An excellent group fitness instructor can motivate and energize a group of participants, help them attain their fitness goals and keep them coming back. As in every group exercise class, the group indoor cycling instructor serves as a coach, a cheerleader and an educator. The careful balance of all three roles makes for a dynamic [...]

If anyone had told me beforehand what it would be like to be both diabetic and pregnant, I am afraid I would have opted out of the whole experience. At least for me, being diabetic and pregnant meant staying on an ever-present schedule, with little spontaneity. Every moment was either a time to monitor my [...]

Ken and Shii Ann hug each other goodnight and we see a beautiful shot of the full moon rising in the dark sky. But is it edible? Day 19 brings the tribes mail with different colored body paint. They were told to choose one color per person and paint themselves. Everyone expects that it has [...]

The payoff for all the hard work is the feeling of love, said Stoline, and the biology of motherhood plays a big role in developing it. Not every woman, however, has those feelings as part of her individual nature, she said. And others who do have it can get derailed.

An article in the Feb. 26 issue of the medical journal The Lancet succinctly and accurately summarizes our knowledge about the preventable causes of heart disease, the nation’s No. 1 cause of death. “From the 1950′s onward, epidemiological studies … identified personal characteristics as risk factors for the development of premature CHD [coronary heart disease] [...]

Mothers tend to reach back to the past to see what worked for them, said Zax, co-author of “Mending the Broken Bough: Restoring the Promise of the Mother-Daughter Relationship” (Berkley Books, 1998, $13). “Each generation does the best job they can,” she said, “based largely on how they were Some Eye-Opening Statistics on Mothers Today [...]

Compared to her previous role as a high-powered attorney at the State Department, it might look like Sharon Rutberg isn’t doing much these days. Especially when you see her wearing baggy sweatpants, strolling down the streets of Washington, D.C., at a snail’s pace. In fact, said Rutberg, the mother of two children, a whole lot [...]

The causes of cancer are, generally, neither well known nor well understood. For a few types of cancer, however, we have evidence concerning risk factors and even causative factors. For example, 90 percent of lung cancer cases are associated with cigarette smoking, establishing a cause-and-effect relationship.

Making the difference Since three smaller commercial centers already occupied the community’s “fit niche,” Conway decided to go after deconditioned individuals who are traditionally intimidated by the idea of joining a fitness facility. “Even though 80 percent of our clientele is not ‘sick’ so to speak, the fact that we are associated with the hospital [...]

As health and fitness professionals, your responsibilities go beyond just promoting fitness. When it comes right down to it, you’re in the business of making things happen. If a client wants to lose weight and lower their risk of cardiovascular disease, you devise a program that works for them. If someone is training for their [...]