning,”  there’s a call for “Local, state, and federal agencies [to] use routine performance measures and set benchmarks for active travel (walking, biking, public transit).” (Um … ) I’ll share specifics as I’m able to ferret them out. Or, do your own ferreting here.

You don’t have to be like Lance. You don’t need to win the Tour de France seven times, break the course record for the Leadville 100 or dabble in triathlons on the side to feel good about yourself. This according to a study out of the University of Florida that found that folks who don’t exercise with a major goal in mind can feel just as good about their body image as people obsessed with training. This, the study finds, as 60 percent of American adults are dissatisfied with how they look, a figure that has more than doubled in the past 20 years. Read more here.

And you won’t find Lance in the Giro d’Italia … but you will find the Big 3 Classic, which began Saturday and runs through May 30, on cable, on Universal Sports. If you have Tivo or similar recording capabilities, the Giro makes great background for your workouts — even time on the dread trainer. (If you don’t have cable/Universal, you can follow the race here.) Lance’s Team Radio Shack, btw, is next in action at the Tour de Picardie in France.