The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new data on physical inactivity levels across the United States, broken down not only by state but also by race/ethnicity. It may not surprise you to hear that, as the CDC says, “too many people in the United States are not physically active,” but there…
ON A WARM September afternoon in subarctic Finland, the architect Laura Mattila kneels in the grass beside a sauna that she and Mikko Merz, her 49-year-old partner in life and work, built eight years ago in the factory town turned artists’ colony of Fiskars, an hour’s drive west from Helsinki. Mattila, 40, doesn’t mention the…
March is National Nutrition Month® (NNM), an annual campaign from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association). This year’s theme, “Personalize your Plate,” invites people to learn about making informed food choices and developing healthful eating and physical-activity habits. Because there is no single approach to optimal nutrition, programming should be…
Pain is a very personal and subjective experience. Modern pain science no longer views pain as a sensation; rather, pain is viewed as an experience that results from an amalgamation of inputs that are physical, psychological, emotional and social. These inputs must be viewed interdependently, because they all directly affect one another and the overall…
The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans—not to mention every ACE textbook—have long been teaching health coaches and exercise professionals about the value of well-balanced exercise programs. You know the rundown: Perform a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity cardiorespiratory physical activity, or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity cardiorespiratory physical activity, or an equivalent combination of the two. Perform muscle-strengthening activities of at…
We constantly hear that core strength is fundamental to athletic performance, reducing injury risk and living a healthy life. But what most people don’t realize is that the psoas and ilicaus muscles are also considered muscles of the core. Like the other muscles that make up the core, if the muscles that act at your…
The new head of the Food and Drug Administration division that regulates infant formula was in recent months a corporate lawyer defending a top formula maker from claims that its product gave rise to debilitating harm to premature babies. Kyle A. Diamantas joined the F.D.A. last month to lead the food division, leaving the law…
Visions of champagne and lie-flat seats danced in my head when Azores Airlines accepted my 500-euro bid to upgrade my husband and me to business class during our kid-free vacation this past August. But the reality was far less cushy: Our seats reclined only a few inches more than regular coach seats. There was no…
Should you have your clients squat to a depth where their thighs are parallel to the ground, or should they go deeper? As is the case with so many health- and fitness-related questions, the answer is dependent on several factors. Aside from pain, which is outside the scope of this article, let’s take a closer…
With people unable to gather in their local parks to go for walks, ride bikes or play some pick-up basketball, many youngsters are likely growing increasingly frustrated with their lack of physical activity. This may be great time to (re)introduce the concept of physical literacy to young athletes who do not want to lose their skill or fitness levels but are unable to take part in their…