We are big fans of Weight Watchers and an affiliate partner of Weight Watchers.

What does this mean? Weight Watchers pays us when someone clicks on a link (e.g., Weight Watchers) and then signs up. We also have affiliate marketing relationships with other companies, including Amazon.com, Junonia, A Big Attitude, Road Runner Sports, Swim Outlet and Champion Catalog. If you see a product listed on this site with a hyperlink, we have an affiliate marketing relationship with the company. These relationships enable us to keep the site running.

We're careful about who we sign up with and reject approximately 95% of the marketing offers we get. We certainly would not go out of our way to recommend a service, as we do with Weight Watchers, if we did not truly believe in the product or service.

Weight Watchers works, if you stick with the program. We won't lie to you. You won't lose the weight over night, you'll have to change your habits, and you'll have to exercise. But, these things are necessary if you want to lose weight in a healthy manner and keep it off. Losing weight requires sacrifice and effort. We like Weight Watchers because they provide great guidance and support throughout the process.

Are we biased? Yes? Is there monetary compensation behind our relationship, yes? Would we recommend Weight Watchers if there was no relationship? Yes.

You don't have to take our word. Go to a meeting and check out Weight Watchers for yourself. We won't get compensated if you sign up a local meeting and that's okay. We'd rather see you do something healthy than try to convince you to click on a link on our site.

Yoga is supposed to be about spiritual and physical health, not trademark battles. Unfortunately, the proliferation of studios, videos, books, equipment and clothing has led to legal battles over various versions of yoga that have popped up in response to yoga's growing popularity.

As explained in this story recently distributed by the Washington Post, at issue are the various names applied to the various versions of Yoga. The most famous of these is Birkam Yoga, which was trademarked in 1994 by Bikram Choudhury.

India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is fighting back by scanning the ancient texts upon which yoga was based on and making them free for public consumption in multiple languages. A listing of texts currently available can be found here. An overview of TKDL is available here.

We support their efforts of TKDL.

These are the most popular pages on NetSweat.com:
Plus Size Fitness Clothes - http://www.netsweat.com/A_Big_Attid/index.html
Aqua Fitness Equipment - http://www.netsweat.com/Swimming/swimming_gear_aqua_fitness.html
Women's Workout Clothes - http://www.netsweat.com/women_fitness/womens_workout_clothes.html
Water Aerobics Swimwear - http://www.netsweat.com/women_fitness/water_aerobics_swimwear.html
Women's Running Clothing - http://www.netsweat.com/Running/Womens-Running-Clothing.html

If the current economy has you thinking about a career change, one option is to become a personal trainer.

Running shoes have us hitting with our heels, whereas we may be meant to strike with our forefoot first. Or so says an article in the journal Nature referenced by LiveScience.com.

Daniel Lieberman and his colleagues looked at the gate of five different groups: athletes from the United States who always wear running shoes; athletes from the Rift Valley Province in Kenya who grew up running barefoot, but now don modern running shoes; U.S. runners who used to wear shoes, but now go barefoot; and runners from Kenya who either always wear shoes or have never worn shoes.

Runners who run barefoot, especially those who grew up running barefoot, land with their forefoot first. Those wearing running shoes land heal first. Those who switched from barefoot to shoes changed their gate to land heal first; the opposite was true for those went from shoes to running barefoot.

So, which is better? The researchers concluded that "the collision-free way that barefoot runners typically land is not only comfortable but may also help avoid some impact-related repetitive stress injuries". But, if you are not used to running barefoot, the transition could be tough and lead to injuries. More importantly, there is no definitive proof that running barefoot reduces injuries.

But, and this is a big "but", study researcher Daniel E. Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University, was mentioned by LiveScience as saying that a recently published study showed no studies that demonstrate modern running shoes prevent injuries.

More studies need to be done. If you are considering switching to barefoot running, do so gradually and seek medical attention for any aches, pains or injuries. And quickly clean and care for any scrapes or cuts.

For more information, see:
The Biomechanics of Barefoot Running in Nature (abstract free; fee for full study)
The Biomechanics of Barefoot Running in LiveScience
Study: Running Shoes Could Cause Joint Strain in LiveScience
Barefoot Running (we posted this in Jan 2007)


We previously blogged about barefoot running three years ago.

You can now find water aerobics swimwear on NetSweat.com. We teamed up with SwimOutlet.com and SwimsuitsforAll.com to offer swimsuits for women of all sizes. (And yes, that means we also offer maternity swimwear.)

We are particularly proud to say the product line includes plus size swimsuits up to size 24. This expands our selection of plus size fitness clothing, which had already included fitness clothing and ski wear. We realize that if you have curves, finding fitness apparel that looks good and fits well is difficult and that is why we have always provided such great selection.

It is also a good idea to protect your feet while doing water aerobics, and we have you covered there as well. Just check out our aqua fitness equipment page for water aerobics shoes.