Posts Tagged ‘exercise’
Monday, March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
A simple, brisk stroll has more benefits than you might think.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
REMEMBER fitness in the 1970s? All those aerobics classes, leotards and sweatbands, the endless jogging and velour track suits? Got to crank up that heart rate to 90% of maximum, experts told us. No pain, no gain.
But today a new, easygoing message reigns: Leave the spandex at home — you don’t have to sweat or even change your clothes. Simply take a walk. Aim for least 30 minutes of activity on most days of the week, experts now advise. Break it up into a few brisk-walking “snacks,” if you prefer. Vigorous exercise is great, they say, but don’t feel pressured.
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, Science, walking
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Monday, March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
It’s easy. And with fitness clubs and races, keeping up the routine will be doable.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
WANT to walk? Don’t, at present, do much of it? Here are some tips on how, when and where to put one foot in front of the other.
– The basics: To reap walking’s benefits, you don’t have to redline your heart rate but you can’t be a slugabed about it, either. The goal is to get your active metabolic rate between 3 and 6 times your resting rate. For most people, that means walking between 3 and 4 mph, says Mark Fenton, a walking trainer and author of “The Complete Guide to Walking for Health, Weight Loss, and Fitness.” “It’s not race-walking, but it’s not window-shopping, either.”
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, Science, walking
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Monday, March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
For millions of years, we’ve been ambulating about on two legs. At this late stage, how could walking possibly offer up any out-of-the-ordinary thrills? Here’s a sampler:
*
Racewalking
Believe it or not, racewalking used to make the news. In 1867, a New York Times article entitled “The Pedestrian Mania” discussed the latest craze for long-distance speed walking, comparing its practitioners with prizefighters and warning its readers against the sport’s “possible risk to … life.” During a great media splash in 1910, the most famous of these “pedestrians,” Edward Payson Weston, walked 3,500 miles from Santa Monica to New York City in a mere 78 days — and at the age of 71, no less.
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, walking
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Monday, March 12th, 2007
SPECIAL ISSUE: WALKING IN L.A.
Exactly how much good does that daily stroll do? For starters, it’s terrific for the heart, studies show.
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
March 12, 2007
STUDIES investigating the health wonders of exercise keep rolling in. But just like with eating habits, physical activity habits are tough to study in gold-standard, randomized clinical trials — after all, who would agree to be assigned to a marathoners’ group for 20 years? Instead, most researchers do the next best thing: study people’s exercise habits and see how they fare, health-wise, down the line.
Here’s a snapshot of some high-profile studies that have focused on walking or other moderate-intensity physical activity:
Cardiovascular system: This is where the mother lode of walking benefits have been found.
Tags: exercise, Health, LA Times, Science, walking
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Monday, January 1st, 2007
SPECIAL FITNESS ISSUE: THE FOOT
By Regina Nuzzo
Special to The Times
Los Angeles Times — Health Section
January 1, 2007
SKIN and nails of the feet just don’t get any respect. When researchers talk foot science, they lavish attention on bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
And when athletes trade stories in the locker room, they’ll recount the finer points of a plantar fasciitis episode — but are far less likely to breathe a word about a wicked case of warts or toenail-crumbling fungus.
Embarrassment: That’s forgivable. Taking the humble foot wrapping for granted: That would be nothing short of foolish.
Layers of resilient skin offer the first line of defense against infection-causing microscopic nasties, and thick nail armor protects toes’ most vulnerable parts from bashing and bruising.
Tags: exercise, feet, Health, LA Times, Science
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Friday, July 1st, 2005
Longboarding is like surfing on wheels for landlocked locals
by Regina Nuzzo
Washington Post’s EXPRESS
Friday, Jul 1, 2005
Local surfer Anthony Smallwood lives about three hours from the nearest decent beach. But he’s not about to let that come between him and his daily swells. Instead, he rides the asphalt waves right here — surfing D.C. streets on a mega-sized skateboard.
After work, Smallwood likes to head out with his four-foot board to secret spots nestled in the northwest district. He carves down tight streets, rips around parked cars and blows past secret service squads. “I ride my longboard every day,” said the 40-year-old airline employee. “That’s my surfing.”
For many street skaters, Smallwood’s longboard may not be the sexiest plank on four wheels. Born in the 1950s surfing culture of California and Hawaii, longboarding still has a distinctly old-school flavor. But in the D.C. area and across the country, a growing number of people — land-locked surfers and off-season snowboarders, urban speed freaks and suburban commuters — are finding the skateboard’s overgrown cousin to be just the right size.
Tags: exercise, Express, longboarding
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Sunday, May 15th, 2005
Daring and sexy, firespinning is one hot hobby
by Regina Nuzzo
Washington Post’s EXPRESS
Friday, May 13, 2005
About a year ago, Michael Lewis started showing up to his job as a marine fisheries biologist with odd scorched patches in his short salt-and-pepper hair — places where he accidentally whacked his head with 250-degree-Fahrenheit flaming balls of wax on the ends of long chains. “Fire kisses,” they call them. Just a little souvenir from his new hobby.
Lewis has joined the D.C. metropolitan area’s tightly knit firespinning community. By day, its members are anything but circus freaks. Most work 9-to-5 as computer programmers, nurses, economists, scientists.
But at night they love to gather and play with fire, creating fleeting geometries of light in the air as they whirl flames near their leather-clad bodies. Firespinning can be sexy, athletic and communal — with just the right splash of danger.
Tags: exercise, Express, firespinning
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Monday, April 26th, 2004
The weak link in the Big Sur Marathon relay
By Regina Nuzzo
Monterey County Herald
April 26, 2004
MONTEREY, Calif. In these desperate economic times, a job applicant will do just about anything to get hired. Say, for instance, wheezing through Hurricane Point.
I’m an unpaid intern at the Herald, and when the paper needed a fifth runner for their Big Sur International Marathon relay team, I jumped at the opportunity to show a little can-do attitude. Couldn’t hurt my chances for a full-time reporter’s job, right?
Then I learned I was slotted for the third leg: Hurricane Point. Otherwise known as “Hurri-Pain Point.” Two miles straight up — climbing more than 500 feet — to a peak famous for gale-force winds.
If I managed that, I would have two miles down, passing the Bixby Bridge pianist, then three more miles of rolling hills. All on a Sunday morning at a time most of my colleagues would still be in bed sound asleep. No problem.
Tags: Big Sur, california, exercise, Monterey
Posted in Health, Monterey Herald, Newspaper | Comments Off
