Briefs: Exercise while watching TV

EXERCISE WHILE WATCHING TV

The average American watches about five hours of television a day, industry studies have shown. Instead of being a total couch potato, fitness experts say, try these moves to torch calories at the same time:

KEEP EQUIPMENT ON HAND: Stash small weights, resistance bands, yoga mats and fitness DVDs in your TV stand or in a nearby container so you can grab them quickly during a favorite show. If you have a stationary bike or other machine at home, set it up in front of a television.

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF COMMERCIALS: If you get up and move during each break, your exercise minutes will add up quickly.

CREATE COMPETITIONS: See how many sit-ups, push-ups, crunches or jumping jacks you can do during a commercial break, and try to top your best number every time.

WEAR A PEDOMETER: Walk or jog in place throughout a show — or just during commercials — and track how many steps you can take. You can also do some shadow boxing.

SIT ON A STABILITY BALL: These large inflatable balls help improve balance and posture and work abdominal muscles — as opposed to the couch, which does nothing for you. Dick's Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, Target, Walmart and many other stores carry them.

FIND A GOOD MUSIC CHANNEL: Put on your favorite genre (there are many choices on cable) and dance away.

FIDGET: People who move around even while they're sitting can burn hundreds of extra calories a day. Tap your feet, shake your legs, stretch your arms and rotate your neck regularly.

CLEAN: Get some housework done during commercials. Dust the room you're in or run upstairs and see how much you can finish before the break is over.

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CLEAN THOSE CONTACTS: More than 70,000 children and teens go to the emergency room each year for injuries and complications from medical devices, and contact lenses are the leading culprit, the first detailed national estimate suggests. About one-fourth of the problems — 34,000 over a two-year-period — were things like infections and eye abrasions in contact lens wearers, according to the report, published in Pediatrics. These are often preventable and can result from wearing contact lenses too long without cleaning them. Bottom line: Kids, if you want contacts, be prepared to put in the work.

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BACK TO SCHOOL WITH A DAZZLING SMILE: You've got the kids lined up for their immunizations, you're studying the dress code to find out if your daughter's fashion sense is truly cool for school, and you're loading up on pencils and notebooks. But wait — have you thought about your kids' teeth? Even if there's no room in the budget for a visit to the dentist, there's help available.

On Friday, dentists around the Tampa Bay area will offer free teeth cleaning, assessment and X-rays for children starting school. Go to www.SmileForSchool.com to sign up. And if you're a dentist who'd like to join in the Smile for School event, contact Dr. Sandra Lilo at (727) 398-7473 or dentsan@earthlink.net.

Plus, the Pinellas County Health Department is offering free dental exams for kids ages 4 to 18 on Wednesday in St. Petersburg. Call (727) 824-6975 for details.

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COOL YOUR HEELS: You know that feeling of relief you get when you first slip off a pair of high heels? That tightness in your Achilles tendons as feet assume a natural position, with heels on the floor? Researchers — proving yet again that just about everything gets studied these days — think they may know the reason for that. A new study in the Journal of Experimental Biology tried to determine why women feel that tautness in the backs of their ankles. Comparing women who wear heels against those wearing flats, calf muscle size was measured. Ultrasound tests found that the muscle fiber length in the heel wearers was 13 percent shorter than in the control group. MRI scans also revealed that the Achilles tendons in the heel-wearing women were thicker and stiffer than in the flats wearers. That may have compensated for the shortened muscle fibers while allowing calf muscles to function while walking. Yet this thickening also caused some pain when the women changed from high heels to flats. Solution: Try stretching to avoid aches. Or get new shoes.

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