Inspiration
Make Your Wishes Come True: How to Set and Achieve Your Goals
Whether you would like to improve your fitness, run a mile in a specific time, or participate in a marathon, setting realistic goals is the key to staying motivated and getting the most out of yourself. In this article, I share some mental and physical tools I hope can inspire and help you.
When I Started Running: Lasting Lessons, Chasing Dreams, and Fond Memories
Remember, even champions once were beginners. Here I describe my early days in an awesome sport that has the advantage of keeping you fit without requiring much more than a pair of running shoes, some time, somewhere to run… and a little love for it.
Intensity Meets Playfulness™: Uta’s Philosophy for Life—Enjoy the Journey to Better Fitness and Health
Staying on a path to better fitness and health might feel difficult and intense at first, but a joyful journey will most likely guarantee that you can achieve your desired goals—one single step at a time.
A Run Along Memory Lane with Boston Marathon Legend Ron Hill
Our writer finally catches up with 1970 Boston Marathon champion Ron Hill for a nostalgic reunion—nearly 47 years after they shared an emotional moment neither will ever forget as Ron left his expectant homeland to strive for “double gold” in the Tokyo Olympics.
The First Marathon—Still Echoing 2,500 Years Later
How the magical legend of the marathon was born: looking back 2,500 years to a runner called Pheidippides and the epic feat that is still inspiring marathoners around the world today.
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.
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.
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 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 the magic step on days you don’t feel like working out.
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 feel the way you would like to and can help assure you of greater happiness and confidence.
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. It might even happen that you agree to run together the next day again.
“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?” Scott has spent two decades trying to come up with an answer to his brother’s question, even fantasizes about it, 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 won the Boston and New York City marathons four times each and was ranked #1 in the world three times. Now, he is still competing. But more importantly, Bill has become an elder statesman and ambassador for the sport of running. (A 2006 interview.)
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.
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.
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
Winter Squash: No Tricks, Just a Treat
Pumpkins are not just for carving into exciting faces that illuminate kids’ trick or treating at Halloween. Like other winter squash, pumpkins are nutritional marvels, rich in the beta-carotene our bodies can convert into Vitamin A.
Healthier Grilling
One of the more enjoyable summer experiences is barbequing and sharing your meal outdoors. Here are a few tips for you on how to cook a healthier meal on the grill that will tickle your palate.
Nutrition: Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds not only provide the healthy fats your body needs, they also contain beneficial phytochemicals and nutrients. Here are some ways you can both enrich your diet and delight your taste buds with these crunchy and satisfying holiday treats!
Berries: Vibrant Flavors Bursting with Nutrition
By adding a variety of berries to your diet, you will wake up your taste buds, and may add years of vitality to body and mind! Loaded with nutrients and phytochemicals, nature’s colorful little treats may offer health benefits that range from making your heart healthier to slowing the aging process of the brain.
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 satisfying, but also surprisingly good for you. We 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.
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
We take 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. You also can find recipes from the kitchens of our 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
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.
Eating Organic 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.
An Apple A Day…
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.”
It’s Stone-Fruit Season: Just Peachy
Peaches and their relatives nectarines and apricots are not only juicy and mouthwatering, they also are bursting with vitamins, phytochemicals, and minerals that help to keep us healthy. For dietary fiber you may enjoy them dried too.
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 a few tasty recipes you can use to add berries to your meals throughout the day.
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.
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 to our test series, which explores new ways to healthfully eating in a hectic and challenging daily life. Written by 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 can give you the inspiration to initiate nutrition changes that can make you feel better, give you more energy, and improve your health throughout the year.
Lynne’s Kitchen: Cool Summer Soups
They are delicious and easy to make—summer soups are a simple way of incorporating many 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.
Training / Exercise
General Guidelines for Your Marathon Preparation—Enjoy Your Training
Running with joy can lift you up to maximize your energy you need for your exciting marathon journey. It is part of the secret along with a good overall approach to your physical and mental training to fulfill your dream.
Benefits of Exercise for Children
Physical fitness, confidence, stronger self-esteem, more energy, and better memory are only some of the benefits that exercise can have on children—and they are surprisingly easy to achieve.
Would You Like To Run Better? Relax!
Being relaxed from the inside out is the basic key to running with joy and staying injury-free. I invite you to use relaxation as one of the tools to fine-tune your running style.
Cross-Country Skiing: A Great Option for Winter Fun and Fitness
With its beauty and peace, winter is a special time to get 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.
After the Marathon: A Guide to Quick Recovery
Congratulations, fellow marathoner! You can return to full physical and mental strength quickest with some all-important recovery steps you can take from the moment you cross the finish line. There also are ways how to beat the Post-Marathon Blues. (Hint: Do you like cheesecake?)
Two Days Before the Marathon
Now that you have done all the hard training for your marathon, it is 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.
Taming the Treadmill
Getting a treadmill involved in your training is a wonderful strategy. When Mother Nature is kicking up a fuss outside and preventing you from starting your usual run, the steady hum and rhythmic impact of footsteps on the belt can be very satisfying. Here are some ways to make your treadmill training as effective and fun as possible.
Childhood Soccer—A Playground Bursting With Benefits
When a child plays soccer dribbling towards the opposing team’s goal, there is more than just flying feet and a checkered ball involved. Playing soccer develops a child physically, mentally, sociologically, and even trains the brain in time-space relationships.
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.
Gymnastics—The “Mother” of All Sports
If you saw your child’s eyes light up watching the gymnasts somersaulting and leaping at the Beijing Olympics, do everything you can to encourage this interest. Gymnastics training in childhood can lead to a lifetime of better coordination and gymnastics actually form the basics of many sporting activities.
Skiing and Snowboarding: Risk and 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.
Take The Magic Step® Fitness and Health Program for Young People (1): Swimming
Children’s squeaking and happy noises when being in the water are clear evidence that they love swimming. Water splashing and swimming have many benefits: Children experience water pressure, resistance and buoyancy, and through the activity they not only strengthen their muscles…
There are No Unathletic Children!
The story of a four-year-old boy in India who has been running distances of up to 60 kilometers has led to many discussions, including among the Take The Magic Step® team. We spoke to Dr. Henning Ohlert about appropriate exercise for young children and strategies for parents to help their kids to be fit.
Soccer at the highest level is impossible without Running in Training
Soccer’s World Cup has been very successful with the final in Germany on one Sunday back in 2006. The tournament has shown that every team needs a high degree of fitness to achieve any level of success in the competition.
Why Soccer Players Have to be Good Runners
Soccer is an international and classic team sport, which is exciting, tactical, and fast. Players run about 6-8 miles, mostly in bursts of speed, which requires endurance while needing to keep their coordination, speed, and skillfulness. They are in great shape!
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 is fun, gives great satisfaction and is 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 desired goal: running a marathon to the best of your ability.
Yoga
Yoga for the Right Balance
I would like to share with you how you can develop and integrate a yoga practice into your training to improve body alignment, balance, and flexibility, as well as stamina and strength. If this beautiful form of exercise and healing is not already part of your fitness routine, you might be surprised what yoga can do for you.
Power to the Peaceful: An Interview With Joe Haddad
Yoga aims to put practitioners in touch with a state of peace, joy, and equanimity. We find out from Joe Haddad, who grew up amid the Lebanese civil war, how he achieved healing through a regular yoga practice
Yoga At Any Age: An Interview with Jim Thorne
It is never too late in life to practice yoga—and at 68, Jim Thorne, proves that point. A wonderful example of yoga’s multi-faceted benefits, he passes on the lessons for living and exercising that yoga has taught him.
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.
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
As one of the chapters to the Take The Magic Step® concept, Yoga for Performancesm 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.
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 practical guidelines to help you on your way to making yoga a part of your fitness routine.
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 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—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
Conquering the Common Cold?
Would you like to win the battle against a cold or flu bug this season? Our time-tested, health-promoting program can help you to stimulate your immune system to feel better faster and resist future infections.
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 troublesome body parts, sports massage helps to improve performance, increase range and quality of motion, treat and prevent injury.
Is Running Really Dangerous?
Ryan Shay’s tragic passing during the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials shook many athletes. It’s important to know 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 works with the central nervous system to relieve chronic pain in cases where direct, deep pressure can’t be applied. This well-known therapy has wide-ranging effects from treating and preventing soft-tissue injuries to targeting chronic pain.
Stretching: The Truth
To stretch before exercise or after? Or not at all? They are some of the most frequently debated questions among runners and other athletes. Thomas Michaud, DC, discusses the latest—often surprising—research on how and when to stretch to stay healthy and prevent injuries.
Dad's Corner
Dad’s Corner: Summer Games Can Bring Back the Childhood Joy of Friendship
An action-packed vacation with my son turns into a lesson learned about competitiveness, camaraderie, and the wonderful spirit embodied in playing games but oftentimes forgotten in the adult world.
Dad’s Corner: One Child’s Game—One Grown-up Lesson for Dad
How do you behave while your child is playing soccer? Are the adults’ rules the same as the ones for our children? And when and who are the winners? These are some of the questions which haunted our writer Piet Könnicke during an unsettling soccer game of his eleven-year old son, Fritz.
Dad’s Corner: Saturday Night Lesson
“Wrestling is cool,” my son told me when I asked him what was so fascinating about wrestling. Our Saturday nights have now a set program since my son has discovered a pro wrestling show. I never expected he would find some use of the show for his dancing class …
Dad’s Corner: Speech is Golden
By the end of the summer we would be able to swim across the lake and back. We practiced nearly every day, “Come on, you can do it,” I tried to encourage my son. But he used his own unigue style to stay motivated.
Dad’s Corner: A Haunting Dance
My son was 4 when I gave him his first snorkel so that he could go for a dive in the bath tub. At the age of 5 we gave him a mountain bike, at 7 I sent him to a judo class, at 8 to a soccer club. I really had done everything … and now he wanted to dance.
Dad’s Corner: Couch Patriotism
“Newspapers have to write patriotically,” I said to my son while sitting on the coach on a Sunday morning watching a Formula 1 car race. “What does ‘patriotic’ mean?” my son asked. I tried to explain that sport has a lot to do with patriotism.
Dad’s Corner: Happy Campers
People say a father-son outdoor vacation is important, a chance for father and son to bond while camping in nature, eating out of cans, lighting campfires, having father-son-conversations together.
Dad’s Corner: A Father’s Weakness
This article was written by Take The Magic Step™ team member Piet Könnicke, a writer for a newspaper in Potsdam, Germany and a lifelong runner. Is it really a smart move to buy my son a jersey with the name of a famous soccer player on the back? A name like Beckham, for example? Isn’t [...]
Kids' Events
Sweet Sportsmanship On Display At The Hershey®’s Track & Field Games
Happy children aged 9 to 14 took part in the North American finals at the 34th edition of the Hershey®’s Track & Field Games on Aug. 6 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The event seeks to teach children the importance of good sportsmanship and physical fitness.
A Unique Florida Marathon—For Kids!
If you want to see the bright future of road running, head to West Palm Beach, Florida, the first week in December. Uta did—and she was inspired by the sight of 3,000 kids, some as young as kindergartners, completing a unique marathon.
Championships Hope to Have Maxi Impact on Youth in Athletics
We had the opportunity to spend a little time with young talents, who already might be dreaming about becoming part of the Olympics or the World Championships one day.
Celebrate International Children’s Day
A Day to Honor Children, Their Spirit and Youth “Just a few small changes in a family’s routine can make all the difference to a child’s health.” – Uta
Berlin Mini-Marathon Gives Kids the Run of the City
“Hey,” calls Laura, “we’d better get a move on, there’s almost no one behind us.” Her friends turn around, and see that it’s true: there aren’t many left behind them.
The Experience real, Mini-Marathon on Sunday in Berlin
There’s a hectic to and fro on the Potsdamer Platz. Children run hither and yon, looking for teammates. Others have already found their group and are stretching, hopping from one leg to the other or circling their arms.
Settle Conflict on the Run in the Berlin Peace Run
What a picture! Half a million people celebrating in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, black-red-and-gold flags fluttering as the German football team bids farewell to the fans.
Running for Indians
Djamal did not sleep well the night before the race. “I was so excited, I could not sleep at all,” he says. He thought of the Indians that they had been told about at school – the Indians who live in the tropical rainforests of South America, away from civilization.
Learning by Playing: 205 German Schools Will Represent a Nation
The ambassador of Ecuador in Germany, masters the art of diplomacy: he is always friendly yet reserved. With a smile on his face, he managed to place three penalty shots right into the goalkeeper’s arms.
