Body Watch : Fit to Read
Need some motivation to improve your overall fitness? Try magazines. You probably won’t ever do anything with all those pages of workout regimes you tear out, but there are plenty of fitness ideas, plus travel tips and recipes.
Here, writer Leslie Knowlton presents her Top Nine.
Men’s Fitness
Number of issues a year: 12
Established: 1983
Circulation: 300,000
Cover price: $3.95
Designed for the typical guy who wants to stay in shape but isn’t into full-time bodybuilding, this Joe Weider magazine (which I consider among the best in his fitness magazine kingdom) is a good read for women too. It’s sharp and lively, with an eclectic mix of articles ranging from sports and adventure to health and fitness for the mind and body. It recently won a Western Magazine Editors Assn. award for editorial excellence.
Recent features: “Home Alone,” a treatise on masturbation’s health effects, including a history of how the practice got its bad rep; “Tough as All Hell” (find out how Navy SEALs train), and “Under Siege” (as women get more prominent, are men still necessary?). * Muscle & Fitness
Number of issues a year: 12
Established: 1940
Circulation: 500,000
Cover price: $4.95
Printed in 14 languages, this is Weider’s thick granddaddy of fitness magazines, picturing both men and women and packed with information. Not just for bodybuilders, it’s designed for maximum bodybuilding as it relates to performance in athletic and weekend-warrior activities.
Recent features: “Your Hands-On Guide to Massage,” “The Power of Language: Tap Into Your Inner Strength” and “DHEA: Fountain of Youth or Another Unfulfilled Promise?”
*Shape
Number of issues a year: 12
Established: 1981
Circulation: 950,000
Cover price: $2.95
Yet another from Weider, this visually pleasing magazine with its crisp photography and lots of white space has won more than 10 awards since 1990, including this year’s Folio for editorial excellence in the overall women’s category. In addition to the usual workout routines for the fanny and legs, it tackles such topics as eating disorders and rhythm birth control.
Recent features: “At the Razor’s Edge” (a shaving primer), “Ring Around the Rockies” (hike the Continental Divide) and “Water Bearers” (are you getting enough water?).
*Living Fit
Number of issues a year: 4
Established: 1994
Circulation: 250,000
Cover price: $2.95
This “guide to fitness at any age” is a great-looking spinoff from the successful Shape magazine. Recent covers picture Ali MacGraw--actress and yoga expert--and Tipper Gore with her dog. There are plans for six issues next year.
Recent features: “Our Heroines,” (find out how Gore, Norma Kamali and Katherine Switzer did it their way), “Focus on Mammograms,” a discussion of the controversies, and “My Year of Truth,” a beautifully written first-person account by Kate Braverman of entering menopause the same year her daughter started menstruating.
*Fitness
Number of issues a year: 10
Established: Late ‘80s as part of Family Circle’s Great Idea Series, went quarterly in 1992, became autonomous in 1993.
Circulation: 700,000
Cover price: $2.50
Although visually cluttered, Fitness is chock-full of useful information on everything from looks to health. There are plenty of unusual exercise routines (work out with your dog), a broad mix of articles about the mind and body, plus dozens of short takes, including clip-out recipes and resource boxes.
Recent features: “For Heather Whitestone, ‘Body Language’ Has a Powerful New Meaning” (Miss America’s struggle with deafness) and “The Gospel According to Richard,” a profile of Richard Simmons.
*Women’s Sports and Fitness
Number of issues a year: 8
Established: 1974
Circulation: 165,000
Cover price: $3.95
Started by Billie Jean King, this official magazine of the nonprofit Women’s Sports Foundation combines health and fitness with fun activities, plus covers topics such as breast-reduction surgeries. The special July/August issue offers 18 summer adventures, including everything from hiking to canoeing.
Recent features: “Are We Having Fun Yet?” (boot camp fitness--the ultimate fitness quest), “The Urban Commuter--Alternative Forms of Transportation” and “Beating the Blood-Sugar Blues.”
*Total Fitness
Number of issues a year: 6
Established: 1995
Circulation: 200,000
Cover price: $3.95
Formerly called Crosstrainer, this new magazine is targeted to both men and women who want a combination of sports activity and training. Inside its busy cover--which pictures multiple exercisers in action--are lots of exercise programs.
Recent features: An informative in-line skate primer, “Stressed Out: Total Fitness’ Stress Test and Anti-Stress Guide” and “The New Nutrients--Magic, Myth or Medicine?”
*Fit
Number of issues a year: 7
Established: 1994
Circulation: 150,000
Cover price: $2.95
Formerly called New Body, this magazine, with its jumbled mix of type and color, sports lots of workout programs, models’ advice and celebrities’ recipes, such as Kathie Lee Gifford’s Fresh Parfait.
Recent features: A profile of soap opera actress Kristin Alfonso and “Fat Burners . . . Fat Chance,” debunking of miracle cures and fast-fix products.
*Flex
Number of issues a year: 12
Established: 1973
Circulation: 150,000
Cover price: $4.95
The official magazine of the International Federation of Body Builders, this Weider publication with its blown-up bodies and a centerfold poster is all about mass, size and strength. On the cover you’ll find multiple photos of grimacing men and sometimes women. Averaging 300 pages a month, you have to be in shape just to pick it up.
Recent features: “Powering Up the Immune System: The Key to Sustained Muscular Growth,” “Hooked on Thyroid” and Eddie Robinson’s “Gone Fishin’ Diet.”