Health and Fitness

A new viral trend has swept the nation, where mature, upstanding citizens take pictures of themselves laying face-down, motionless and expressionless, onsomething. Anything, really. This trend is called planking, and while it sounds stupid, lazy and like a waste of time, it is.

I know, I know, they arent hurting anything, but I cant help but roll my eyes that the newest craze in America is to take pictures of yourself not moving. Weve always been fond of not moving here in the great U.S. of A., but documenting it and putting it on the Internet for all to see is a new development. You can now become a YouTube sensation for being sedentary.

I see the lure, though.

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Adrift on a Seattle waterway, personal trainer Vicki Wilson and about a dozen women are following their yoga instructor’s directions, hoisting their bodies up in a pyramid shape as they strike the downward-facing dog pose. They do this while balancing on an oversized surfboard.

Around them, boats sound their horns, a train chugs away, and seagulls fly about. But never mind the noises, the ebb and flow of the water is what Wilson likes best.

“It’s very different than the in-studio feel,” Wilson said.

“You might hear a clock ticking, something artificial happening, and yes, there’s the distraction of trains and boats, but with the water you have this flowing harmony.”

Paddleboard yoga has arrived in Seattle. Full Article…

Did you hear the whoops of joy, the victory rattle of salt-shakers, when it was reported that salt isn’t that bad for us after all? On inspection, however, the findings of the latest study weren’t quite so jubilant: while cutting salt intake moderately did lead to a small reduction in blood pressure, it wasn’t enough to alter the risk of dying or having a stroke. In other words, we’re doomed anyway.

The plethora of dietary advice these days can make you feel as if every modest pleasure comes with a finger-wag attached. Our grandparents’ generation drank like fish, smoked like chimneys, and had bigger things to worry about. We wince with guilt if we eat red meat more than twice a week.

Yet salt is an ancient and honourable pleasure. The Book Full Article…

If youre interested in fitness, but have never heard of Jack LaLanne, Im doing you a huge favor by introducing you to his name and his legacy.

I doubt any athlete has gone through training without being influenced (most likely unwittingly) by LaLanne. If you use a weight room, you have Jack LaLanne to thank. Before Jack LaLanne, there was no such thing as a fitness club. In fact, when his first health and fitness club opened in 1936, doctors advised people to stay away, calling LaLanne an exercise nut. They feared that weight lifting would cause heart attacks, an idea we think is ridiculous now.

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