We’ll avoid the obvious suggestion of workers powering office equipment when we report a study at East Carolina University that found sedentary office workers like the idea of having a portable pedaling machine under their desk. Like it, and will use it, in the case of 18 workers who had such a device placed under their desks for a four-week period.

On average, the workers (88 percent of whom were female, mean age 40.2) used the pedaling devices 12 of the 20 possible work days, for an average of 23 minutes each of those days. Some pedaled as little as a third of a mile per day, one went 13.5 miles.

The workers, who said they sit 83 percent of the time, said they liked having the gizmo under their desk and would use it regularly if it were made available. (I can only envision one better scenario.) The study was published online Monday in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Read more here and here.

Junior’s BMI rises the more mom works

Kids whose moms work tend to have a higher Body Mass Index, according to figures pulled from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Researchers from American University, Cornell University and the University of Chicago analyzed the data on 900 kids in grades 3, 5 and 6 in 10 U.S. cities. More than 70 percent of moms in the United States work.

Researchers were surprised that the connection wasn’t related to the time the kids went unsupervised and how much screen time they had (as a  result). In fact, it didn’t seem to matter when the moms worked: kids whose working moms were home when they got home from school were just as likely to have higher BMIs than kids whose working moms weren’t home. Researchers speculate the problem might be that moms who work have less time to grocery shop, less time to cook at home and thus spend more time eating prepared foods and fast food, which are higher in fat and calories. There was no mention of what the dads were up to.

Read more here.

Again, kids who exercise do better in school

Yet another study that shows kids who are active do better in school, in the case of this study by  Georgia Health Sciences University researchers, in math. Read more here.

Spring into action

Finally, a timely reminder — especially considering temperatures this week have mysteriously broken out of a winter-long funk in the 40s and flirted with the 70-degree mark — to start limbering up for spring. Dr. Anders Cohen with The Brooklyn Hospital Center says you should spend at least three weeks working on strength and flexibility issues before immersing yourself in the physical pleasures of spring.

If you play in a spring softball league, for instance, he suggests starting to play catch and throwing at varying distances and angles to increase flexibility, reflexes and to loosen your arm. Before doing whatever you do, advises Cohen, take 10 minutes to warm up and afterward, 10 minutes to cool down.

More here.