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Russia 'simulates' nuclear attack on Poland Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating an air and sea attack on the country during military exercises. By Matthew Day in Warsaw Published: 4:37PM GMT 01 Nov 2009 The armed forces are said to have carried out "war games" in which nuclear missiles were fired and troops practised an amphibious landing on the country's coast. Documents obtained by Wprost, one of Poland's leading news magazines, said the exercise was carried out in conjunction with soldiers from Belarus. The manoeuvres are thought to have been held in September and involved about 13,000 Russian...

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Even as the Air Force prepares to toughen physical fitness standards for airmen, it’s proposing to do away with mandatory physical training. That means commanders no longer would have to provide airmen at least 270 minutes per week to exercise during duty hours. But airmen would still have to be prepared to pass more stringent PT tests twice a year. If approved, the Air Force would be the first of the military services to eliminate mandatory PT. An internal audit last year found the Air Force’s fitness program did not promote year-round fitness. Thirty-five percent...

At old British base, US and India train for new wars Manu Pubby Posted: Oct 27, 2009 at 0841 hrs BABINA (JHANSI) After a tough fight, Indian forces manage to capture Abu Abida, the dreaded warlord who, with the covert support of a neighbouring state, had been pushing in heavily armed insurgents to subvert the country. As the terrorist is escorted out of the war zone with the help of American forces, the convoy is attacked by militants trying to free him. Within minutes, Indian and US Army soldiers mount a rescue mission, pummelling the enemy village with tank and...

A muscle-bound boy has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records after performing an incredible physical stunt. Romanian Giuliano Stroe, five, has been training since the age of two in Italy - where he lives with his family - and now the hard work has finally paid off. He was entered into the record books earlier this year after performing some impressive 'hand-walking' skills to a panel of judges and an astonished audience on an Italian TV show . The exceptional pre-schooler performed the fastest ever 10m hand walk with a weight ball between his legs to the delight...

First lady Michelle Obama exercises with a hula hoop during a healthy kids fair on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

LONDON (Reuters) - Many prehistoric Australian aboriginals could have outrun world 100 and 200 meters record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the current world high jump record of 2.45 meters during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood. Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and current California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards will hold missile defense exercises on the upcoming Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Iranian media reported on Saturday. The announcement of the war games coincided with increased tension in Iran's nuclear dispute with the West, after the Islamic Republic disclosed that it is building a second uranium enrichment plant. The reports did not say what kind of missiles would be used in the war games, which will start on Sunday, the eve of Yom Kippur. In May, Iran said it had tested a missile that defense analysts said could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the...

It’s a sad fact that muscles shrink as adults age. But new studies are starting to unravel how this happens — and what to do about it. Past research has shown that the bodies of older people build muscle from food less efficiently than young people. Now researchers at the University of Nottingham in England have also found that a mechanism that prevents muscle breakdown works less effectively in people over the age of 65, resulting in a “double whammy” effect. For the elderly, less muscle mass means not only a loss of strength, but also increases the likelihood of...

Women who do Crossfit are amazing…and this is my favorite video of Crossfit of them…they kick @ss! Anyone can do it (there’s a program for kids and seniors…just start slowly, stick with the program, and build carefully).Video Link

WASHINGTON — At last, the secret to first lady Michelle Obama's sculpted arms? Tricep pushdowns and hammer curls.So says Cornell McClellan, Mrs. Obama's longtime personal trainer, who described the workout routine of his famous client in the October issue of Women's Health magazine. She began working with McClellan in 1997 at his Chicago fitness studio. "She's truly committed herself to the importance of health and fitness," he says. McClellan said that at the end of an intense routine of cardio workouts and weight training, Mrs. Obama finishes with the "arm-shaping superset" of tricep pushdowns and hammer curls to tone one...

Finnish researchers recently concluded that, if you wish to ward off lung or gastrointestinal cancer, you might want to spend your leisure time jogging instead of picking berries, mushroom gathering or fishing. In the study, published in late July on the Web site of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, scientists studied the health of a group of 2,560 middle-aged Finns over the course of about 17 years. The subjects, all men living in eastern Finland, kept diaries of their daily activities for a year and then went about them. At the start of the study, none had cancer. By...

President Barack Obama said that a key source of his frustration with public criticism of his health care plan is that “the people who created this mess aren’t qualified to critique my solution.” “Look, the average American is an over-weight slob,” Obama asserted. “He eats too much of the wrong foods. He doesn’t get enough exercise. He engages in dangerous activities like smoking and driving. This is driving health care costs through the roof. Opposing my reforms would let these same behaviors continue unchecked.” The President argued that the evidence supports a “transfer of control over health issues from those...

A longtime state lawmaker and current candidate for Vermont lieutenant governor has been accused of masturbating in the locker room at the Burlington YMCA. Archambeau said he and another patron saw Flanagan masturbating Friday on a bench between the YMCA sauna and nearby showers. According to Flanagan, the accusation is completely false and on Wednesday, he dismissed the claim but did offer an apology. "If I did anything to offend anybody, I'm very sorry," said Flanagan. The Chittenden County Democrat denies the allegations and told NewsChannel 5 he will not be returning to the YMCA. YMCA President Mary Burns would...

National Level Exercise 2009 (NLE 09) is scheduled for July 27 through July 31, 2009. NLE 09 will be the first major exercise conducted by the United States government that will focus exclusively on terrorism prevention and protection, as opposed to incident response and recovery. NLE 09 is designated as a Tier I National Level Exercise. Tier I exercises (formerly known as the Top Officials exercise series or TOPOFF) are conducted annually in accordance with the National Exercise Program (NEP), which serves as the nation's overarching exercise program for planning, organizing, conducting and evaluating national level exercises. The NEP was...

A group of 4296 women were asked to recall their physical activity levels during four key stages of life: 10 to 15 years old, 15 to 30 years old, 30 to 50 years old, and 50 years old and older. The odds of developing breast cancer did not appear to change in relation to exercise levels between ages 10 and 30, but women above age 30 significantly cut their chances of developing breast cancer if they were more active, the researchers found. The study was led by Lisa Sprod of University of Northern Colorado in Greeley and presented at the...

...ROS are also implicated in many theories of aging and cellular damage, which is why cells have several systems to try to soak these things up. That’s exactly why people take antioxidants, vitamin C and vitamin E especially. So. . .what if you take those while you’re exercising? A new paper in PNAS askes that exact question. About forty healthy young male volunteers took part in the study, which involved four weeks of identical exercise programs. Half of the volunteers were already in athletic training, and half weren’t. Both groups were then split again, and half of each cohort took...

WASHINGTON, May 13, 2009 – The North American Aerospace Defense Command will conduct an exercise over the nation’s capital and its suburbs May 15, Defense Department officials said today. Exercise Falcon Virgo tests the aerospace defense of the national capital area. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon jets, Coast Guard Dolphin choppers and Civil Air Patrol Cessnas will participate in the exercise. A number of Falcon Virgo exercises have taken place since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, officials said. The most recent one over Washington was in March. “The exercise is always held in the middle of the night...

WASHINGTON, April 29, 2009 – More than 300 military spouses attended one of two "Field Exercises" recently at Fort Sill, Okla., designed to assist them in dealing with life while their deployed spouses are away. Tara Crooks, foreground, and Starlett "Star" Henderson, founders of Army Wife Network, listen to spouses share their personal deployment experiences during a "Field Exercise" event held April 23-24, 2009, at Fort Sill, Okla. More than 300 spouses gathered for the two-day event, created to empower and rejuvenate military spouses whose husbands are deployed. Courtesy photo   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Starlett "Star"...

"...because the Democrats are already taking all of your money and Constitutional rights, why not give them a few pounds of flesh too?" Funny video.

Horsepower can be so overrated. At least that’s what the developers from HumanCar, an industrial design firm, are betting on with the Imagine_PS, or Power Station, vehicle. The vehicle uses electric motors and regenerative braking along with human power to keep it moving at a decent clip. “The human part is a patented bi-directional human-power interface, which is like a rowing action that uses your entire body,” says Chuck Greenwood, CEO. “One to four people can operate these cars and they create enough electricity by themselves to power computers, cell phones, etc.” He claims that the car is able to...

This is just what you need, in the aftermath of pumpkin pie and holiday parties: gross-out science about deep belly fat. In the annals of exercise research, increasingly the answer is "brisk walking." What's the question? Most people think it has to do with exercising the heart or getting rid of love handles and saddlebags. But scientists are finding it's about belly fat, also known as visceral fat, the interior kind that's snug up against your internal organs. Yeah, yuck. Put a glob of abdominal fat and a glob of thigh fat in a petri dish, add a little stimulation,...

Bush administration officials will host senior Obama officials for a three-hour joint exercise next week that consists of “a hypothetical scenario that is designed to test and tax the capabilities of the federal government.” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to offer many details about the exercise, but he did say that Tuesday’s exercise will be “a disaster scenario where the government would be very much tested.” The joint exercise is “intended to familiarize the incoming administration with domestic and international instant management procedures used by the current administration.” Stanzel said the exercise is part of a realization that this...

Researchers from Loyola University Health System and other centers compared African American women in metropolitan Chicago with women in rural Nigeria. On average, the Chicago women weighed 184 pounds and the Nigerian women weighed 127 pounds. Researchers had expected to find that the slimmer Nigerian women would be more physically active. To their surprise, they found no significant difference between the two groups in the amount of calories burned during physical activity. "Decreased physical activity may not be the primary driver of the obesity epidemic," said Loyola nutritionist Amy Luke, Ph.D., corresponding author of the study in the September 2008...

A new study shows that sugar may not be so sweet for the brain – and may lead to memory problems.

The Washington Post once celebrated itself for investigative journalism on politicians. Now, enthusing about them erotically is satisfaction enough, apparently. The paper on Christmas Day reported on President-elect Barack Hussein Obama’s exercise regime. Star struck reporter Eli Zaslow wrote of His Most High Excellency, ”the sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” Obama has gone to the gym for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row, Zaslow added. Contrast this — columnist Michelle Malkin requests — with the...

December 10, 2008 The 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, in coordination with the FBI and local officials, will be conducting a Realistic Urban Training Exercise (RUT) in the Richmond, Va. area Jan. 9-24, 2008. Other areas in Central Virginia may notice the military aircraft flying overhead. This training exercise involves about 2,200 Marines and sailors from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (22nd MEU) stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. The large majority of the Marines will be training on Fort Pickett. The purpose of RUT is to enhance the 22nd MEU's capability to conduct operations in a realistic urban environment prior...

Financial crises, election overload, and consumer meltdown -  it has been a fretful fall.   This past week I received e-mails and news from several people about layoffs and job loss.  My 401K statement came in and, after a quick glance, I rapidly filed it with the thought of “Out of sight, out of mind.” Clearly, that plan did not work. Last week’s headline, “U.S. Stocks  - Wall Street Tumbles on Slowdown Anxiety,” is a simple reflection of what many of us feel: Slow, down and anxious. The annual hectic holiday hustle from Thanksgiving until New Years day is about to...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 10, 2008 – After six months of planning, Afghan National Army officials, in conjunction with Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan and International Security, put into action their combined efforts for the ANA’s first six-day command post exercise, or CPX, at the Ministry of Defense compound here, beginning Nov 1. Army Maj. Gen. Robert W. Cone, commander of Combined Transition Security Command Afghanistan, congratulates participants at the closing ceremony of a six-day command post exercise at the Ministry of Defense compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Nov. 6, 2008. U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Douglas Mappin  (Click...

DEBKAfile's military sources report that the drill beginning Thursday, Oct. 16 in northern Iran, is Tehran's rejoinder to Israel's big aerial maneuver last June. Then, more than 100 Israeli fighter-bombers went through their paces over the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, roughly the same distance from Israel as Iran. Tehran's media claim the exercise will test its air force's ability to fly to Israel and back without refueling. The exercise will also test the US-made FBX-T band anti-missile radar system delivered in September and installed at the IAF Nevatim air base in the Negev. The Iranians say they will be practicing...

Not since 1984, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, has Russia ventured to launch dozens of nuclear bombers for an exercise in which Tu-95 Bear bombers will fire live cruise missiles. Exercise Stability 2008 will take place Oct.-6-12 over sub-Arctic Russia uncomfortably close to the US state of Alaska, and Belarus. DEBKAfile's military sources report that the exercise is part of a month-long war game described by Russian air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik as "practicing the strategic deployment of the armed forces including the nuclear triad." As part of the exercise, our sources reported exclusively on Oct.1,...

As Ashley Barrett-Carter left Ryan Memolo's Army recruiting station after their first meeting more than a year ago, the staff sergeant thought, "I'll never see her again." Sgt. Memolo had encountered overweight applicants before, including some who dropped the pounds and returned to enlist. But those people exceeded the weight requirement by 20 or 30 pounds. Ms. Barrett-Carter needed to lose 100.

CHICAGO — Maybe you CAN blame being fat on your genes. But there's a way to overcome that family history — just get three to four hours of moderate activity a day. Sound pretty daunting? Not for the Amish of Lancaster County, Pa.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - People who want to live a long and healthy life might want to take up running. A study published on Monday shows middle-aged members of a runner's club were half as likely to die over a 20-year period as people who did not run. Running reduced the risk not only of heart disease, but of cancer and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's, researchers at Stanford University in California found. "At 19 years, 15 percent of runners had died compared with 34 percent of controls," Dr. Eliza Chakravarty and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Any...

OK - I've started running again (dropped a pant size too!) but here is the problem: I have a bad knee that gets inflamed if I train too hard too quickly. I have always gotten good advice here in the past, so I am wondering if there are any runners on here that can point my way to a good set of shoes that provides maximum shock protection. I am currently using Asics gels.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)-If the trends of the past three decades continue, it's possible that every American adult could be overweight 40 years from now, a government-funded study projects. The figure might sound alarming, or impossible, but researchers say that even if the actual rate never reaches the 100-percent mark, any upward movement is worrying; two-thirds of the population is already overweight....

Women who want to lose weight - and keep it off - need to be exercising for almost an hour, five days a week, according to US experts. The University of Pittsburgh study found the 55-minute regime was the minimum needed to maintain a 10% drop in weight. Only a quarter of the 200 women in the study managed to lose this amount. A UK expert said it was clear that regular moderate exercise was the way to lose weight, and keep it off. Approximately two-thirds of adults in the UK are overweight or obese, with some estimates suggesting this...

Scientists concerned about use of the drugs in athletics. Just in time for the Olympics, scientists say they have discovered drugs that could cause the next athletic doping scandal. In a study published today in the journal Cell1, scientists say they have found the first targeted drugs that boost endurance. They are already working with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to develop tests to expose would-be cheats who use the drugs. The ultimate test of murine endurance.Courtesy of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies The scientists examined the effects of two compounds, called GW1516 and AICAR, on endurance in mice....

Moving Americans Toward Better Health Habits by: Audra Taylor, July 30, 2008 The American Enterprise Institute (AEI) hosted “Beyond More Health Insurance Coverage, toward Better Health Outcomes” last Wednesday to discuss health-related issues ranging from health education to disease treatment and prevention. Panelist Michael McGinnis of the Institute of Medicine discussed the option of utilizing prevention strategies to improve health and save lives. McGinnis addressed many of the leading killers of Americans including heart disease and tobacco addiction. “Diet and physical inactivity” lead to the deaths of 350,000 people per year, according to his presentation. Another speaker addressed the importance...

Thinking about a life of crime? You may want to hit the gym first. A new study that looked at the physical characteristics of about 5,000 Arkansas inmates found that most were athletically fit when they entered prison. The researchers referred to them as mesomorphs. Oh, there were also endomorphs and ectomorphs — fatties and skinnies to the lay people. But the study found that they were less likely to have been imprisoned for violent crimes. The researchers, whose study appears in The Social Science Journal, used body mass index, a measure of height and weight, to assess fitness. Scientists...

CARCASSONNE, France (AFP) — President Nicolas Sarkozy promised swift and severe punishment Monday after a soldier shot and wounded 17 people, including a three-year-old boy and both his parents, at an open day at an army barracks. The sergeant opened up with an assault rifle, firing live rounds instead of blanks into a crowd of hundreds of visitors watching a hostage-taking exercise Sunday at the base near the southwestern city of Carcassonne. A man who witnessed the shooting told AFP that "suddenly, people were falling, we thought it was part of the exercise, and then we saw blood."

Japan is taking fighting obesity to the extreme. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.

David Letterman Stupid Pet Tricks I don’t know why, but when we walk on treadmills it makes us twice as cute as we normally are. Don’t believe me? Take a gander…http://boknowsonline.com/2008/02/01/walk-on-the-wild-side/

Bo (woof) in commentary: Cool device for those younger than 106. Another machine that will allow your owner to get fatter than ever http://boknowsonline.com/2008/04/30/perpetual-motion-machine/

As someone who commutes by bicycle into Manhattan, I would normally applaud any scientific rationale for more bike lanes. But some calculations in the new issue of the Lancet make me uncomfortable. The authors argue that policies promoting cycling and walking are good for the planet because they could reduce obesity — and obesity, the authors calculate, contributes to global warming. Do we really need to give fat people one more reason to feel guilty? The Lancet authors, Dr. Phil Edwards and Dr. Ian Roberts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, crunch the numbers and conclude: Compared...

People with diagnosed diabetes are nearly twice as likely to have arthritis, and the inactivity caused by arthritis hinders the successful management of both diseases, according to a new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) study released May 8 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is one of the first studies of its kind to look at the relationship between arthritis and diabetes and the outcomes associated with physical activity. The report finds that arthritis appears to be a barrier to being physically active for people with diabetes. Despite the fact that physical activity helps control...

Randi considers the Y.M.C.A. her lifeline, especially the pool. Randi weighs more than 300 pounds and has borderline diabetes, but she controls her blood sugar and keeps her bright outlook on life by swimming every day for about 45 minutes. Randi overcame any self-consciousness about her weight for the sake of her health, and those who swim with her and share the open locker room are proud of her. If only the millions of others beset with chronic health problems recognized the inestimable value to their physical and emotional well-being of regular physical exercise. “The single thing that comes close...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y., April 30, 2008 – The Army Physical Fitness Test would be a lot more demanding if “Sgt. Ken” was in charge. It would, in his world, gauge soldiers’ ability to do a lot more than perform a mandatory number of push-ups and sit-ups in two minutes and run two miles within a required time. The test would determine soldiers’ fitness for combat, if Sgt. Ken had his way. Tennessee Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Ken Weichert leads Army and Air Guard senior enlisted leaders through a strenuous workout in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in April. He is...

Simple brain exercise can boost IQ 22:00 28 April 2008 NewScientist.com news service Alison Motluk Can mental training improve your intelligence? No video game or mental puzzle has convincingly been shown to work. But now a group of neuropsychologists claims it has found a task that can add points to a person's IQ – and the harder you train, they say, the more you gain. So-called "fluid intelligence", or Gf, is the ability to reason, solve new problems and think in the abstract. It correlates with professional and educational success and it appears to be largely genetic. Past attempts to...

THE runner’s high: Every athlete has heard of it, most seem to believe in it and many say they have experienced it. But for years scientists have reserved judgment because no rigorous test confirmed its existence. Yes, some people reported that they felt so good when they exercised that it was as if they had taken mood-altering drugs. But was that feeling real or just a delusion? And even if it was real, what was the feeling supposed to be, and what caused it? Some who said they had experienced a runner’s high said it was uncommon. They might feel...

For years, scientists have been proclaiming the benefits of exercise. Studies showing that regular exercise benefits human health have exploded in number, examining many health problems ranging from cancer and diabetes to arthritis and pre-mature death. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found direct evidence to support the claim of the Centers for Disease Control that a reduction in daily physical activity is an actual cause of many of the risk factors for chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The research team also found that it only takes about two weeks of reduced activity for individuals to start...