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Sun safety is never out of season. Summer’s arrival means it’s time for picnics, trips to the pool and beach... and a spike in sunburns. But winter skiers and fall hikers need to be as wary of the sun’s rays as swimmers do. People who work outdoors need to take precautions as well.

The need for sun safety has become clear over the past 20 years, with studies showing that excessive exposure to the sun can cause skin cancer. Harmful rays from the sun-and from sunlamps and tanning beds - may also cause eye problems, weaken your immune system, and give you unsightly skin spots and wrinkles, or “leathery” skin.  read more »

Martial arts training focuses on the mental aspect as much as the physical one, if not more. It is by no means a mindless activity. Performance depends very much on a student’s state of mind and his ability to block out any unrelated thoughts or emotions.

Just like any other activity, one must concentrate and be focused. If you are in another state of mind, be it upset, sad, or worried, it will reflect in your training.

Let’s use an example of a man who just underwent a breakup with his significant other. He goes to his weekly training session and his peers notice a change in his performance during the sparring sessions. The man is engulfed with rage and significantly more aggressive than usually. This may result in serious injury to his training partners.  read more »

Pressure is a normal part of life. Everyone is under some sort of pressure each and every day. What matters, though, is not how much pressure we are under, but how we keep pressure in perspective and handle it accordingly.

No matter how hard we try, we cannot eliminate pressure. This is not a bad thing. Pressure is what challenges us and keeps us motivated. Without pressure we would miss out on the lessons that dealing with pressure teaches us. Those who learn to embrace pressure and utilize it to their advantage are the ones who will experience a great deal of success and satisfaction in life.  read more »

The definition of forgiveness is letting go of bad feelings for someone. We have all have found ourselves in situations where we had bad feelings for someone else. The key to true character is one’s ability to forgive another person when he or she hurts us. Forgiveness is very powerful and can improve the quality of your life immensely.  read more »

The definition of “choosing” includes making the best decisions possible. In everyday life we make choices that define who we are. At the same time, the choices we make determine just how successful or unsuccessful we are. When we choose to exercise, then we are choosing to be healthy. Equally essential to maintaining a physically healthy lifestyle is making emotionally wholesome choices that lead to healthy behaviors.

The ability to choose a reaction to an emotion builds emotional intelligence. Those people who are emotionally intelligent have an advantage in dealing with life. There is, however, a huge distinction between emotions and the behaviors triggered by those emotions. If you are angry with someone, then anger is your emotion. If you attack the person with whom you are angry, then that is a behavior triggered by your anger. Emotionally intelligent people make the choice not to respond to a negative emotion with a negative behavior. This is a lesson that Black Belts understand and practice each and every day.  read more »

“The more you learn, the more you grow.”

We’ve all heard this statement, but how many of us actually put conscious effort into learning something new? Many of us are so consumed with our day-to-day duties and responsibilities that we forget, or do not have the time, to participate in something that we’ve never done before. Don’t be discouraged; the New Year is a great time to tackle this objective.

In the Martial Arts, we are always learning a new strike, kick, block, or self-defense move. That’s what makes the Martial Arts exciting. While learning new activities and philosophies through the Arts, we build the habits necessary to take in new knowledge and embrace it. With that said, why not carry over that ability to other areas in your life and enhance your knowledge even more than before?  read more »

Most people know that stress can increase your blood pressure and therefore harm your heart and overall health, but research shows that stress by itself increases your cholesterol as well.  Recently published research confirms previous results that showed an increase in cholesterol right after a stressful event. The theory is that the body mobilizes energy-producing (and cholesterol-raising) fats in response to danger. This all makes perfect sense. What the new research shows goes one step further: those individuals who had the highest immediate increase in their cholesterol showed sustained higher cholesterol levels three years after the study. This suggests that their bodies got accustomed to mobilizing fat and, over time, their stress actually caused them to have “permanent” high cholesterol.  read more »

On TV, Michael Imperioli honors the godfather. Off-screen, he bows to a martial arts grandmaster.

The 40-year-old actor, who plays the heroin-addicted, hothead mobster Christopher Moltisanti on "The Sopranos," says he owes his clean new real life to Tae Kwon Do teacher Tae Sun Kang, who also trains Imperioli's wife, Victoria, and children.

"I was in terrible physical shape. I smoked a pack a day," he said. "Tae kwon do has transformed our family in body, mind and spirit. It has changed us as human beings."

He gave up cigarettes after taking up the martial art four years ago. His wife, their sons David, 9, and Vadim, 5, and a 16-year-old daughter from Victoria's previous marriage, Isabella, take classes from Kang at his school in Tribeca, the Manhattan neighborhood where the Imperiolis live.  read more »

Many people have heard that fructose is a “real” sugar and therefore much more beneficial to your body than glucose or “regular sugar.” Table sugar (sucrose) is broken down in your body to glucose, as are many other more complex sugars and carbohydrates. But is fructose better for your body than the others?

I always thought that fructose was better for you, based on the lesser effect it has on insulin/blood sugar. (That is why fruit sugar is acceptable to people with impaired insulin response.) I’ve also always been a big fan of whole foods, so sugar that is contained naturally in a food has always been preferable in my mind. While these premises remains true, the incredible amount of high fructose corn syrup that people are ingesting is making researchers scrutinize fructose more closely.  read more »

To be truly successful in life you must be willing to take risks. Risk-taking can be accurately defined as trying something new or difficult. This does not mean that you should do anything for the sake of trying something new, but it does mean that you should not hesitate to learn something new or to try to make something happen that is new.

In many cases, people do not think about the difference between an “appropriate” risk and risk-taking in general. For example, skipping a family event to hang out with friends and hoping that your family does not find out is not a good way to be a risk-taker. A person with good character will understand the proper way to take risks along with the improper ways.  read more »