Nationally Sindicated Fitness, Health, and Medicine Columnist
by Judy Foreman
There’s no question swimming is good for you. Is it better than running or walking? Not so fast.
Is swimming the best exercise for lifelong health?
After all, you can swim with just your arms if you have a bum knee, or with just your legs if you have sore arms. You can swim with arthritis. Or a recently replaced hip.
by Judy Foreman
Whether you do it to lose weight, maintain weight loss, or just have fun, exercise is essential for good health.
As a nation, we are obviously getting fatter and fatter. Yet we seem ever more confused about how to lose weight. We’re particularly fuzzy on the question of how big a role exercise plays, or whether we just have to count calories.
by Judy Foreman
A week from today, 10,375 women – and 14,737 men – are expected to run in the Boston Marathon. The presence of so many women – the most ever entered in the historic race – is a sure sign of how far women have come in athletics.
by Judy Foreman
I’m an exercise junkie — and proud of it. I swim, I run, I bike.
But, like many other people, I’m a disaster when it comes to lifting weights, also called strength, or resistance, training. The closest I come is lifting a few tiny dumbbells at home in front of the TV. And that’s only when the Red Sox are on.
by Judy Foreman
Is permanent, significant weight loss really possible?
If you’re talking merely10 to 20 pounds — and nobody knows the actual figure — you probably can diet and exercise your way to a svelter self and stay there, provided you stick with your weight control program rigorously. Forever.
by Judy Foreman
So. You get the worst news of your life: Cancer.
You dutifully sign on for chemo, surgery, radiation. You also vow to eat better. More fruits and veggies, less saturated fat — all that good stuff should tip the odds in your favor, right?
by Judy Foreman
Today, Larry Haydu will attempt something that most people would have assumed was impossible — and perhaps even unadvisable. Haydu, 56, who was almost completely sedentary until last summer, will run the Boston Marathon.
by Judy Foreman
So there I was, the quintessential battered athlete, standing in a silly, little “johnnie” so physical therapist Susan Lattanzi could put me through my paces.
by Judy Foreman
Today, as an estimated 20,000 runners begin their mad dash from Hopkinton to Boston, Dr. Wood, a cardiologist, four-time marathoner and co-director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Women’s Cardiovascular Health Center, will be setting up shop in the corner of the medical tent at the finish line.
by Judy Foreman
In a few weeks, millions of us will be glued to our TV sets, watching the best athletes in the world ski, skate and slide their way into Olympic history in Turin, Italy.
We will certainly be dazzled, as always, by the sheer physical skill of these folks who have pushed their bodies so hard for so many hours a day, year after year.