5 Questions: Elaine LaLanne

Full disclosure alert! I practically worshiped Jack LaLanne, who invented the modern fitness industry. He died last year at the age of 96.

L.A. Walks: Upper Fanklin Canyon Reservoir

I only recently discovered this hidden country-in-the-city hiking spot, set below Mulholland Drive, west of Coldwater Canyon, and just...

Try This! Make your own endurance sports drink and save money

Take a look at the most popular endurance sport drinks and you'll notice a surprising similarity in ingredients.

Fitness: Exercise apps for your smartphone

Forget Angry Birds. Your smartphone can be a powerful tool for improving your overall fitness if you give it half a chance.

Are raspberry ketones a 'miracle' fat burner? Dr. Oz weighs in.

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell....

Five Questions: Randy Jackson on Type 2 diabetes

Randy Jackson is known for providing measured critiques to aspiring singers on Fox's "American Idol," but in his private life, he's had to...

Try This! Tracey Mallett's praying mantis exercise

Good form makes for a better workout, and that's one of the keys to ballet-inspired barre workouts. These exercises also increase...

How to parent like a celebrity

"Mad Men" actress January Jones ate her placenta (to be fair, dried and made into a pill). Alicia Silverstone chews up veggies and...

5 Questions: 'Top Chef' judge Gail Simmons

Being surrounded by delicious food all day sounds like a decent way to make a living. And according to Gail Simmons, a judge on Bravo's "Top...

Try This! Firm up with step-ups

Zeo Sleep Manager, SleepTracker try to wake you when it's best

"If people were meant to pop out of bed, we'd all sleep in toasters," a wise, unnamed observer of the human condition once opined. (Some...

Pantry Raid: A diet of good intentions

Most of us are too plump and are overly fond of snacks, fast food — and food in general. So why did two lean young women who dine on...

Gear: Cardio exercise machines add fun features

Time does not pass quickly when you're going nowhere fast. Suddenly, however, a new crop of stationary cardio exercise machines has...

5 Questions: Montel Williams confronts MS head on

Montel Williams is not your typical pot-smoking snowboarder.

Try This! A great leap

Don't forget to bring water to your workout, and not just to quench your thirst. Two water bottles are handy for this simple drill,...

Southwest Museum / Eldred stairs

SOUTHWEST MUSEUM / ELDRED STAIRS

Try This: Plie side kicks from Tracey Mallett of Booty Barre

You don't need to get up en pointe to take a ballet approach to getting fit. Ballet-inspired barre workouts are super-popular now...

5 Questions: Leven Rambin's lean, mean routine for 'Hunger Games'

In "The Hunger Games,"actress Leven Rambin plays a teenage girl who has trained since childhood to fight to the death in a post-...

Circus training without feeling like a clown

I always dreamed of running away and joining the circus, and then on a recent Wednesday I did — and took my whole family with me. We...

Beauty might be a matter of dietary makeup

Please don't take this wrong. You look absolutely fine the way you are. It's just that ... well, with a little work, you might look even...

Try This: Go ahead and jump

Michael "Frosti" Zernow likes to vault, flip and catapult his way from A to B. The Santa Monica-based professional parkour athlete and...

Gear: Resistance cord workouts

Home workout products made of resistance cords, including stretchy rubber tubing and retractable nylon cables, usually don't get much...

Sounding the sugar alarms

Worried about trans fat or salt? That's a little old-school. If you want to stay current on dietary villains, you'll want to start...

Five Questions: Sean Astin

Actor Sean Astin — a.k.a. Samwise Gamgee in "The Lord of the Rings" — trekked across much of Middle-earth wearing hairy...

Try This! Close-to-wide squat

You don't need a gym or pricey fitness machines to get a great workout. Here Jackie Warner (www.jackiewarner.com), star of Bravo's fitness...

Gadget: Gruve helps mine every little calorie burn

When it comes to weight control, exercise doesn't matter. Non-exercise is what counts.

Twitter friends: It may be a good idea to meet up

I've been live-tweeting "The Bachelor." There, I said it. To a lot of people, including my inner circle of friends, my penchant for...

Shilajit is unproven yet touted as a panacea for many ills

It has a smoky, bitter taste, a deeply unpleasant odor and bears a close resemblance to black gobs of tar. Pricey tar, mind you: 10 grams (a...

Five Questions: Neurologist Charles H. Adler on the yips

The golf course is in pristine condition, there's nary a breeze, and you're about to sink a birdie on the 18th green. But just as the putter...

Try This! Skateboard pike

A look at new camping and hiking gear

With summertime weather hitting lots of the country in late winter this year, overnight backpacking trips can now conveniently move to April...

Zip-lining adventures are sprouting up

The reality of the height and speed at which I was traveling didn't hit me until almost halfway through the zip-lining course.

Putting the app in therapy

Your smartphone: It's not just for texting, tweeting, waging war against little green pigs and — oh, right — calling people. It'...

Raise a glass of wine to resveratrol

Drinkers the world over have been thrilled by the notion that resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine, might be some kind of anti-aging...

Try This! A ballet-inspired 'booty lifter'

You don't need to don a tutu to try a ballet-inspired barre workout. These drills are super-popular now and for good reason: They increase...

Five Questions: Dr. Walter Willett on red meat

Dr. Walter Willett is the chair of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health. He's also a cow's best friend.

Gear: Bike options for commuters

Gasoline is more than $4 a gallon, and you know what that means: A lot more people than just college professors and DUI offenders are...

In-Your-Face Fitness: Humbled by Los Angeles Marathon training

For a recreational runner, there's no rite of passage as masochistic as running a marathon. We ache for the battle scars: chafing,...

Natural foods: Eating up the trends

Remember chia pets? Rinsing your hair with beer? Food that's just food — no soy protein isolate, xanthan gum, red dye No. 40 or...

Try This! An off-the-wall workout

Most of us traverse the environment by walking. Not Michael "Frosti" Zernow — he prefers to vault, flip and catapult his way from A to...

Five Questions: David Lynch on transcendental meditation

We know filmmaker David Lynch for the dark surrealism of "Eraserhead," "Blue Velvet," "Inland Empire" and "Twin Peaks," as well as for his...

Athletes get down and dirty in obstacle mud runs

Her lips were blue. Her teeth were chattering. Her legs had become dysfunctional logs that could barely walk, much less run.

Bonding over 12.5 miles and 12,000 volts

I've done all kinds of crazy events, from 10-day Eco-Challenges to 100-mile runs at 12,000 feet in the Himalayas, but none was as fun as...

'Your Playlist Can Change Your Life': Can music boost your brain?

Anyone who's had a bad day, then flipped the car radio on and caught the first notes of a favorite song knows how quickly music can lift the...

Try this exercise: The ladder drill

Sick of the sweaty, fluorescent-lit, loud-music gym scene? Don't want to cough up dough for memberships you'll never be able to cancel short...

Gear: Water bottles

Staying hydrated is serious business when you're working out. Sure, you can just grab any old $3 plastic water bottle and go out for a run,...

Health 411: Insurance for a cancer survivor

I need help finding affordable health insurance. I got insurance through California's Major Risk Medical Insurance Program in 1991...

In-Your-Face Fitness: Keeping your lower back pain-free

On a recent ski trip, my best friend handed me a flask of cinnamon schnapps. He called it "courage in 100-proof form," and I needed it. I...

In Practice: Doctors bury grief to help patients and families

Rebecca's cancer was born in her bone marrow. Her abnormal blood cells soon broke free of their nest, sailing down the rivers of her...