Mind over Muscle: Placebo boosts health benefits of exercise

The physical rewards of exercise derive not just from muscular exertion but, to a surprising extent, from a person’s mind-set about exercise, a new report suggests.

Alia J. Crum and Ellen J. Langer, psychologists at Harvard University, made this provocative discovery when they studied 84 women who clean rooms at seven Boston-area hotels. It’s a physically taxing job.