Inspiration
Believe, Believe, Believe: Billy Mills’ Own Story—from Desperation to Winning Gold
Only one runner in the Western Hemisphere has ever won an Olympic gold in the 10,000m: Native American Billy Mills. In a special interview with Take The Magic Step®, Billy reflects on that magical moment 46 years ago in Tokyo and reveals his own personal struggles and how they empowered him to win.
YES YOU CAN! How Team Hoyt Overcame All Obstacles to Complete its 28th Boston Marathon
Dick Hoyt reveals the struggles that were an unseen backdrop to legendary Team Hoyt’s courageous finish in the 2010 Boston Marathon … and talks about the future of running’s most famous wheelchair team.
Haile Gebrselassie: “Running Gives You So Much!”—and Foresees a Sub Two Hour Marathon
Haile Gebrselassie is one of the best long distance runners in history. But that doesn’t matter to him, he runs because he loves the feeling it achieves in his body and mind. He wants everyone to experience the elixir of running and the benefits it can bring to you.
If You Believe in Yourself, You Can Do Anything: Peter Gottwald and His Paralympic Dream
Visually impaired runner Peter Gottwald shares the inspiring story about his journey to the silver medal at the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing.
The Indomitable Spirit of a Remarkable Athlete Inspires Hope for Life’s Toughest Challenge
At age 16, Jothy Rosenberg lost a leg to cancer, and at 19, a lung. But with amazing courage and true grit he has become an accomplished athlete, and along the way has raised more than $100,000 for cancer research.
She’s Back! Chicago-Bound Deena Kastor Talks About Her Next Marathon
Deena Kastor, known for being one of the world’s fastest marathoners, is preparing to run this year’s Chicago Marathon after her broken foot in 2008 slowed down her career. She speaks with Take The Magic Step®.
A Sign of Success in the Fight Against Cancer at the Pan-Mass Challenge
More than 5,000 cyclists took part in the two-day 2009 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge— a charity Bike-a-Thon that’s become the biggest and most successful athletic fundraiser in America and has raised more than $275 million for cancer research and treatment.
Getting Out the Door
It can be the most important move of the day—simply starting your workout! It’s comforting to know that even the best athletes in the world sometimes have trouble getting out the door. Some tips from Uta to help you take that magic step on days you don’t feel like working out.
A Unique Charity That Uses Running to Get the Homeless Back on Track
The Philadelphia-based charity, Back on My Feet, uses running to get the homeless off the streets and back on the road to a new life. And their unusual approach works. Take The Magic Step visited this remarkable charity.
The Marathon of Life
In 1997, Thomas Geierspichler was abusing drugs and alcohol to forget the wheelchair beneath him and the 1994 car crash that had put him there. But then he began an amazingly inspiring journey that brought him the title World Champion and a world record time in winning the Beijing 2008 Paralympic’s Marathon. He speaks with Take The Magic Step®.
A Head Start on a Lifetime of Wellbeing: An Interview with Uta
Uta answers questions from young people about how to get started on a healthy lifestyle that will help you look and feel the way you would like to, and can help assure you of greater happiness and confidence.
The Fit Life: The Travel Splurge
You can miss so much if you don’t pack your running shoes for that out-of-town journey. Runner and author Scott Douglas shows how the most famous landscapes can take on a whole new meaning viewed from a runner’s-eye perspective.
The Fit Life: Fast Friends
One of the great things about aerobic exercise is how sharing a workout with a relative stranger can create an instant friendship.
“We Confuse Success with Victory”: A Conversation with Jack Fultz
Celebrated 1976 Boston Marathon champion Jack Fultz, who teaches sport psychology at Tufts University, shares his thoughts on how to measure your successes—and be truly happy with your accomplishments.
The Fit Life: Sweet Light
A workout at any time of the day is great. But those at the bookends of the day are special not only visually, but also in how they give meaning to the hours that lie before and after them.
The Ecofriendly Exerciser
How satisfying to get in a workout while helping to reduce greenhouse gases! Tips to help you help the environment—from making your own no-wrapper energy bars to saving shower water.
The Fit Life: Weather or Not, It’s a Good Day to Run
Experiencing all of what nature has to offer is one of running’s greatest treats. There can be rewards waiting when you make up your mind to hit the trail despite the elements, says Scott Douglas.
The Fit Life: Make Yourself Useful!
“Why don’t you do something useful with your running?” The author has spent two decades trying to come up with an answer to his brother’s question, and shares his solution.
The Fit Life: Redefining Fun
When you think about something being fun, you usually picture yourself smiling and laughing. But there’s a whole other aspect of fun that gradually gets revealed to you when you’re fit, says the author.
The Fire Still Burns: An Interview with Bill Rodgers
Bill Rodgers won the Boston and New York City marathons four times each and was ranked #1 in the world three times. At 58, his competitive juices still flow. But more importantly, Bill has become an elder statesman and ambassador for the sport of running. (This interview was posted in October 2006.)
The Fit Life: Running as Freedom
Scott Douglas answers the sedentary critics who insist that solitary running has to be joyless and masochistic. They can only guess, he says, at the release and relaxation that a good run can provide.
Make Your Wishes Come True: How to Set and Achieve Goals
Whether you want to lose 10 pounds or run a marathon, setting realistic goals is the key to staying motivated and getting the most from yourself. In this interview Uta shares the mental and physical tools she uses to inspire her.
What We Can Learn from the Mind of a Champion
After an invigorating workout with Uta, Take The Magic Step’s Mike Reger gained a special insight into the mind of a champion, and he shares the lessons he learned during an (almost) 20-mile bike ride.
Getting Started in Running
Remember, even champions were once beginners. Here Uta describes her days in an awesome sport that has the advantage of keeping you fit without requiring much more than a pair of running shoes and somewhere to run.
Uta’s Easy Run on a Favorite Trail
After running competitively around the world, Uta shares her love of the tranquil trails where she still finds the most peace and contentment. Discover her top four running favorites.
My Love of Running
Uta describes how running captured her heart as a child—doing 100 meter laps in her parents’ back yard—and how that early experience blossomed into a life-long romance with the sport.
Nutrition
Water [Part 2]: Navigating Your Drinking Water
If you’re not crystal clear about the many differences in drinking water, in this article we take a look at the quality of different varieties to help you choose the best ones to keep your body well hydrated.
Water [Part 1]: The Essence of Life
How much water should you drink and how much should you increase fluid intake with physical activity? Take The Magic Step’s nutritional adviser Dieter Hogen examines the importance of proper hydration and provides us with practical guidelines that might help you.
Kick Start Your Day
Does breakfast get missed when you’re rushed in the morning? We can help you find the time and make the right food choices for that all important first meal that can provide energy all day long.
Nutrition: Some Spuds are Healthy Studs…Potatoes
Potatoes can be not only scrumptious and very satisfying, but also surprisingly good for you if you follow some simple advice. Our nutrition experts take a look at when some potatoes are healthier than others and offer tips to help you select the best ones at your local market.
Nutrition: Celebrate the New Year with…Pineapples!
A centuries-old sign of hospitality, pineapple is more than just a fruit with a deliciously sweet flavor. The tasty fruit is rich in vitamin C and contains the multi-tasking enzyme bromelain.
Nutrition: Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds not only provide healthy fats to the diet, but also contain beneficial phytochemicals, nutrients and fibers. With the holidays coming up when nuts and seeds are one of the favorite snacks, we help you shop for the best ones to enrich your diet with this crunchy and satisfying treat.
The Healthy World of Tomatoes
Tomatoes not only taste good, they are good for you! Studies have shown that the compounds contained in this common fruit may promote both prostate and cardiovascular health.
Nutrition: Healthier Food Choices
This article takes a look at how you can make healthier food choices—from salads to snacks! To help you better understand why some foods are healthier than others, we’ve included some brief scientific information in addition to helpful tips and personal recipes from the kitchens of the Take The Magic Step® team.
Cheers for Cherries
Cherries aren’t just luscious—research shows they may ease arthritis and may have anti-gout effects, and, in juice form, could provide benefits to athletes.
Sugar Substitutes—The Weight Debate
Artificial sweeteners are under increasing scrutiny, amid doubts that they are as effective for weight control purposes as the millions of people who use them believe. This article will help you decide what’s best for you.
The “Eat Healthfully for a Week” Challenge: Part 4
This article was written by Take The Magic Step® staff writers Peter Pippig and Silvie Nohr. The tips were provided by Uta and nutrition advisor Dieter Hogen.
Pomegranates: Long Loved, Newly Cherished
For thousands of years, the pomegranate has been valued for its nutritional and medicinal benefits. Today it’s thought to be potentially valuable in the treatment of prostate cancer. We help you shop for this “super fruit”—together with tips for making your own healthful juice.
Nutrition: Free Radicals—Naughty or Nice
What are free radicals—and why are they so important to us all? The authors cut through their mystery and show that regular exercise improves the body’s defense mechanism against them. Understanding how these unstable atoms and molecules affect you can help you to make the right exercise and diet decisions.
Chocolate: Should I or Shouldn’t I?
It has been a seductive treat since its discovery—and 3,000 years later chocolate still has the power to make us feel good. Learn which kinds have the least sugar and are highest in antioxidants, plus the way to eat chocolate for maximum enjoyment.
Organic Eating Without Going Broke
Focusing on seasonal organic foods can make cooking and menu planning a pleasant adventure, as well as improving your health. Find out which conventionally-grown foods have the most pesticide residue—and how to replace them with organic.
The “Eat Healthfully for a Week” Challenge: Part 3
This article was written by Take The Magic Step® staff writers Peter Pippig and Silvie Nohr. The tips were provided by Uta and nutrition advisor Dieter Hogen.
Winter Squash: No Tricks, Just a Treat
Pumpkins aren’t just for carving into scary lighted faces that illuminate kids’ trick or treating at Halloween. Pumpkins and other winter squash are nutritional wonders, rich in the beta carotene our bodies convert into Vitamin A.
An Apple A Day … May Keep Cancer Away
The average American eats nearly 17 pounds of fresh apples every year, proving that the ancient proverb, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away,” is as persuasive as ever. Learn why the old saying might today just as easily end in the words, “…may keep cancer away.”
Stone-Fruit Season: Just Peachy
Peaches, and their relatives the nectarines and the apricots are not only juicy and mouthwatering, but they’re also bursting with the phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals that help to keep us healthy. Enjoy them dried, as well, for dietary fiber.
A Healthy Kitchen: A Fruitful Summer
Fresh berries are too good - and too good for you - to be eaten only at snack time or for dessert. Here are recipes you can use to work berries into your meals throughout the day.
Berries: Which are the Real Deal?
We’ve all heard that we should eat berries. But do different berries provide different health benefits? Do some hold greater antioxidant potential than others? Can one help you slow the aging process of the brain? We start our in-depth fruit and vegetable series with these colorful and remarkable foods.
The “Eat Healthfully for a Week” Challenge: Part 2
This article was written by Take The Magic Step® staff writers Peter Pippig and Silvie Nohr. The tips were provided by Uta and nutrition advisor Dieter Hogen.
The “Eat Healthfully for a Week” Challenge: Part 1
Welcome our test series, which deals with the difficulty of healthful eating in a hectic and challenging daily life. This article was written by Take The Magic Step® staff writers Peter Pippig and Silvie Nohr. The tips were provided by Uta and nutrition advisor Dieter Hogen.
Lynne’s Kitchen: Springtime Promise
Spring is the season that encourages us to shift our eating habits from heavier, warming winter foods to fresher, lighter fare. Two tasty recipes from Lynne that take advantage of the newly-emerging crops.
A Healthy Kitchen: Ten Nutrition Resolutions
A New Year gives you the inspiration to resolve to make the nutrition changes that make you feel great and give you more health and energy throughout the year.
Lynne’s Kitchen: Cool Summer Soups
They’re delicious, nourishing and easy to make—summer soups are such a simple way of incorporating a wide assortment of vitamins and minerals into your diet. “Whoever tells a lie cannot be pure in heart—and only the pure in heart can make a good soup.” - Ludwig van Beethoven -
Lynne’s Kitchen: Skinny Dippers
Introducing Lynne’s Kitchen, filled with nutritious tips, interesting cooking ideas, and eating strategies for weight management and athletic performance. Healthful recipes for super-easy low-fat dips.
Create a Lunch Tailored to Your Needs
Your dietary needs vary, depending on whether you’re doing heavy physical work or endurance training, or less demanding activities like office work or purely mental activity. Tips on how to create a lunch that is tailored exactly to how you live.
Training / Exercise
Cross-Country Skiing: A Great Option for Winter Fun and Fitness
Many of you might feel challenged by the snow and ice of winter. Yet it doesn’t need to stop you getting started on improving your fitness. Uta prepared for spring marathons with three weeks of cross country skiing, and you too can use this enjoyable sport to build a foundation of strength and endurance for the running season ahead.
After the Marathon: A Guide to Quick Recovery
Congratulations, fellow marathoner! You’ll return to full physical and mental strength quickest with a few wise choices. Here are some all-important recovery steps you can take from the moment you cross the finish line and also ways you can beat the Post-Marathon Blues (Hint: they include cheesecake!).
Two Days Before the Marathon
Now that you’ve done all the hard training for your marathon, it’s time to relax, treat yourself to a soothing massage, and try to rein in some of your nervousness! The right combination of light training, proper nutrition, sound sleep, and tried and true gear will play a big role in how well you perform on race day.
The World Marathon Majors—From the Ground Up
No matter what your training level or your running capabilities, you can take advantage of a marathon course’s geography and topography to run your best time possible on a particular day. Sean Hartnett, Professor of Geography and Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and an expert on marathon courses, discusses the terrain of the five World Marathon Majors Marathons.
Taming the Treadmill
Love it or not, having a treadmill involved in your training is a wonderful strategy. When Mother Nature is kicking up a fuss outside and preventing you from your usual run, the steady hum and rhythmic impact of footsteps on the belt can be very satisfying. Let’s look at some ways to make your treadmill training as effective and fun as possible.
New Year’s Runs—An Exhilarating Tradition
They have a long tradition and are popular all over the world: New Year’s Eve runs. Amongst them are classics like the one in São Paulo or Madrid, the spectacular race in New York or the run with a biblical atmosphere in Egypt. They all are a fun and active way of saying goodbye to the old year.
Skiing and Snowboarding: Risks—But Many Rewards
It’s a special world of fun and thrills that can also help maintain your fitness during the snowy winter months. Plus, it’s the perfect sport for all the family. Skiing and snowboarding are not without their risks, but they can be minimized by sensible planning.
Want to Run Better? Relax!
Running styles vary whatever your level of performance. But you can use relaxation techniques to make small, specific changes in your style that can make a difference—in how you feel, in your results and in your enjoyment of running.
Run a Half Marathon in Ten Weeks
Want to move up in distance but aren’t quite ready to tackle the marathon yet? Maybe you would just like to challenge yourself with a distance that’s fun, gives great satisfaction and short enough to recover quickly from. With the right schedule, you could be ready in less than 3 months to be your best. The information provided in this article are suited for beginning and experienced runners alike.
Run a Marathon in One Year: A Long-term Training Schedule for Beginners
You are capable of running a marathon! Equipped with motivation and a proper regimen, you can run 26.2 miles. Broken into four phases, this schedule and training process involve creating small goals, and moving from one to another. Together, these achievements add up to the ultimate desired goal: running a marathon to the best of your ability.
Yoga
How Yoga Improves Your Fitness: An Interview with David Learmont
Take The Magic Step advocates including yoga in your exercise regimen—even just some short stretches based on yoga positions. It can help your muscles ward off those nagging pulls and tightness that might keep you from your training. In this interview an experienced runner talks about how yoga has kept him virtually injury free for ten years!
Power to the Peaceful: An Interview With Joe Haddad
Yoga aims to put practitioners in touch with a state of peace, joy and equanimity. Yoga also helps to achieve this by encouraging practitioners to tune into their inner dialogue to realize and then lessen recurrent negative thought patterns. That’s just the sort of healing our interview subject, Joe Haddad, who grew up amid the Lebanese civil war, has realized through a regular yoga practice.
Yoga At Any Age: An Interview with Jim Thorne
When it comes to getting older, yoga is among the best forms of preventive medicine we can invest in. B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world’s preeminent yoga teachers and now 90 years old, says, “It is never too late in life to practice yoga.” At 68 years old, Jim Thorne, who started yoga in his early 40s, proves that point. He is a prime example of yoga’s multi-faceted benefits.
Yoga for Performancesm: Runners’ Sequence, Part 2
Following part 1, part 2 of the yoga sequence continues the core work of the yoga practice for runners and beginners with a series of floor poses. This group of postures is designed to achieve the optimal benefits of muscle lengthening and enhancement. Parts 1 and 2, as well as the asanas of our introductory article, complete the runners’ yoga routine.
Yoga for Performancesm: Runners’ Sequence, Part 1
In this first part we offer you a specialized sequence of poses designed to meet the needs and physical demands of runners and yoga beginners. Part 1 includes more demanding standing poses, which can be followed with poses from runners’ sequence part 2. Have fun and get started!
Yoga for Performancesm: Introduction
A new chapter to the Take The Magic Step® concept, Yoga for Performance introduces you to an effective mix of stretching, strengthening and stabilization asanas, breathing exercises and meditation designed for athletes and those new to yoga. In this introduction, find fundamental asanas you will need for each of your yoga routines to come.
Yoga: An Ancient Indian Science of Exercise and Healing
More than 5,000 years old, yoga is a holistic approach to physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. Get some insight into the rich history of one of the oldest holistic health care systems and why it is just as relevant today. You can follow the lineage of an ancient physician’s and philosopher’s practice of stress reduction back more than 2,000 years.
Yoga – One Path, Many Styles (Part III)
Part III of “Yoga – One Path, Many Styles” concludes our little journey designed to welcome you to different yoga styles. We chose Integral Yoga and Viniyoga, because of their slow pace and suitability for students new to yoga practice. Also included are guidelines and practical answers to help you on your way to making yoga a part of your life.
Benefits of Yoga
Historically, yoga has been believed to heal on multiple levels. Explore some of the many benefits yoga has to offer to combat the stresses that too often accompany modern day life. Take a detailed look at the physical, mental and spiritual benefits of a regular yoga practice.
Eight Limbs of Yoga
Classical Yoga generally refers to the ashtanga or eight-limbed yoga system, which was developed more than 2,000 years ago. These eight steps still provide the guideline for progressing towards a meaningful, purposeful and spiritual life through a progression upward, from the most external, social practices to the deepest, most profound internal processes.
Yoga - One Path, Many Styles (Part II)
Part two of our journey to introduce you to different yoga styles will give you information about Bikram Yoga, Sivananda Yoga, Kundalini Yoga and Kripalu Yoga.
Yoga for the Right Balance
Creating a harmonious relationship with your body is part of a healthy lifestyle, and a topic currently given increasing attention. Join Uta as she shares her experiences in developing a yoga practice. We hope you will find the inspiration to make yoga part of your life, to improve your health and fitness.
Yoga - One Path, Many Styles (Part I)
The first of a three-part series, is an introduction to some of the more popular styles of yoga, the ones most likely to be taught in your area. Included to help you get started is a short overview of yoga and the benefits you can expect from some of these styles.
Health Management
Lymphatic Massage: A Healing Therapy
Lymphatic Massage can help your body to heal and recover from injury! It is used to treat a variety of conditions including sprains, muscle strains, joint pain—and even the common cold.
Treating the Painful Kneecap
Pain behind the kneecap (i.e., retropatellar pain) is the most commonly seen injury in runners. Learn the new directions in which the latest research is taking us to understand retropatellar pain—and also a few simple home exercises that can go a long way in treating this common injury.
Hands-on Help: The Benefits of Sports Massage
Sports massage can work for anyone who is active, from the elite athlete to the just beginning exerciser. By targeting one’s most troublesome body parts, sports massage helps to improve performance, increase range and quality of movement, and treat and prevent injury.
Is Running Really Dangerous?
Ryan Shay’s tragic death during the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials shook many athletes. It’s important to learn whether you might be at risk, say experts—but equally important to remember that regular exercise plays a vital role in good health.
Managing Achilles Tendon Injuries
Why are Achilles Tendon injuries so prevalent—and so painful? Thomas Michaud, DC turns the spotlight on this most vital part of an athlete’s anatomy and advises how to avoid injuring it—and the fastest way to recover.
Neuromuscular Massage: A Deeper Understanding
Neuromuscular therapy has wide-ranging powers to assess, treat and prevent soft-tissue injuries and chronic pain.
Stretching: The Truth
Learn what the latest research says about how and when to stretch to stay healthy and prevent injuries.
Cold Remedy
The unpleasant symptoms related to the dreaded cold can last upwards of two weeks. This brings to mind the saying: “Without treatment, it will take you 14 days to get rid of a cold. With treatment, it will take two weeks.” Find answers on how to fight a cold and get better soon.
The Magic Touch: The Many Benefits of Massage
Just one massage a month can help you feel and perform better. It will relieve sore muscles and joints, promotes joint health and improves range of motion.
