The Appalachian Trail covers 2,160 miles, from Springer Mountain in Georgia to Katahdin in Maine. Which one of those miles is the toughest?  Backpacker Magazine put that question to hiker and writer Michele Morris, who put it, in turn, to other writers and trail experts. The winning mile?  A frustrating […]

Now that almost every newspaper in the the county has reported that practicing yoga appears to help people in their 50’s keep from putting on pounds, the Boston Globe is offering helpful sketches of 14 relatively easy yoga positions.  Try it; you might like it. Or, you can just click […]

OK, they’re British. So we know the eccentricity factor is going to be a tad elevated, but is riding a tricycle really an exteme sport? Perhaps. According to this piece in the Sunday Times, "triking" is the summer thrill for snowboarders and skiers who have figured out that the lifts […]

Worried that you’re not getting enough exercise? Try moving to a cooler, dryer climate. Montana is nice this time of year. So is Vermont. If new research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is accurate, moving one of those states may solve the exercise problem.  The New York […]

It’s a tough job, and nobody had to do it, but National Geographic Traveler did, and the result is a candid and revealing guide to North American national parks. The magazine asked 300 experts to evaluate 55 national parks, with particular attention paid to sustainable tourism, park quality and park […]

For many years, doctors have relied on established guidelines to determine the fitness levels (and, perhaps they didn’t tell you, the life expectancies) of men. Women who wanted to learn their fitness levels could use the same guidelines, but without the same authority, because even the doctors who were too […]

Like brain cells, sex drive and other personal valuables, muscle mass starts leaving home when we are in our twenties, and it doesn’t come back without an invitation.  The most compelling invitation is probably weight training, but all kinds of exercise, even the dreaded yard work, can coax some muscle […]

Just two weeks ago, the New York Times was reporting that only 25 cases of West Nile had been reported–in 11 states. Now we read in the San Francisco Chronicle that 56 people have been infected. What’s going on? Nothing all that unusual. It’s just that this is the time […]

In the year 2000, about 23 million American were popping vitamin E, hoping to reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer, and a half dozen other ailments. If the results of a recent Harvard study are accurate, they can stop now. The New York Times reports that a double-blind, ten-year […]

Man does not get thin by counting calories alone. Neither, sadly, does woman. Energy metabolism also plays a major role in how many calories end up in the fat drawer. That’s why the results of  a new study of fructose and other sweeteners conducted at the University of Cincinatti are […]