Exercise

The parents of a 2-year-old boy from Staten Island, N.Y., learned the hard way just how dangerous exercise equipment can be. In September, the boy's skin was pulled off his hand when he touched the belt on a treadmill. Another 2-year-old boy, from Johnson City, Tenn., severed three fingers when his hand became caught in the front wheel of an exercise bike in May 1995.

The alarm clock goes off late. Rushing to dress, you remember the suit you wanted to wear is still at the cleaners. As you gulp down that cup of coffee, the phone rings. Bad news. The baby-sitter has the flu and has to cancel. Your important meeting is in 45 minutes, and there is no day care backup. Sound familiar? If your first thought is to go back to bed and just avoid what appears to be a stressful day, think again. The gym is the best place for you.

Back in the days before Spandex and aerobics, when there were no health clubs or high-tech exercise machines, people who wanted to get fit did calisthenics. Staples of the military, sports teams and gym classes, these basic conditioning exercises--push-ups and pull-ups and the like--were considered the best way to get strong and fit. In fact, the popularity of the Royal Canadian Air Force's calisthenics program in the late 1950s helped launch the modern fitness movement.

While many Americans know that they should drink eight glasses of water a day, when it comes to getting them to drink it, you'd have better luck with a horse. And don't even get us started on the fact that people need even more water during exercise, roughly an extra 4 ounces for every 15 minutes of activity. A survey of 3,003 Americans shows that: * Americans consume 12.8 8-ounce servings of beverages each day, but only 4.6 are water.

Many people assume that getting fatter, weaker and stiffer are all inevitable with age. But a growing body of research suggests that much of the decline attributed to aging actually comes from being sedentary, and that regular exercise can help people remain healthy and independent as they get older.

Staying fit into the millennium may mean working out less for your money. That's because after doing an ATM class, your body will move as smoothly as the slide of a debit card. But ATM in this case stands for Awareness Through Movement, and the classes are part of the Feldenkrais Method, which many say makes exercise as easy and efficient as automatic banking.

Mention the word "exercise," and you're likely to hear groans. It's one of those "shoulds" people know are important to health, yet just one in three American adults exercises regularly. Aversion to the "e" word is so strong that many health professionals now substitute more acceptable terminology such as "physical activity" or "movement." " 'Exercise' sounds like work, but 'physical activity' sounds like play," says Assistant Surgeon General Susan Blumenthal, who says this is one reason the U.

Mark Zurmuhlen is devoted to fitness. But, boy, he hates going to the gym. "Too expensive and too cold," he says. He likes the idea of having a personal trainer to help him keep track of his progress. But personal trainers are, well, "expensive." All Zurmuhlen--a 40-year-old resident of Washington, D.C.--wants is to work out in the privacy of his home with a little assistance and at a modest price. Enter, online Xavier Carrica.

Americans trying to fight the flab spent $5 billion on home exercise equipment last year, the Fitness Products Council said. More than 50 million Americans say they have bought home exercise equipment, a survey commissioned by the council found. The survey of 1,600 adults found that 35% of those who had equipment owned free weights, 25% had treadmills and 23% had stationary bicycles. They spent an average of $473, the survey found.

A vigorous half-hour walk six times a month can dramatically reduce the risk of premature death, even taking into account genetic factors, according to an article last week in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Vigorous walkers had a 43% lower risk of premature death when compared with those who were sedentary, according to the study, which tracked about 16,000 healthy men and women from a national registry of twins in Finland.