I know it’s only June and the dog days of summer have just barely started, but it was 99 degrees here yesterday and after lugging my million-pound air conditioner up 3 flights of stairs, there is nothing I wanted more than the 10 feet of snow that seemed to pile up every other day this past winter. A wise man once told me (okay, so it maybe it wasn’t a wise man… maybe it was just my mom back in 1997 when we couldn’t afford AC) that if you think cool thoughts, you’ll cool down.

…Yeah, that’s never actually worked for me, but here’s some cool-spiration for you to try out my mom’s…erm…the wise man’s advice.

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Know of any other extra cold places? What do you do to cool down- or do you actually enjoy the heat?

June is finally here and we’re officially out of that back-and-forth late-winter/spring weather we were having (well, at least in New England it was like that, but then again — the weather’s ALWAYS “what season is it again?” here) and it’s starting to get HOT out there.

Is the humidity frizzing up your hair? Are you fighting a losing battle against sweat? Have no fear! I’ve got 10 easy and cheap ways to cool down and beat the heat this summer.

What do you do to stay cool? Is there anything on our list you wouldn’t do? Leave your tips and tricks below!

While most people’s gym routines differ – I, for one, have always been an elliptical girl and hate the stationary bike – it’s safe to assume that almost everyone incorporates a “cool down” into their cardio program. After running for 30 minutes at 7 miles per hour, you’ll knock your speed down to 3 and spend five minutes jogging or walking before you hop off the machine. Many pieces of gym equipment even include a 5-minute cool down automatically, tacking it on to the end of your desired workout. All of this is supposed to prevent soreness or muscle damage and relieve strain on the heart.

According to University of Texas physiologist Hirofumi Tanaka, however, there’s no proof that a cool down has any positive benefits on the body. “Everyone thinks it’s an established fact, so they don’t study it,” he said in a recent New York Times article. The article notes the ambiguity of the concept as a whole, noting that it’s not even clear what a cool down is supposed to be or how long it should last.

Apparently, the cool down became standard gym practice after it was reported that muscles become sore after exercising due to the accumulation of lactic acid. This theory has been reported false, leading people to believe that reducing the intensity at the end of a workout (which was supposed to let the lactic acid dissipate slowly) is unnecessary. The article does note, however, that blood can build up in your legs and feet if you stop running (or biking or ellipti-cizing) shortly, making dizziness or even fainting a possibility. Read More »

We are busy girls; there is no doubt about it. We’ve got class, and study groups, and student groups and work, and somewhere between all of that, we need to work out. And we need to get the most out of that limited time we have.

So we run to the gym, hop on the treadmill for 45 minutes, pack our things and move onto the next item on our daily agenda: the shower. We don’t have time to waste on stretching – we’ve got beer and pizza calories to burn, baby. Stretching is just an extra little thing, anyway; it’s not that important.

That’s what I used to think, but it turns out that stretching can be the most important part of a workout. Well, if you don’t want to mess up your body and do want to see more obvious results. Read More »