Josh Turner loves playing basketball on the road with his band and crew – but not as much as he used to. “We try to play as much as we can,” he says, “but here lately, everybody’s been getting hurt, so it’s slowing us down.”

Turner sprained his ankle in early April, but he’s ready for another try, now that he’s able to walk without lingering pain. “I was on defense and my lead guitar player had the ball,” he says. “I was guarding him, and I went to try to steal the ball, and when I did, he went to drive past me. I tried to change direction really quick, and my ankle gave way. I just flipped over and laid there on the floor for a little while. But luckily I walked it off and played three or four more games.”

(more…)

In 2001, Jeff Bates was on the verge of a recording deal with Mercury Records when he was arrested for theft and drug possession, a result of his crippling meth addiction. After coming so close to achieving his dreams, “basically my career was over before it got started, and all my hard work went down the tubes,” says Bates. “I also lost friends and their trust, and every shred of self-respect and dignity I had. I honestly believe if I hadn’t gotten arrested, I would be dead now.”

(more…)

Phil Vassar’s high-energy performances often involve a piano and a lot of running and jumping. But years ago, the singer-songwriter did his running and jumping in the athletic arena. He was Virginia state champ in high jump and hurdles in high school, and he went to college at Virginia’s James Madison University on a track scholarship.

Vassar has made some modifications in his training schedule since his college days. “I don’t run as much as I used to,” he says. “My knees can’t take it anymore. Jumping off the piano night after night on stage has pretty much done in any life I had left in my knees. Treadmills are better for my knees than running on the street is. And I haven’t tried a hurdle in years — if I did, you would probably hear about me in the hospital somewhere!

(more…)

If you think you have hit the gym to stay fit, think again. Country artist and true cowboy Trent Willmon says the best workouts just require a little horse sense.

“I had a job exercising racehorses for a couple of years, and I was in the absolute best physical shape of my life,” says Willmon. “I think a lot of horse activities, from starting colts to riding cutting horses, can be quite strenuous and can keep you in shape. Just the everyday maintenance of feeding, watering, cleaning stalls and riding will keep you in shape.”

Willmon should know. He worked as a ranch hand and a horse trainer before he hit the road as a country artist. He rode and roped on a regular basis until excessive touring and long stints away from home forced him to give up his horses. “I currently have no horses, and no time to tend to them if I did have them,” he says. “I sold my last horse a couple years ago. Occasionally, though, I do get to borrow a horse to rope or just ride. I have a few good friends who understand my predicament.”

(more…)

All the traveling, performing and flesh-pressing that goes along with releasing a new album can take a toll on an artist’s health. Jim Lauderdale has a new album, Honey Songs, but he also has an ancient Chinese secret for shrugging off the stress of promoting it: Tai chi.

The graceful, flowing movements of tai chi have been described as meditation in motion. “With all the travel I do, tai chi has helped ground me and keep me in shape through the rigors of the road and writing and recording,” says Lauderdale. “The main purpose is to develop your internal energy, or chi. It’s also very good for you. It’s low-impact exercise with remarkably good results physically.”

Tai chi has been toning bodies (and minds) for centuries, but Lauderdale learned about it from a magazine 14 years ago, and has been sold on the practice ever since. “I started going to some workshops, and my interest started growing,” he says. “I went to China a few times, and I’ve had the fortune of studying with some really good teachers.”

Even if you’ve never tried this ancient martial art form, you’ve probably seen it on TV. Typically it’s depicted as a group of people slowly gliding through poses in unison. “There are several different styles,” says Lauderdale, “and they each have a series of choreographed movements in long, intermediate and short forms.”

As with most exercise, the key to seeing results is consistency. “I practice every day,” says Lauderdale. “It’s kind of my hobby, but ideally I try to work out an hour to an hour-and-a-half a day. I do it inside if the weather is bad, but I like to go outside and do it at a park. It’s something I really enjoy, and I recommend it to everyone.”

If you’re of a certain age, you might remember commercials for the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, which challenged kids to “run, jump, pull-up, sit-up and throw a softball” in the President’s Physical Fitness test.

Due to the nation’s growing obesity rate and the effect that’s having on the public health, now the President’s Council is expanding its efforts to promote fitness. Adults as well as kids will be able to take the National President’s Challenge. The program encourages all Americans to be active for 30 minutes a day, five days a week — a routine that would go a long way toward improving our national fitness level. There are separate programs for kids, teens, adults and seniors and you can register through April 3.

Adults may enter one of two categories: The “active lifestyle” program is for those who are not regular exercisers. For eight weeks, track your progress online as you work up to the 30-minutes-five-days minimum. If you reach that goal for six of the eight weeks, you’ll get a Presidential Active Lifestyle Award. You don’t have to join a gym to participate: The Challenge lists nearly 100 activities that count toward the award — everything from walking to fishing to juggling.

The Presidential Champions category is for those who already exercise the minimum amount. You accumulate points according to the intensity of your exercise (running counts more than playing darts). If you’re a hard-core gym rat, there’s an “advanced” level that requires you to accumulate twice as many points to get awards. As for the awards, the points you get determine whether you get a gold, silver or bronze medal. And if you actually want a medal, you can buy it on the Web site.

Have you recently started a workout program, but you’re not seeing the results you hoped for? Maybe you still have too much flab on your abs or no bulk on your biceps. If so, you might be a victim of one of these common fitness mistakes:

1. Exercising more, but eating more.
Country singer (and former personal trainer) Keith Anderson says there’s usually a simple reason why exercisers aren’t reaching their fitness goals. “[As a trainer] the most common mistake I saw with people was diet,” he says. “When you see people working out every day at the gym and they’re still a lot heavier than they want to be, nine times out of ten it comes down to diet.”

2. Inconsistency and impatience.
You can’t work out just once a week, or every now and then, and expect to see sleek thighs in three weeks. “People get in there and want their whole body to change completely in one month,” says Anderson. “It’s just one of those things where it has to become a lifestyle. You just have to go and get whatever kind of workout you can get every day, and work on your diet, cardio and strength workout.”

3. Playing favorites with body parts.
Most people go into a fitness program with one goal in mind — a flatter tummy or thinner thighs or a perkier backside — and that becomes the focus of all their exercise. For example, “Most people do not want to work on their legs,” says Anderson. “All they want to do is work on their upper body, so they can see some biceps. But you want to work on every body part.” Becoming healthier should be a whole-body experience, with sculpted shoulders or a smaller dress size as a welcome side effect.

Maintaining a healthy weight can be a major battle for most people — including celebrities. So how do country stars win the battle of the bulge? Here are some of their most popular secret (and not-so-secret) weapons:

In addition to cardiovascular exercise, stars swear by strength training — lifting weights or doing exercise that requires you to lift your body weight. Research has shown that women who follow a weight loss diet and do weight training exercises lose as much as 44 percent more fat than those who only follow a diet. Muscle burns more calories that fat, so the more muscle you have, the better. LeAnn Rimes told Shape magazine that she does a 50-minute weight-lifting workout a few times a week, along with cardio exercise. “It keeps my heart rate up, and I never get bored,” she said. “I also do yoga regularly, and my husband and I walk our dogs a few miles whenever we can. As a result, I’ve toned up, gotten much stronger, and, I’m proud to say, I can bench-press my own body weight!”

Most people have no idea how much they eat until they see it written down. Keeping a food diary not only helps you figure out how much you eat, but when and why you tend to overeat. It also helps keep you focused on your weight loss or maintenance goals.

Carrie Underwood is a big believer in keeping a food diary. “I discovered that writing down everything I eat makes such a difference, because you never realize how much you’re consuming unless you read it later in the day,” she told Shape magazine. “I’m a big nighttime eater. When I can look at my diary and see how many calories I’ve consumed during the day, I’m able to figure out how much I can eat at night. I take [it] with me everywhere.”

Not that long ago, most Americans thought of yoga as an obscure practice, the province of health nuts and quirky hippies. Athletes and cardio-junkies never considered yoga serious exercise.
 
How times have changed! Yoga is now one of the most popular forms of exercise in the country. If you still think yoga is a lot of sitting around in pretzel positions and chanting, with very little heart-pounding or sweating, you don’t know yoga.

“I believe the biggest challenge [in yoga] is just getting the courage to try something different or new,” says Kristian Bush of Sugarland. “Try to forget the stereotype in your mind. Yoga is for everyone — children, athletes, moms, dads, accountants, truck drivers, even country stars.”
 
He’s right. LeAnn Rimes, Little Big Town’s Phillip Sweet and Bush’s bandmate Jennifer Nettles are just a few of the major believers in the benefits of yoga, including increased strength and flexibility, stress relief, and improved overall fitness.

“I’ve been doing yoga for about nine years,” says Shannon Wright, of The Wrights. “I can honestly say that it is my favorite type of exercise. It’s a ‘one-stop-shop.’ You’re working out your mind, body and spirit. I walk away feeling stronger, more focused and with more energy every time I practice. What more could you ask for in a workout routine?”

If yoga seems too tame for you, maybe you haven’t taken the right classes. Some are gentle Hatha-style yoga, and others are variations of the more vigorous Vinyasa style. Ashtanga yoga is fast-paced, and is sometimes the basis for “power yoga” classes. There are dozens of variations of these, mixing different styles or combining yoga with Pilates or some other exercise. Every yoga instructor is different, using his or her own eclectic mix of poses at his or her own pace. If you sample a few, you’re bound to find one that meets your needs, including weight loss, if that’s your goal.
 
“The change in my body was quite a surprise,” says Bush. “I have the waist size back that I had in college, and the mental benefit is tremendous. To take an hour or even a half-hour every day helps to keep my mind clear and make space for new things.”

“Yoga is great for me on many levels, not only as a way to stay in shape on the road, but also as a great way to meditate,” says Sweet. “I started doing it in earnest about three years ago and have never looked back. It takes great strength and balance to hold the positions, and it also requires you to still your mind, your breath, and stretch at the same time. It is challenging, and I can do it almost anywhere.”

Read more about Sugarland and yoga.

It’s cold season. At some point during the winter, nearly everyone picks up a case of the sniffles. Maybe that’s why there are so many old wives’ tales about how you catch — and cure — a cold.

According to experts, it’s not the cold weather that causes a cold, it’s a virus — usually a type of rhinovirus. Colds spread one of two ways: through the air by coughing or sneezing, or by contact with saliva from an infected person (by touching the person or a surface that person has touched). You can’t get a cold from getting wet or having cold feet. It could be that colds are more common in winter because being in close quarters with others who might be infected makes it easier for colds to spread.

But don’t discount everything your grandmother told you. Science has shown that some old-fashioned remedies do relieve cold symptoms. Chicken soup, for example — the warm liquid encourages airway secretions and helps break up mucus. Garlic contains allicin, which really can act as a decongestant. Steam has been shown to liquefy and loosen mucus, relieving congestion and coughs.

Still, there’s no real cure for a cold, so the best tactic is prevention. One of the best ways to avoid catching a cold is to wash your hands often, with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds. (Kids are often told to sing “Happy Birthday” twice while washing, to ensure they scrub their hands long enough.) Remember, colds are caused by viruses, not bacteria, so antibacterial soap works no better than regular soap at preventing them. Similarly, antibiotics do not help with cold symptoms. Unless you develop an infection, don’t take antibiotics when you have a cold. That could contribute to building up an antibiotic resistance, which could make the drugs less effective when you do get an infection. How about a nice bowl of chicken soup instead?