by Tina Vindum, Outdoor Fitness Expert | I remember distinctly the moment my approach to fitness was transformed. As both a former Alpine skier and competitive mountain biker, I had spent years of my life in a gym. Training and keeping fit was my job. Over time, I had been growing increasingly frustrated with training in the static indoor environment: those workout rooms full of stationary bikes and treadmills, weight machines and fluorescent lights. Working out day after day, I could feel my mind and body going numb in this dull, oxygen-deprived, monochromatic environment. It was also getting harder and harder to really test and challenge my body…
The Art of Sea Kayaking
February 8, 2010 By 1 Comment
by Tamara Jacobi, Eco-Adventurer | There aren’t many moments in my busy life where I’m perfectly happy sitting in one place and watching the world go by in silence. However, when you seat me in a sea kayak and give me a push out into the big blue ocean, my perspective on life seems to change…
The Arizona Trail
February 4, 2010 By 3 Comments
by Dina Mishev, Featured Athlete | In the 1970s, Dale Shewalter dreamed of a trail stretching the length of Arizona, 800-some miles, from the state’s border with Mexico to its border with Utah. In 1985, Shewalter quit his teaching job to spend the year walking the state south to north to get a feel for where this dreamed-of trail of his might go…
Fitness With Fido
October 7, 2009 By 3 Comments
by Turner Houston
Did you know you have a really great motivator and exercise partner at home? Dr. Robert Kushner, Clinical Director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity and author of Fitness Unleashed!: A Dog and Owner’s Guide to Losing Weight and Gaining Health Together, devised a study to show that people are more effective at losing weight and maintaining that weight loss when they do it with a faithful pet…
Mother Nature: An Entrepreneur’s Personal Trainer
July 23, 2009 By 3 Comments
by Tamara Jacobi, Eco-Adventurer
For many women (myself included) entrepreneurship is daunting. However, I think athletic women may be pleasantly surprised to hear that the time they’ve spent playing in the great outdoors has helped them cultivate an ideal foundation for the creation of their dream business…
What’s SUP? A Guide to Stand Up Paddling
July 16, 2009 By 10 Comments
by Tara Krolczyk, Fitness Professional
The number one question we seem to get when on the Stand Up Paddle (SUP) boards from observers; “Hey is that easy to do?” The answer like anything else, all depends on what you’re willing to try and commit to, but most people find it simple and fun to learn…
Breathe. Feel. Trust. Giddy Up.
June 29, 2009 By 5 Comments
by Margaret Burns Vap, Big Sky Yoga Retreats
There are many similarities between practicing yoga and riding a horse, which is how Cowgirl Yoga, a merging of horses and yoga, came about. Despite the similarities, there is one very, very big difference between yoga and riding: when you practice yoga you are on your mat, an inanimate object; when you ride a horse, you are on a living being that possesses its own feelings, intuition and instinct…
Training at Ten Below Zero
January 14, 2009 By 6 Comments
by Holly Brooks, Nordic Ski Coach
Today is the eighth consecutive day of temperatures well below zero in my home town of Anchorage, Alaska. Because cold weather has been on my mind lately, I’ve compiled a list of tips for staying in shape during cold weather…
The Distance From SAD to Glad
January 6, 2009 By 2 Comments
by Kristina Pinto
I love being outdoors on a bright, crispy winter day–running, cross-country skiing, snow shoeing. I love the blue sky against the evergreens against the snow; the colors look as clean and pure as the air feels inside my lungs. Even though I complain ad nauseum about black ice, shoveling, and the New England ice storm that knocked down power lines for days, I know my body and spirit need winter…
