Danica Patrick moves fast, but in her fight against COPD, she wants us all to stop and take a breath.

By Chris Mann

By Jim Schmaltz

Occasionally a book is published that should be required reading for every man, woman and child in the country. “Sugar Nation” by Jeff O’Connell (Hyperion, 2011)

not only achieves that distinction, but should also be added to medical school curricula around the world.

By Chris Mann

Television and film star Elisabeth Rohm has always been active. While growing up, her late hippie-chic mom encouraged her to regularly hit the nature trail on foot and on horseback. But with a red-hot career as an actress—a two-year stint on the TV hit Angel helped her nab her the role of Assistant District Attorney Serena Southerlyn on Law & Order in 2001—Rohm, 38, lived the kind of hectic bi-coastal lifestyle that doesn’t allow for hours of pastoral exercise. While staying fit has always been a goal, she has always resisted pervasive industry pressure to exercise and diet herself to toothpick thinness, preferring to retain her naturally athletic build (especially her strong legs) with outdoor running and horseback riding.

Tighten your belly with these great ab exercises. 

Sit up, lay back. Sit up, lay back. Repeat. Rinse.

Sorry, but situps, or crunches, just don’t cut it anymore when it comes to working your abdominal muscles. While slimming your midsection requires an integrated program of healthy eating and cardio-vascular workouts, you won’t create the flat belly you’ve always dreamed of without strengthening your core, and that means a focus on your entire abdominal muscle.

There are many variations of abdominal exercises, but four of the most effective — and complementary — are the decline crunch, stability ball crunch, the intercostal cable pull-down and the leg-up off a bench. Here’s a great sample program.

Don’t let ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) hold you back. Here’s what to do. 

Are you susceptible to an ANT infestation? ANTs stands for automatic negative thoughts, the thoughts that come into your mind automatically and ruin your day. I think of these negative thoughts like ANTs at a picnic that infest your psyche and ruin your performance.

By Jon Feld

Madonna, born Madonna Louise Ciccone, has been a game-changing pop icon since she burst on the scene in 1983. She’s sold more than 300 million records internationally and is recognized as the world’s top-selling female recording artist of all time by no less an authority than the Guinness Book of World Records. While she has an established reputation as a chameleon, appearing to seamlessly reinvent herself every few years, Madonna is also known within the music industry for doing things her own way. She’s multifaceted: A Golden Globe Award-winning actress—for Evita—she’s also a fashion designer, children’s book author, film director and producer, and owner of her own recording company Maverick corporation, a joint venture with Time Warner. During the past 20 years, Madonna has become a standard-bearer for fitness, showing up as among the most buff musicians anywhere. In a natural extension of her own fitness, in October 2010, she announced the opening of a new health club chain—Hard Candy Fitness.