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.

• The holidays are stressful. Your customers are probably doing a million things from shopping to cooking to thinking about how they’re going to avoid the holiday budget. They’ve probably got turkey, cookies and treats on the mind (which will most likely later be on their butts), but if you direct them to this She Knows post about how to sneak in exercise then it might ease their stress.

• Apparently Coca-Cola wantsto help with the obesity crisis — not by lowering the sugar content of its drinks or anything — but by putting a feature on its website that will help consumers determine how many minutes they have to jog or walk to burn off one of its products. Seems a little off to us — the gizmo said it takes only 30 minutes of dog walking to burn off a 150-calorie can of Coke. We say just skip the soda altogether. Check out this Adweek story.

• With the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, numerous companies and businesses have proven just how generous we can be in the wake of tragedy. We enjoyed reading another story about one such business in the Rockville Centre Patch. One boot camp operator decided to donate its proceeds to Hurricane Sandy relief on Long Island.

• When we’ve chatted with personal trainers in the past about how they can work with specialty retailers so both can benefit from the relationship, we’ve often heard that partnering for local events is one way to get involved. Here’s your chance, Nebraska retailers. This local fitness challenge is now accepting applications and the event is co-sponsored by Anytime Fitness. Check out the story in the Beatrice Daily Sun.

• We’re in the fitness industry, so we know there are tons of definitions out there that describe exactly what it is. Most of them are vague, as this Huffington Post story points out. But not to worry, the story offers detailed descriptions of the 10 facets of physical fitness in this slideshow.

• We almost hate to tell you this, retailers, but a Boulder, Colo., chiropractor is offering free instructional videos via his website for how to properly do many of the exercises he recommends to his patients. But don’t worry, they seem to just be snippets you can recommend to your customers who are experiencing any sort of neck or back pain. Check out this Market Watch story on the “Video Vault.”

• It’s certainly not youngsters bursting through your doors to buy expensive exercise equipment — most likely it’s the middle-aged folks who have a bit of capital under their belt. So know what exercises to recommend to them by reading this Kansas City InfoZine story that outlines a University of Alabama Study on the best ways for middle-aged men to exercise.

• To be honest, we’re not really fans of waiting until the last minute to do our holiday shopping, but let’s hope for your sakes that there are a ton of last-minute shoppers headed through your doors, and they read this Shiny Shiny post at the top fitness gifts to give this season. Check it out and see if you stock any of them.

• One thing that seems to be catching on is the idea of outdoor workouts, and not just going for a hike or a run outdoors, but doing your strength training outdoors. This USA Today story highlights what we’ve been noticing: “Fitness parks” are gaining popularity in bigger cities. Perhaps accessories that could work in harmony with the equipment planted at fitness parks will be the first fitness trend in 2013.

• Nike FuelBand on the Nike+ platform is already pretty stiff competition for FitBit and other tracking devices; but Nike is striving to monopolize the gadget sector with the recent news that it’s partnering with TechStars to launch its first Nike+ Accellerator program. Nike is now accepting applications from companies who’d like to use the Nike+ technology to create fitness products and services to inspire active people. Check out this Wired story for more information.

Have you read anything interesting you’d like to share with us? Send us a link to the story with the subject line “SNEWS Reads” and we’ll check it out!

–Compiled by Ana Trujillo