Posts Tagged ‘exercise’

In this season of New Year’s resolutions, improving health is a common goal that can be frustratingly difficult to reach. As we obsess over diets and nutrition, food can become even more an object of desire. People adopt exercise regimens that might seem more punishing than gratifying. Perhaps our resolutions would be more enduring if we start […]

Santa’s fitness is the subject of seemingly endless public speculation and passive-aggressive “concern.” This year, the conversation has shifted away from fat shaming him and moved on to occupational health, wellness, and fitness prescriptions for him. Santa has a hard job. Hustling around the world with all those packages, being subjected to the stress of an […]

Looking back on the ten most read stories of 2015 reminds us how thankful we are for the growing numbers of people who take the time to read what we write, offer comments, and share ideas that often become new stories. Amazingly, we are coming very close to reaching 100,000 readers in 2015, an increase […]

It would be hard to find something more trendy right now than yoga. There are more flavors than you can count: doga yoga, cat yoga, laughter yoga, and the list goes on. Check into a boutique hotel and you’ll find a yoga mat in the room. It seems to offer important health benefits. For the scientifically inclined, you can […]

Growing numbers of people find spiritual support in groups formed around philosophies of personal health and fitness, rather than religion. That’s a finding from a study by two Harvard Divinity School students. Looking for places where religiously unaffiliated millennials find spiritual community, two of the places they focused upon are commercial health and fitness franchises that met their criteria: SoulCycle […]

Wishful thinking about losing weight through exercise has the potential to backfire. A newly published study in Preventive Medicine by Diana Thomas, Ted Kyle, and Fatima Stanford gives good reasons for thinking twice before prescribing exercise for weight loss. Prevention magazine is ready to sell you “The 8 Most Effective Exercises for Weight Loss.” Fitness clubs and […]

Are the glowing rectangles winning? The American Academy of Pediatrics seems to think so. In their official newsmagazine, Ari Brown and colleagues report that the pace of change in digital media technology is stretching the ability of their professional advice to keep up. And from doctoral research at the University of Ottowa, Allana LeBlanc concludes: The […]

The notion of endorphins kicking in to produce a runner’s high at the end of a good run is an enduring legend taken as an absolute truth by most runners. The catch is that no real evidence exists to prove that’s how it works. But in the last week we’ve had a flurry of animal research suggesting […]

Ask anybody who’s been around the block in marketing or politics. Managing expectations is the key to success. And so we come to the case of policymakers in Texas who promised that investing in phys ed would cut obesity rates, raise test scores, and improve fitness. By itself in just four years, PE was never going […]

How many steps to be president? Scott Walker is hoping that his Fitbit will tell him. Now that he’s running for president, you won’t find him without it on his wrist. According to the Washington Post, he talks about it on the campaign trail more than gay marriage or — until recently — immigration. Asked […]