Bahram Akradi
LATEST STORIES
Fitness Hits Home
Some of the most powerful messages we see and hear about fitness today (the ones that reach us through mass media) would seem to suggest that fitness is the domain of the young, the super-buff and, above all, the single.
Put Time on Your Side
The call to start working on my letter for this “Feel Great at Any Age” issue came at the perfect moment: It just happened to be my 45th birthday. Fact is, if you had asked me when I was 20 what 45 was going to look and feel like, I’m not sure I’d have been able to tell you.
Unexplored Territory
Late spring is my favorite time of year. There’s something inspiring about seeing so many living things crank into the high gears of their growth cycles.
Growth Management
In business, there’s a concept known as the “Peter Principle” that describes how individuals within an organization tend to be promoted through the ranks until they rise to their level of incompetence.
Connect and Respect
We tend to think of cause and effect as a simple, two-part thing: A particular action results in a particular reaction, period. And perhaps in some controlled experiments, that’s true. But in life, most reactions are complex and cyclical chain reactions, because in life, most everything is connected.
Yes, You Can
Health is all the rage in business these days. Which is to say that many companies are actively promoting healthier employee lifestyles. Or at least they’re trying.
Choosing to Choose
There’s a biology term – “circular mill” – that describes how a group of army ants, if separated from their colony, can wind up marching in an enormous circle, each ant perpetually following the ant in front of it.
Personal Best
Back when I was in college, my schoolwork came pretty easily to me, and like most young men, I thought I had life all figured out.
A Simpler Way
This fall, in the wake of what seemed like a relentless series of hurricanes and earthquakes, something hopeful rose out of all the chaos: our compassion – and with it, perhaps, a clarified sense of perspective.
Bridging the Knowledge Gap
That old saying knowledge is power has always rung true with me, particularly when it comes to matters of personal health.
Learning by Example
Do as I say, not as I do. Anyone whose parents ever tried that line on them knows just how ineffective such directives are likely to be at inspiring good behavior. Kids learn best by example. And, in fact, so do must adults.
Sizing Up Satisfaction
This issue’s Satisfaction theme immediately brought to mind my favorite film, Fiddler on the Roof .
Breaking Down Stress
When I was studying engineering in college, I learned that every material has a stress point.
Making Changes
Over the past several years I’ve gradually been making changes in the area of green living.
Setting a Course
This time of year, a lot of us start thinking about the big changes we want to make in our lives over the course of the next 12 months.
Fields of Dreams
If you build it, he will come. That line, made legendary by the 1989 film Field of Dreams, still resonates with a lot of people. I think that’s because it says everything about what we instinctively know to be true about pursuing our own dreams.
Championing Ourselves
When we think of champions, we think of people who have accomplished things beyond the bounds of accepted belief or expectation. While such feats might require tremendous strength or ingenuity, in many cases there’s another underlying requirement: courage.
Fitness as a Family Value
For far too long now, the pursuit of fitness has been equated with individual achievement. In the media and general culture, fitness has typically been about performance (who can go farthest, fastest), or it’s been about possession – washboard abs and seductive good looks. The body as object.
Right-Track Retrospective
I just realized that this year marks my 30-year fitness anniversary. I was 13 when I started working out and I’ve been doing it ever since, studying and experimenting with all sorts of different sports and fitness techniques along the way.