Fitness Reads: Who's fitter than most at 70? Also find out the best weight loss secret

What did the SNEWS team read this week that other industry insiders might find interesting? Read on to find out.

• Chronic pain is a major problem for adults 65 and older. According to this MedPage story, almost 19 million older adults in the U.S. reported bothersome pain in April. According to WebMD, one way to battle chronic pain is to exercise — endorphins provide a temporary respite.

• If any of your customers are among those 19 million older adults who are in pain, skipping exercise is not the answer, according to this Health story. It outlines the best exercises to perform if you’re in pain, which include Pilates, simple stretching and golfing.

• The seniors included in this article made us feel downright motivated. This Fitbie story reported on people over 70 who are probably fitter than all of us, including a 73-year-old CrossFitter and a 76-year-old bodybuilder. It gives us hope that we’ll remain amazing well into our 70s, too.

• Though the seniors in the previous post are way past exercising for small health gains, it’s worth noting that no matter our age, exercise is beneficial for us, according to this News Medical story.

• What motivates people to work out? Cold, hard cash, according to this CNET story. It details the results of a study about obese people insured by the Blue Care network. Folks who were able to exercise had to choose between exercising more or paying 20 percent more for health insurance, which translated to about $2,000 a year. Spoiler alert: They chose the former.

• With more doctors prescribing exercise as medicine, fitness manufacturers and retailers are focusing on the wellness and medical communities. IHRSA is hosting a webinar next Tuesday to teach fitness industry folks how to forge partnerships with the medical community. Check out this IHRSA post to learn more.

• Speaking of prescribing exercise as medicine, this Gym Source blog post reports that May is “Exercise is Medicine Month.” The Exercise is Medicine initiative is coordinated by the American College of Sports Medicine. It launched in 2008, and aims to get people more physically active to prevent medical problems. Retailers, are any of you running special promotions or events for Exercise is Medicine month?

• Every now and then, a fitness or health magazines publishes a story calling out “useless” exercise machines. They don’t necessarily mention manufacturer names, but among some of Prevention’s picks in this story are the leg curl machine, rotary torso and inner and outer thigh machines.

• Now that spring has finally arrived in Colorado, some of us are looking to drop those polar bear pounds that were keeping us warm in winter. This Shine story gives us the secret to successful weight loss: Make a goal. It urges us to examine how we feel, focus on what’s good in life and determine what we want to change and make steps toward doing so.

• Retailers, if you run out of fitness enthusiasts to buy your treadmills, you can always turn to treadmill dancers. We marveled at Marcus Dorsey’s treadmill dancing skills in this Good Morning America video. We couldn’t tell which manufacturer made the treadmills in the video, by, but if your eyes are sharper than ours, give them a shout in our comment section.

Read anything interesting this week? Email it to us because we want to read it, too!