Pumping Irony

I’m not the kind of guy who regularly visits the doctor, but if I were and if I lived in Chapel Hill, N.C., I’d look up Nortin Hadler, MD. Hadler is a professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an attending rheumatologist at UNC Hospitals. He’s also…

It's often said of rookies who have graduated from the college hardwood to NBA arenas that they have to wait for the game to "slow down" before they can feel comfortable with a basketball in their hands.

I had an interesting revelation last week. After a long absence, I headed downstairs to the gym after work on Tuesday and dragged myself through about a 45-minute workout, including a stint on my old nemesis, the Elliptical Death Machine, and a trip to The Pit, where I got reacquainted with some heavy (for me) iron.

The other day, I was playing golf with my two older brothers and a friend — all retired — and overheard my senior sibling mention that he had just been in to see his doctor.

I didn’t do much that would count as actual gym-type exercise this week, but I’m going to say it was pretty productive anyway. An interesting age-related (I think) conundrum surfaced, and I finally made some real progress toward finishing the basement. Day 33, Monday, 10/10 Don’t let anyone tell you that yard work doesn’t qualify…

I get a lot of emails each week extolling the virtues of various anti-aging products, but this one was more entertaining than most:

I stumbled upon an interesting theory in the NYT recently that suggests the brain has more influence over our athletic performance than we give it credit for. A research team from the Northumbrian University in England had a group of cyclists pedal as fast as they possibly could in a series of time trials designed…

The key to maintaining a solid fitness regimen is to not get too disappointed when an entire week goes by and you basically fail to do much of anything that you've committed yourself to doing.

It’s a sign of the times, I suppose — and of my employer’s zest for innovation — that I now have a wellness coach. We spoke on the phone Thursday, JM and I, for about 30 minutes, reviewing the results of my recent health screening. These are the kinds of situations that beg for embellishment:…

I turned 60 last week, which is something of a milestone. If 50 is sort of the official entrance to AARP-Land, then I suppose 60 is the cheesy hotel on the outskirts of Social Security World. I’m not sure that I buy the whole milestone argument, but I know one thing for sure: 60 sure…

Well, the walls are built, the patio is expanded, and I'm back in the office today grateful for the opportunity to sit on my duff for a few hours and recover from the weekend's work. I love puttering around the house, but I gotta build in some time to recuperate.

I imagine that a lot of dads out there spent Father’s Day lounging about the house with the Sunday paper or maybe enjoying a good book in their hammock with an ice cold beer. I’ll bet their children checked in periodically to see if there was anything else they needed to make their special day…

Concrete results from a three-hour sledgehammer workout. A lot of forward-thinking trainers and gym rats these days are turning to the humble sledgehammer for a great whole-body workout. They say slamming a big old tire with an 8-, 10-, 12-, or 16-pound sledge will help you develop some serious core mojo as well as improve…

Exercise, like anything else, gets easier the more frequently you do it, so I was rightfully concerned last week when I met my old tennis buddy, The Baseline Machine, over at the Nokomis courts for our first match of the season. TBM, it seems, had been playing indoors all winter and had joined a league…

Well, last week wasn't really ideal for making my tennis debut.

Could stress be linked to memory loss?

An old buddy of mine died recently. We’d grown up together, played Little League baseball (he was our first baseman; I played second) and backyard football. And though we’d lost touch after our college years, it was still a bit of a shocker. At the funeral, his sister described his two months in the hospital…

I was just clearing dishes from the table after dinner last night when my son said two little words that are changing my life.

Sleep is a wonderful thing. Indeed, as I’ve grown older and levels of a certain hormone have subsided, it is from time to time preferable even to that other word that begins with the letter “s” and describes an activity that often occurs in the bedroom. I know what you’re thinking: How can you prefer…