SNEWS best fitness reads from around the web

What did the SNEWS team read this week that other fitness insiders might find interesting? Read on to find out.

• Our home state of Colorado is seeking to attract businesses with its skinniest state status. This USA Today story said our state is telling companies that doing business here will be good for their bottom line because skinny, fit people cost less to employ. Plus, Colorado retailers, those skinny, fit people might need a piece of equipment or two for their homes.

• You’ve been hearing all about minimal shoes, HIIT (high intensity interval training) and CrossFit for a while, but the real question is: Should you be promoting these trends? This Fox News story answers that question for each category. We won’t give away all the good stuff, but HIIT could be a keeper as this Time article suggests harder, not longer, exercise is the key to better heart health.

• Oh boy! We couldn’t be more thrilled to know that our svelte figures and dedication to running and fitness could help us earn more. According to this CNN article people who are fit earn more, possibly because of their exercise-induced productivity boosts. And if the possibility of a higher paycheck doesn’t do it for your customers, ease them into creating an exercise routine with information in this Lifehacker post.

• Writer Samuel Johnson once said, “What we hope ever to do with ease, we must first learn to do with diligence.” Sometimes your customers want creating an exercise routine to come easy to them and they forget they have to do it consistently, diligently. If he were alive, Samuel Johnson would approve of this Star Phoenix story that discusses how consistency is the key to a successful fitness program.

• Some of us are deathly afraid of gaining weight (not us, as evidenced by our love affair with frozen treats) and exercise vigorously to keep the pounds away. According to this NWF Daily News story, exercise also fights chronic disease, reduce the emotional toll life usually takes on everybody and keeps you from gorging on junk food.

• This Doctor’s Lounge story informs us that obese teenagers who engage in even a small amount of exercise get a boost in self-esteem. This conclusion was reached through a study of 30 adolescents between the ages of 12 to 17 in Canada.

• Say your customers’ kids and teenagers don’t give a hoot that exercise can give them a higher level of self-esteem. This Huffington Post column gives tips on how to get them out and active. Some of the suggestions include having them walk the dog, taking them bowling and taking them for a hike.

• With an increased focus on nutrition in the fitness industry these days, it’s good to have an arsenal of knowledge about what foods are good and bad for your customers, in case they ask. This story discusses the health benefits of pumpkin (which also has a total yum factor) and this one said apples are the fruit of youth. Much to our dismay and disappointment, however, this article said people who drink more than three cups of coffee a day have a higher risk of getting glaucoma. I guess we’ll forgo that third cup today.

• Do you consider yourself the “Face of Fitness”? How about your sales associates? What about one of your particularly hard-core customers? Then check out this post about a Fitness Magazine contest that soliciting entries to find the “Face of Fitness.” Check it out and see if you have what it takes.

• Not all of us are lucky enough to have the bodies of Hollywood starlets. Heck, not all of us are lucky enough to have the bodies of Hollywood starlets AFTER they have babies. So what’s their secret? Gwyneth Paltrow and others spill their pregnancy and post-baby fitness tips in this story.

Have you read anything interesting you’d like to share with us? Maybe we’ll include it next week’s column with a little shout out to you. Send a link to the story with the subject line “SNEWS Reads” to be considered.

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo