This story category covers active sports and fitness activities, nutrition, diet, supplements, sports clothing and gear, wellness pursuits, meds, massage and physio.

CLUB cabin-low

CLUG: An Easy, Elegant Way To Store Bikes

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Designed in Vancouver, the CLUG is an easy and elegant way to store bikes.

CLUB cabin-low INEXPENSIVE & AWESOME | If this isn’t a fabulous idea, I don’t know what is: a practically invisible clip that you can attach to almost any surface to store your bike in a space-saving position. Use the stylish CLUG—it’s a blend of the words clip and hug—“to keep your place tidy and display your ride without damaging it or your walls,” say the trio of industrial designers (with a Fuseproject connection) at Vancouver-based Hurdler Studios. They are currently crowd-funding on Kickstarter in an effort to speed their clever product to market.   Read more

Sonicare toothbrush

Electric Is The Best Way To Brush

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If you are a lackluster brusher, a high-powered electric toothbrush will make a huge difference in the state of your mouth.

Brushing with Sonicare

MONEY WELL SPENT | If you think listening to someone talk about watching paint dry is snooze, try concentrating while a pal waxes on about brushing his or her teeth.

So you know I would never bring up ongoing tooth care unless I had something interesting to report. Last week, during a routine appointment with my dental hygienist, she confessed to having trouble cleaning my teeth. “I’ve looked for plaque everywhere, and I can find just the tiniest speck on a single tooth,” she said. “Mouths like yours could put me out of business.” Read more

asleep-at-the-wheel

A Novel Way To Stay Awake While Driving

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There are plenty of strategies to help you stay awake while driving. Here’s a highly effective one you may not have thought about.

asleep-at-the-wheel

 

TRAVEL ADVISORY | Recently a number of Canadian newspapers reported the results of a new online survey from a national insurance company confirming that an “alarming number” of people (30 percent of male respondents and 14 percent of female ones) admitted to nodding off while driving (CLICK HERE for the story).

Yikes! With road trip season in full swing, vacationers are going to need to reach deep into their bag of tricks to make sure they stay awake when driving long distances. To the roster of obvious ways to maintain alertness—starting out rested; ingesting caffeine (coffee, Red Bull, No-Doz); blasting yourself with cold air, intense conversation or loud music—we would like to offer a not so obvious solution, an inexpensive food item that has worked shockingly well to revive every driver we know who has tried it. Read more

Woman Jumping Rope

Just Jump—You Won’t Be Sorry

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How to improve your mood, energy level, agility, cardiovascular system and bone density by doing this one simple thing.


Woman Jumping Rope

 

FIT IN A MINUTE | Gretchen Rubin, author of The New York Times bestseller The Happiness Project, wrote a blog post last December on the joy of jumping up and down. Gretchen claims that the simple act of jumping up and down—in street wear, no special equipment or gym strip required—relaxes and/or invigorates her, depending on the situation. Oh yes, and it makes her kids laugh too, something that contributes to a more lighthearted mood at home. Read more

Walk Therapy: How To Log Maximum Miles Every Month

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There’s no question that walking is good for you. Here’s a trick to make sure you keep moving.

Walking exercise

 

FIT FOR FREE |  Last month, I walked from Vancouver in Canada to Bellingham in Washington and then back to Vancouver again. After that I walked from Vancouver to Hope. I didn’t actually visit either of these lovely towns—I walked the equivalent distance, 316 kilometres (196 miles), in and around my own neck of the woods. Read more

Citrus Zinger

Infused & Enthused: Zing Water Bottles!

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Zing Anything beverage infusers make the freshest fruit waters to go.

Citrus Zinger

GOTTA GET THIS | While it has finally been proven once and for all that drinking multiple glasses of water daily truly does a body good (CLICK HERE and HERE for the evidence), staying sufficiently hydrated can be challenging. If, like me, you struggle to down even a few glassfuls every day, fruit-infused liquids are a godsend, particularly when they can be made in an instant and transported handily the way they can be with Zing Anything beverage infusers. Read more

Slouching over computer

Easy Ways To Improve Computer Posture

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Here is a dead easy way to automatically improve your posture (and circulation) while sitting at the computer.

Slouching over computer

EASY & EFFECTIVE | The consensus among pundits is that those of us who sit for a living all day—and then go home after work and sit some more—are killing ourselves prematurely. One way to combat this all this sitting, they say, is to engage our muscles and improve our circulation by doing our work standing up.

Standing desks are a possible solution for sure, but all standing and no sitting is not always practical, or even appropriate in some work environments. A height-adjustable work surface that allows you to alternate between sitting and standing could be a good way to go, but let’s face it, height-adjustable desks are expensive, and who knows whether they would be used as they were intended once the novelty wears off. Read more

Sunburn back

No Really, Vinegar Is Great For Sunburn

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Who would have thought that plain old vinegar would be the best thing to take the sting and colour out of sunburn?

Sunburn back

THIS STUFF WORKS | If I were forced to go back to grade school in the coming days and then asked to write an essay about the coolest thing I learned on my time away from the classroom, I would definitely wax lyrical about how I discovered that common household vinegar is a rock solid remedy for sunburn. Read more

The Stick On A Calf

The Stick Can Ease Muscle Aches & Pains

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This little piece of equipment may not eliminate the need for professional massage, but it can help manage muscle pain.

the-stick

 

MONEY WELL SPENT | If you workout routinely and experience soft tissue aches or muscle knots as a result, The Stick, a self-massaging tool used by gym rats and sports physios alike, could be your ticket to relief. Read more

looplacinglock- Katie Runs This

The Best Way To Lace Your Workout Shoes

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Who knew there were so many corrective ways to lace up your workout shoes?

looplacinglock- Katie Runs This

 

GOOD TO KNOW | I have a very narrow foot with a very high instep, which is no biggie for me except when it comes to buying workout shoes. Very few athletic shoe brands fit my feet straight out of the box; usually, I need to add orthotics. Recently, though, I’ve been able to eliminate this extra purchase by lacing my sneakers using a method that actually improves the way my workout shoes fit my feet. Read more