Change up your post-gym snack with this salted caramel smoothie by @silverspies.
Simply place all ingredients into a blender & blend until smooth and creamy. Pour and enjoy.
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By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Feb. 2, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Only about four out of 10 U.S. babies aged 6 months to 23 months are getting vaccinated against the flu, federal health officials reported Tuesday.
Between the 2002-2003 and 2011-2012 flu seasons, the number of infants who received flu shots increased from just under 5 percent to almost 45 percent, according to a new study. However, that falls far short of the recommendation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that children 6 months and older get a flu shot every year.
“While flu vaccination for children has gone up, there is still a long way to go to protect every child,” said study lead researcher Tammy Santibanez, an epidemiologist with CDC’s National Immunization Program.
“We also know that more effort needs to be put into encouraging black parents and children, and Hispanic parents and children to get the flu vaccine,” she said.
Flu is a serious and potentially life-threatening illness. Each year an average of 20,000 children under 5 years of age are hospitalized because of complications from the flu. During last year’s flu season, more than 140 children died from flu, the CDC said.
Depending on age and vaccination history, children need either one or two doses of vaccine to be fully protected. Some children 6 months through 8 years of age need two doses, including those being vaccinated for the first time, the CDC says. The agency recommends that you check with your doctor to see if your child needs two doses.
In the 10 flu seasons studied, black and Hispanic children had lower rates of vaccination than white children, Santibanez said. Complete vaccination coverage was higher among children who needed only one dose, compared with those requiring two doses.
In the 2011-2012 flu season, 49 percent of white children were vaccinated compared with 40 percent of Hispanic children and 35 percent of black children, the researchers found.
“Vaccination is the first and most important step parents can take to protect their family against the flu,” Santibanez said. Vaccination can reduce flu illnesses, doctor visits, and missed work and school, and also prevent flu-related hospitalizations, she added.
“Both parents and doctors can work together to do a better job at ensuring that children are fully vaccinated and protected against the flu,” she said.
The report was published online Feb. 2 in the journal Pediatrics.
For the study, Santibanez and colleagues used data from the National Immunization Survey to estimate influenza vaccination among children aged 6 to 23 months based on doctors’ reports.
Dr. Jefry Biehler, chairman of pediatrics at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami, said people need to realize that “influenza is a serious infection, especially in children that are high-risk because of other health conditions, and it can be serious even in children who are otherwise healthy.”
Biehler recently treated a young girl who nearly died from heart complications brought on by the flu. “The parents didn’t realize how serious the flu can be,” he said. “Many parents still believe that the flu is a bad cold and it’s nothing to worry about.”
It’s important for all members of the family to get their flu shot every year, Biehler said.
More information
For more about the flu, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
MONDAY, Feb. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Young men who get stressed out easily appear to have a greater risk of high blood pressure later in life, a new study suggests.
The researchers found that, among 18-year-old men, those who had the lowest stress-resilience scores were 40 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure later than those with the greatest ability to cope with stress.
The investigators also found that being overweight was linked with an even greater risk of developing high blood pressure (or “hypertension”) in those who had a low threshold for stress.
However, it’s important to note that the study can only show an association between stress response and later high blood pressure; it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship.
The research was based on data from more than 1.5 million men conscripted into the Swedish army between 1969 and 1997 at age 18. Their health was followed until the end of 2012. None of them had high blood pressure when they entered the military. All of the young men were assessed for their ability to handle stress.
During the study period, about 93,000 of the men were diagnosed with high blood pressure. The average age at diagnosis was 49, the researchers said.
Weight also seemed to play a role in the men’s risk of developing high blood pressure. The investigators looked at each participant’s body mass index (BMI), which is an estimate of body fat based on height and weight.
Men who had low stress-resilience scores and a high BMI at age 18 had a more than tripled risk of high blood pressure later in life than those who had high stress-resilience scores and normal BMI at age 18, the findings showed.
The study was published online Feb. 1 in the journal Heart.
If confirmed, the findings “may help inform more effective prevention interventions by addressing psychosocial risk factors and stress management across the lifespan,” study author Dr. Casey Crump, from Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues said in a journal news release.
More information
The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about stress.
Photo: PBS
Spoiler alert: If you’re a Downton Abbey addict and you missed Sunday’s episode—or if you’re just a little bit squeamish—this is your final warning to click away.
Last night on the British period drama, Lord Grantham’s health mystery came to graphic fruition when he vomited blood across the dinner table, a potentially life-threatening consequence of his stomach ulcer. (You can catch a clip from the scene here. A heads up: it isn’t pretty.)
The scene caused Health editors-slash-Downton fans to wonder: What the heck just happened—and can it happen to us?! We tapped our contributing medical editor, gastroenterologist Roshini Rajapaksa, MD, for the need-to-know facts on stomach ulcers.
The crater-like sores form when acid in the digestive tract eats away at the lining of the stomach or the duodenum (the first section of the small intestine), says Dr. Rajapaksa. “They’re potentially very dangerous if left untreated.”
The show’s blood-spewing scene wasn’t an unrealistic depiction of what can happen in an extreme case. “If the ulcer erodes deep enough into the lining of your stomach, two things can happen,” Dr. Rajapaksa explains. “It can erode into a blood vessel, which then can start bleeding very profusely, and that’s likely what happened in [Lord Grantham’s] case, because he began vomiting blood. Or, it can actually erode a hole all the way through your stomach, and stomach contents can then leak into the abdominal cavity,” a rare but potentially deadly scenario.
The primary cause is a bacteria known as Helicobacter pylori, which was just discovered in 1982. “Many people have the bacteria in their bodies, but may not realize it until later in life, if and when they develop gastritis, which is inflammation of the stomach, or an actual stomach ulcer,” says Dr. Rajapaksa. (An estimated two-thirds of the world’s population carries H. pylori.) Another possible cause of stomach ulcers is the long-term use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories, or NSAIDs, like ibuprofen and aspirin, she adds.
RELATED: 18 Reasons Why Your Stomach Hurts
You may not if the sore is just opening and you’re symptom-free, says Dr. Rajapaksa. But when an ulcer forms and deepens into the stomach lining, you’ll feel it, she says. Common symptoms include burning pain and nausea, even vomiting in some cases. “You may also feel a gnawing feeling of hunger,” Dr. Rajapaksa adds. “People with ulcers tend to feel a little bit better after they eat because food almost helps coat the stomach.”
If notice these signs, Dr. Rajapaksa recommends seeing your doctor a.s.a.p. “Certainly if you’re vomiting blood, I would hope that everyone knows to immediately go to the hospital,” she says. “But even if you’re having other symptoms at home and you suspect you have an ulcer, I would suggest you get it diagnosed instead of trying to wait it out, or seeing if the pain goes away.”
Ulcers can be diagnosed through with X-ray tests, an endoscopy (a nonsurgical procedure that involves inserting a flexible tube with a light and mini-camera through your mouth to look inside your digestive tract), or a simple breath test that detects whether you have the H. pylori bacteria.
RELATED: 13 Ways Inflammation Can Affect Your Health
Unfortunately, if you have H. pylori in your body, there are few precautions you can take to avoid getting a stomach ulcer. Some people believe that avoiding spicy foods can help, or that stress triggers stomach ulcers—but those are myths, says Dr. Rajapaksa. She advises limiting your intake of NSAIDs (and not popping more than the recommended dose per day).
The key is to get checked out early, she says. “As soon as the ulcer is diagnosed, you can take an acid-blocking medication that will treat the erosion and prevent it from getting any worse in most cases. In more extreme cases, surgery may be required to repair the damage.”
MONDAY, Feb. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Exposure to pesticides and other toxins appears to be the cause of Gulf War illness in U.S. veterans, a new analysis states.
The Boston University researchers reviewed studies on Gulf War illness, and said their findings “clearly and consistently” show a link between the disorder and exposure to pesticides and taking pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills, which were meant to protect troops against the effects of nerve gas.
There’s also evidence of a connection between Gulf War illness and exposure to the nerve gas agents sarin and cyclosarin, and to oil well fire emissions, according to the findings published in the January issue of the journal Cortex.
These toxins damaged troops’ nervous and immune systems, and reduced the amount of white and gray matter in veterans’ brains, said study leader Roberta White in a news release from the university. White is a professor of environmental health at Boston University’s School of Public Health.
The main causes of Gulf War illness are like so-called “friendly fire,” said study co-author James Binns. “We did it to ourselves,” he said in the news release.
“Pesticides, PB, nerve gas released by destroying Iraqi facilities — all are cases of friendly fire. That may explain why government and military leaders have been so reluctant to acknowledge what happened,” Binns said.
About 700,000 U.S. troops fought in the first Gulf War 25 years ago, and as many as 250,000 veterans of that conflict have Gulf War illness, the researchers said. It is a debilitating disorder that features symptoms such as fatigue, joint and muscle pain, headaches, concentration and memory difficulties, gastrointestinal problems and skin rashes.
For years, Gulf War veterans have claimed that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs did not take Gulf War illness seriously. In 2008, a committee created by Congress and directed by the White House released a report that said Gulf War illness is a real disorder that’s distinct from stress-related syndromes.
The report from the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses called for research into the causes and treatments of the illness. Binns was chairman of that committee.
Efforts to find effective treatments for Gulf War illness have been unsuccessful, but recent research has started to offer promising leads, the researchers added.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on Gulf War illness.
MONDAY, Feb. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — High school students who can gaze upon at least a patch green landscape from their classroom may perform better academically, a new study suggests.
“It’s a significant finding, that if you have a green view outside your window, you’ll do better on tests,” study co-author Dongying Li, a doctoral student in the department of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in a university news release.
However, the study wasn’t designed to prove a cause-and-effect relationship, only that there was an association with having a view of green space and better academic performance.
The study included 94 students at five central Illinois high schools. It found that those who were in a classroom with windows that looked out onto green space did 13 percent better on tests of attention than those in windowless rooms or those with windows that looked out onto another building or parking lot.
The students in the room with a green view also had better stress recovery than those in the other two rooms, the researchers said.
The study was published online ahead of its scheduled April publication in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.
The researchers hope their findings will lead to policy changes in areas such as school design and recess.
Such changes “would be a much better investment than any of the things we spend money on in secondary education today,” study co-author William Sullivan, head of the landscape architecture department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said in the news release.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics offers tips to help children succeed in school.
By Steven Reinberg
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Feb. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Even slightly elevated blood pressure in late pregnancy may increase the risk of having an underweight or stillborn infant, new research suggests.
Women with prehypertension — sometimes called borderline high blood pressure — at 36 weeks of pregnancy had about 70 percent greater odds for low birth weight or stillbirth compared to women with normal blood pressure, the new Swedish study found.
But even mothers-to-be whose blood pressure rose in late pregnancy without becoming prehypertensive were more likely to have small babies, researchers said.
The researchers stressed, however, that their study showed only an association, not a cause-and- effect relationship, between blood pressure and fetal outcomes.
Infants with low birth weight are more likely to have health problems than normal-weight babies, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study authors said prevention, rather than treatment, is key.
“We do not suggest treating women with medications, since earlier studies have not shown that this is beneficial to the mother or unborn child,” said lead researcher Dr. Anna-Karin Wikstrom, an associate professor of obstetrics at Uppsala University in Sweden.
For the study, Wikstrom and colleagues collected data on more than 150,000 women listed in a Swedish obstetric database. Only women who carried their babies for 37 weeks or longer, whose blood pressure never rose above 140/90 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) during pregnancy, and were having a single baby were included in the study.
Prehypertension is a systolic pressure (the top number) between 120-139 mm Hg or a diastolic pressure (the bottom number) between 80-89 mm Hg, or both.
High blood pressure — 140/90 mm Hg or more — has been linked with low birth weight and stillbirth, but it wasn’t known if borderline high blood pressure is related to birth complications.
About 11 percent of the women in the study developed prehypertension. Overall, more than 2,400 babies were born underweight and 194 were stillborn, the researchers found.
Woman whose diastolic blood pressure rose 15 points or more and developed prehypertension were more likely to have an underweight baby, Wikstrom said.
A rise in diastolic blood pressure that didn’t reach prehypertension still increased the risk of low birth weight, with the likelihood rising 2 percent for every point, the researchers found.
These findings remained significant even after the researchers took into account the mother’s age and weight, smoking history and diabetes.
Wikstrom suspects widespread obesity may be contributing to blood pressure increases. “We are worried about the global epidemic of obesity, since obesity has a strong association with maternal cardiovascular health and risk of prehypertension,” she said.
Obese women who plan a pregnancy in the near future should “change their lifestyle in order to lose weight before conception to optimize their own health and the health of their fetus during pregnancy,” Wikstrom said.
The report was published Feb. 1 online in the journal Hypertension.
“Women who have a rise in blood pressure should have close surveillance,” said Dr. Jennifer Wu, an obstetrician and gynecologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
Wu said she would consider inducing delivery early if the baby is in danger of being stillborn.
These women should have frequent ultrasound to look at blood flow and fluid levels and “catch any signs of growth restriction or deterioration of the health of the baby,” she said.
Dr. James Ducey, director of maternal-fetal medicine at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City, agreed that these pregnancies need to be watched closely.
The first step is to see how well blood is flowing to the baby, Ducey said. “Once we see this rise in blood pressure, we should try to prevent the stillbirths,” he said. “This might involve an earlier delivery.”
More information
For more on blood pressure during pregnancy, visit the March of Dimes.
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Feb. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Scientists continue to debate when doctors should prescribe blood pressure medication for older Americans, with a new study saying delayed treatment puts people at greater risk of stroke.
For people 60 and older, a U.S. panel in 2014 recommended raising the blood pressure rate at which doctors prescribe treatment from 140 to 150 systolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure is the top number in a blood pressure reading.
But the new study finds that people with systolic blood pressure of 140 to 149 have a 70 percent increased risk of stroke compared to people with lower blood pressure.
“Our study shows the borderline group is probably as risky as having a blood pressure greater than 150, at least for stroke risk,” said senior author Dr. Ralph Sacco, chair of neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “This was a controversial move, and I think our study suggests we shouldn’t switch it to 150. We should stick to 140.”
The new findings, published online Feb. 1 in the journal Hypertension, are unlikely to quell arguments over proper blood pressure management, however.
For instance, the new study does not address the risk of side effects associated with blood pressure medications, or how medication would alter a person’s overall stroke risk, said Dr. Paul James, head of family medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
“It’s a matter of balancing the risk of treatment with the benefits of treatment,” said James. “That’s not a simple thing, and it’s not really something that one study like this study could answer.”
About one in three adults in the United States has high blood pressure (or “hypertension”), according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.
The institute formed the Eighth Joint National Committee, or JNC8, in 2008 to update high blood pressure treatment guidelines issued in 2003. Its final recommendation, issued in 2014, said that adults aged 60 or older should only take blood pressure medication if their blood pressure exceeds 150/90, a higher bar of treatment than the previous guideline of 140/90.
Arguments immediately sprang up around the JNC8 revised guidelines, with the American Heart Association expressing concern over potential delays in treatment of high blood pressure.
“These were extremely controversial, and the American Heart Association was adamant and vocal in our disagreement with that,” said Dr. Mary Ann Bauman, a heart association spokeswoman. Bauman is the medical director of women’s health and community relations at Integris Health in Oklahoma City.
Sacco and his colleagues launched their new study in response to the JNC8 recommendations. “We were concerned about the recommendations’ potential effect on stroke prevention,” he said.
The research team gathered data on 1,750 participants aged 60 and older in the Northern Manhattan Study, a study of stroke risk in a multi-ethnic community. None had diabetes or chronic kidney disease — two risk factors for stroke.
During about 13 years of follow-up, 182 people suffered a stroke, the investigators reported.
The researchers concluded that having a systolic blood pressure of 140 to 149 elevated stroke risk as much as having systolic blood pressure greater than 150. Increased stroke risk was most notable among Hispanics and blacks, the findings showed.
“Our findings support adherence to current American Heart Association treatment guidelines,” Sacco said. It recommends starting medication at 140 systolic or higher.
James responded that the new study does not provide solid evidence that would refute the JNC8 recommendation, which called for doctors to treat borderline blood pressure (140-149 systolic) through lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise.
He added that the new study is based on observational data, and can only draw associations about stroke risk. The JNC8 recommendations were based on clinical trials that proved that stricter guidelines and tighter blood pressure control provided no additional benefit to patients, James said.
“But the evidence told us going below 150 did not seem to translate into improved health or improved mortality,” James said.
Bauman countered that the clinical trials the JNC8 relied upon didn’t give a full picture of the long-term risks of high blood pressure.
“The complications of hypertension are long, long range, and I don’t think the clinical trials they relied on went long enough,” Bauman said.
Bauman and Sacco also pointed out that a new clinical trial called SPRINT, which came out after the JNC8 guidelines, has shown that driving blood pressure down to as low as 120 systolic can reduce by one-quarter the rate of death, heart attack, heart failure and stroke.
Paul agreed that the SPRINT trial “rises to that degree of evidence” that the JNC8 sought, and should be included in any future review of blood pressure guidelines.
More information
To learn why blood pressure matters, visit the American Heart Association.
By Dennis Thompson
HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Feb. 1, 2016 (HealthDay News) — The World Health Organization on Monday declared the mosquito-borne Zika virus a global health threat, based on the suspicion that the virus may be to blame for thousands of birth defects in Brazil in the past year.
While the Zika epidemic first surfaced in Brazil last spring, it has since spread to more than 20 countries in South and Central America and the Caribbean. Though a cause-and-effect link has not been proven, many public health experts fear the virus can cause microcephaly, a condition that causes babies to be born with permanent brain damage and very small heads.
Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of the WHO, said Monday that the explosive growth of microcephaly cases in Brazil constitutes an “extraordinary event and a public health threat to other parts of the world.”
Chan made her remarks during an emergency meeting at the U.N. health agency’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, to assess what is known about the Zika virus and its potential relation to the surge of birth defects in Brazil.
The WHO estimates there could be up to 4 million cases of Zika in the Americas in the next year. However, no recommendations were made Monday to restrict travel or trade, the Associated Press reported.
U.S. health officials have said it’s unlikely that the Zika virus will cause a widespread threat here, but some infections are likely to occur.
The Zika virus was first identified in Uganda in 1947, and until last year was not thought to pose serious health risks. In fact, approximately 80 percent of people who become infected never experience symptoms.
But the increase of cases and birth defects in Brazil in the past year — suspected to exceed more than 4,100 — has prompted health officials to warn pregnant women or those thinking of becoming pregnant to take precautions or consider delaying pregnancy.
“It is important to understand, there are several measures pregnant women can take,” Chan said, the AP reported. “If you can delay travel and it does not affect your other family commitments, it is something they can consider.
“If they need to travel, they can get advice from their physician and take personal protective measures, like wearing long sleeves and shirts and pants and use mosquito repellent,” she said.
Underscoring the level of concern about travel, U.S. health officials said late last week that they were considering whether to put a halt to blood donations from travelers returning from countries affected by the Zika virus, primarily in Central and South America.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that a review of blood donation policies was underway, based on whether a person may have been exposed to the virus.
“The FDA [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] is looking at the issue of blood supply, blood donors and travelers,” Fauci said. “We know it [the Zika virus] is in the bloodstream very briefly, most people have cleared the bloodstream of the virus after about a week.”
Canadian health officials announced last Thursday that they would put blood-donation restrictions in place by this week.
Monday’s public health emergency declaration by the WHO can unleash action and research funding from governments and non-profits around the world. And it gives the WHO the position of global coordinator, and its decisions the force of international law, The New York Times reported.
The agency came under heavy criticism for what many considered a poor and delayed response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa two years ago that eventually took more than 11,000 lives.
U.S. health officials said at last Thursday’s media briefing that efforts to create a Zika vaccine were getting a leg up from lessons learned during earlier battles against other mosquito-borne viruses.
Researchers are working on two potential vaccines, each based on earlier vaccines created in response to prior outbreaks of West Nile virus and dengue, Fauci said.
A Zika vaccine could be ready for clinical trial by later this year, but Fauci warned that it will likely take years before the vaccine is ready for market.
“It is important to understand that we will not have a widely available safe and effective Zika vaccine this year, and probably not even in the next few years,” he said.
There have been no outbreaks of Zika virus in the United States so far. But, limited U.S. outbreaks are “possible” and “even likely” given that the same sort of aggressive, day-biting mosquito that spreads Zika is present in the southern United States, said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
However, Schuchat emphasized that the main health concern at this time is for pregnant women who are exposed to the virus.
“Increasing lines of evidence suggest that some women who are infected with Zika during their pregnancy may go on to deliver a baby with a serious brain injury,” Schuchat said.
That’s why the CDC has issued a health warning urging pregnant women to avoid the more than 20 countries in Central and South America where Zika infection is active, she said. Zika virus also is present in two U.S. territories, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
“The virus is spreading throughout the Americas, and we expect more countries to be affected,” Schuchat said.
But Schuchat emphasized that the virus does not present a strong health risk to the average person.
“About four of five people who get infected with Zika never have symptoms at all,” she said. “Those who do get sick usually have very mild symptoms — fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes or conjunctivitis. Symptoms typically last a couple of days, up to a week.”
Schuchat said that “it’s very rare for a person with Zika to get seriously ill or to die” from it.
And, she added, there’s no evidence that the virus lingers in a person’s system, potentially affecting future pregnancies.
Schuchat did note that health authorities in Brazil also have reported an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness and paralysis lasting as long as a few years. Researchers are now investigating whether there is any link between Zika virus and Guillain-Barre.
Although health officials view some U.S. cases of Zika infection as likely, particularly in southern states, the United States enjoys certain advantages that should keep such an outbreak limited to a small area, Schuchat said.
Urban areas in the United States are less congested than they are in other countries of the Americas, making it more difficult for mosquitoes to spread disease hopping from one person to the next, she said.
Also, people in the United States are more likely to have their windows shut, thanks to air conditioning, or to have screens on open windows, which keep mosquitoes from invading their homes, she added.
More information
For more on Zika virus, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Photo: Getty Images
Grease is the word, at least it was last night when Fox debuted a live TV version, Grease: Live!, of the 1978 cult classic. Did you catch it? We sure did. And when Julianne Hough strutted her stuff as Sandy in that iconic (and skin-tight!) all-black number, not only did we get chills, but we experienced some serious leg envy too. (We also may or may not have belted out the lyrics to “You’re The One That I Want” along with Hough and co-star Aaron Tveit.)
RELATED: 18 Moves to Tone your Butt, Thighs, and Legs
While singing may not be in the cards for us, getting shapely stems is a worthy goal. And luckily we have one of Hough’s go-to moves from celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson, who has worked with the singer and actress to do just that.
The Jazz Split Plank Lift targets the outer thighs and butt, but also works your abs and upper body. Add it to your routine six times a week and you’ll be ready to slip into your liquid leggings, er skinny jeans, in about two to four weeks.
1. Lie on your right side with legs stacked and upper torso propped up on right elbow; use your left hand to balance yourself on the floor while keeping your back straight. With knees slightly bent, separate legs a few inches, stretching the bottom (right) leg forward and top (left) leg back.
2. Lift your hips and legs off the ground, balancing on your feet, elbow, and hand. Lift your back leg a few inches off the ground; hold for a moment, then release all the way down to starting position. Do 15 to 30 reps per side.
Illustration: Larry Jost
