When someone asks about your diet, you naturally think about food, right? But what if we expand our ideas about the word “diet” to include everything we consume in other aspects of healthy living? What would your exercise “diet” be? Your emotional diet, your spiritual diet, etc.? It’s more than just an interesting way to
April is Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month and a good time to discuss how exercise can lessen symptoms and improve quality of life. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects the brain. The cause is unknown, and progression differs widely among individual patients. Symptoms include tremors, problems with walking and balance, and limb rigidity. Treatments include
How do you feel today? It’s a simple question that can bring a lot of different responses, right? You might say, “I feel great – had a checkup with the doctor yesterday and everything’s good.” Or, “I feel kinda crabby… Didn’t get much sleep last night.” Or even, “I feel tired and sore, and I
You probably know how important your hips and knees are. But we need to pay attention to our ankles, too. They require mobility and stability, just like all joints. If an ankle lacks either, it could cause problems up the line – at the knee, hip, and back. Mobility If the ankles are stiff, you
What sounds like a perfect way to celebrate your 75th birthday? For Jerry Mathis, it wasn’t about cake or resting by the pool. Jerry ran his first Spartan race, instead. It was a 5k course with 20 obstacles like climbing over walls, shimmying up ropes, and trekking through swampy land. Sound like fun to you?
At the gym, we often perform exercises in straight lines, like lifting a bar straight up, right? Our feet are generally even and parallel. All that’s great, but it’s not enough, since we don’t move like that in real life – just straight forward/back and up/down. Usually, we’re on one foot and moving to the
Snacking is bad for you, right? Well, not necessarily. When we use the idea of “snacking” for exercise, or just movement, and other aspects of wellbeing, it can take us far on our daily goals to live better. We still need our full, well-balanced “meals” of gym workouts, running, etc. But these little “sneak ‘em
A year ago, Pam was vibrant, an active member of a fitness studio, and celebrating her 83rd birthday. But after the Covid-19 pandemic kept her mostly housebound, she grew frail and hunched over, concerning her children and sending her back to the fitness studio she had loved so much. “It was shocking to me to
In Alaska, land of extremes, the annual Iditarod Sled Dog Race got started March 7 and was scheduled to wrap up a week or more later. The people who drive the sled dogs are called mushers. They’re men and women, starting in their 20s and going well into their 70s, engaged in the brutal “Last
What’s on your “bucket list” of things you want to do at least once in life? Do you want to see your grandkids get married? Do you want to wear a dress you wore years ago but have outgrown? Maybe you want to climb a local hill – or Mount Kilimanjaro. We all have a