Fitness

A few steps a day can go a long way toward maintaining your health.

The public will have an opportunity to join one of the winners from "The Biggest Loser" in a one-mile walk Saturday around the Roseville Galleria.

TODAY- Dementia workshop, a Dementia Education Series designed to provide education and encouragement for caregivers and individuals who would like to learn more about memory loss.

COOL – Because I harbor a rich fantasy life, whenever I find myself on the lovely but undulating Western States Trail here in the foothills, I pretend to be one of those truly whacked-out ultra dudes who race 100 miles each June.

American Canyon Trail, Quarry/Brown's Bar/Cool Loop and Quarry/American Canyon/Robie Trail Loop

Gardens can be great training grounds for fitness buffs.

Omaha, Neb.-based Complete Nutrition, a nutritional supplement retailer and health/fitness consultant, aims to make a push in Sacramento and other Northern California cities over the next three years.

With nearly a month of the new year behind us, it's a good time to check in on that resolution to get physically fit in 2013.

The old-fashioned, no-nonsense pull-up, all but forgotten amid user-friendly fitness machines in gyms throughout the country, is making a comeback.

Skiers and snowboarders are encouraged to "know the code," basic safety practices endorsed by experts as part of the industry's "Skier and Snowboarder Responsibility Code."

It's no secret that we live close to one of the best cities in the world for walking. We also know that fall and winter bring the clear, sunny days and panoramic views that are only postcard dreams for summer visitors. The trick to enjoying our insider knowledge is finding paths long enough for an enriching outing, but short enough to include a meal and time to spot details along the way.

Snow – so beautiful, so tempting, so dangerous.

Stefanie Cruz and Kevin McCarty, both recognizable, high-profile names in town, shared a lot in common even before they separately agreed to take the CalFresh Food Challenge.

Terri Lowe admits that her two passions – teaching and boxing – are a paradox.

What better day than the Sunday after Thanksgiving to reflect on how much we ate and drank and how much we'll dread stepping on a scale or looking in the mirror?

Fingers poised above the keyboard, I was just about to declare the Sugar Pine Mountain Trail in Meadow Vista as possessing the hardest, longest and most draining switchbacks I've ever tackled.

When Jon Mead, a devoted cyclist who works at midtown's Fleet Feet, visits a new city, he goes right to his smartphone app Strava to find the best bike routes. In Sacramento, the 24-year-old uses MapmyRide to track his course in an archive.

At midnight tonight, I turn 50 years old. Fifty. 5-0. A half-century of me. From a rainy night in 1962 (or so I was told) to now, that's a political span that stretches from JFK to Barack Hussein Obama.

The first of a new series of free workshops designed to prevent falls by the elderly begins Wednesday, sponsored by the UC Davis Health System's trauma prevention program.

Gene Yee, 84, leads the group with rhythmic sets of 24 exercises, each with a name such as White Crane Spreads Wings, or Grasp Bird's Tail.

As these portly players rumble around the bases and belly-flop after balls, they provide proof that you don't need a six-pack to play baseball – you can look like you just drank one.

Those ubiquitous oval "13.1" bumper stickers affixed to everything from Miatas to minivans attest to the raging popularity of the half-marathon, the distance du jour for the running masses.

The Sacramento City Council on Thursday night approved the use of a pivotal K Street property as a California Family Fitness and granted the gym a parking validation program.

SAUSALITO – High noon atop the Marin Headlands, I stopped at a junction barely a mile up the Coastal Trail, prime spot for the visual splendors of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge, the rocky out- cropping of Angel Island, azure Richardson Bay and even, in the distance, the East Bay hills.

Hundreds of people toting their rolled-up mats gather in McKinley Park on Saturdays for yoga sessions. Storefront studios brag that they offer "hot" yoga. There even are "mommy and me" yoga classes out there.

WALNUT CREEK – In retrospect, maybe my first clue that I was no longer running on the Ridge Top Trail here at Shell Ridge Open Space was that there was no freakin' ridge anywhere within sight.

Outdoor yoga sessions are planned every Saturday in August at the Oak Park Farmers Market.

Patrick Scott is no stranger to Eppie's Great Race. He helped organize the first race in 1974 and has participated in nearly 30 races since, having completed about 15 of them in the Ironman division – kayaking, bicycling and running.

The best swimmer you've never heard of made the U.S. team for the Athens Summer Games at the age of 12. She shocked her rivals and came home with three gold medals. She picked up six more, four of them gold, in Beijing and now is in Colorado Springs, Colo., wrapping up her preparations for London in a full-time training program supported by the U.S. Olympic Committee.

With opening ceremonies for the London Olympics in less than two weeks, The Bee set out to talk with some of the area's young athletes about the upcoming Games.

The firing of yoga instructor Alice Van Ness because she glared at a Facebook employee texting while in a half-moon yoga pose has Sacramento yoga teachers dumbfounded.

Bleeding hands and sore muscles are the norm – but CrossFit, launched from Santa Cruz a dozen years ago, is being sold to the masses on the notion that they, too, can do things they never dreamed possible.

You might have to put down the frozen cocktail for this. Now raise your hand if this sounds like a personal mantra of yours: Vacation is a weeklong excuse to be decadent, lazy and indulgent. But if you've got a vacation coming up and don't want to undo all your hard fitness work.

On an unusually cool summer day, Timothy Olson, 28, rounded the Placer High School track Saturday night for the first sub-15-hour finish in the history of the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run.

Sacramento police officer Randy Van Dusen vows to keep running, walking, crawling – whatever it takes – to finish under the 30-hour time limit at the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run.

About 4,100 participants – a record for the Kaiser Permanente Women's Fitness Festival – who registered for the run and walk that began on Ninth Street near Capitol Mall, circled through midtown and finished on 10th Street in front of the state Capitol.

Health and fitness events for the coming week