Madonna Hanna does not know how to stop. She overcomes institutionalized racism as a child in Boston’s schools in the 1960s. She bounced back from a near-fatal car crash as an adult. And she persevered after an injury that could have ended her track and field aspirations later in life. Now, Madonna is 67 and […]
The Olympic Games are all about inspiration. And a pair of international competitors over 50 are showing this summer that age is no barrier to following athletic passion. And that goes for all of us, too – the passion to drive us to reach our goals, even if we won’t ever have a gold medal […]
Have you seen something like this and wondered, What in the world? While not a common sight, it is part of the tenacious “Dad Bod” idea, introduced a few years ago and still hanging on. Some people like the idea of the dad bod because it’s a reflection of more realistic body images. Others think […]
Yvette Matthews hired a personal trainer after she started moving up the list for a liver transplant in 2011. At 57, she wanted to ensure she was fit — because any doubt that she could survive the rigors of a transplant could mean being denied. Yvette, the daughter of a Division I college football player, […]
Alison Bechdel might not be your typical fitness author. But that’s part of what makes her so interesting. Bechdel is a prize-winning cartoonist whose lauded graphic novel “Fun Home” became a Tony-winning smash musical on Broadway. Now she’s back with a new book – which is a memoir in the comic-strip style of a graphic […]
The cans of cement he lifted as a 110-pound 15-year old, the weights he hoisted over his head in the ‘52 Olympics, the world records in lifting — Clyde Emrich says it was all savings for his “health bank” for a rainy day. And now, it’s a rainy day. Clyde worked as a strength training […]
We’ve all been watching Cher for so many decades now that she seems ageless. From hippie singer to TV variety star to Oscar-winning actress and more, it seems there has always been Cher. And as she just turned 75, it’s worth a look at how she has turned back time (as one of her songs […]
For Pat Harlow, the symptoms came occasionally at first. She couldn’t remember words. She had double vision, and numbness on one side. Eventually, after a particularly bad episode, Pat was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 48. She kept going to work for 15 years and “pretending that I’m normal,” she says. But after a […]
It’s easy to think of aging as a steady decline. But fitness proves it doesn’t have to be that simple and dreadful. If you exercise regularly, you’re more likely to maintain physical abilities. Period. So think of it as a sliding scale – with physical dependence at one end and being an elite athlete at […]
It used to be simple when discussing dietary lifestyle choices. You were a meat-eater or a vegetarian, right? Then came more extremes — “whole food” eating that eliminates processed food, and veganism that cuts out all animal products. But now, not everybody wants to limit their food identity to “strictly this” or “exclusively that.” We […]
