fitness

Are you trying to gain strength in the gym, on the mat, on the wall, or on the trail without supplementing with BCAAs? You might be inadvertently doing your body a disservice.

I have a complicated relationship with my Amazon Echo and Dot, the hands-free, voice-controlled devices Amazon developed as a user-interface for Alexa, their answer to Siri and other intelligent personal assistants.  The Echo and Dot devices can be used as Bluetooth speakers, but their most well-known function is to allow users to interact with Alexa – you can search the web, buy stuff directly from Amazon (because, of course!), listen to music, get news briefings, and more – all by simply talking to the device.

Buying a gift for a man can often be difficult, especially when that man is your dad and you’re tired of buying him a tie each year. With Father’s Day right around the corner, however, you might be stressing about what to give, outside of the time you can hopefully spend with him. Here are 6 holistically minded Father’s Day gifts that might be received a little more enthusiastically than the same old tie or baseball hat–and with the added benefit of health.

There are numerous ways to learn about healthy lifestyle practices, ranging from self-care to nutrition to exercise to yoga. Books, online and in-person classes, workshops, and friend-to-friend chats can all be great ways to learn more about the healing benefits of pine pollen, for example, or if plastic bottles are really safe.

Whatever our fitness levels, we want our kids to be fit and healthy kids. So here are some tips for us parents to achieve just that and more…

However couch potato-ish we might be as individuals, as parents we want our kids to be better than us. We want them to achieve all that we couldn’t, and we try to do whatever it is that we can to remove any obstacles in their way. So, we want to raise fit and healthy kids.

I have a confession: I like bird watching. Actually, I love bird watching. You might be picturing images from the popular movie with actors Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson titled The Big Day, but in fact birding is enjoyed by people of all ages and genders. I was eleven years old when I first became interested in birding, and started by placing a suet feeder, meant for woodpeckers, on a tree that I could see from my family’s kitchen window. The first few days brought nothing more than an inquisitive squirrel.

Learning any skill requires time and patience, and running is no different. Tired of running 5Ks every weekend and looking to move into the 10K, half-marathon, marathon–or even ultramarathon–distance? Here are five steps to making the jump.

Certain activities might not seem compatible with yoga–heavy lifting, for example, or scuba diving–but yoga can help athletes of almost any sport improve their strength, flexibility, and mobility. Running, on the other hand, seems made for yoga. Runners don’t necessarily need the limberness of a gymnast, or the flexibility of a performer in Cirque de Soleil, but running does require enough flexibility and mobility to prevent injuries. 

Do you take recovery as seriously as you take your training? Whether you’re a beginner or elite, it’s necessary to rest your body at least weekly, if not more, to reduce the physical (not to mention mental) toll that hard exercise can have on your body. Recovery can come in different forms, and it’s not an excuse to binge watch your favorite Netflix series while chowing down on the comfort food of your choice.

The next time you reach for an ibuprofen during a run, or slather on some more IcyHot to soothe your muscles, think again. Herbal remedies can have the same effect, without the risk factors associated with painkillers and creams.