Consumer Education Articles

Myth: Exercise alone can overcome poor eating habits. Truth: An average person would have to run 6 or 7 miles to burn off the 750 calories in a McDonald’s® Double Quarter Pounder® with Cheese. Myth: Preworkout stretching reduces injury risk. Truth: Researchers for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked at more than 300 studies and found no link between stretching and lower injury rates.

Millions of Americans ring in the New Year with lofty intentions to lose weight and exercise more, so why is it that by March, most New Year’s resolutions have fizzled like stale champagne? Typically it’s because people start out with unrealistic goals, misjudging the difficulty of breaking deeply ingrained habits. Impractical goals lead to disappointments that undermine the willpower people need to keep their New Year’s resolutions.newsletter_teaser: Millions of Americans ring in the New Year with lofty intentions to lose weight and exercise more, so why is it that by March, most New Year’s resolutions have fizzled like stale champagne? Typically it’s because people start out with unrealistic goals, misjudging the difficulty of breaking deeply ingrained habits.

Although some old fitness fictions, such as “no pain, no gain” and “spot reducing” are fading fast, plenty of popular exercise misconceptions still exist. Here are some of the most common myths as well as the not-so-common facts based on current exercise research. 1. You Will Burn More Fat If You Exercise Longer at a Lower Intensity. The most important focus in exer...

Could a simple sign encourage individuals to take the stairs instead of taking the elevator?

A recent survey shows that 83% of Americans typically eat in their office or cubicle in an attempt to be more efficient. Are your clients among them? Unfortunately, unless they practice vigilant hygiene with regular soapy handwashing and frequent desk and keyboard cleaning, they could be incubating an environment ripe for food-borne illnesses.

A popular myth is that there is a specific range of heart rates in which you must exercise to burn fat. Even many cardio machines display a “fat-burning zone” on their panels, encouraging people to exercise in a specific heart rate range. Have you ever wondered if you really have to exercise in a specific heart rate zone to lose fat? And what happens if you venture out of that zone? Jason R.

fpo

You wake up to the sound of an annoying alarm, you’re dead tired, and you just plain feel out of sorts. Ugh! How do you go out into the world—or even get out of bed!—when you are feeling so blah? April Durrett, IDEA contributing editor, and health, fitness and lifestyle writer shares mindful strategies that can help you shake off the blues. Use Mind-Body Methods What can you do if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Try these strategies.

Have you experienced back pain at one time or another? Have you been told to strengthen your abdominal muscles to fix a back problem? While traditional crunches strengthen the outer layers of the abdominal musculature, they bypass the deep support structures of your back. This can place the lumbar spine in too much flexion and may even worsen your back pain, depending on what your original physical problem was. By training the deep stabilizers of the lumbar spine, pain can be alleviated and you’ll be able to return to everyday activities sooner.

Excited about going on vacation? While traveling is fun, simply getting to a vacation destination—whether by plane, train, bus or car—often involves extended periods of immobility. Hours of inactivity associated with air travel—first in the airport waiting lounge and then on the plane—may leave you achy and sore before your vacation has even begun!