Well Being: For men, a healthy lesson in listening
One of my favorite essays by Roger Rosenblatt, one of my favorite essayists, is entitled "The Silent Friendships of Men." In it, he states that among men, "there is a wordless understanding in which we...
View ArticleWell Being: Two slick tools to clear snow
Winter has been so mild, with so many seductive previews of spring, that it seems churlish to suggest we may still see some snow before the first robins and dandelions.
View ArticleWell Being: The payoff (ouch) from 15 minutes
Mike Barretta is a veteran member of the Brotherhood of the Barbell. He opened one of the first free-weight gyms in South Philly back in 1981, he says, when bodybuilding was considered "uncool" and...
View ArticleWell Being: A search for meaning in the twists of a labyrinth
At Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, on the first Tuesday of every month, they spread a large piece of canvas on the floor of Congregational Hall. Imprinted on the canvas is a pattern that replicates the...
View ArticleWell Being: Pickleball: It's a dilly of a fun waist-whittler
A few weeks ago, Judy Michel broke her elbow when she lunged for a drop shot and went sprawling. After an episode like that, you'd think she might take a break to let things heal.
View ArticleWell Being: A negative has these exercisers quite positive
Roger Schwab is an impressive advertisement for his profession. At age 67, the owner and president of Main Line Health & Fitness in Bryn Mawr has an enviable physique. In recent months, however,...
View Article94 and ready for the next dance
Edward Moore was visiting Bermuda when he saw a girl windsurfing. It looked like fun, so he took a lesson and began windsurfing himself. He was 60 at the time. One of his treasured possessions is a...
View ArticleWell Being: Philly museum and others bring scientists into art world
The owner of the small, dark canvas with the swirling brushstrokes thinks it may be a rare find: a previously unknown painting from the hand of Vincent van Gogh.
View ArticleWell Being: How boomer babes can keep bones dense and strong
Sue Edwards sent me an e-mail recently that ended with this sentence: "I don't want all of the women out there who are in the baby-boom generation to start taking drugs when there is an alternative."
View ArticleWell Being: A key to unlocking happiness
My morning run in Maine follows a three-mile loop. It begins with a climb through the woods, levels off, and ends with a gradual descent along the shore. Here, the trees part to reveal a sloping meadow...
View ArticleWell Being: An astronomer's constellation of activity: Biking, running, lifting
As a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania, Mark Devlin has his head in the stars and his feet planted firmly on Earth - when he isn't running or mountain-biking.
View ArticleWell Being: Weil: Strive for contentment, not happiness
Over the years, I have read the books and listened to the pronouncements of Andrew Weil, the natural-remedy guru and champion of integrative medicine with the broad grin, bushy beard, and bald pate....
View ArticleWell Being: He surprised himself by learning to like exercise
Peter Hopkins, the music director at St. Peter's Church, is an erudite, energetic man who plays the piano and organ, sings with a fine tenor voice, and can blend the disparate voices in the choir so...
View ArticleWell Being: A push-up enthusiast is warned to lay off
My approach to exercise is strictly Thoreauvian - simplify, simplify! That's why I'm a big fan of body-weight exercise - push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, etc. Because resistance is supplied by your body...
View ArticleWell Being: Marathon mates all year
Dan Schultz and Craig Davidson were hanging out at McGillicuddy's Pub in Havertown in early fall last year, enjoying a couple of beers, when Davidson floated a wild idea: Why not run several marathons...
View ArticleWell Being: Pushing back on push-up warning
My recent column on push-ups, in which orthopedic surgeon John Fenlin of the Rothman Institute tossed a hand grenade by recommending that people over 40 stop doing body-weight exercises such as...
View ArticleWell Being: His prescription for heart health
One of the enduring tragedies of fair Ireland, beset by recurring economic woes, is that it loses many of its best and brightest, who, in search of opportunity, emigrate, most often to the United States.
View ArticleWell Being: Reaching higher, in mind and body
When Debra Williams was growing up in West Philadelphia and later Wynnefield, her parents made it clear that going to college was mandatory. She did that and then some, proving along the way that a...
View ArticleWell Being: Leading uphill climb to ease the suffering from cystic fibrosis
Jim Wilson describes himself as "an adrenaline junkie." It began with motocross racing when he was a teenager. Later in life, he became a mountain and ice climber, scaling peaks all over the world.
View ArticleFor comfy cycling, make the bike fit the biker
Cycling is Fernando Gallard's favorite way of achieving fitness, having fun, and relieving stress - essential in light of his job fielding media queries for the Philadelphia School District.
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