(I wrote the following story for The News & Observer and Charlotte Observer; it appeared in both papers on January 31, 2012. It appears here, with links.) Used to be that neighborhood moms got together for lunch or a game of bridge. Today, they’re increasingly likely to gather for burpies, squats and to work up a good sweat. The boot camp workout, born a decade ago and initially targeted to…

The following story, which I wrote for the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh, originally appeared in those papers on January 10. It appears here in expanded form, with links. When Sidney Eagles Jr. went in for his annual physical a dozen years back, his physician reminded him that he was overweight, that his blood pressure was high, and that his cholesterol was up there as well….

I was thinking I’d just had a bad day on the wall. Then I opened my climbing journal to record my workout and discovered that my last workout, a week earlier, had been “a bad day.” Likewise, the workout before that, during the week between Christmas and New Year’s, had been “somewhat aimless.” Aimless and anti-productive, I discovered upon further review: Had it really been nearly two months since I’d…

While most of you are staring down Day 3 of your 2012 New Year’s resolutions, I find myself with less than five months to go on my annual birthday resolutions. Make that “first” annual birthday resolutions: When I turned 55 last May 11 I got to Googling and discovered that 55 is a somewhat pivital year for a male. Among other things, our muscles and organs begin to atrophy; we…

“You know,” Chris said, “there aren’t too many people who could do this.” After catching his breath, he added, “And I don’t mean people our age. I mean people, period.” We were on day three of a four-day, 50-mile backpack trip on a particularly rugged region of the  rugged Nantahala National Forest in western North Carolina. Specifically, we were about a third of the way up a climb that would…

Ever since Christopher McDougall sought to salvage his own running career and in the process launched the minimalist running revival with his 2009 bestseller, “Born to Run,” fence-sitters have wondered: Does running barefoot — or nearly so — work? Quick catch-up: McDougall was an avid runner. Like many avid runners who entered the sport in the 1970s, he was an avid heel-striker. And like many avid heel-strikers as he entered…

I wrote the following story for the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in Raleigh; it appeared in both newspapers on Sept. 20, 2011. It appears here in expanded form, with links. Check out yesterday’s post for a first-hand account of the CXWORX class. If you don’t like the lineup of group exercise classes at your health club, wait a month or two. Odds are you’ll see some new…

Today, I have a story in both the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in Raleigh on fitness clubs rolling new classes into their group exercise lineups. That story will run here tomorrow in expanded form and with links. Below, a look at one of those new classes, CXWORX, which I’ve spent some time in over the past three weeks. It was the kind of candid honesty I thought…

I wrote the following story originally for the Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer in Raleigh. It runs here with links. They don’t require a monthly payment plan and their own room in your house. In fact, you can get ‘em for about $20, and when you’re not using them, they tuck away in a drawer or under your bed. Resistance bands — elastic tubes with a plastic handle…

The next time you hear about an athlete “juicing,” he may be beetroot juicing. A pair of recent studies have found that athletes who throw down some beetroot juice before an event tend to do better from an endurance standpoint. In November, a study appearing the Journal of Applied Physiology found that runners who beetroot juiced increased their endurance by 15 percent during high intensity running. And a study just…