EXERCISE   There’s no doubt that it’s hard to find time to work out, which is why a number of the most popular new fitness programs aim to give you the most fitness in the shortest amount of time. At H.I.T. FITNESS in Spokane, workouts are only 15 minutes long — and that’s all it takes to reach complete muscle fatigue by, paradoxically, weight training in slow motion. Read More>>

EXERCISE   You don’t need machines to build your body. BOOT CAMPS and other bodyweight workouts are still popular ways to get fit without crowding the basement with equipment gathering dust.  Read More>>

EXERCISE   The newest fitness craze in Spokane is inspired by dance, but this isn’t Zumba. Spokane has two new studios — SPOKANE BARRE and THE BAR METHOD SPOKANE — that borrow from ballet training for intense fitness classes with results. The idea is ballet-inspired leg exercises paired with core strength, with variations each time so the routine doesn’t get dull. Read More>>

EXERCISE   It’s not easy staying fit in this world. Everyone knows the benefits — looking good, being healthy, having more energy — but everyone also knows the excuses. You’re way too busy, way too tired. You’ll start a new plan next week. Really, you mean it this time.

About half the people who embark on a fitness plan will drop out within six months, says Sarah Ullrich-French, an assistant professor at Washington State University who studies exercise psychology and motivation theory. Read More>>

EXERCISE  Agility is what keeps an off-balance football player from going head-first into the turf. It’s what keeps an errant diver from belly-flopping into an Olympicsize swimming pool.

It can be trained in many ways, but Chris Sarquillo prefers gymnastics. As a coach at Spokane Gymnastics, he’s seen his students start as gymnasts and go on to be stars in soccer and other sports where quick movement is key. Read More>>

EXERCISE   Elizabeth Jones-Boswell’s Pilates studio is an expansive, wood-paneled room with mirrors on the walls and foam rollers on the floor. Pretty nice for an exercise regimen that started in prison.

Jones-Boswell can recite the life story of Joseph Pilates off the top of her head. He was a German living in England when the government interned him during World War I. To keep in shape, he developed the eponymous exercise regimen based on “mind, body and spirit.” Read More>>

EXERCISE  Spring and summer bring a plethora of fun runs, road races, half-marathons and, the grand-daddy of them all, the full marathon.

But the unfortunate truth of endurance running, according to Toby Schwarz, Whitworth University’s head track and field coach, is that lengthy races require lengthy training. Read More>>

EXERCISE  Players on the Gonzaga women’s volleyball team can jump and reach their hands up to 10 feet or higher. Can you? If so, the season starts in August. If not, you better get training.

“The most important thing you can do to improve your vertical is to jump,” says Mike Nilson, a strength and conditioning coach for Gonzaga University and a former Gonzaga basketball player. And for the women’s volleyball team, the higher the jump, the greater the edge.

“Every inch you’re able to play over the net, I think it gives an advantage over the competition,” Nilson says. Read More>>

Anita Trinkle, who had been a power walker in the past, developed pain in her right hip. For well over a year, she reports, “it was getting worse and worse, and I was having difficulty walking, sitting at the computer for long period of time. At night time, the pain would get really bad where it would bring me to tears. It felt like someone was gripping the outside of my leg.”  Read More>>

EXERCISE  It’s no secret that back pain is an epidemic in the United States, costing millions every year in medical costs and lost wages. In a recent survey, as many as 60 percent of U.S. respondents said they had experienced neck or low back pain in the previous three months, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Read More>>