For 26.2 miles, through the blaring reggae music, pungent clouds of ganja, and tropical heat, a Swedish man named Anders Forselius and two Americans—12-year-old Alex Blackburn and 48-year-old Dan Fox—were inseparable. In a time of 4:48:05, they crossed the finish line of last December’s Jamaica Marathon joined at the hip. Forselius was running with the cremated remains of Blackburn and Fox, zipped into a belt worn around his waist.

While there are reported instances of on marathons and other endeavors, Forselius may be the only person who carries the remains of strangers on adventures they’d hoped to have in life, but didn’t get to.

“These guys motivate me,” says the perpetually smiling, admittedly eccentric, 38-year-old Swede, who never met Blackburn and Fox when they were alive. “They give me the reason to continue my traveling.” 

Traveling is everything to Forselius—it’s how he met the deceased duo. A part-time writer and occasional forestry management engineer from the small village of Ljusdal, Sweden, 200 miles north of Stockholm, the unmarried and childless Forselius has run 113 marathons—including one in every U.S. state—and bike-toured through 33 countries since 1999, including six trips across the U.S. and Canada, blogging on-the-road stories for a local newspaper and a Swedish running magazine on the way. The day after the Jamaica Marathon, he and his ash companions ran another marathon in Costa Rica, Forselius’ 50th in as many countries.

In 2008, riding from Seattle to San Diego, Forselius stopped for two days at the iconic in California, north of Santa Cruz. Sick with a fever and unable to ride, Forselius struck up a friendship with Sparrow Bar, the manager, who grew wistful when listening to stories of Forselius’ worldwide adventures.

“My son Alexander, who had a congenitally weak heart and died suddenly at age 12 in 2001, always told me that he wanted to have his ashes spread all over the world,” she said. She had already scattered some of him in Budapest, Florence, Rome, and the Caribbean.

The story set Forselius’ mind abuzz. “This would be such an interesting destiny,” he thought, to bring her son’s ashes along on his travels. “I was hoping that she would ask me. That would be so cool. Such an honor.” 

A few hours later, after he showed her a blog post he’d written about his stay at the lighthouse, she agreed. “Take Alexander with you and scatter him,” she said. She handed him a small wooden box. 

After three years in bike panniers, halfway through Forselius’ 50-marathons-in-50-states project, Alexander ran his first race at the 2011 . “ I didn’t think it was fair that just only one of us had to wake up early every Sunday to run 26.2 miles,” he says. “I felt that Alex was laughing at me. Since he had been a runner himself, I decided to take [him] along to get a workout instead of staying in his wooden ‘bed.’”

The next year, back in Missoula to do the marathon again during a ride from Seattle to New York, Forselius was introduced by mutual friends to Laura Fox, whose husband had died 15 years earlier in his late 40s. While staying at her place, he told her about how he was carrying Alexander’s ashes. “What he was doing was so special,” she says. “So I said, ‘Dan would love to travel with you,’ and put him in a plastic 35mm film canister.” Dan Fox was a non-smoking health department worker and mountain climber who developed lung cancer from second-hand smoke. 

“Dan’s only done two marathons with me,” says Forselius. “I save him just for mountains, but wanted him with me and Alex when I got my 49th and 50th marathon countries.” 

The trio will be covering more ground than ever in the next 15 months, as Forselius is currently on a quest to ride his bike to every city in the world that has held a modern Olympic Games, both summer and winter. The two-year project, now partially completed in Europe, will take them to London, Paris, and Barcelona before moving on to North America, Japan, Korea, Beijing and Sydney and finally ending up at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

Forselius frequently sends email status reports to Alex’ mom and Dan’s wife, and even was awarded an extra finisher’s medal for Alex at the , which he gave to Sparrow Bar.

“I cherish that medal,” says Bar. “Anders really knows how to make people smile—that’s what Alexander did, too. ” Now living in Montana, she’s hoping to see Forselius again when he pedals through the winter Olympic cities of Calgary and Vancouver, the former just a six hour drive away.

Forselius says that he is open to carrying more people’s ashes if he can “feel a connection” with them. But the Cubs fan does have one requirement: “It must be someone who will fit in with the group,” he says. 

Roy M. Wallack writes a biweekly fitness column for the Los Angeles Times and is the author of .

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THREE YEARS AGO, Jeff Mitchell, a 42-year-old business consultant from Jackson, Tennessee, doubled his maximum bench press from 135 to 280 pounds, cut two seconds off his 100-yard-dash time, lost 40 pounds, and shed six inches from his waistline—all in just over a year. His muscles bulged, his skin looked smoother, and he hadn’t felt so good since playing college basketball.

“You on steroids or something?” Mitchell recalls a friend asking him.

In fact, there was nothing illicit behind Mitchell’s transformation, which some believe may hinge on an exercise-induced upswing in the body’s production of human growth hormone (HGH). The catalyst? A short but super-high-intensity workout called Sprint 8 (see “Explode into Shape“). The program had Mitchell running sprints down his street four times a week, leaving him heaving for air and nearly passing out, while his neighbors looked on with bewildered amusement.

The Sprint 8 program was quietly introduced in 2000 in Ready, Set, Go! Synergy Fitness, by Phil Campbell, a strikingly muscular 53-year-old masters runner and college speed coach from Jackson. Back in the mid-nineties, Campbell was a hospital administrator with a doughy gut that wouldn’t tighten up no matter how many miles he ran. Then one year, to prepare for his family’s annual Thanksgiving flag-football game, he started adding sprints to his daily 45-minute runs. By game day, two months later, he’d shed ten pounds and “felt like 17 again.” Campbell kept sprinting through the winter, and as the weight fell off and his muscles firmed up, he reduced his running time while adding more sprints—finally dialing in a 20-minute routine that included eight 30-second intervals.

Other people around Campbell’s hometown took notice, adopted his sprint program, and promptly saw similar results. Burt Gillmann, a 39-year-old building project manager, dropped 35 pounds off his six-foot frame. Masters bike racer Tom Gee, 54, claims the sprints helped him clock his best 40-kilometer time trial in 30 years.

Seeing these results prompted Campbell to do some armchair thinking about the science behind his success. Short bursts of intense activity have long been a staple of workouts. (Remember your high school coach making everyone do wind sprints?) But Campbell was interested in explaining the tangible benefits of his routine, especially the dramatic fat loss and notable increase in lean muscle mass. His research of the scientific literature led him to studies that documented a link between intense activity and a natural increase in HGH.

Linking HGH to weight loss and increased speed and strength made for a promising connection, since thousands of aging Americans now inject synthetic HGH—at costs ranging from $500 to $1,000 per month—for a buffet of purported health benefits, including improved sleep and libido. What if Campbell had stumbled upon an all-natural way to achieve the same thing?

Campbell is convinced he has, pointing to a 2002 study in Britain’s Journal of Sport Sciences showing that 30 seconds of all-out cycling increased HGH levels by 530 percent over nonexercisers’ base levels. Thus, says Campbell, “the harder you work, the more HGH you produce.” This, along with a 2003 study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism concluding that “the beneficial effects of exercise can mimic the effects of HGH treatment,” prompted renewed interest in high-intensity training and equipment (see “Time Machine“).

Many scientists, however, aren’t sold on the connection. “There’s no doubt that high-intensity training is potent, but the theories linking improvements in fitness to HGH are still very speculative,” says Dr. Martin Gibala, a muscle physiologist at Canada’s McMaster University, in Hamilton, Ontario.

Dr. Mike Joyner, an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minnesota, explains that while exercise- induced HGH production is a fact and HGH is known to boost strength and shrink fat cells, its full role is unclear. “There are probably 10 or 12 things going on during high-intensity exercise, and all we can say for sure right now is that HGH is one of them.”

Whatever the case, as long as Sprint 8 delivers results, true believers like Jeff Mitchell will keep blitzing neighborhood streets. There’s no downside to trying it, unless you don’t like the hard work.

“It’s tough to get my patients to do Sprint 8 because it pushes them to uncomfortable levels of exertion,” says Dr. Chet Gentry, a family practitioner in Sparta, Tennessee, who says his own LDL cholesterol level dropped 60 points on Campbell’s program. “But those that stick to it will see very good results.”

Explode Into Shape

Pump up the intensity, not the volume, with this field-tested training plan

SPRINT 8 IS A 20-MINUTE WORKOUT you can do with any aerobic activity: swimming, running, rowing, cycling—you name it. After a three-minute warm-up, start a series of eight 30-second intervals. Prep your muscles for the pace with the first three, then push yourself as hard as possible through the rest. “If you can keep charging past 30 seconds, you aren’t trying hard enough,” says Sprint 8 creator Phil Campbell.

Between each sprint, slow to an easy pace for 90 seconds, to fully recover for the next one. Finish with a couple minutes of easy work.

For the best results, do a series every other day so your body has time off. If you don’t currently have an exercise routine, Campbell suggests you start with at least three weeks of moderate sprints to strengthen your joints’ connective tissue and to prep the muscles for full-bore exertion.

Time Machine

The four-minute torture test returns with a vengeance

WITH MORE EVIDENCE pointing to the benefits of brief, intense workouts, the much maligned ROM (Range of Motion) cross-trainer is back—16 years after its debut. The ROM combines features of a rowing machine and stair climber—as conceived by the Marquis de Sade—and was created to replace tedious hours of weight lifting, cardio work, and stretching with a daily four-minute workout. Despite the naysayers who can’t believe four minutes qualifies as a workout, ROM inventor Alf Temme has retained his Panglossian faith in his machine.

“The ROM is not pleasurable,” says Temme. “But you do it because you get the darn workout over in four minutes.” How? The ROM demands your full range of motion, engaging 12 times the number of muscles you’d use on a treadmill. Curious? You can try the $14,615 machine at one of 20 exercise facilities across the country.

Pasadena, California, chiropractor Todd Hewitt, 35, opened a ROM gym last year, charging members $89 a month. So far, he’s converted everyone from soccer moms to tennis pros. “My clients come to realize that they don’t have to waste valuable time on general conditioning,” says Hewitt. “They’re in and out of here in 12 minutes, and they can use the extra time to practice the skills it takes to improve their sports.”

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FOUR YEARS AGO, Bill Holland, a middle-aged bike builder and avid cyclist from San Diego, thought he was in the shape of his life. Friends told him that, with his five-foot-ten-inch, 147-pound frame, he looked ten years younger than he really was. He ate a balanced diet and rode an average of 150 miles a week. And he’d kept that lifestyle up for the last 25 years.

strong bones

BONE UP: Hard-pounding exercise and extra calcium separate a fragile frame from a rock-solid one

Then, in May 2001, Holland, 48 at the time, volunteered to help a friend with her bone-density study at San Diego State University (SDSU). The results shocked him: He had borderline osteoporosis. “A doctor told me that I had the heart and lungs of a 17-year-old,” says Holland, “and the bones of a 70-year-old.”

Whoa. Osteoporosis? Isn’t that something that afflicts the elderly? Yes, but not exclusively: If you maintain your fitness level solely through non-impact sports like cycling and swimming, you could be at risk for waking up at age 50 with the bones of a person 20 years older. Despite Holland’s rigorous exercise habits and healthy diet, his bones had grown weak—and ripe for failure.

Until now, few athletes have had reason to worry about skeletal strength. They assumed that a good diet and regular training—two of the many requirements for bone health—would keep their bones robust forever. But the results of the SDSU study (published in 2003), which measured the bone density of 27 masters cyclists like Holland, showed researchers just how significantly bones can deteriorate when not subjected to the rigors of load-bearing activities such as running or lifting weights.

Scientists have long known that low-impact exercises fail to trigger the body to fortify bones, but another significant discovery, often overlooked, is just how much precious bone-sustaining calcium leaches from the body via sweat. Besides the fluids and sodium we lose while hammering the pavement, pumping iron, or playing a pickup game, an additional 120 milligrams or so of calcium is sweated out during every hour spent exercising. And unless you replace that missing calcium with the right foods, it ain’t coming back. So even those who go for high-impact sports like skiing and running can face a calcium deficit—and an increased potential for broken bones.

Fortunately, you don’t have to hang up the handlebars or pawn your Speedo: Calcium loss is both avoidable and reversible. To help counter the two things that affect healthy adults’ bone density most adversely—participation in non-load-bearing sports and calcium lost through sweat—we’ve drawn up a two-part skeleton-insurance plan that will easily fit into your fitness regimen.

Deep-Impact Workouts

strong bones

PACKED WITH PRESERVATIVES: Your bones need calcium to last.

For better or worse, the human body adapts to its environment. If you stop applying force to your frame by focusing on low-impact sports, you’ll build muscle, but your bod will assume that it can slow down bone maintenance.

This process came to light in 1996, when a study of six Tour de France riders showed bone-density losses of up to 17 percent over the course of the race. Seven years later, the SDSU study demonstrated that two-thirds of the masters bike racers tested had, on average, 10 percent more bone-density loss when compared with the male control group. The results led the study’s author, exercise-physiology professor Jeanne Nichols, to warn of the risk in those participating exclusively in low-impact sports—like cyclists and swimmers. The latter, according to Scott Going, associate professor of nutritional science at the University of Arizona, are engaged in the sport ranked dead last for bone maintenance. The best sports for that goal? Weight lifting and gymnastics.

To counteract this problem, just add bone-building workouts to your program, like a weekly ski session this winter. “Logically, the weight-bearing loads that come from mogul skiing or snowboarding should spur bone growth,” says Going.

No snow? No problem. Jogging or jumping rope daily will also prompt bone growth. These load-bearing exercises—as well as a weight-lifting program where you pump enough iron to reach muscle failure after eight reps—will stop your bones from weakening and could help multiply bone cells by as much as 2 percent a year. “Just make the impact on your skeleton significant,” says Warren A. Scott, a medical director for the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon. Activities that are too mellow, like casual walks, don’t cut it.

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CUT BACK ON VICE
A position paper published in April 2004 by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases points to mounting evidence that smokers have decreased bone density compared to non-smokers and that fractures among smokers take longer to heal.

Heavy alcohol consumption in women before age 35 will actually prevent a person’s bones from ever reaching their full strength, according to a paper published by H. Wayne Sampson, a professor of human anatomy and medical neurobiology and nutrition at Texas A&M University. If that person keeps drinking after age 35, the situation gets worse, as the body stops strengthening bone. Break a bone at that point, and there’s a chance that the bone could never heal properly.

A study of 744 teenage girls in Northern Ireland with a higher-than-average intake of cola drinks found that they showed signs of deteriorating bone density. The researchers seem to believe that because the girls had replaced nutritional beverages such as milk, juice or water, with soda as their beverage of choice, they were suffering from a lower bone mass density.

FIND SOME GOOD VIBRATIONS
A 2000-2001 study conducted by a team of researchers from The State University of New York at Stony Brook’s Department of Biomedical Engineering exposed sheep to 20 minutes of low-magnitude, high-frequency vibrations every day for a year. They found that the nominally shaken animals showed, on average, a 26.7 percent increase in bone density.

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On October 2, Team ���ϳԹ��� Philosophy, which comprises Graham Charles, 39, a photographer and adventurer, and Marcus Waters, 39, a human resource manager, both from Christchurch; and Mark Jones, 41, an outdoor leadership instructor from Auckland, will attempt the first circumnavigation of South Georgia Island by sea kayak. The stakes for failure—or even death—are high and the team could take as long as six weeks to complete their journey.

Made infamous by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s two-year expedition, South Georgia is an icy, barren isle 100 miles long and 20 miles wide, inhabited by ferocious fur seals and located in the “furious fifties,” approximately 1,100 miles east of Tierra del Fuego, the hair-raising southern tip of South America. In 1916, Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, drifted for ten months in pack ice off Antarctica’s Caird Coast before it succumbed to the elements. The crew took refuge on Elephant Island while Shackleton, along with five other crew members, sailed the whaleboat James Caird some 800 miles to King Haakon Bay on South Georgia, where Shackleton, Tom Crean, and Frank Worsely then traversed the island to Stromness Station. The entire crew was eventually rescued.

The biggest challenge in ���ϳԹ��� Philosophy’s quest for the unclaimed coast isn’t the mileage, it’s the weather. “We can paddle in 25 or 35 mile-an-hour winds, but it’s rare that the wind in South Georgia gentles on a nice 30 knot (35 mile-an-hour) breeze,” says Charles. “It’s like creeping up on the enemy. When the weather’s facing away, we can go. But as soon as the weather turns around and looks, we have to be twiddling our thumbs and looking innocently like we’re not trying to do anything.” On a previous visit to South Georgia, Charles had experienced wind gusts over 100 miles per hour.

The three men are no strangers to firsts, merciless conditions, or each other. Waters and Charles have known each other since age 13, when they spent endless hours on the ropes course at New Zealand’s Outward Bound School, where Waters’ father was deputy director. Jones, Waters, and Charles have all worked for The Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre, the pre-eminent outdoor education center in New Zealand. Aside from highly-refined technical skills, each contributes a unique expertise to an expedition: Charles as the visionary, Waters as the “details freak,” and Jones, says Charles, as the “Kiwi bloke who’s really good at fixing stuff with a piece of number eight wire and duct tape.”

In January and February 2001, the team paddled 500 unsupported miles from Hope Bay at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula to beyond the Antarctic Circle in the south, the longest stretch ever paddled in Antarctica. In January 2003, they faced 300 miles worth of Tierra del Fuego gales down the Beagle Channel to the Pacific Ocean before pioneering a new route through the Darwin Cordillera into Argentina.

When compared to the Antarctic Peninsula expedition, Graeme Dingle, a noted Kiwi explorer and author of “Dingle: Discovering the Sense in ���ϳԹ���,” (to be released by Craig Potton Publishing in October) says the South Georgia Island attempt is much more dangerous. “The wind, the currents, and the size of the sea are considerable,” he said. “You need a mix of very good technical skills, you need a bit of luck on your side, and I also think you need a kind of strength that these guys have together. The bond between them is quite awesome.”

The team, however, is quick to dispel the idea that this is just a sea kayaking expedition: it’s about a purist’s definition of a classic adventure. “This is the romantic exploration-era kind of thing where it’s day after day of ugliness, hard work and crucial decisions that could change the course of your life or the expedition,” Charles said. “It’s not about sea kayaking, it’s about rolling the dice with intuition and prudent judgment. A kayak just happens to be our mode of transportation.”

Technology has changed since the days of Shackleton, but even ���ϳԹ��� Philosophy’s reinforced, custom-designed Kevlar kayaks will not guarantee protection from harm. The team’s prepared for the worst. They’ll stow a month’s worth of fuel and vacuum-packed food, as well as mountaineering equipment in case an emergency evacuation on the island is necessary.

Two teams, one in 1991 and another in 1996, have previously attempted to circle South Georgia. Both failed. Team ���ϳԹ��� Philosophy, though, isn’t the only squad out for bragging rights this year. Operation South Georgia, a British-Israeli team under the leadership of veteran sea kayaker Pete Bray, who in 2001 was the first person to paddle solo and unsupported across the North Atlantic, hope to be under way November 12.

Pete and his teammates are inspired by adventure and a “South Georgia circumnavigation is one of the last remaining challenges in the sea kayaking world,” said Jim Rowlinson, Operation South Georgia project manager.

Team ���ϳԹ��� Philosophy chose to depart earlier, October 2 to be exact, after their research indicated that the half-ton, carnivorous fur seals that dominate the island come mating season will be on the island’s northern end in early November. “Our plan is to go counterclockwise starting from the northeast side,” Charles said. “We’re hoping to beat the seals rush hour ashore. When they weigh half a ton and are pumped up on hormones, they want to charge everything in their little territory zone.” The presence of the seals also poses another problem—fewer places for the team to camp ashore.

Since there are no search and rescue services within 1,000 miles of the island, both teams are required by British law to be accompanied by a support vessel to help in the event of an emergency. Charles’ team will have support aboard their emergency vessel to help gather footage for the documentary the team is producing about their attempt.

In the end, it will come down to the unpredictable and more than a little skill. “There are so many unknowns for us,” Charles said. “But we don’t go out there ignorantly. We research as much as we can, but no matter how much research we do, there are so many unanswered questions. And that’s the beauty.”

Check in with ���ϳԹ��� Online for updates on the Team ���ϳԹ��� Philosophy’s progress in the coming weeks. The team will also post daily dispatches of their expedition on their Web site, .

The Shatter-Proof Skeleton

Bone Cuisine

High-impact exercise is one way to maintain bone density, but it may not sustain the calcium levels you need for the long term. In a 1995 study of college basketball players at the University of Memphis, researcher Robert Klesges’s bone-density scans revealed significant mineral loss in the athletes during their four-month season. To find out why, his scientists literally wrung out the jerseys after a practice. “Our analysis showed huge expenditures of sodium,” says Klesges, “which we expected, and surprising amounts of calcium, which we didn’t.”

The next season, to counteract the mineral flush, Klesges advised the players to supplement their diets with up to 2,000 milligrams of calcium per day, administered by stirring inexpensive calcium lactate into an energy drink. That season, “bone loss was virtually eliminated,” he says. For five years, the team continued to add calcium to their drinks, with the same results.

His findings, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association in 1996, exposed a common shortfall in the American diet: too little calcium. “Most people don’t even come close to the recommended daily allowance of 1,200 milligrams,” says Klesges, “but that amount is still not enough for an athlete exercising over an hour each day.” Nearly ten years later, most sports drinks still don’t contain enough calcium for Klesges. “Without a demand for it, manufacturers simply aren’t going to add the mineral’s cost to their products,” he says.

So how much calcium should you be getting? For most, anything over 2,000 milligrams is overkill; 1,200 a day is plenty for a recreational athlete, says Klesges, and you can meet your needs through milk, dairy products, calcium-fortified orange juice, and tofu. Each serving contains about 200 to 300 milligrams of calcium. Going on a long workout? Nab an additional 200 milligrams of the stuff for every hour beyond the first.

Bill Holland follows this advice religiously. He still rides as much as ever, but now he also rotates in thrice-weekly four-mile runs, plus three trips to the weight room each week, and he takes 1,200 milligrams of calcium a day. Since his first bone scan, in 2001, he’s reversed his bone loss and seen 1 to 2 percent increases in density each year.

“Someday,” says Holland, “I might have average-strength bones again.”

Beyond Grenada

The 2004 Caribbean hurricane season was one of the most destructive in recent history

THOUGH HURRICANES ARE A FACT OF LIFE in the Caribbean, no one was prepared for the massive destruction and loss of life the islands experienced in 2004. There were six major hurricanes in the Atlantic Basin (defined as Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane strength, with winds topping 111 miles an hour). This was twice the annual average, and four of them slammed the Caribbean. The cost to the region was more than $6 billion, according to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

In August, Hurricane Charley hit Cuba and Jamaica, killing five people. Three and a half weeks later, Hurricane Ivan struck Grenada. Ivan then intensified to a Category 5 storm (winds over 155 mph) and pounded Grand Cayman, washing over the island and causing severe damage to homes and hotels, many of which couldn’t reopen until this fall. Ivan generated the largest ocean waves ever recorded—upwards of 90 feet—before knocking out the monitoring buoys; post-storm computer models put the waves at up to 130 feet. Ivan also struck parts of Jamaica, killing 17 people, racking up nearly $600 million in damage, wiping out many of Negril’s waterfront bars, and forcing hotels to close for several months of repair work. Days later, Hurricane Jeanne and the massive flooding that followed killed 2,700 people in Haiti and 23 in the neighboring Dominican Republic. Jeanne also brought floods and wind damage to Grand Bahama and Abaco, which had been hit hard by Hurricane Frances a few weeks earlier.

In mid-August, with the hurricane season already off to a record start, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was forecasting 18 to 21 tropical storms in 2005. Of those, NOAA said, nine to eleven could become hurricanes, and five to seven could end up as major storms. The season officially runs from June 1 to November 30, with the peak between late August and early October. This grim outlook reflects a continuation of increased storm activity that began in 1995, when shifts in atmospheric and oceanic flow patterns resulted in warmer Atlantic water. Forecasters say this pattern may continue for at least another decade, if historical cycles repeat themselves.

As the 2005 season began, NOAA added seven weather-data-buoy stations in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic, to fill some gaps in its data-monitoring map. It also launched a Web page called Storm Tracker, which provides advisories and tracking maps. Still, international agencies continue to call for better early-notification systems. “I’ve warned the world that it is not going to get better; it is going to become worse,” said UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland last June, at a workshop on disaster preparedness. “We owe it to the people to prepare them.”

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MAIN EVENT

boxing

SWEAT SET: Cotton-and-polyester hoodie () by Champion; polyester track pants () by Puma; leather-and-nylon-mesh boxing shoes () by Everlast

A body built to box is a body built to last.

As we know from Million Dollar Baby and The Contender, Sly Stallone’s reality-TV show, boxers are in phenomenal shape. How could they not be? The workouts engineered to build great fighters with the stamina to go 12 rounds make for a powerful one-two punch, resulting in one of the most comprehensive cross-training plans around. The good news for you is that it’s possible to benefit from this training style without ever getting in the way of a flying fist.

According to Brach Poston, a former University of Nevada at Las Vegas strength coach who’s now a doctoral candidate in integrative physiology at the University of Colorado, training for the ring delivers a bevy of performance boosters that carry over to other sports. A well-conditioned boxer enjoys heightened hand-eye coordination, ideal for throwing and swinging sports like baseball and golf; lightning-quick reflexes, necessary for hoops, mountain biking, and skiing; improved core strength, great for paddling; and better foot speed, for racket sports such as tennis and racquetball. Moreover, your newfound defensive skills will boost your self-confidence—which will in turn give you an added edge in pretty much any athletic endeavor you pursue.

Around the country, more and more athletes are turning to boxing to give them a performance advantage. Oscar-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. swears that regular pugilistic workouts have improved his speed and agility in his other athletic passion, ice hockey. University of Southern California football star Winston Justice credits his four-days-a-week off-season boxing sessions with turning him into a favorite to win the 2005 Outland Trophy, awarded to the nation’s best collegiate lineman.

Adding to the sport’s appeal is its low-maintenance practicality. You don’t have to step into the ring to begin your training; your garage or back porch will do just fine. Plus the equipment is beautifully uncomplicated (our picks begin below), and the twice-a-week workout outlined on page 50 takes less than an hour. That leaves you plenty of time to apply your freshly honed agility and fleetness to any adventurous pursuit.

ESSENTIAL GEAR
Everlast Indoor-Outdoor Heavy Bag
($100; )
“If I could have only one piece of workout equipment for the rest of my life, it would be a heavy bag,” says Dave Gaudette, 55, owner of the Front Range Boxing Academy, in Boulder, Colorado. “It works every muscle from your ankles to your neck.” The 70-pound Everlast model is packed full of recycled-rubber scraps for even density, while its vinyl skin makes it suitable for either indoor or outdoor installations. Lay into it out on your back patio.

Everlast High Performance Super Bag Gloves
($35; )
Boxing gloves fall into three main categories, and the difference boils down to ounces. Bag gloves like the Everlasts are generally four to 12 ounces each. Fighting gloves are a little beefier—they usually run eight or ten ounces. Meanwhile, training gloves, at ten to 20 ounces, are typically heavier still, to build hand speed. All three varieties are padded with impact-resistant foam rubber.

Four for Fighting

Before you strap on gloves, you’ll need to learn the basic boxing stance, the foundation that puts muscle behind every move. Once properly planted, you can start throwing the sport’s three basic punches: the overhand, the jab, and the hook.


1.) Basic Stance

Stand almost sideways, relative to your target, with your left foot forward, right foot back, legs slightly more than shoulder width apart, and weight evenly distributed on the balls of your feet. Keep your fists up, in front of your chin, elbows tucked in. This forces you to use your hips, the power source for a well-thrown punch.


2.) Overhand

For the overhand right, start with your right fist almost touching your chin, elbow tucked into the ribs. As you explode the arm straight out, rotate your right hip forward until that leg straightens out, with the ball of your right foot on the floor. Throw the punch and return to stance in one move.


3.) Jab

To throw a smooth jab, fire your left fist out in a straight line, twisting your arm inward until you reach full extension. Then immediately snap your fist back to your chin.


4.) Left Hook

For the left hook, swing your elbow up so that your forearm is parallel to the ground, then punch, using only your body. Twist your torso, from your legs to your shoulder, into the hook.

The Ten-Round Pound

The Ten-Round Pound
After you learn the basics (see ““), step up to our 40-minute routine from Steve Petramale, owner and trainer at Shadowboxing Gym, in Hollywood. This workout follows the traditional training format of three minutes of exercise followed by one minute of rest per round. For the last 30 seconds of each round, jack up your intensity. During the one-minute break between rounds, sip some fluids, walk around, and let your heart rate drop. But don’t sit—real boxers always keep moving when they’re training.

ROUND 1: Jump Rope
It’s difficult to jump with a rope mistake-free for 60 seconds, much less three minutes, so take a break with side swings: Spin the rope at either side of your body while you keep jumping in place.

ROUND 2: Shadow Boxing
Use a mirror to examine your stance, hand position, and punching mechanics. Start shadow boxing by assuming the basic stance, then move forward, back, and side to side in small, quick steps. Next, incorporate a couple of jabs with each step, throwing a left as you step in with your left leg. Go slow to make sure you’ve got your form dialed, then try throwing overhand punches, taking care to turn your hips into the blow. After 90 seconds, begin to throw punches at an imaginary opponent. Throw two or three jabs and combos, back off, then repeat. Concentrate on form, not speed or power.

ROUND 3: Heavy Bag
Stand an arm’s length away from a bag and start popping it with the right hand after throwing a few jabs. “A quality punch does not cause the heavy bag to sway all over the place,” says Petramale. “You should feel a solid thud and see the bag shudder.” Land some combos, then take a few small steps clockwise, gliding around the bag.

ROUND 4: Heavy Bag
Pick up the pace and step closer, landing combos like the double jab, triple jab, one-two (a left jab followed by a right punch), and one-two-three (left jab, right punch, left hook).

ROUND 5: Heavy Bag
The goal of this round is “tempo” punching. Keep your knees bent and butt down, hands up high, body square with the bag. Pivot with your shoulders and torso—not your arms—to throw a punch. Alternating hands, tap the bag lightly in the same spot (around chin height), without varying the punches, until a rhythm develops. The lighter and faster you punch, the more you’ll get out of the drill. Every 30 seconds, increase the intensity of your punches for five seconds.

ROUND 6: Heavy Bag
By this point in the program you’re loose, mechanically primed, and ready to put speed and power together for the most intense three minutes of the workout. Start with a left jab and a right overhand. Stick the combo and then move. Step closer to land another combo, then spring back outside of your imaginary opponent’s reach. Concentrate on hand speed more than power. Finish it off by punching nonstop for the last 30 seconds.

ROUND 7: Jump Rope
Repeat Round 1.

ROUND 8: Shadow Boxing
Cool down by throwing short, easy jabs and punches while staying light on your feet and moving around.

ROUND 9: Speed Bag
Hitting a speed bag correctly takes time and practice but pays off in sharper timing and reflexes. Stand square with the bag, about 18 inches away. Hold your fists up by your ears, elbows out, and strike the bag with short, slow circular motions, keeping the ball side of your fist forward. Hit the bag three times with one fist and three with the other, maintaining a consistent rhythm as you alternate sides.

ROUND 10: Core Strength
Do the following exercises in quick succession, finishing within three minutes. Complete ten reps of each to start; work your way up to 20.

1//Leg Raises
Lie on your back, left hand behind your head, right hand on your waist. Keeping your legs straight, lift your feet over your head until your soles are facing the ceiling. Lower your legs slowly back to the ground while you push the back of your head into the floor to complete one rep. Alternate hand positions with each rep.

2//Fist Push-Ups
Lie facedown and cross your legs, then push yourself up on your fists and one foot, keeping your torso straight. Lower yourself and touch your left cheek to the floor. On the next rep, touch your other cheek. Do as many as you can.

3//Modified Bicycles
Lie on your back, with your hands laced behind your head, elbows out, and legs straight. Lift your shoulders off the floor while bringing your left knee toward your chest. As your torso rises, twist your shoulders so that your right elbow almost touches your left knee. Alternate elbow and knee with each rep.

4//Fist Push-Ups
Adjust hand width (closer in or farther out) and switch feet position from last set.

5//V-Ups
Lie on your back with your legs perpendicular to the floor and spread wide. With your hands pressed together as in prayer and on your chest, extend your arms toward your left foot, while lifting your shoulders off the ground. Lower yourself back down and then reach for your right foot to complete one rep.

Essential Gear, PT I

boxing

BLUE STREAK: Polyester-and-spandex singlet ($25) by Nike; polyester shorts ($20) by Russell Athletic; leather-and-nylon-mesh boxing shoes ($80) by Everlast

Title Mexican Style Handwraps
($5; )
Cotton hand wraps will protect your tendons and bones as you unload the day’s frustrations on the bag. Of the two varieties—traditional and Mexican style, which are thinner and slightly elastic—trainers who prefer the latter argue that they more closely conform to the hands. Either way, look for at least 180 inches of length and a Velcro closure to secure the loose end.

Ringside Spar-Mate Timer
($150; )
The workout on page 50 is designed around the three-minute interval, which represents a round in the ring. The Spar-Mate timer pictured here punctuates sessions—plus 30-second or one-minute rest periods—with buzzers and lights. It’s a vital tool, because you won’t want to take your eyes off the bag to consult a wall clock. Skeptical? Try fussing with an egg timer when you’re wearing gloves.

Cleto Reyes Speed Striking Bag
($70; )
The speed bag builds killer hand-eye coordination, but it’s also one of the more challenging exercises in the gym. Expect to invest months before you get that Hilary Swank rhythm going. Start out slow (as in one thump per second) with a seven-by-ten-inch medium-size bag like the Cleto Reyes shown here, inflated to about 90 percent of capacity.

Nike Eight-Pound Strength Training Ball
($35; )
Nubby rubber has edged out leather as the material of choice for that classic torture-training tool, the medicine ball. The rough surface texture helps improve your sweaty grip on these beasts, which range in weight from four to 20 pounds. Rubber wears faster than leather, but unlike hide, the bouncy stuff will retain its shape longer.

Essential Gear, PT II

boxing

SPARRING STYLE: Right, polyester-and-spandex crew ($48) by Nike; polyester-and-spandex shorts ($30) by Banana Republic; leather-and-nylon-mesh boxing shoes ($80) by Everlast; left, polyester-and-cotton hoodie ($62) by Puma; polyester-and-spandex T-shirt ($25) by Nike; cotton-and-polyester shorts ($34) by Puma; boxing shoes ($150) by Adidas

Title Platinum Double End Bag
($40; )
The double-end bag is the closest you’ll come to the ducking and jiving of actual in-the-ring sparring: This one fights back. Suspend the eight-inch leather sphere between floor and ceiling on cords, as pictured above. Once hit, it’ll reel back like an opponent’s head, then swing forward in a wicked counterpunch. “Hit the double-end bag and get out of the way,” says Bruce Silverglade, owner of Gleason’s Gym, in Brooklyn. “Otherwise it’s gonna come back and pop you in the nose.”

Ringside Original Super Bag Gloves
($50; )
“Good gloves evenly distribute the padding,” says Dave Gaudette, of the Front Range Boxing Academy, in Boulder. Any weight up to 16 ounces will work, but beginners should go with six-ouncers to avoid needlessly exhausting themselves. Tip: Strong leather is durable, but stitching accuracy can vary. Whichever brand you choose, inspect before you buy.

Essential Gear, PT III

boxing

JUMP SUIT: Cotton-and-polyester hoodie ($45) and shorts ($34) by Puma; leather-and-nylon-mesh boxing shoes ($80) by Everlast. Photographed at Gleason’s Gym, Brooklyn, New York

Title Super Boa Speed Rope
($15; )
Heavy rubber ropes weigh up to four pounds and work the shoulders, arms, and core, while lightweight speed ropes like this Super Boa hone agility. Durable leather versions fall somewhere in between. Whichever you choose, look for foam-rubber grips and high-quality ball bearings. To find the right length, stand with one foot in the middle of the rope. The handles should hit your armpits.






WHERE TO FIND IT:
ADIDAS, ; BANANA REPUBLIC, ; CHAMPION, ; EVERLAST, ; NIKE, ; PUMA, ; RUSSELL ATHLETIC,

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IF YOU WANT TO ENSURE a great summer of cycling or running, we've got one piece of advice: Lose ten pounds this winter. Shaving body weight is the easiest way to add kick to your game come Memorial Day. By that time, your lighter (and dare we say sexier) bod will be faster and sleeker—and primed for its best season of action.

lose ten pounds

The most famous example of the leaner-equals-meaner mantra is Lance Armstrong, who lost more than 20 pounds as a result of cancer treatments. That drop helped make him faster in the end. But you probably don't have to lose that much.

A better example comes from another legendary cyclist, Miguel Indurain. In the fall of 1990, the six-foot-two-inch Spanish rider weighed a muscular 184 pounds—too heavy to stay competitive in the mountain stages of the Tour de France. But that winter, a consultant to Indurain's team, Max Testa, now director of sports performance at the University of California at Davis, figured out the optimal ratio of power to body weight for cyclists, based on his studies of past Tour winners (see “The Golden Ratio,” below). To reach it, Indurain had to shed only 12 pounds. Which he did. The next year he won his first of five consecutive Tours.

Like cyclists, runners also benefit from going lean. “Any extra flab is dead weight that isn't going to help you generate accelerating force,” says Tom Osler, author of The Serious Runner's Handbook. To make his case, Osler analyzed 40 years of data from 1,800 races, ranging from 5Ks to marathons, and found that, on average, every extra pound of body fat costs 2.5 seconds per mile. Drop ten pounds and, over the course of a marathon, you'll shave close to 11 minutes off your time.

NOW, DON'T FREAK OUT. We're not suggesting you go on a crash diet à; la Bill Clinton. In fact, assuming you already have a decent exercise regimen and eat right, taking off a ten-spot doesn't require any extra sweat. (But make sure that weight loss is real, not just fleeting water loss.)

All you need to do is make small changes in how and when you eat (see “Your Loss Is Your Gain,” ). But you have to start now—winter is the ideal season for dropping the lard. “Trying to lose weight while you're training hard during the late spring and over the summer will impair your ability to build strength and speed when you need it most,” says David Costill, the recently retired director of the human-performance lab at Indiana's Ball State University.

With this in mind, make it your goal to arrive at your trimmer self two months before any big event you've got inked in for the summer. “That way, you'll be able to get the most out of those two months of training,” says Costill. Losing ten pounds can make you faster, but you still have to work to make yourself fast.

The Golden Ratio » A potential world champion in an endurance sport like cycling needs to maintain a power output of 2.7 watts per pound of body weight for 45 minutes. (Which, coincidentally, is believed to be Lance Armstrong's output during a mountain climb in the Tour de France.) Mere recreational mortals should consider themselves optimally fit once they attain a more down-to-earth ratio of 1.6 watts per pound of body weight. Translated, this means a 170-pound athlete should be able to pump out an average of 272 watts over 45 minutes. And remember: The more weight you lose, the easier it will be to hit the target ratio—a 160-pounder's goal is a more reasonable 254 watts. To find out your current ratio, hop on any treadmill or stationary bike that measures watts, go as hard as you can for 45 minutes, then do the math.

Your Loss Is Your Gain

Five easy ways to trim the fat

1.) WORK OUT BEFORE BREAKFAST
“It's a fact that you burn a greater percentage of fat before eating breakfast,” says Monique Ryan, sports nutritionist and author of Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athletes (Velo Press). “A moderate 30-minute exercise session, or even a brisk walk, is all you need to draw on your fat stores to fuel your activity and spark your metabolism.”

2.) LEARN TO LOVE DAIRY
Replacing three or four servings of meats and starches with non- or low-fat servings of yogurt, cheese, or milk each day can help you lose an average of 15 pounds over the course of a year, according to Robert P. Heaney, professor of medicine at Creighton University, in Omaha, Nebraska. The secret? Naturally occurring calcium, which induces the body to metabolize fat more efficiently.

3.) AVOID LIQUID CALORIES
A sugar-packed soda won't make you feel as full as a piece of fruit will. With the exception of milk, liquid calories don't cause your body to register a sense of fullness; as a result, you stay hungrier, consume more calories than you need, and gain more weight.

4.) WALK AFTER DINNER
“A 20-minute stroll immediately after polishing off dessert, while slow enough not to interfere with digestion, burns up to 100 calories and reduces the amount of fat-promoting insulin released into your body,” says Carl Foster, a professor in the department of exercise and sports science at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.

5.) LATE NIGHT? EAT MEAT
For a midnight snack, grab a piece of protein-rich turkey, not an orange or a slice of toast. The sugar and carbs in the latter two stimulate the production of insulin, changing the way your liver processes glucose, turning it into fat.

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