Warren Kay and the Sacred Art of Running

It's not that Warren A. Kay sees God lurking among the bushes during his morning jogs.

But for this longtime distance runner, running and spirituality are inseparable. So connected are the two, says the Merrimack College theology professor, that one can actually "experience the divine in the physicality of running" and have a conversation with God while on the track.

Allow him to explain.

Incline Training

Benefits of Incline Training

1. Greater heart rates: Research shows that  walking only two mph at a 24% incline yields greater heart rates than running six mph at zero incline. Meaning that incline training is a highly effective way to get in shape and train your heart, without painful joint impact and jarring.

Three Minute Mile?

ONE thing is certain about an athletics world record... it will always be broken.

As athletes become ever fitter and as coaches discover new tweaks to techniques, even feats once deemed insurmountable are surpassed.

'Close to its perfection point'

The Hardrock 100 -- A Taste

The instructions for the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run are easy to sum up but hard to pull off.

"If you see a mountain in front of you, climb it," race director Dale Garland told 140 runners gathered at the starting line earlier this month. "If you see a snowfield, go down it. If you see a creek, cross it ... And remember the No. 1 rule, no whining."

Raw Honey is Another Elixir

Raw honey is more than just a natural sweetener. Honey has a variety of uses in your beauty regimen and for medicinal purposes.Raw honey, which is not pasteurized or refined, can be especially useful because of its nutritional properties.Although you may have heard about the benefits of raw honey, you might be surprised at some of the creative ways it can be used:

Eight new ways to use raw honey

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

A new study has proved an old saying 'healthy mind lives in a healthy body'.

Researchers from University of Gothenburg in Sweden have revealed that regular exercise boosts brain power of young adults.

It improves blood flow to the brain that could help build new brain cells.

Do Running Shoes Hurt Our Feet?

The world's runners spend $25 billion a year on shoes with ever more hi-tech gizmos designed to help them go faster and further ... but they could be hurting more than their wallet

AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY, California, two sales representatives from Nike were watching the athletics team practise. Part of their job was to gather feedback from the company's sponsored runners about which shoes they preferred. Unfortunately, it was proving difficult that day as the runners all seemed to prefer... nothing. "Didn't we send you enough shoes?" they asked head coach Vin Lananna

They had, he was just refusing to use them. "I can't prove this," the respected coach told them. "But I believe that when my runners train barefoot they run faster and suffer fewer injuries." Nike sponsored the Stanford team as they were the best of the very best

Train Like Jane

When it's workout time at Core Fitness Chicago, out comes the sledgehammer. And the 80-pound bag of mulch. And the 2010 Jeep Grand Cherokee for pushing across a rooftop parking lot while someone steps lightly on the brake.

Don't even bother looking for a treadmill.

If such exercise sounds ambitiously modern, it's not; those tools are meant to imitate the way humans stayed healthy 10,000 years ago.

Men's Muscles and Sexual Selection

Sexual selection and men’s muscles

The price and privilege of beefcake

WHY are men’s muscles so much bigger than women’s?

Partly, of course, because men do the fighting and hunting. But also, perhaps, because women like men who can do these things well, and are thus attracted to muscular men. Both phenomena--competing with members of the same sex and showing off to members of the opposite--are subject to a form of evolution known as sexual selection. It is sexual selection that created the deer’s antlers and the peacock’s tail, and William Lassek of the University of Pittsburgh and Steven Gaulin of the University of California, Santa Barbara, think it explains men’s muscles as well.

Marathons: Recovery is Variable

Recovery Is Littered With Variables

I ran my first marathon this month. It went well, and despite my fears, I had fun. I met my goals - qualified for the Boston Marathon with nearly half an hour to spare and came in second in my age group. But the big surprise was my coach's advice the next day.

It will take four weeks to fully recover, he told me. That seemed like an awfully long time.

Pat Farmer and the 21,000-kilometre Pole-to-Pole Run

PAT FARMER has dodged polar bears, evaded rogue militias and braved snow blizzards during a 21,000-kilometre run from the North Pole to the South Pole to raise funds for the Red Cross.

The former federal Liberal MP and intrepid athlete has returned to Sydney after running through 14 countries and raising almost $100,000.

Icing: Good or Bad?

Several years ago a team of Japanese researchers put a dozen college-aged men on exercise bicycles for four to six weeks of training. Following each workout, the research subjects stuck one limb in an ice bath at temperatures ranging from 5 degrees C to 10 degrees C (41 degrees F to 50 degrees F). The other limb stayed at room temperature, allowing everyone to serve as his or her own control.

The goal was to find out how much ice baths contributed to building fitness. The results were eye-opening.

For decades, post-workout ice baths have been a rite of passage for high school and college athletes. The theory was that if ice works for sprained ankles, it should also speed recovery from hard workouts, since these too involve tissue damage.

64-Year-Old Hitting His Stride

He looks like he has discovered a cure for aging. His body is taut. His smile is bright and wide. And at 64, Tom Pontac shows no outward signs of slowing down. Literally.

For Pontac became a newlywed last year, graduated from college in the spring and now plans to train as many of his new neighbors as he can to do what he loves most: run marathons.

Heel Strike: More Efficient for Walking?

Humans, other great apes and bears are among the few animals that step first on the heel when walking, and then roll onto the ball of the foot and toes. Now, a University of Utah study shows the advantage: Compared with heel-first walking, it takes 53 percent more energy to walk on the balls of your feet, and 83 percent more energy to walk on your toes.

Megan Stewart Focusing on the Next Rock

Losing toenails, hallucinating from exhaustion and blistered feet raw to the bone may sound like a form of torture, but it's just a small part of running 250km through one of the driest places in the world. Sam Scannell reports.

Exercise: Are You Longing for the Next Hit?

EXPERTS agree exercise is good for us. It can even be addictive, with those hooked constantly looking for the next hit.

Most of us have a healthy approach to exercise and a good balance of mind, body and spirit, but there are those for whom exercise becomes a deadly addiction.

16-Year-Old to Run Marathon with 80-Year-Old Grandpa

It's special for a 16-year-old boy to run his first full marathon.

But what makes it even more special for Victorville's Joseph Flores is that he's running with his 80-year-old grandfather.

Flores will participate in today's Los Angeles Marathon with 20 other or so Academy of Academic Excellence students as part of Students Run L.A., an organization that sponsors teenagers to run the marathon and provides guidance.

How to pump up your willpower

Don't do this: Worry yourself into a frenzy. Self-control is fundamentally incompatible with stress

Whether your aim is to lose five pounds, stop buying shoes or choose books over the boob tube, there is one thing essential for the winner's circle. Willpower. The bad news: This is never going to change. The good news: It is possible to strengthen your stick-to-it-iveness, so there's no reason why we all shouldn't be healthier, happier, brainier people by this time next month. Here, some tips to build up your iron will.

Running the Sahara

Among the accomplishments one might hope to amass over a lifetime, running the entire length of the Sahara may not come up on many personal to-do lists.

Yet that was the grueling goal for ultra-distance runners Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab and Kevin Lin. Their exhaustive exploits are explored in the documentary Running the Sahara, airing on Showtime (premiering Sunday, 9 ET/PT).

The three completed what's believed to be the first run across the world's largest desert.

Want to Gain Weight?

Want to gain weight?

Yes, you read it right. In a world obsessed with losing weight and staying skinny, there are also people who want to pile on a couple of pounds. Here's the healthy way to put on weight, says Zeenia F Baria.

Trying your best to put on weight but finding it tough? You aren't alone. Nutritionist Pooja Makhija says, "All foods consumed for weight gain must be calorie or nutrient dense. Most people who are trying to gain weight have small appetites, thus all the food they ingest must be calorie dense such that the total calorific value of the day increases, leading to weight gain. What they should avoid is piling on too many calories through foods that are high in saturated fats, as these are the bad fats that plague the arteries and lead to coronary heart disease. The most recommended way to gain weight would be through muscle gain. This requires a diet high in proteins with an exercise regime conditioned towards weight and functional training."

The Fine Line with Exercise

Too much exercise can be bad for your health. There is a fine line between being committed to exercise and being dangerously obsessed: some people literally become addicted to exercise. Those annoyed the gym is closed on New Year's Day, or that they'll miss their 10km run because the relatives are coming over should read on. Over-exercising is hardly a nationwide epidemic. For many, just doing any is a major hurdle. But many amateur aerobic athletes - especially joggers, weekend triathletes and gym junkies actually overtrain, which can lead to burnout, injuries, chronic fatigue and a weakened immune system.

Also, the lifestyle that puts exercise first and family and friends near the back of the pack can become a major source of regret in years to come. Serious exercisers don't like being told they train too much, especially by those who don't train at all. Exercisers and non-exercisers are from different planets. So unless people keep tabs on their own (over)training, they might end up sore, sorry and sedentary. Dr David Pyne, a sports physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport, says there are four key symptoms of overtraining to monitor:

Hips Don't Lie

When it comes to running, the hips don't lie

Is running turning into a pain in the knees? It might actually be the hips that need your attention, according to a sports medicine expert at Baylor College of Medicine (www.bcm.edu).

"The knees are usually the victims of the biomechanics that people run with," said Dr. Joseph Chorley (www.bcm.edu/pediatrics/sportsmedicine/index. cfm?pmid=17579), associate professor of pediatrics-adolescent and sports medicine at BCM and Texas Children's Hospital (www.texaschildrens.com).

A Few Thoughts about Bone Density

Young men may feel invulnerable, but as men get older, they grow wise to the ways of the body. As the years pile on, men begin to worry about heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, cognitive decline, and prostate disease - all with good reason. Faced with so many concerns, most gents are only too happy to cross "women's diseases" off their worry lists. It's understandable, but in the case of osteoporosis, it's a big mistake.

Hard facts

The Hammy has Healed

Long-awaited news. After somewhere around three months, 15 days, 21 hours and 17 minutes, I hereby proclaim my torn hamstring has healed.

It's not that I expect readers to give two figs about my health and fitness, but there's wisdom here for anyone who has ever soldiered through an extended recovery or might one day stumble onto this road.

TRAILS: The Runners and Injury Longitudinal Study

People who run strike the ground with a force of as much as 15 times their body weight.

So it's no surprise that the body, particularly joints, don't always react kindly.

Knees wear down, shin splints develop, tissues in the heel inflame.

Stephen Messier, a professor in the health and exercise science department at Wake Forest University, said that up to 65 percent of runners will develop an overuse injury.

Coach Jenny Talks about Nerves

As for those nerves? They're great for running, says Jenny Hadfield, a Chicago-based marathoner and coach who will be speaking in Calgary to talk about her own struggles with running and offer a few tips to get marathoners through their race.

"I'm always concerned when I talk to a first-timer who isn't nervous because that means they don't understand the magnitude of what they are about to do. Nerves are good. You can harness that nervous energy to help get you to the end."

Training for Badwater

Braised to perfection at 180 degrees, marinated in his own juices on a bed of wooden planks for 56 minutes, Greg Bomhoff emerged from the sauna piping hot and thoroughly cooked.

He glanced down at his body, seared pink with some darker shadings along his flanks. He smiled, nodded.

"I'd say I'm about medium-rare."