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Tag: Physical fitness

  • How a violent police academy drill has been tied to deaths and injuries across the country

    Associated Press — When recruits were repeatedly punched and tackled during a role-playing exercise at the Texas game wardens academy last year, they were taking part in a longstanding police training tradition that critics say should be retired.

    By the end of the day, at least 13 of the cadets reported injuries. At least two concussions. A torn knee. A bloody nose. A broken wrist. Two would need surgery. One would resign in protest. Another quit even before the drill.

    A state investigation later found nothing wrong with the drill, which its supporters say is intended to teach recruits to make good decisions under intense physical and mental stress. The experience on Dec. 13, 2024, may have been traumatizing for some at the Texas Game Warden Training Center in Hamilton, Texas, but it was not unique.

    Since 2005, drills intended to teach defensive tactics at law enforcement academies have been linked to at least a dozen deaths and hundreds of injuries, some resulting in disability, according to a review by The Associated Press.

    The drills — frequently referred to as RedMan training for the brand and color of protective gear worn by participants – are intended to teach law enforcement recruits how to defend themselves against combative suspects. They’re among the most challenging tests at police academies. Law enforcement experts say that when properly designed and supervised, they teach new officers critical skills.

    But critics say they can put recruits at risk of physical and mental abuse that runs some promising officers out of the profession. Academies have wide latitude in running such exercises, given a lack of national standards governing police training.

    Here are some takeaways from AP’s report.

    A string of tragedies across the nation in recent years has brought new attention to the details of curricula at law enforcement academies.

    In August, 30-year-old Jon-Marques Psalms died two days after a training exercise at the San Francisco Police Department Academy. He suffered a head injury while fighting an instructor in a padded suit.

    An autopsy found his death was an accident caused by complications of muscle and organ damage “in the setting of a high-intensity training exercise.” His family has filed a legal claim against the city and hired experts for a second autopsy.

    In November 2024, a 24-year-old Kentucky game warden recruit died after fighting an instructor in a pool to the point of collapse, video obtained by AP shows. William Bailey’s death was ruled an accidental drowning due to a “sudden cardiac dysrhythmia during physical exertion.”

    A year earlier, a Denver police recruit had both legs amputated after a training fight that his attorney called a “barbaric hazing ritual” left him hospitalized. An Indiana recruit died of exertion after he was pummeled by a larger instructor, and a classmate was disabled after fighting the same man.

    Academies have discretion to design training within state guidelines, and AP found the drills take many forms at local police, county sheriff and state departments. They’re sometimes called “combat training,” “Fight Day” or “stress reaction training.”

    Some recruits have to ward off several assailants at once. Others fight a series of instructors, one after another. Some academies intentionally use larger, more skilled instructors. The stated goals are generally the same: to use skills learned in the academy to fend off or subdue assailants and to never give up.

    Recruits and instructors wear protective gear to cushion their heads from blows. But there are no uniform safety guidelines, including whether academies must have medical personnel on site.

    One of the recruits injured last year was Heather Sterling, a former Wyoming game warden who had moved back to her home state of Texas to continue her career.

    Sterling had been a defensive tactics instructor in Wyoming before enrolling in the Texas academy, and she was concerned when she learned about the so-called four-on-one drill.

    During the exercise, cadets faced a barrage of attacks from four instructors playing the role of violent assailants. Cadets would have to kick and punch a bag held by an instructor and try to fend off attacks for 90 seconds or more.

    Sterling thought the scenario was unrealistic. She said she had never been ambushed on the job, and she would be able to use her firearm or other force if that happened in real life.

    Video shows that Sterling was punched seven times in the head in less than two minutes, and the last blow knocked off her wrestling helmet. She was also thrown to the ground.

    Sterling said she had a pounding headache, and later drove herself to get medical treatment. She was diagnosed with a concussion.

    Sterling passed the drill but resigned from the academy in protest. Now she’s speaking out in the hopes of bringing change to practices in Texas and elsewhere.

    “I’m worried that someone is going to get killed,” she said. “This is a poorly disguised assault.”

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  • Move. Cheer. Dance. Do the wave. How to tap into the collective joy of ‘we mode’

    With a runway of smoking-hot coals laid out before them, residents in San Pedro Manrique, Spain, steel themselves as thousands of onlookers cheer them on. The crowd roars when they walk across the fire, sometimes carrying another person on their back.

    Although the walkers and the crowd perform very different roles during the annual June ritual, they report similar feelings: an ineffable feeling of togetherness, as if the entire group becomes one, said Dimitris Xygalatas, a cognitive anthropologist at the University of Connecticut, who witnessed the Spanish ritual years ago as a researcher.

    He has experienced similar feelings in a stadium while chanting and cheering together with 30,000 fans of his hometown soccer team. Both are instances of collective effervescence, said Xygalatas, author of “Rituals: How Seemingly Senseless Acts Make Life Worth Living.”

    It’s that feeling that happens when people engage together in a meaningful activity that sparks positive emotions. Such as when you get goose bumps at a concert, feel the rush of adrenaline in group exercise classes or get swept up in religious festivals.

    Recently, collective effervescence has been referred to as “we mode,” and it’s something that can be cultivated to improve your life, said Kelly McGonigal, a Stanford University health psychologist.

    “When you are connected through shared positive emotion, expressions often act as this aerosolized joy, where you catch other people’s smiles, laughter, their physical expressions,” McGonigal said. “It becomes contagious.”

    When hearts beat as one

    “We mode” has also been called physiological synchrony, and McGonigal calls it “collective joy.” The concept was documented more than a century ago by French sociologist Emile Durkheim, who described cultural effervescence after studying aboriginal Australian societies.

    Xygalatas’ research has focused on measuring it in various group activities. To quantify “autonomic responses,” he has fitted people with heart monitors and electrodes and extracted thousands of stills from videos to analyze facial expressions.

    He found that people’s physiological responses synchronize during exciting events. The heartbeats of sports fans who attend a game, for instance, sync up, while those of fans watching the same game on TV don’t. Fans at the game also have higher levels of endorphins, which have been linked to bonding, he said.

    On a basic level, collective rituals involve meeting and connecting with people, which is a key to psychological well-being, Xygalatas noted.

    “If we all dress alike and we move alike and we feel alike, we express the same emotions that trigger mechanisms in our brain,” Xygalatas said. “There’s a fundamental need for synchrony.”

    Activities that create ‘we mode’

    What kinds of activities should you look for to tap into “we mode”? McGonigal, who has studied the science of emotion and wrote “The Joy of Movement” about the emotional benefits of exercise, named these criteria:

    The activity must be in person. McGonigal noted that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people who tried to recreate positive interactions online found it more difficult than in person.

    “If you’re not physically present with people, a lot of the signals that create the shared state, they just aren’t there,” she said.

    It also helps to make noise and move your body, whether you cheer, applaud, move, dance or sing. McGonigal said you’re more likely to feel this kind of collective joy when you’re dancing with people than when you’re sitting in a theater watching a dance performance.

    Also, try to let go of shame or self-consciousness, and get into the activity. Passive observers don’t get the same effect, McGonigal said.

    “You’ve got to do the wave at the sporting event,” she said. “If you’re at a group exercise class, and your instructor is like, ‘Can I get a whoop, whoop?’ You gotta whoop, whoop.”

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    Albert Stumm writes about wellness, food and travel. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

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  • Calisthenics are making a comeback. Is body weight enough to get a good workout?

    You won’t find dumbbells or weight machines in the gym Sean Keogh runs. At Calisthenics Club Houston, it’s all about training with body weight.

    “That’s all we do,” Keogh said — but that’s enough to keep new members coming through the doors, excited to learn moves like handstands and pullups.

    Keogh and his members have plenty of company. These days, content creators, independent gyms and megachains alike are promoting calisthenics, an age-old form of fitness that uses little or no equipment and instead relies on body weight for resistance.

    In July, President Donald Trump even reestablished the Presidential Fitness Test, intending that youth across the country will again practice old-school exercises like situps, pushups and pullups.

    It’s little surprise that these no-frills moves are making a comeback in our over-scheduled society, said Anatolia Vick-Kregel, director of the Lifetime Physical Activity Program at Rice University. “We don’t always have time to go to the gym,” she said. “This is what you can do at home or in your office.”

    Another reason might be economic, said Michael Stack, an exercise physiologist and president of the Physical Activity Alliance, a coalition of groups that promote physical activity. With no equipment required, calisthenics-based programs are affordable for exercisers and profitable for gyms that offer them. Plus, people may have gotten used to exercising with few accoutrements during the pandemic.

    “This trend has been building,” Stack said. “The pandemic definitely accelerated it.”

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    How effective are calisthenics?

    There’s plenty of research to suggest that calisthenics can improve everything from muscle strength to aerobic conditioning, Vick-Kregel said.

    “Body weight is phenomenal,” she said.

    But there are limits to its effects, said John Raglin, a professor of kinesiology at the Indiana University School of Public Health, Bloomington. “It can be effective,” Raglin said. “But I think the idea that it can or should replace the use of even simple equipment is wrong-headed.”

    Sometimes, Raglin said, using equipment can actually make exercises simpler or safer to perform. Many people, for example, do pushups with improper form.

    “If you’re not strong enough or you have joint issues or arthritis, then lying on a bench and using small hand weights can actually be safer and more practical,” he said.

    It all depends what your goal is

    Beyond safety, people looking to significantly increase their strength or muscle size will likely see more dramatic results if they use weights, Raglin said. Doing so “utilizes more of your muscle and generates more force than you could otherwise,” he explained.

    Lifting weights also damages muscle tissue in a way that can be productive, as muscles grow larger through the body’s repair process. Over time, though, it may take larger amounts of weight to keep seeing gains. Progress plateaus as the body gets used to exercises it’s done before.

    It’s not impossible to grow muscle through calisthenics, Vick-Kregel said; it’s just harder to continuously level up exercises for sustained progress without increasing external weight.

    “After you’ve done a couple workouts of squatting with your body weight, your body’s going to need external load to get stronger or to build muscle tissue,” Stack agreed.

    In other words, if you’re after bulging biceps, you may need more than calisthenics to get there. But if you’re just looking to get moving and improve your health, your body is probably enough.

    Particularly for the roughly 75% of Americans who aren’t meeting federal physical activity guidelines — which call for at least 75 minutes of vigorous or 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week, plus two strength-training sessions — calisthenics are a great option, Stack said.

    “Body weight is the simplest apparatus you can use,” Stack said. “I would encourage anyone who’s not exercising to start exercising with just their body.”

    How to begin a calisthenics routine

    First, assess your current fitness and mobility, Vick-Kregel said. With the help of a mirror, workout buddy or trainer, see if you can do exercises like planks, pushups and squats with correct form. If not, look for modifications, such as doing pushups from your knees.

    Once you feel confident with the fundamentals, aim to perform calisthenics in 10- to 30-minute chunks, two to three times a week, she suggested. (For a little more structure, you can consult the The Five Basic Exercises Plan, or 5BX, a classic calisthenics program developed by the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 1950s.)

    Progressively increase the duration and intensity of your workouts as you get fitter. “Gradual progression is critical,” Vick-Kregel emphasized.

    As you get more experienced, though, calisthenics can be performed at high intensity. Keogh maintains that these exercises are not just for beginners. There are plenty of ways to increase the difficulty of body-weight exercises over time, making them both highly challenging and effective, he said.

    For doubters, Keogh has a blunt message: “Try it.”

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  • Walking is good for you. Walking backward can add to the benefits

    Here’s a simple way to switch up your walking routine, according to experts: try going backward.

    Taking a brisk walk is an exercise rich in simplicity, and it can have impressive mental and physical benefits: stronger bones and muscles, cardiovascular fitness and stress relief, to name a few. But like any workout, hoofing it for your health may feel repetitive and even boring after a while.

    Backward walking, also known as retro walking or reverse walking, could add variety and value to an exercise routine, when done safely. Turning around not only provides a change of view, but also puts different demands on your body.

    Janet Dufek, a biomechanist and faculty member at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has researched the mechanics of both walking and landing from jumps to identify ways of preventing injuries and improving physical performance. And as a former college basketball player and a regular exerciser, she’s also done her fair share of backward walking.

    In humans, reverse locomotion can increase hamstring flexibility, strengthen underused muscles and challenges the mind as the body adjusts to a new movement and posture.

    “I see a lot of people in my neighborhood and they walk, and that’s good,” she said. “But they are still stressing the same elements of their structure over and over again. Walking backward introduces an element of cross-training, a subtly different activity.”

    On the treadmill

    Kevin Patterson, a personal trainer in Nashville, Tennessee, recommends the treadmill as the safest place to retro walk. You can adjust it to a slow speed. However, Patterson likes to turn off the treadmill — termed the “dead mill” — and have clients propel the belt on their own.

    “It can take a while to get the treadmill going, but from there we have them be the horsepower for the treadmill,” he said.

    Patterson said he uses backward walking with all his clients as an “accessory exercise” — a weight-training term for add-on movements designed to work a specific muscle group — or during warm-ups. The activity typically makes up a small part of the workouts, he said.

    “The treadmill is great for older clients because you have the handles on the side and you reduce that risk of falling,” he said.

    Off the treadmill

    Dufek suggests working a one-minute segment of backward walking into a 10-minute walk and adding time and distance as you get comfortable.

    You can also do it with a partner; face each other, perhaps clasp hands. One person walks backward, and the other strolls forward and watches for problems. Then switch positions.

    “At first, you start really, really slowly because there’s a balance accommodation and there is brain retraining. You are learning a new skill,” Dufek said. “You’re using muscles in different ways.”

    If you work your way up to running and get really good at it, you can try running a marathon backward — 26.2 miles or 42.2 kilometers. Yes, people have done that.

    Backward walking as cross-training

    Dufek classifies backward walking as a form of cross-training, or incorporating a mix of moves into a fitness program. Doing a range of exercises can help prevent overuse injuries, which can occur after repeatedly using the same muscle groups.

    For many people, cross-training involves different activities and types of exercise: for example, running one day, swimming the next, and strength training on a third day. But the modifications required to walk backward work in the same way, but on a micro level.

    Do small tweaks make much of a difference? Once an avid runner, Dufek said she had several pairs of running shoes and did not wear the same pair two days in a row.

    “The shoes had a different level of wear, a different design,” she said. “Just by changing that one element, in this case footwear, it would provide a slightly different stress to the system.”

    Retro walking as rehabilitation

    Physical therapists instruct some of their clients to reverse walk, which can be useful after knee injuries or for people in rehabilitation or recovering from surgery.

    “Backward walking is very different than forward walking from a force perspective, from a movement pattern perspective,” Dufek explained. Instead of landing heel first, “you strike the forefoot first, often quite gently, and often the heel does not contact the ground.”

    “This reduces of the range of motion in the knee joint, which allows for activity without stressing the (knee) joint,” Dufek said.

    Backward walking also stretches the hamstring muscles, the group of muscles at the back of the thigh. Dufek is interested in finding out if it improves balance and reduces fall risks in older adults by activating more senses of the body.

    Athletes do it naturally

    There is nothing unnatural about backward walking. In fact, backward running is a key skill for top athletes.

    Basketball players do it. So do soccer players. American football players — particularly the defensive backs — do it continually.

    “I played basketball and I probably spent 40% of my time playing defense and running backwards,” Dufek said.

    ___

    Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on all aspects of wellness, at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

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  • Co-founders of Stakt on Starting a Side Hustle Earning $10M in 2025 | Entrepreneur

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features New York City-based friends and co-founders Millie Blumka, 31, and Taylor Borenstein, 31. The pair started a side hustle in 2021 called Stakt, an adaptable workout accessories brand.

    Blumka was a director of brand partnerships at Showfields and Borenstein was a product implementation manager at Bloomberg when they invested about $50,000 of their personal savings into the business. The co-founders have since grown it from a two-person operation to a lucrative business on track for $10 million in revenue in 2025 as it scales across Amazon, DTC and B2B.

    Read exactly how they did it, here.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Stakt. Taylor Borenstein, left, and Millie Blumka, right.

    Responses have been edited for length and clarity.

    When did you start your side hustle, and where did you find the inspiration for it?
    Blumka and Borenstein: We had the idea for Stakt back in 2020 when home workouts became the norm and our old yoga mats just weren’t cutting it. We needed more support and versatility for the variety of workouts we were doing like sculpt and pilates, and we couldn’t find a mat that could keep up. We found inspiration through our own personal need and noticing many trainers we looked up to were rolling their mat in half to get extra support…we knew there had to be a better way.

    Related: This Couple’s ‘Scrappy’ Side Hustle Sold Out in 1 Weekend — It Hit $1 Million in 3 Years and Now Makes Millions Annually: ‘Lean But Powerful’

    What were some of the first steps you took to get your side hustle off the ground? How much money/investment did it take to launch?
    Blumka and Borenstein:     Neither of us had started a business before, let alone created a product, so the first step was a lot of networking. We spoke with friends of friends to try to understand how you even go about creating a product. We also did a lot of surveying to understand if this was an “us” problem or if other people were struggling with this, too. We each invested $25,000 of our own savings to get the business off the ground and have invested profits ever since.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Stakt

    If you could go back in your business journey and change one process or approach, what would it be, and how do you wish you’d done it differently?
    Blumka:     If I could go back, I’d probably establish our lanes much earlier. In the beginning, we both tried to touch everything and be hands on for every aspect of the business. Once we defined who owned what, things became so much smoother. Having those roles in place earlier would have saved us a lot of time.

    Borenstein: I probably would have hired customer service support sooner, as we spent a lot of our time on customer experience when we could have spent it building the business.

    Related: These Friends Started a Side Hustle in Their Kitchens. Sales Spiked to $130,000 in 3 Days — Then 7 Figures: ‘Revenue Has Grown Consistently.’

    When it comes to this specific business, what is something you’ve found particularly challenging and/or surprising that people who get into this type of work should be prepared for, but likely aren’t?
    Borenstein:     Before starting a consumer brand, I had always thought, How hard could it be if you have a good product? It turns out the product is just the first step: Growing a business takes a ton of discipline, hard work, networking and efforts across all verticals to really make it successful.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Stakt

    Can you recall a specific instance when something went very wrong — how did you fix it?
    Blumka:     We once had an entire container of inventory arrive damaged, and we didn’t feel comfortable selling it. Instead, we donated the mats to local organizations and used them for community events. It left us out of stock for a while, so we leaned on pre-orders and reframed the challenge as a marketing opportunity.

    How long did it take you to see consistent monthly revenue? How much did the side hustle earn?
    Blumka:     We didn’t pay ourselves until we decided it was time to make Stakt our full-time jobs instead of just a side hustle.

    Borenstein: It took about a year before things leveled out and we saw consistent monthly revenue. For the first year, there were good months, great months and bad months — eventually it became more consistent and easier to predict.

    Related: At 24, She Immigrated to the U.S. and Worked at Walmart. Then She Turned Savings Into a ‘Magic’ Side Hustle Surpassing $1 Million This Year.

    What does growth and revenue look like now?
    Blumka and Borenstein:     We are on track to do $10 million in revenue this year — doubling what we did in 2024.

    Image Credit: Courtesy of Stakt

    What do you enjoy most about running your business?
    Blumka:     The combination of creativity and community. I love taking an idea and turning it into something people genuinely connect with. That said, the real reward is seeing our products out in the wild, with people actually using and loving them. Building community around movement and wellness has been the most fulfilling part. Plus, doing it alongside my best friend is the biggest bonus.

    Borenstein: At some point, this truly stopped feeling like work. Stakt is an extension of me and my family, and every day I get to work with my best friend and my husband (whom we hired last year). I love that I can make my own schedule, my hard work is rewarded with the growth of my own business, I meet awesome people, and I get the opportunity to design new products and see them come to life.

    “Chaos is part of the journey.”

    Based on your journey so far, what’s your best advice for aspiring founders?
    Blumka:     There will never be a perfect time, perfect product or perfect plan, but you have to start somewhere. There will always be a reason to wait, but the real progress starts once you launch. This is when you can adapt, learn and grow.

    Borenstein: Everyone will have advice, but trust your gut — there’s no single playbook. And remember, no one has it all figured out; the chaos is part of the journey.

    Want to read more stories like this? Subscribe to Money Makers, our free newsletter packed with creative side hustle ideas and successful strategies. Sign up here.

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features New York City-based friends and co-founders Millie Blumka, 31, and Taylor Borenstein, 31. The pair started a side hustle in 2021 called Stakt, an adaptable workout accessories brand.

    Blumka was a director of brand partnerships at Showfields and Borenstein was a product implementation manager at Bloomberg when they invested about $50,000 of their personal savings into the business. The co-founders have since grown it from a two-person operation to a lucrative business on track for $10 million in revenue in 2025 as it scales across Amazon, DTC and B2B.

    Read exactly how they did it, here.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

    Amanda Breen

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  • Can President Trump Run a Mile?

    Not to be fussy about it, but the Presidential Fitness Test, which Donald Trump plans to reinstate in schools, could use some shaping up of its own. The name promises so much. What is this, a fitness test for Presidents? We could do worse than election via athletic competition; that alone might alleviate the whole gerontocracy problem. And most of the good Presidents would’ve still won. George Washington was an accomplished collar-and-elbow wrestler. (Some wrestling scholars claim that, during the Revolutionary War, a forty-seven-year-old Washington took down seven Massachusetts militiamen in a row.) Nixon, meanwhile, was a football scrub—“cannon fodder,” a teammate called him. Most people think our most athletic President was Gerald Ford or Barack Obama, but they’re wrong. In his rail-splitting young-lawyer days, Lincoln is said to have gone 300–1 in free-for-all wrestling matches against tough guys across the Midwest. In 1992, he was inducted into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame; some credit him with inventing the choke slam. This would get more prominent billing in his biographies if the Presidential Fitness Test were what it sounds like, instead of what it actually is, which is a battery of physical assessments to evaluate the health of America’s schoolchildren. A better name would be the President’s Fitness Test, as in Lord Stanley’s Cup.

    The old test was phased out more than a decade ago. Trump hasn’t said what the new one will look like. Previously, it involved a mile-long race, a shuttle run, sixty seconds of sit-ups, pull-ups to exhaustion, and the sit-and-reach flexibility assessment. Participants who scored in the top fifteen per cent of all five tests got a Presidential commendation. Presumably, any changes would be up to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition (now, there’s a sound name), whose members Trump introduced, along with the revived test, at a White House press conference a couple of weeks ago. Trump stocked the council with his sports-world buddies—Bryson DeChambeau, Harrison Butker, Mariano Rivera, Jack Nicklaus, Paul (Triple H) Levesque, and Lawrence Taylor, among them—most of whom, in various ways, are ill-suited to oversee an athletic program for minors. None of them have a background in exercise science. Taylor, a former N.F.L. linebacker whom Trump has referred to as “an incredible guy” and “a friend of mine for a long time—too long,” pleaded guilty in 2011 to two misdemeanors after paying to have sex with a sixteen-year-old. After putting him on the council, Trump asked him to speak at the White House about the project. “I don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing,” Taylor said. “But I’m here to serve.”

    The new council probably can’t do worse than the original council. The fitness test has its origins in a 1954 study that found that American children failed a suite of physical benchmarks about fifty-eight per cent of the time, compared with just nine per cent for children in Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. President Eisenhower was alarmed about what this meant for the health of the nation and its military. He formed the council by executive order; it met at West Point and, in 1958, rolled out the test. The original looked similar to the most recent version, though it also included softball-throwing, which was a rough analogue for lobbing a grenade. (The White House says that the new test will also be, in part, about “military readiness.”) In addition to the test, the council issued a report warning that “the existence of press-button gadgets and other devices tending toward habits of inactivity” were fuelling a countrywide problem of “softness.” Softness was thought to be a grave national danger. In 1960, then President-elect John F. Kennedy published an article in Sports Illustrated called “The Soft American.” “Our struggles against aggressors throughout our history have been won on the playgrounds and corner lots and fields of America,” he wrote. “In a very real and immediate sense, our growing softness, our increasing lack of physical fitness, is a menace to our security.” He issued another public-fitness challenge, which required marching fifty miles in twenty hours. Boy Scouts marched, as did fraternities, high-school classes, postmen, and newspaper columnists. Robert Kennedy did it in oxfords. (The sixty-third annual march will be on November 22nd.) Subsequent Presidents, meanwhile, periodically updated the Presidential Fitness Test. Lyndon Johnson added a flexed-arm hang for girls; Ford swapped a straight-leg sit-up for a bent-knee sit-up.

    There were a few early critics of the test. One congressman from Missouri pointed out, in 1955, that the study that inspired the test purported that American kids were absurdly wimpy: it held that European kids were seven times more fit. “Simply on the mathematical surface, this is a ridiculous statement,” the congressman said. In fact, the study was investigating back pain among Americans, and was mostly a test of core strength and flexibility. It had little to do with over-all fitness. One exercise instructed participants to lie face down and lift their feet off the ground. Another had them reach down and touch their toes. European participants were drilled in exercises like these in school, which probably explained their superior performance. The council, anyway, showed little interest in finding out if the Presidential test was effective; they rarely collected any data to determine if kids were improving. There’s not much evidence to suggest that it promoted physical activity in the long term. Kids weren’t tripping over themselves to sit and reach in their free time. The Obama Administration gave this as a rationale for ending the program, in 2012. Few people complained.

    There was always something odd about a fitness test being set forth by the President, invariably an aging man who would lose miserably in his own competition if pitted against, for example, me. I hold a job that I perform mostly on the couch, and am otherwise a modestly skilled but enthusiastic recreational softball and tennis player, and yet I would destroy even the more youthful Presidents; I’ve seen Obama’s jump shot. Trump could beat me in golf, which is O.K. Golf—a sport you play only when age or incompetence prevents you from playing actual sports, and which few people, if they are being honest with themselves, actually enjoy—isn’t a proxy for how well someone might do on the test.

    Trump and the other modern Presidents would almost certainly fail their own fitness tests. The mile and the shuttle run would present problems, given their ages, but the real obstacle would be the pull-ups. Pull-ups are hard. At Michigan, Ford was the center on the football team, won two national championships, and was voted the team M.V.P., but he was sixty-one when he came into the White House and around two hundred pounds. Is he getting thirteen pull-ups, the threshold for seventeen-year-olds to qualify for the Presidential commendation? He is not. I’m not even convinced that he could’ve done so as a hundred-and-ninety-pound teen-age lineman. As for Trump, I would not bet on him running a mile in six minutes and six seconds at the moment, nor even in his physical prime, given his bone spurs.

    Fitness testing has been around almost as long as schools. One constant across societies is the belief, among the older generations, that the kids have gone soft. An early physical-education scholar noted that boys in Sparta went through similar assessments, including “what might be considered periodical tests of [the] capacity to endure, for at one of the annual festivals the flogging of youths was an essential feature, often carried to the drawing of blood.” Today, kids in Europe are tested in plate-tapping, hand-gripping, and something called the “flamingo balance test.” Some students in Australia are assessed on how far they can throw a basketball. No one needs an enumeration of all the positive effects of exercise, on health, on social connections, on self-esteem, or otherwise. Still, only a quarter of Americans get sufficient exercise, according to the C.D.C. Critics of the fitness test have pointed out that, by ritually humiliating a large portion of the kids involved, it probably discouraged exercise.

    Obama’s response was to eliminate the testing portion and to encourage activity in other ways. But testing has its virtues. We test in math or reading to make sure students have the minimum levels of proficiency necessary to thrive in society. We could do the same for physical activities. No one needs to be taught how to touch their toes, and everyone who can run knows how to. But why not allow students to pick a more technically difficult activity to be tested on, like swimming or skating? The idea is to leave school proficient in some activity that might make you happy. The ability to swim in the ocean or skate on a frozen lake is a gift, a license to partake in some of the joys of being alive. Kids could learn how to hit a baseball, or to fly a kite—or to fish or to play wheelchair basketball. For kids who like boredom and pain, Trump could even create a proficiency test for golf. This could be a bulwark of democracy, not, as Kennedy envisioned, as a defense against armies of ripped Italian teens but, rather, as fertilizer for areas of common interest. At least it might provide counterpoints to the phone, or a small source of contentment.

    This idea itself has actually been tested. Undergrads at Columbia have long had to swim seventy-five yards in order to graduate. A few years ago, Dartmouth replaced its swim test with a wellness requirement, which could be fulfilled through courses such as skiing, hiking, or kayaking. (There are also options for mini-courses on mindfulness, sleep, and reflective journaling.)

    Another, if lesser, idea would be to make the test finally live up to its name. Every year, Trump could perform each of the exercises in his own test. Kids could then compete to beat him. And why stop there? There are other types of fitness—mental, Darwinian—that present the opportunity for more tests. In his first term, Trump took a cognitive-fitness test, meant to assess signs of dementia. “It’s, like, you’ll go, ‘Person, woman, man, camera, TV,’ ” Trump explained. “They say, ‘Could you repeat that?’ So I said, ‘Yeah, it’s person, woman, man, camera, TV.’ ” He added, “It’s actually not that easy, but, for me, it was easy.”

    And then there’s fitness for office. The Constitution tried to define this with the Twenty-fifth Amendment—a President is unfit if he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties” of the Presidency. But that’s pretty vague. No one has developed a test for this yet, but apparently Lawrence Taylor is available. ♦

    Zach Helfand

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  • Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says

    Fitness app Strava gives away location of Biden, Trump and other leaders, French newspaper says

    PARIS — An investigation by French newspaper Le Monde found that the highly confidential movements of U.S. President Joe Biden, presidential rivals Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, and other world leaders can be easily tracked online through a fitness app that their bodyguards use.

    But the U.S. Secret Service told the newspaper that it doesn’t believe the protection it provides was in any way compromised.

    Le Monde found that some U.S. Secret Service agents use the Strava fitness app, including in recent weeks after two assassination attempts on Trump, in a video investigation released in French and in English. Strava is a fitness tracking app primarily used by runners and cyclists to record their activities and share their workouts with a community.

    Le Monde also found Strava users among the security staff for French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In one example, Le Monde traced the Strava movements of Macron’s bodyguards to determine that the French leader spent a weekend in the Normandy seaside resort of Honfleur in 2021. The trip was meant to be private and wasn’t listed on the president’s official agenda.

    Le Monde said the whereabouts of Melania Trump and Jill Biden could also be pinpointed by tracking their bodyguards’ Strava profiles.

    In a statement to Le Monde, the U.S. Secret Service said its staff aren’t allowed to use personal electronic devices while on duty during protective assignments but “we do not prohibit an employee’s personal use of social media off-duty.”

    “Affected personnel has been notified,” it said. “We will review this information to determine if any additional training or guidance is required.”

    “We do not assess that there were any impacts to protective operations or threats to any protectees,” it added. Locations “are regularly disclosed as part of public schedule releases.”

    In another example, Le Monde reported that a U.S. Secret Service agent’s Strava profile revealed the location of a hotel where Biden subsequently stayed in San Francisco for high-stakes talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2023. A few hours before Biden’s arrival, the agent went jogging from the hotel, using Strava which traced his route, the newspaper found.

    The newspaper’s journalists say they identified 26 U.S. agents, 12 members of the French GSPR, the Security Group of the Presidency of the Republic, and six members of the Russian FSO, or Federal Protection Service, all of them in charge of presidential security, who had public accounts on Strava and were therefore communicating their movements online, including during professional trips. Le Monde did not identify the bodyguards by name for security reasons.

    It said movements trackable on Strava could lead to security breaches, especially when security agents travel in advance to places like hotels where leaders then stay and hold meetings.

    Macron’s office said Monday that the consequences of the issues reported by Le Monde “are very slight and in no way affect the security of the President of the Republic.”

    Local authorities are aware of Macron’s movements ahead of time and the places where Macron is staying are always fully secure, “so the risk is non-existent,” the statement said.

    “A reminder was nevertheless issued to agents by the chief of staff asking them not to use this app,” Macron’s office added.

    The Harris campaign deferred comment on the security issue to federal officials. In response to questions posed to the Trump campaign, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee repeated some of its criticisms of the Biden administration but did not address the vulnerability or how the campaign has responded.

    The security risks associated with fitness apps show the need for better regulations on how tech companies can use consumer data, according to Ibrahim Baggili, a computer scientist and professor of cybersecurity at Louisiana State University.

    Baggili’s research has exposed how bad actors could use fitness app data to track potential victims — creating risks for stalking, robbery and other crimes.

    Consumers often grant app developers the right to use or sell their data when they agree to the terms of service, Baggili said.

    “Companies love our data, and we love the product, so we give away the data for free,” he said. “The government really needs to start cracking down on how data can be used and how long it can be retained.”

    Identifying the presidential bodyguards — some of them using their full name on Strava — could also help in finding other details about their personal addresses, their families, their movements, and photos they posted on various social media, all of which could possibly be used to put pressure on them for malicious purposes, the report stressed.

    ___

    AP reporter David Klepper contributed from Washington.

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  • Harris’ doctor reports she’s in ‘excellent health.’ Her campaign wants to draw a contrast with Trump

    Harris’ doctor reports she’s in ‘excellent health.’ Her campaign wants to draw a contrast with Trump

    WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is in “excellent health” and “possesses the physical and mental resiliency” required to serve as president, her doctor said in a letter released Saturday that summarizes her medical history and status.

    Dr. Joshua Simmons, a U.S. Army colonel and physician to the vice president, wrote that Harris, 59, maintains a healthy, active lifestyle and that her most recent physical last April was “unremarkable.”

    She “possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” he wrote in a two-page letter.

    Harris’ campaign hopes to use the moment to draw a contrast with Republican Donald Trump, who has released only limited information about his health over the years, and raise questions about his fitness to serve, according to a campaign aide who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

    Trump has released very little health information, including after his ear was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt in July.

    Simmons, who said he has been Harris’ primary care physician for the past 3 1/2 years, said the vice president has a history of allergies and urticaria, also known as hives, for which she has been on allergen immunotherapy for the past three years.

    Simmons said Harris’ latest blood work and other test results were “unremarkable.”

    Also in the report: Harris wears contact lenses for mild nearsightedness; her family history includes maternal colon cancer; she is up to date on preventive care recommendations, including having a colonoscopy and annual mammograms.

    As Harris’ office released the medical report, her campaign highlighted recent media reports raising questions about Trump’s health and mental acuity and his failure to provide information about health status and medical history.

    Trump, 78, eagerly questioned President Joe Biden’s health when the 81-year-old president was seeking reelection. Since Biden was replaced on the ticket with Harris, Trump’s own health has drawn more attention.

    Last November, Trump marked Biden’s birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reported the former president was in “excellent” physical and mental health.

    The letter posted on Trump’s social media platform contained no details to support its claims — measures like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test.

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  • US and South Korea begin military drills aimed at strengthening their defense against North Korea

    US and South Korea begin military drills aimed at strengthening their defense against North Korea

    SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. and South Korean troops kicked off a large-scale exercise Monday aimed at strengthening their combined defense capabilities against nuclear-armed North Korea, which again accused the allies of practicing an invasion.

    The annual summertime exercise comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean Peninsula as the pace of both North Korea’s weapons demonstrations and the U.S.-South Korea combined military exercises have intensified in a cycle of tit-for-tat.

    The exercise began hours after North Korea’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement repeating the North’s contention that such exercises are “provocative war drills for aggression.” It said the North’s nuclear ambitions are thus justified, adding that it is crucial to “constantly maintain the balance of power for preventing a war by stockpiling the greatest deterrence.”

    The United States and South Korea described their joint drills as defensive in nature and have been expanding and upgrading their training in recent years to cope with the North’s evolving threats.

    The U.S. and South Korean militaries did not immediately react to the North Korean Foreign Ministry statement.

    The Ulchi Freedom Shield drills, which continue for 11 days, through Aug. 29, include both computer-simulated war games and more than 40 kinds of field exercises, including live-fire drills. The allies said this year’s program is focused on enhancing their readiness against various North Korean threats, including missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks and will also reflect lessons learned from recent armed conflicts.

    About 19,000 South Korean military personnel will participate in the drills, which will be held concurrently with civil defense and evacuation drills from Monday through Thursday that will include programs based on North Korean nuclear attack scenarios.

    The U.S. military has not confirmed the number of American troops participating in the drills or said whether they will involve U.S. strategic assets. The United States in recent months has increased its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carrier strike groups to train with South Korean and Japanese forces.

    The drills could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which has been flaunting its growing weapons program and issuing verbal threats of nuclear conflicts against Washington and Seoul.

    Earlier this month, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un staged a huge ceremony in the country’s capital, Pyongyang, to mark the delivery of 250 nuclear-capable missile launchers to frontline military units and called for a ceaseless expansion of his military’s nuclear program.

    The event added to concerns about Kim’s weapons program as he demonstrates an intent to deploy battlefield nuclear weapons along the North’s border with South Korea and claims that his military could react with preemptive nuclear strikes if it perceives the leadership as under threat.

    Analysts say Kim may seek to dial up pressure in a U.S. election year as he advances his long-term goals of forcing Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power and negotiate economic and security concessions from a position of strength.

    During last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests that it described as simulating “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

    The North in recent weeks has also flown thousands of balloons carrying trash toward the South in a psychological warfare campaign that has further deteriorated relations between the war-divided rivals.

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  • The US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button

    The US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button

    WASHINGTON — In the name of consumer protection, a slew of U.S. federal agencies are working to make it easier for Americans to click the unsubscribe button for unwanted memberships and recurring payment services.

    A broad new government initiative, dubbed “Time Is Money,” includes a rollout of new regulations and the promise of more for industries spanning from healthcare and fitness memberships to media subscriptions.

    “The administration is cracking down on all the ways that companies, through paperwork, hold times and general aggravation waste people’s money and waste people’s time and really hold onto their money,” Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser, told reporters Friday in advance of the announcement.

    “Essentially in all of these practices, companies are delaying services to you or really trying to make it so difficult for you to cancel the service that they get to hold onto your money for longer and longer,” Tanden said. “These seemingly small inconveniences don’t happen by accident — they have huge financial consequences.”

    Efforts being rolled out Monday include a new Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether to impose requirements on communications companies that would make it as easy to cancel a subscription or service as it was to sign up for one.

    The Federal Trade Commission in March 2023 initiated “click to cancel” rulemaking requiring companies to let customers end subscriptions as easily as they started them.

    Also Monday, the heads of the departments of Labor and of Health and Human Services are asking health insurance companies and group health plans to make improvements to customer interactions with their health coverage, and “in the coming months will identify additional opportunities to improve consumers’ interactions with the health care system,” according to a White House summary.

    The government already has launched several initiatives aimed at improving the consumer experience.

    In October, the FTC announced a proposed rule to ban hidden and bogus junk fees, which can mask the total cost of concert tickets, hotel rooms and utility bills.

    In April, the Transportation Department finalized rules that would require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or reservation cancellations.

    The department also has taken actions against individual companies accused of misleading customers.

    In June, the Justice Department, referred by the FTC, filed a lawsuit against software maker Adobe and two of its executives, Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, for allegedly pushing consumers toward the firm’s “annual paid monthly” subscription without properly disclosing that canceling the plan in the first year could cost hundreds of dollars.

    Dana Rao, Adobe’s general counsel, said in an emailed statement that Adobe disagrees with the lawsuit’s characterization of its business and “we will refute the FTC’s claims in court.”

    “The early termination fees equate to minimal impact to our revenue, accounting for less than half a percent of our total revenue globally, but is an important part of our ability to offer customers a choice in plans that balance cost and commitment,” Rao said.

    Some business advocates are not a fan of the government’s overall efforts to crack down on junk fees.

    Sean Heather, senior vice president of international regulatory affairs and antitrust at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the initiative is “nothing more than an attempt to micromanage businesses’ pricing structures, often undermining businesses’ ability to give consumers options at different price points.”

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  • The US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button

    The US government wants to make it easier for you to click the ‘unsubscribe’ button

    WASHINGTON — In the name of consumer protection, a slew of U.S. federal agencies are working to make it easier for Americans to click the unsubscribe button for unwanted memberships and recurring payment services.

    A broad new government initiative, dubbed “Time Is Money,” includes a rollout of new regulations and the promise of more for industries spanning from healthcare and fitness memberships to media subscriptions.

    “The administration is cracking down on all the ways that companies, through paperwork, hold times and general aggravation waste people’s money and waste people’s time and really hold onto their money,” Neera Tanden, White House domestic policy adviser, told reporters Friday in advance of the announcement.

    “Essentially in all of these practices, companies are delaying services to you or really trying to make it so difficult for you to cancel the service that they get to hold onto your money for longer and longer,” Tanden said. “These seemingly small inconveniences don’t happen by accident — they have huge financial consequences.”

    Efforts being rolled out Monday include a new Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether to impose requirements on communications companies that would make it as easy to cancel a subscription or service as it was to sign up for one.

    The Federal Trade Commission in March 2023 initiated “click to cancel” rulemaking requiring companies to let customers end subscriptions as easily as they started them.

    Also Monday, the heads of the departments of Labor and of Health and Human Services are asking health insurance companies and group health plans to make improvements to customer interactions with their health coverage, and “in the coming months will identify additional opportunities to improve consumers’ interactions with the health care system,” according to a White House summary.

    The government already has launched several initiatives aimed at improving the consumer experience.

    In October, the FTC announced a proposed rule to ban hidden and bogus junk fees, which can mask the total cost of concert tickets, hotel rooms and utility bills.

    In April, the Transportation Department finalized rules that would require airlines to automatically issue cash refunds for things like delayed flights and to better disclose fees for baggage or reservation cancellations.

    The department also has taken actions against individual companies accused of misleading customers.

    In June, the Justice Department, referred by the FTC, filed a lawsuit against software maker Adobe and two of its executives, Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, for allegedly pushing consumers toward the firm’s “annual paid monthly” subscription without properly disclosing that canceling the plan in the first year could cost hundreds of dollars.

    Dana Rao, Adobe’s general counsel, said in an emailed statement that Adobe disagrees with the lawsuit’s characterization of its business and “we will refute the FTC’s claims in court.”

    “The early termination fees equate to minimal impact to our revenue, accounting for less than half a percent of our total revenue globally, but is an important part of our ability to offer customers a choice in plans that balance cost and commitment,” Rao said.

    Some business advocates are not a fan of the government’s overall efforts to crack down on junk fees.

    Sean Heather, senior vice president of international regulatory affairs and antitrust at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the initiative is “nothing more than an attempt to micromanage businesses’ pricing structures, often undermining businesses’ ability to give consumers options at different price points.”

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  • South Korea and US will start summer military drills next week to counter North Korean threats

    South Korea and US will start summer military drills next week to counter North Korean threats

    SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and the United States will begin their annual joint military exercises next week with a focus on improving their combined capabilities to deter and defend against growing North Korean nuclear threats, the allies said Monday.

    The drills could trigger a belligerent response from North Korea, which portrays them as invasion rehearsals and have used the allies’ military cooperation as a pretext to advance the development of nuclear weapons and missile systems.

    South Korean and U.S. military officials said this year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise, scheduled for Aug. 19-29, will include computer-simulated exercises designed to enhance readiness against such threats as missiles, GPS jamming and cyberattacks, and concurrent field maneuvers and live-fire exercises.

    The allies in particular aim to “further strengthen (their) capability and posture to deter and defend against weapons of mass destruction,” military officials said in a joint news conference.

    Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said about 19,000 South Korean troops will participate in the drills, which he described as an “essential element for maintaining a strong defense posture to protect the Republic of Korea,” using South Korea’s formal name.

    Ryan Donald, spokesperson of U.S Forces Korea, didn’t comment on the number of U.S. troops participating in the exercises and said he couldn’t immediately confirm whether the drills will involve U.S. strategic assets. The United States in recent months has increased its regional deployment of long-range bombers, submarines and aircraft carrier strike groups to train with South Korean and Japanese assets in a show of force against the North.

    “This exercise will reflect realistic threats across all domains such as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s missile threats and we will take in lessons learned from recent armed conflicts,” Donald said, invoking the North’s formal name.

    “ROK and U.S. units will execute combined field training exercises across all domains. Field maneuver and live fire exercises will strengthen the alliance’s interoperability while showcasing our combined capabilities and resolve,” he said.

    In addition to its military exercises with the United States, the South Korean military will support the country’s civil defense and evacuation drills on Aug. 19-22, which will include programs based on North Korean nuclear attack scenarios, Lee said.

    Animosity on the Korean Peninsula is high, as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to use Russia’s war on Ukraine as a window to accelerate weapons development while issuing verbal threats of nuclear conflict toward Washington and Seoul.

    In response, South Korea, the United States and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and sharpening their nuclear deterrence strategies built around U.S. strategic assets.

    During last year’s Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises, North Korea conducted ballistic missile tests that it described as simulating “scorched earth” nuclear strikes on South Korean targets.

    The North in recent weeks has also flown thousands of balloons carrying trash toward the South in a bizarre psychological warfare campaign that has further deteriorated relations between the war-divided rivals.

    South Korea’s military said Monday that the North launched about 240 balloons over the weekend, but only 10 were known to have landed in the South, all in areas north of the capital, Seoul. Those balloons carried paper waste and plastic bottles, and no dangerous substances were found, the South’s joint chiefs said.

    It was the first time North Korea flew balloons toward the South since July 24, when trash carried by at least one of them fell on the South Korean presidential compound, raising worries about the vulnerability of key South Korean facilities. The balloon contained no dangerous material and no one was hurt.

    Also on Monday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol nominated presidential security chief Kim Yong-hyun, one of his closest confidants, as defense minister. Kim will be replacing Shin Won-sik, who was picked to be Yoon’s new national security adviser, according to the presidential office.

    As a nominee for a Cabinet job, Kim is subject to a parliamentary hearing, although Yoon can appoint him even if lawmakers object. Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda through the opposition-controlled National Assembly. The liberals have often criticized Yoon’s national security policies as hawkish and called for stronger efforts to revive dialogue with the North.

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  • Should you stretch before exercise? After? Never? Here’s what to know

    Should you stretch before exercise? After? Never? Here’s what to know

    For many people of a certain age, high school gym class began with reaching for their toes. Then, over the years, we were told it was better to stretch after exercise.

    It turns out, both those things can be true, but the differing advice has created some confusion.

    Stretching can help make you more flexible, improve range of motion in your joints — and feel good. David Behm, who researches human kinetics at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Canada, offers this advice on when to stretch and how to do it safely:

    Warm up first

    It’s almost always good to stretch, but it’s better if you warm up first, said Behm, author of “The Science and Physiology of Flexibility and Stretching.” He recommends a light aerobic activity such as jogging, walking or cycling for five or 10 minutes.

    Follow that with some static stretching, the traditional way of reaching and holding a position (think back to that gym class). You can then do activity-specific dynamic stretching, in which you warm up the muscles with repetitive movements like leg lifts.

    Behm says one minute is “the magic number” for how long to do static stretching per muscle group without fatigue.

    Expand your definition of ‘stretching’

    Should you always stretch before exercising? If it’s traditional stretching, not necessarily.

    This article is part of AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health. Read more Be Well.

    The better question, Behm says, is, “Should people increase their range of motion? Should people have better flexibility? And that is yes, because it helps prevent injuries. It helps with health. But you don’t have to stretch to achieve that.”

    Resistance training, for instance, can be an effective form of stretching, he said. Doing a chest press increases range of motion in your deltoids and pecs, whether with barbells, dumbbells or machines, so there is no need to stretch beforehand. Just make sure to start with a small amount of weight to warm up and then add more to train.

    “You probably don’t have to do extra stretching unless you’re a gymnast, a figure skater, or even a golfer who needs a great range of motion through that swing,” Behm said.

    Nor do you need to stretch first if you’re going for a leisurely run. Simply start with a slow jog to warm up and then increase the pace.

    Don’t do it if it hurts

    After exercise, “light stretching is OK, as long as you don’t reach a point where you’re feeling pain,” Behm said. Since your muscles will be warm by that point, overdoing it makes you more likely to injure yourself.

    Foam rollers can help with muscle recovery and have been shown to increases range of motion as well as stretching.

    Do some static stretching before sports

    If you’re playing a sport, Behm said, static stretching beforehand helps reduce muscle and tendon injury.

    “If you’re going to do an explosive movement, change of direction, agility, sprint, any of these explosive activities that involve your muscles and tendons,” he said, “you’re going to be stronger if you do static stretching.”

    People can especially get in trouble when they go back to a sport they used to play, whether it’s tennis, surfing or any sort of team activity.

    Also, stretch both sides equally. Lacking flexibility on one side also can lead to injury.

    Sounds simple. Why all the confusion?

    Different studies over the years have either encouraged or discouraged stretching before exercise. Behm says that partly because some studies didn’t reflect real-life conditions, or were designed with elite athletes in mind, not regular people.

    “If you’re Usain Bolt, it makes a difference,” said Behm. Not so much for the rest of us.

    ___

    Albert Stumm writes about food, travel and wellness. Find his work at https://www.albertstumm.com

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  • Pope delivers Sunday prayers from the Vatican window a day after suffering a mild flu

    Pope delivers Sunday prayers from the Vatican window a day after suffering a mild flu

    VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis was well enough on Sunday to celebrate his weekly Angelus prayer from the Vatican window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, a day after cancelling his engagements because of a mild flu.

    A brief announcement on Saturday from the Vatican press office said the 87-years-old pontiff was forced to scrap a planned audience with the Roman deacons as a precautionary measure due to a “mild, flu-like condition.”

    On Sunday, Francis, who over the past few months had to cancel some of his activities and one international trip due to fragile health, concluded his Angelus prayer with his usual salutes to the waving crowd.

    In his address, Francis remembered “with sorrow” the second anniversary of the start of what he called “a large-scale war in Ukraine.”

    “So many victims, wounded, destruction, distress, tears in a period that is becoming terribly long and whose end is not yet in sight,” the pope said.

    “It is a war that is not only devastating that region of Europe, but also unleashing a global wave of fear and hatred,” he added. “I plead for that little bit of humanity to be found to create the conditions for a diplomatic solution in the search for a just and lasting peace.”

    The pontiff also prayed for those involved in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and “for so many war-torn people, and to concretely help those who suffer. … Let us think of so much suffering, let us think of the wounded, innocent children.”

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  • Bernhard Langer tears Achilles tendon. This was to be his final Masters

    Bernhard Langer tears Achilles tendon. This was to be his final Masters


    PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Bernhard Langer tore his Achilles tendon while exercising and had surgery on Friday, putting the 66-year-old German out of golf during a year he planned to play the Masters one last time.

    Langer last year broke Hale Irwin’s record for PGA Tour Champions victories when he won twice to reach 46 titles on the 50-and-older circuit.

    He is a two-time Masters champion, the first one coming in 1985, and was preparing for an emotional farewell to Augusta National in April. Masters champions have a lifetime exemption, and it’s possible Langer could still return next year for one last Masters.

    “Yesterday, during training exercises in Boca Raton, I tore my Achilles tendon. I will have surgery today to repair the injury, which will cause me to miss time playing competitive golf as I recover,” Langer said in a statement through the PGA Tour.

    “Throughout my career, faith and family have been my bedrocks, providing me strength and guiding me through difficult times. I will lean on both as I work towards a return to competition.”

    It was not clear how long he would be gone, though typically surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon takes at least four months before walking.

    Langer had a conference call Wednesday ahead of the Chubb Classic in Florida, where last year he won for the fifth time and tied Irwin’s record. He spoke of his last time going to Augusta.

    “It’s going to be very emotional, especially Augusta, because it’s been a big part of my life,” Langer said. “I love the tournament. I love the golf course. I love what they do for the game of golf. It’s going to be a tough farewell for me walking up the 18th the last time in competitive circumstances.”

    Among his two victories last year was the U.S. Senior Open, which gives winners an exemption into the U.S. Open. Langer also had planned to play at Pinehurst No. 2 in June.

    ___

    AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf



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  • You can get fit without breaking the bank—and ChatGPT may help, says personal trainer

    You can get fit without breaking the bank—and ChatGPT may help, says personal trainer

    One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to get in the gym and tackle your fitness goals, but doing so doesn’t have to be an investment that empties your pockets.

    “Nowadays there are so many free resources that we can find. Different plans and workouts,” Kollins Ezekh, a celebrity personal trainer and founder of Members Only Boxing and Fitness, tells CNBC Make It.

    For example, putting “the right question into ChatGPT is going to give you a great answer” that can help you develop your own at-home workout routine, Ezekh says.

    DON’T MISS: The 12-3-30 workout is trending on TikTok: Here’s how the exercise works, from fitness experts

    “I can type in ‘I’m a male, 30 something years old, I weigh 200 pounds, and I want my weight to go down by like 10 pounds, what should I do?’ And then AI software is gonna type out a workout plan, which is pretty specific, because you gave them your age, your gender [and] your goal,” he says.

    Ezekh likens the structure of the detailed workout plans that he’s been able to develop using ChatGPT to what a trainer would recommend for their clients. You can also include which equipment you have available to you, like dumbbells, for your plan to be tailored with that in mind.

    “The more information you put into ChatGPT, [the] more accurate your workout plan is going to be,” he explains. If you’re unsure about how to do an exercise, you can use apps like YouTube and TikTok for tutorials and to learn about proper form.

    Here are a few other ways Ezekh suggests getting fit on a budget this year.

    3 tips for getting fit without breaking the bank

    1. Do bodyweight exercises and go outdoors

    Instead of buying exercise equipment, Ezekh recommends doing high intensity interval training “because I feel like that burns the most calories.”

    You should also add bodyweight exercises to your routine, he says, including planks, jumping jacks and burpees, depending on your level of expertise. Basic full body and core exercises are always a great place to start.

    Here are a few you should include in your workout:

    • Squats
    • Push ups
    • Lunges
    • Sit-ups
    • Crunches
    • Leg raises

    Ezekh is also a huge fan of exercising outdoors which is completely free. Consider running, walking and hiking, “which pretty much doesn’t require any equipment at all,” he says.

    2. Buy these staples for at-home workouts or substitute equipment with alternatives

    At-home workouts can be even more effective with equipment, but that doesn’t mean you have to buy $200 worth.

    In fact, if you wanted to start with just three pieces of exercise equipment, here’s what Ezekh says you should invest in:

    • Dumbbells: “Free weights are good because [they] challenge our full body.”
    • Jump rope: “I think that’s one of the exercises that is quite simple and pretty enjoyable for people who know how to jump rope, and it burns tons of calories.”
    • A yoga mat: “So you can do exercises on the floor as well.”

    But if you’re looking to start with what you already have, there are ways that you can substitute a few of the items on the list.

    Instead of dumbbells, some people use a water bottle or a water jug as a substitute, says Ezekh. You can also do your workouts on a carpet or use a towel or a blanket instead of a yoga mat, he notes.

    3. Try fitness classes or stick to this amount for a gym membership

    “But I think the biggest part about going to the gym is [having] a community of other people. Once you make friends, you kind of feel like you’re being held accountable,” Ezekh says.

    You can foster that feeling of community without joining a gym by checking in with friends who also exercise often and finding accountability partners within your friend group.

    If you like the idea of exercising with others, Ezekh also suggests joining a fitness class like spinning, yoga or boxing.

    “With the gym setting, you have to be very self motivated because you need to get there, then figure out what you’re going to do and have a plan,” he says.

    “When group fitness studios, usually they’re more class-based. So literally all you have to do is show up to the class. And then you know the instructor is going to help you with whatever you want to achieve.”

    Additionally with group fitness classes, “you’re not working out by yourself. You’re working out with a group of people, and it’s very motivating, and encouraging,” especially because you’ll be excited to come back, Ezekh says.

    The gym is still a wonderful option that you can commit to without spending too much money.

    To start off, Ezekh suggests joining a gym that costs between $30 and $40 a month instead of committing to a very expensive one.

    Want to land your dream job in 2024? Take CNBC’s new online course How to Ace Your Job Interview to learn what hiring managers are really looking for, body language techniques, what to say and not to say, and the best way to talk about pay. Get started today and save 50% with discount code EARLYBIRD.

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  • From Stage to Startup: Ballet Pro’s Lucrative Side Hustle | Entrepreneur

    From Stage to Startup: Ballet Pro’s Lucrative Side Hustle | Entrepreneur

    This Side Hustle Spotlight Q&A features Danielle Schultz, a ballet dancer at the Metropolitan Opera and founder of The Triangle Sessions, a corporate wellness company offering company retreats, interactive wellness classes and team-building events. She is based in the Greater Philadelphia Area.

    Image Credit: Devin Cruz.

    You’d been a dancer with the Metropolitan Opera since 2014 when Covid hit. How did your life and work change in those early days of the pandemic, and when did you know it was time to supplement your income with a side hustle?

    When Covid hit, I was in the middle of Die Fliegende Hollander and was slated to perform in Turandot a few weeks later. I had nurtured positions teaching fitness and ballet at New York City studios, which I continued via Zoom to stay financially afloat. However, I was also three months pregnant, and my husband was a full-time student. I had to get creative quickly. One of the first social impacts of Covid that everyone struggled with was isolation. It gave me the idea to start offering corporate wellness and team events to help employees stay connected in the newly virtual workplace.

    Related: Being an Entrepreneur Means Finding Profit in Your Passion

    How did your professional background inspire you to launch The Triangle Sessions? How did that skill set translate to your entrepreneurial journey?

    I graduated in 2009 from NYU Tisch with a dance degree and a minor in art history. It was a terrible time to graduate, especially with an arts degree. I turned down an apprenticeship with a small ballet company to perform as a dancer on a cruise ship and travel the world. Believe it or not, this was simply the more practical approach at the time. I was able to give up my New York City apartment, live expense-free and save money. This experience served as a crash course in travel and tourism, something that would come into play 10 years later when organizing a large-scale retreat for a national law firm.

    After my cruise ship contract, I danced with a small contemporary company while waiting tables at high-end restaurants. It was the New York City restaurant scene that provided excellent training in wine, spirits and food pairings. Like the cruise ship, I learned the value of customer service and how to connect with a wide variety of people. Waiting tables still goes down as the hardest job I’ve ever had, but it was too physically demanding while dancing.

    Related: Shift Your Perspective From Getting to Giving to Get Unstuck

    When I got my break at the Metropolitan Opera, a dream job for years, there was a catch…it still wasn’t full-time. So, I had to supplement my income in a way that would be easier on my body. I became a certified yoga teacher, certified nutrition counselor and Ballet Beautiful trainer for celebrity clients. All of these skills allowed me to share a deeper understanding of the human body with a wide range of people. It set me up beautifully for teaching corporate wellness.

    For years, I continued to perform at the Metropolitan Opera while juggling a slew of part-time work. It wasn’t until my aunt, a former ballroom champion and long-time business owner, told me something that I’ll never forget: “Dani, you already have the mentality of an entrepreneur in the way you support yourself. You have multiple income streams. Figure out how to work for yourself, not other people, so that you can share your knowledge on your own terms.” It was a lightbulb moment that got the wheels turning. It took a pandemic and a layoff from the Met Opera to pursue the endeavor full-time.

    What was your vision for The Triangle Sessions, and what were some of the first steps you took to get it off the ground?

    I wanted to implement the knowledge I developed in my professional dance career around healthy habits and performing at one’s best. I wanted to replicate the camaraderie I had experienced in the dance world through high-quality, purpose-driven experiences and apply it to the corporate world.

    When Covid first hit, I offered virtual wellness classes….yoga, meditation, desk stretching, etc., always with some type of social component. No one was interested. People just wanted alcohol and happy hours. I started incorporating educational wine and sake tastings WITH corporate wellness, and suddenly, there was interest! I found a fantastic vendor to help put together high-quality experience kits (and accommodate some of my wacky requests, like combining foam rollers with bottles of Prosecco and gourmet snacks), and I hit the ground running.

    Related: Side Hustles for These Times

    How did you approach continuing to build, and what does your revenue look like?

    Initially, the vast majority of business came from my own network, referrals and word-of-mouth. After some time hosting virtual team-building and wellness events, I became a small fish in a large pond. So, I partnered (and still continue to partner) with larger team-building event companies in which my services are offered. They have a dedicated sales team, and it provides steady revenue, all while nurturing my own clients and relationships. Annual revenue for 2022 was $110,000.

    What were some of the biggest challenges along the way, and how did you navigate those?

    The biggest challenge is trying to anticipate the needs of organizations and their employees without straying too far from our own mission. Employee well-being and community are at the backbone of The Triangle Sessions. I keep an open mind and experiment to see where there’s interest. In 2020, happy hours were in vogue. This last year it’s been all about wellness and creativity. Luckily, I enjoy this process and love having an open dialogue with clients to learn about their needs. Many of our signature events, like our Build-A-Terrarium workshop, which combines plant care with self-care, have been inspired by client requests.

    Personally, I’ve struggled to find the balance between running The Triangle Sessions and wanting to continue to dance. Dance is my first love, my identity since I was three years old. I returned to the Met Opera part-time in 2021 and scaled back on the number of productions I usually perform to focus on building The Triangle Sessions. However, keeping my foot in the door at the Met sometimes leads to losing momentum. It’s a risk I’m willing to take for now since I have the best of both worlds. Martha Graham once said, “A dancer dies twice—once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.” These words ring true, but I’m grateful to be building another satisfying career around community, connectivity and high-quality performance.

    Related: These High School Best Friends Achieved Their Dream of Being Their Own Bosses. Their Next Step? Starting a Wellness Revolution.

    Do you have any advice for other professionals who want to start a side hustle or full-time business?

    Lean into your strengths. Learn your core values. Reflect on what makes you different. From there, assess how these skills can benefit others and bring out the best in communities. It may take a bit of experimentation and creativity, but the process can be surprisingly satisfying. Sometimes, you just need to start somewhere and see what happens. Celebrate the small wins and run (or dance!) at your own pace.

    Amanda Breen

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  • Mobile and resilient, the US military is placing a new emphasis on ground troops for Pacific defense

    Mobile and resilient, the US military is placing a new emphasis on ground troops for Pacific defense

    BANGKOK — As Chinese missile testing in the waters around Taiwan grew increasingly aggressive in 1996, the U.S. sailed two aircraft carrier groups to the island that Beijing claims as its own, and China was forced to back down.

    It employed a similar response to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel a month ago, dispatching two carrier groups to the eastern Mediterranean in a rapid and massive show of force meant to deter other countries or Iran-backed proxy groups such as Hezbollah from joining the fight.

    But what is still viable in the Mideast is increasingly less practical with China, which in 1996 had no carriers of its own and little means to threaten the American ships, but now has the world’s largest navy, including three aircraft carriers, and a coastline bristling with anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles.

    Instead, ongoing exercises in Hawaii, which conclude Friday, highlight part of a new American approach to Pacific defense and deterrence, with a focus on small groups of mobile land forces operating from islands like those off China’s coast.

    In the exercises, the largest-scale training held in Hawaii so far, more than 5,000 troops from the 25th Infantry Division, along with units from New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and Britain and supported by the U.S. Air Force, have been practicing fighting in an island jungle environment against an advanced enemy force, with exercises including paratrooper drops, a long-range air assault, and re-supply by air and sea.

    “All of those are examples of the importance of being able to project force here in the Pacific, which first requires seizing and holding ground and building up a base of operations where you can consolidate gains, secure and hold key infrastructure such as an airfield, and then introduce additional combat power,” said Maj. Gen. Marcus Evans, commanding general of the 25th Infantry Division, in an interview from Wheeler Army Airfield on Oahu.

    While the exercises are not officially directed against a specific threat, the U.S. Department of Defense in its report last month to Congress reiterated that it considers China its “pacing challenge” as “the only competitor to the United States with the intent and, increasingly, the capacity to reshape the international order.”

    Even though China’s navy is now larger than that of the U.S. in terms of numbers of ships, the U.S. Navy is still more capable and has 11 carriers to China’s three, among other advantages. But where China’s main focus is on its nearby waters, the U.S. Navy operates globally and in the event of a Taiwan conflict, it would take time for many of its assets to get to the region.

    As part of its “Operation Pathways” revamp of Pacific defense set in motion nearly a decade ago, the U.S. has been increasing its number of exercises with partners in the Indo-Pacific. It has also been re-thinking the way its soldiers and Marines operate in the first island chain off of China, which includes southwestern Japanese islands, Taiwan and the northwest Philippines, and the second island chain, which includes the Mariana Islands and the heavily fortified American territory of Guam.

    Those islands give them platforms from which anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles can be launched by mobile units that can quickly relocate to avoid counter battery fire, said Euan Graham, a defense analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

    “The U.S. already has a positional advantage by being forward deployed and having allies there, so it wants to utilize that geography in its favor,” Graham said. “And that helps the U.S. to overcome its numerical disadvantages as China’s navy is continuing to expand. The U.S. has to do what it can to try and close the gap, and land forces are part of the equation.”

    Beyond just being able to take and hold positions, the military has to overcome what Evans called a “tyranny of distance” in the Pacific where troops may find themselves on remote islands many hundreds of kilometers (miles) away from new supplies of water, fuel and ammunition. Among several new technologies being tested in the ongoing exercises in Hawaii are three variants of an “atmospheric water generator” to produce potable water in field conditions.

    Operating from the first and second island chains would require the consent of the countries they belong to, and the U.S. has also been working hard to shore up and expand alliances in the region.

    It runs large-scale training exercises with the Philippines, where earlier this year it signed an agreement to expand its use of bases, as well as with South Korea, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand and India.

    The exercises provide experience in technical and procedural interoperability and also build human bonds that can be critical in times of crisis.

    “We are just finishing up a defense here on the island of Oahu and watching soldiers from Indonesia, Thailand and New Zealand alongside soldiers from the United States Army dig fighting positions together, experience a crucible of privation — that challenges, but most importantly forges relationships,” Evans said.

    On the political level, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is on his ninth trip to the Indo-Pacific this week with stops in India, South Korea and Indonesia, in which he is to “underscore the depth of the longstanding U.S. commitment to strengthening the Indo-Pacific’s dynamic security architecture.” Austin’s travels overlap with Secretary of State Antony Blinken ’s own visits to Tokyo, Seoul and New Delhi.

    Planning and training by the U.S. and its allies have not been going on in a vacuum, and China has been working hard to extend the operational capability of its navy. It has also developed so-called “carrier killer” missiles able to hit targets at long distances, and a ballistic missile capable of striking Guam.

    It launched its first domestically designed a nd manufactured aircraft carrier in 2022, and that same year signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands in the Pacific, which many say could be used as a port to re-supply Chinese navy ships.

    That could give the Chinese navy a better ability to operate well beyond the second island chain and disrupt American supply lines or reinforcements coming from Hawaii — making it even more important for forward units to buy time in the event of a conflict.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping has not ruled out the use of force to take Taiwan, and while the American policy on whether it would come to Taiwan’s aid is that of “strategic ambiguity,” or not saying how far it is willing to go, U.S. President Joe Biden has said that Washington would intervene militarily.

    With tensions rising over Taiwan, the U.S. use of the island chains could both deter China from considering an invasion, and also exact a heavy price if they tried, Graham said.

    “Having long-range anti-ship missiles and long-range air defense missiles operated by small groups that are designed to be resilient, and logistically able to operate without resupply under distress, they could do a lot to deter the Chinese from ever thinking about operating in that scenario,” he said. “But if push comes to shove, they could impose a cost in terms of attrition of those forces as they move closer to Taiwan.”

    Aircraft carrier groups would still likely play a large role in a conflict but would more likely be surged in and then quickly moved out, putting them at greater risk than in the past, he added.

    “But then,” he said, “aircraft carriers are designed to be risked.”

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  • Get a Lifetime Jillian Michaels Fitness App Subscription for $150 in October | Entrepreneur

    Get a Lifetime Jillian Michaels Fitness App Subscription for $150 in October | Entrepreneur

    Disclosure: Our goal is to feature products and services that we think you’ll find interesting and useful. If you purchase them, Entrepreneur may get a small share of the revenue from the sale from our commerce partners.

    The holiday shopping season is around the corner, and it’s going to get hectic. To get ahead of the rush, consider picking up something evergreen, something that could bring value to anyone in your life. For example, you could get this lifetime subscription to Jillian Michaels: The Fitness App for just $149.97 (reg. $449) through October 31st only.

    Getting in shape is one of the most valuable and challenging things to do in life. That’s why it’s worth opening yourself up to the inspiration and guidance of a well-known and widely trusted trainer. The same goes for someone who you might gift this subscription to. Jillian Michaels is a famous celebrity trainer based in the United States, and her complete online training program is made available with this offer. However, it’s important to note that this deal is available for new customers only.

    The subscription includes lifetime access to over one thousand workout and exercise videos. These target users whose experience ranges from beginner to advanced, meaning anyone can pick it up and grow with the program. Users can also customize the options to their own needs and interests by swapping, combining, and even banning exercises from workouts of their choice.

    Users can also curate their workouts based on the equipment they have available, play their own music during a given workout, and use the Beat Sync feature to adjust the beat of the music to the pace of the workout. The workout generator features across this subscription are superb. That might have something to do with its average App Store rating of 4.7/5 stars.

    Get this lifetime subscription to Jillian Michaels: The Fitness App for the exclusive price of $149.97 (reg. $449) through October 31st at 11:59 p.m. PT.

    Prices subject to change.

    Entrepreneur Store

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  • South Korea, US, Japan hold trilateral aerial exercise

    South Korea, US, Japan hold trilateral aerial exercise

    The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries have held their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats

    ByHYUNG-JIN KIM Associated Press

    October 22, 2023, 8:05 AM

    In this photo provided by the South Korea Defense Ministry via Yonhap News Agency, a U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber is parked at an air base in Cheongju, South Korea, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. (South Korea Defense Ministry/Yonhap via AP)

    The Associated Press

    SEOUL, South Korea — The South Korean, U.S. and Japanese militaries conducted their first-ever trilateral aerial exercise on Sunday in response to evolving North Korean nuclear threats, South Korea’s air force said.

    The training held near the Korean Peninsula was to implement the three countries’ earlier agreement to increase defense cooperation and boost their joint response capabilities against North Korean threats, the air force said in a statement.

    The drill involved a nuclear-capable B-52 bomber from the United States and fighter jets from South Korea and Japan, the statement said.

    South Korea and Japan are both key U.S. allies in Asia, which together host about 80,000 American troops.

    The three countries have occasionally held trilateral maritime drills, such as anti-submarine or missile defense exercises, but Sunday’s training marked the first time for them to perform a trilateral aerial drill.

    In South Korea, expanding military drills with Japan is a sensitive issue, because many still harbor strong resentment against Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. But the North’s advancing nuclear program has pushed South Korea’s conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to move beyond historical disputes with Japan and beef up a trilateral security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan.

    In August, Yoon, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met at Camp David in their countries’ first stand-alone trilateral summit and agreed to bolster their defense cooperation to deal with North Korea’s nuclear threats. The three leaders decided to hold annual trilateral exercises and put into operation by year’s end the sharing of real-time missile warning data on North Korea.

    Sunday’s drill could draw a furious response from North Korea, which has long bristled at U.S. training exercises with South Korea, calling them an invasion rehearsal and responding with missile tests. The North slammed the Camp David agreement, accusing the U.S., South Korean and Japanese leaders of plotting nuclear war provocations on the Korean Peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called Yoon, Biden and Kishida “the gang bosses” of the three countries.

    Worries about North Korea’s nuclear program have deepened after it enacted a law that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons last year and has since openly threatened to use them in potential conflicts with the U.S. and South Korea.

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