I work out in two different places – at home and at work. At home, we are lucky enough to have an elliptical machine and a nice weight set as well as a floor work mat complete with an ab cruncher that we can safely do situps on without injuring our backs.

One big difference I’ve noticed between the ellipticals that I work out on at work and the one we have at home is that the one we have at home, which happens to be a Horizon elliptical machine, that I love, has the handle bars that go back and forth as you glide, whereas the one at work does not, and I have to move my arms myself if I want upper and lower cardio action.

Well, it may not have been a recumbent bike, as I think there are different style exercise bikes that are used for spinning classes in gyms (I’ve never been to a spinning class personally, can you tell?), but a man claims that he was assaulted while he was on his spinning bike in a spinning class in a gym in Manhattan by another gym patron.

As I’ve hammered into my own head and yours over and over, working out is, I feel, essential to living a healthy and fulfilled life. But that’s not just my opinion. In fact, some would say that it’s an unshakeable fact, and that it even affects your intelligence. Workouts, as we know, are beneficial to our weight control, our cardiovascular system and our bone and joint health. There’s scientific evidence that exercise can help yet another area of our body, our brain.

It used to be that pot bellies, even on thin people, were regarded as a funny looking, but harmless physical attribute, but now, more and more research is pointing to the fact that protruding bellies are indicators of some serious health issues and can elevate risk of certain health issues substantially.

Some of us have been naturally blessed with a flat tummy, and have never had an issue with a belly that is larger than our waist line, but there are many times those numbers in people who do have problems with maintaining a trim belly area, and experts think this may have to do with the higher amount of heart disease and other heart related health issues these days.

I ran track in high school. The track I ran on was a plain old, black cement track. Granted, it seemed like a softer cement, so the impact wasn’t as bad on your joints as, say, running on a regular sidewalk of black top would be, but you still could get shin splints if you over did it, or didn’t wear the right shoes.

Fast forward 15 years and they have these nifty tracks, even at high schools, made out of something called vulcanized rubber, which is almost like a silicone polymer, in that it’s quite squishy and soft, but it also has a durability of no other softer rubber, since it will be run on again and again.

I found this very interesting, because I certainly don’t think it’s what I looked at when I chose my current longtime boyfriend, but hey, maybe I did subconsciously choose him for it, who knows! Researchers are saying that it’s not the eyes, the hands, the nose, the mouth, or the face for that matter that we really innately look for in a lifetimes partners or mate, but rather it’s their waistline. Huh? So women look at mens’ waistlines instead of their chests? Hmm…..I’m a little skeptical about that one!

I thought this was a very cool concept when I read about it. It’s a new treadmill-like machine that is slightly modified that can be found in high tech rehabilitation centers that helps stroke victims and others with brain injuries that has impaired their motor functions for things like, say, walking, by helping to stimulate the part of the brain that is responsible for movement and coordination.

I didn’t realize how important it was to purchase the right abdominal equipment until we actually purchased one – an ab-roller style piece of exercise equipment that was a simple C-shaped crunch machine that helped you stay in form when doing ab crunches, at a garage sale.

We had already purchased a “cheapo” ab roller type of machine at Target for about $30, and thought that this model, which looked a lot nicer and more intricate than the ab roller we’d purchased at Target (and mind you, cost only $1 at the garage sale), would work a lot better and be a more solid piece of home exercise equipment for completing abdominal crunches correctly and without lower back strain or pain.