Waist

We all know the statistics. The average American woman is a size 14. And yet most fashion brands refuse to respond, only cutting their clothes up to a size 10 or 12. But two women from Los Angeles, Aly Jill Scott and Roberta “Ro” Cysne, are setting their sights on bringing true democracy to fashion with their new line JilRo, which offers stylish designs, such as silk ruffle-front cocktail dresses, high-waisted pencil skirts and skinny riding...

Hip twists are a great toning exercise to define your waist and strengthen your core. They're also a nice change of pace from those twisting crunches. They're demonstrated here by YouTube fitness sensation Cassey Ho, who uses them on her "Pop Pilates Total Body Workout" DVD and Blogilates channel. Add them to your next ab workout. What it does This exercise strengthens the oblique muscles that run along the sides and back of your abdomen, helping to create a more defined waist and supported back.

Hip twists are a great toning exercise to define your waist and strengthen your core. They're also a nice change of pace from those twisting crunches. They're demonstrated here by YouTube fitness sensation Cassey Ho, who uses them on her "Pop Pilates Total Body Workout" DVD and Blogilates channel. Add them to your next ab workout. What it does This exercise strengthens the oblique muscles that run along the sides and back of your abdomen, helping to create a more defined waist and supported back.

Fast-food chain Carl's Jr. is known for its bosomy brand ambassadors, debaucherous burgers and a clientele that leans toward young, hungry dudes. But the wizard behind the curtain isn't a frat boy with a salad allergy. It's Andy Puzder, a 62-year-old jogger and devoted grandfather of six who has never met "celebutante" Paris Hilton. Remember her? Nearly a decade ago, she shimmied into a slinky bathing suit, lathered herself up with soap suds and downed a burger atop a car in an infamous Carl's Jr. television ad. Puzder has spent the last 12 years approving similar marketing efforts as the chief executive of CKE Inc. The company is based in Carpinteria and owns Carl's Jr. and its sister chain Hardee's.

If primary care doctors build intensive counseling programs to help their obese patients exercise, lose weight and get healthy, will they work? A new study finds that for half the population, at least, they will. For men and women alike, results will be modest. And for women, they won't last. The authors of the study, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded that physicians' efforts to improve their obese patients' health by promoting lifestyle change might do better to embrace "a more realistic expectation": a modest reduction of patients' waist circumference and the prevention of further weight gain.

A 10-year-old boy was buried waist-high in more than 2,000 pounds of bricks when a chimney collapsed, but police said he was not seriously injured and was in stable condition Sunday. The chimney, all that was left of a house formerly on a lot where the boy was playing, collapsed Saturday, apparently because the boy and a friend were beating on it with sticks, police said. It took rescuers about 20 minutes to free the boy, who suffered a fractured thighbone.

Wrapped Up: For a day at Disneyland, you might take along a pullover sweater that you can wear later in the day when the temperature drops. There's nothing wrong with the idea, except, what do you do with the sweater while you're not wearing it? If you don't want to leave it in the car or pop for a storage locker near the entrance, you can carry it, tie it around your waist or tie it around your shoulders. Two of these are fine, but one is a big no-no.

Strengthen your lower body and core muscles as you stretch each side of your waist with this move. Try to create space between each of your ribs so even if you can't touch the floor, you'll still feel a full side-body stretch. Stand with your feet about 3 to 31/2 feet apart, with your hands resting on your hips and both legs turned out to a 45-degree angle. Bend your knees until your hips are at knee level. Line up your knees over your ankles and lift your chest, relaxing your shoulders down and away from your ears.

Reporting from Fort Defiance, Ariz. ? Two miles down, four to go. Pain consumes him, but the Fat Man will not quit. His immense legs churn. His sweaty, barrel-size chest heaves, and the sound of his labored breathing fills the gathering dusk. He is jogging slowly ? very slowly ? up a hill on a two-lane road above Fort Defiance, where he lives on the Navajo reservation in northeastern Arizona. Puddles along the roadway are turning icy. Trucks speed by, a few short feet from his wide shoulders.

A new way to measure and categorize an individual's body shape appears to predict more accurately whether he or she is in greater danger of premature death, says a pair of scientists in a new look at alternatives to the body-mass index (or BMI). The proposed new measure is called "A Body Shape Index," or ABSI, by the father-and-son team that has  devised and tested it, Dr. Jesse Krakauer, an endocrinologist at Middletown Medical in Middletown N.Y., and his Nir Krakauer, an assistant professor of engineering at City University of New York.

BABYLON, N.Y. -- "There was a fish in my kitchen," said Elizabeth Scoyen, standing on the deck of her apartment in the Babylon marina, two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean. "That is when I knew this was going to be bad," she said, as she arranged water-logged chair cushions, soaked clothes and lamps in the open air. Like many residents on the south shore of Long Island, Scoyen, 57, a retired high school teacher, came outside Wednesday as the rains let up, and tried to dry out her belongings and take stock of what just happened.

We all know the statistics. The average American woman is a size 14. And yet most fashion brands refuse to respond, only cutting their clothes up to a size 10 or 12. But two women from Los Angeles, Aly Jill Scott and Roberta “Ro” Cysne, are setting their sights on bringing true democracy to fashion with their new line JilRo, which offers stylish designs, such as silk ruffle-front cocktail dresses, high-waisted pencil skirts and skinny riding...

A new way to measure and categorize an individual's body shape appears to predict more accurately whether he or she is in greater danger of premature death, says a pair of scientists in a new look at alternatives to the body-mass index (or BMI). The proposed new measure is called "A Body Shape Index," or ABSI, by the father-and-son team that has  devised and tested it, Dr. Jesse Krakauer, an endocrinologist at Middletown Medical in Middletown N.Y., and his Nir Krakauer, an assistant professor of engineering at City University of New York.

Want to gauge your risk for developing Type 2 diabetes? Don't just step on the scale - reach for a measuring tape too, a new study suggests. The circumference of your waist can tell you a lot about your chances of getting diabetes, according to a study published Tuesday in the journal PLoS Medicine . Health providers usually rely on body mass index to determine patients' diabetes risk, but adding waist circumference to the equation would...

Boxer Paul Williams has been seriously injured in a motorcycle accident near Atlanta, the fighter's promoter, Dan Goossen, said Monday. The 30-year-old Williams, who was scheduled to fight Mexican star and super-welterweight world champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, Sept. 15 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, has no feeling below his waist, said Goossen, who added that the left-handed fighter is due to undergo surgery Wednesday at an unidentified hospital. Williams resides in Aiken, S.C. Goossen said he was told by Williams' manager, Al Haymon, and trainer, George Peterson, that Williams apparently swerved to avoid contact with a vehicle Sunday and lost control of his motorcycle.

If primary care doctors build intensive counseling programs to help their obese patients exercise, lose weight and get healthy, will they work? A new study finds that for half the population, at least, they will. For men and women alike, results will be modest. And for women, they won't last. The authors of the study, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, concluded that physicians' efforts to improve their obese patients' health by promoting lifestyle change might do better to embrace "a more realistic expectation": a modest reduction of patients' waist circumference and the prevention of further weight gain.

It was a simple white slip ? an everyday undergarment for women in the 1960s. But in "Butterfield 8," one of Elizabeth Taylor's most memorable films, the violet-eyed actress ? playing the tragic, fiery Gloria Wandrous -- made the staple seem like the sexiest getup in the world. Making mundane clothes seem magnificent was one of Taylor's most potent onscreen powers. Her heyday on the big screen ? which spanned from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s -- is rife with such moments. The white Edith Head-designed debutante dress that showed off her impossibly tiny waist in "A Place in the Sun"; the rustic Western wear designed by Marjorie Best for "Giant"; and the Grecian-goddess-esque white dress designed by Helen Rose for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" are among Hollywood's least-complicated and most iconic looks.

A Baldwin-Wallace College baseball player was in critical condition after surgery for a neck fracture suffered while sliding head-first into third base during a game at Otterbein College, a Baldwin-Wallace spokesman said. Guy Fisher, 21, was recovering from surgery at St. Ann's Hospital in Westerville, said Kevin Ruple of Baldwin-Wallace. "He had some feeling in his hands and his arms," Ruple said today. "There was nothing from the waist down." Doctors said there was a high possibility that Fisher would be paralyzed from the waist down, Ruple said.

Being obese and having a larger waist may be linked with a higher risk of dying for African American women, a study finds. Body mass index and waist circumference were examined in 33,916 women who were part of the ongoing Black Women's Health Study and had never smoked and didn't have cardiovascular disease or cancer at the beginning of the study. In 13 years of follow-up, researchers found that for women who had a BMI of 20 or higher, every five-unit rise in BMI was linked with an 18% increase in the risk of death during the study period.