A recent scientific breakthrough has discovered drugs that drastically improve the fitness of subjects without them having to do one bit of work.   The research, performed at the Salk Institute in San Diego, California, has isolated two drugs that did wonders for the physical condition of so called “couch potato mice”.

One of the drugs, named Aicar, increased the endurance of mice on a treadmill by 44% after only four weeks of treatment without the test subject performing one other iota of physical exercise to get in shape during the trial period.   The other drug increased endurance by 75% but needed to be combined with physical exercise in order to gain the full effect, which if you’re looking for something for nothing, isn’t really where it’s at.   Scientists say the findings should translate over well to humans, who use essentially the same genes as mice to control muscle tone.

You can takepart by learning about the old fashioned ways to stay in shape - physical exercise and eating healthy on Shape Up America, a non-profit organization raising awareness about obesity and promoting responsible heavy weight management.

LINKS:

NY Times: Couch Mouse to Mr. Mighty by Pill Alone

LA Times: AICAR: Scientists say they’ve put exercise in a pill

Parallel Universes: AICAR and GW1516: Exercise Pills of the Future