A family emergency took me away from the computer for some time, to Phoenix where my grandfather, aunt, and some cousins live. While there, I was reminded how incredible a hike can be when I climbed Camelback Peak - 45 minutes of extremely steep uphill terrain, if you keep up a fairly decent pace.
Not only […]

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Gina Kolata’s NY Times piece on the possibly exaggerated health benefits of exercise has this terrible news:
Jack Wilmore, an exercise physiologist at Texas A & M University, calculated that the average amount of muscle that men gained after a serious 12-week weight-lifting program was 2 kilograms, or 4.4 pounds. That added muscle would increase the […]

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I’m sure this won’t surprise anyone, but The New York Times reports (in its fashion section) on the crazy inaccuracy of calorie counts on exercise equipment. Don’t trust the machine!

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No, this is not a post about Spanx.
This is a post about how to get yourself to exercise in the dead of winter, when your seratonin is bottomed out and the fluffy folds of your overstuffed sofa beckon like so many marshmallows.
Trick yourself.
Tell yourself you don’t have to exercise. Bravo, you’re a fitness goddess and […]

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The Bad Run. Yes, it happens: A day when you just don’t feel like moving. What can you do to ward off those days, or at least to survive them? I present:
10 Tips for the Neighborhood Olympian
(a.k.a. how to make almost every workout a good one)

Show up with the right attitude. The mental component is […]

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Join me thanksgiving day for the first annual Flying Trapeze Virtual Turkey Trot! Pledge your mileage here and then walk, jog, or run the distance on Thanksgiving Day.
IMHO, Thanksgiving isn’t a day for the gym. It’s a day to get outside, look and listen, breath the air, and contemplate all the wonderful events, opportunities, and […]

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Last night I went running while all the trick-or-treaters were out. Fortunately, I was wearing a white Wallace and Grommitt “Curse of the Wererabbit” T-shirt. That helped me feel less grinchy and humorless, having done NOTHING this year to celebrate: No pumpkin. No candy. No tombstone cookies. No cutesy Halloween blog post. There was too […]

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Finding a community is an important stage in becoming, and later maintaining, your groovy new health’n’fitness-lovin identity. It’s rewarding and renewing to share knowledge and rub shoulders while practicing the activities you love.
Case in point: Last night I breathed some fresh life into my yoga practice by going to a “yoga potluck.” Twenty-odd people gathered, […]

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Exercise doesn’t help you lose weight, according to this week’s supposedly shocking paradigm-shifter in the health and fitness world, courtesy of Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories and the forthcoming The Diet Delusion.
This doesn’t strike me as big news: I’ve exercised an hour a day and an hour a week and maintained […]

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Blood sugar responds best to a combo of cardio and strength, apparently. How about trying flow yoga, so you can do both at once?

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