Fitness Tips from Consumer Reports

While I was reading about state-of-the-art appliances that I don’t need but really, really want on Consumer Reports’ website today, I chanced upon a couple very cool and useful free items of interest. 

First is a list of fitness tips to help you get moving towards that 500 MET per week goal. Some of the items on the list are obvious (“Take the stairs”) but there are links to other practical topics, like building your own gym for under $100. Once you wrap your mind around the general idea you’ll be able to come up with extras on your own, like parking farther away (Traffic and Parking will thank you), crunches during commercials, or jumping jacks in the kitchen waiting for your Cup- A-Noodles to cook. Believe it or not, these little things add up. Ten minutes of exercise three times a day isn’t quite as good as sweating for 30 minutes straight, but it’s not too far off and it’s a lot better than nothing. Read all about it here.

Consumer Reports has a terrific health section on their website, worth exploring at your leisure. Of particular interest recently was this amusing video about the Ab Circle Pro:

There is also a fairly interesting review on other informercial exercise equipment. Read about it right here.

What I really want is for somebody to exercise for me. Sigh. Well, at least Consumer Reports did the research for me.

Victoria Rentel, MD (OSU SHS)