3 . Even if you haven’t tried Pamela’s workouts, her name likely rings a bell -the German-born model is one of the world’s most popular fitness influencers. Lately, she’s been trying out something new: Baduanjin, a traditional Chinese fitness exercise, originally created over 800 years ago during the Song Dynasty. The name generally refers to how the eight individual movements characterize and give a silken quality to the movement of the body and its energy.

Baduanjin used to be popular mainly among older Chinese folks, but young people are now also getting into it. No equipment is necessary and it requires very little space or, perhaps most importantly in our fast-paced lives, time. In fact, it’s perfect for office workers, as they often suffer from lower back pain caused by hours sitting in front of the computer.

The video of Pamela doing Baduanjin has become a hit on Chinese social media, receiving millions of views. In addition to 9.68 million followers on YouTube, Pamela has established a presence on Chinese social media, including Bilibili, with more than 11.6 million followers. Showing her perfect figure year-round, Pamela has become an inspiration for many people worldwide, offering pathways to fat-burning, increased energy, and improved sleep quality.

Apparently, no one can resist the charm of Baduanjin. “I have been doing Baduanjin for about one month, which makes me sleep well and get stronger. I owe big thanks to Baduanjin since it gives me a much healthier lifestyle,” a young netizen commented below the video.

But not all people are suitable for practicing Baduanjin. Liu Xiaodan, an associate professor at Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, cautioned that people should always put safety first when doing Baduanjin, and patients who are extremely weak and fall easily should not take up this exercise.

4 . Sportsmen in the running races of the Olympics are great athletes, but even the slow runners of the running world — joggers in the park — have good health. A study out this week in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology finds that even 5 to 10 minutes a day of slow running is enough to extend life by several years, compared with not running at all.

The new study focused on a group of more than 55, 000 men and women aged 18 to 100. About a quarter of them were runners. Over 15 years, those who ran just 50 minutes a week or fewer at a slow speed were less likely to die from either cardiovascular (心血管的) disease or other causes, compared with those who didn’t run at all.

The study suggests relatively low efforts are necessary to benefit from jogging, but it can be better to exercise more often. “A little bit is good but a little more is probably better,” says Dr. Aaron Baggish. A 2013 study in Denmark suggested that the secret of maximum longevity is up to 2. 5 hours of running a week.

Although running can make you less likely to have cardiovascular disease, it doesn’t entirely take the risk away from you. “There is no question that the healthier you are and the more exercise you do, the longer you’ll live and the better your quality of life will be,” Dr. Baggish says. “But it doesn’t mean you’ll never get sick.”

“Many long-term runners do not run because they want to live longer,” Dr. Baggish notes. “They run because it makes them feel better every day.”

For these runners, the cost of feeling good can be injuries, so Dr. Baggish supports the value of what he calls “active rest.” His belief, not supported by any recent research, is that it’s a good idea to spend 25% of exercise time over the course of a year running at a slow speed or doing other activities like swimming or biking.

6 . When you think of how much you do with your hands all day, from making yourself fried eggs in the morning to folding laundry in the evening, it becomes clear how vital skillfulness is to daily life.     1     You need it to play sports, for example, or use a remote or a video game controller.

For some specific tips on improving skillfulness, we turned to a personal trainer Abdias Rojas. He said, “there are so many movements you can do to actually improve not just the strength of your hands but also flexibility in your hands.”     2    

Put rubber bands on your fingers, then expand and contract them. This will contribute to myofascial (肌筋膜的) release and getting your hands to feel more comfortable.

To get a better sense of how much pressure you should apply when touching things, do hand exercise in sand.     3     But when you do hand exercise inside of a sandbox, put your hands in a box of sand, you can literally learn to squeeze the sand and understand which joint or which finger is giving more giving more pressure or less pressure.

    4     Practice leaning into them with your palm down on the floor. Then, practice leaning into them with the backs of your hands on the floor, rolling on them, like putting weight on and taking weight off the wrist.

Finally, try seated eccentric (偏心的) wrist extension. Sit upright with an arm on a table, holding a dumbbell with your hand hanging off the edge and your palm facing down. Use your other hand to curl your wrist up, lower it, and repeat.     5    

Don’t overlook the value of overall body health when it comes to improving skillfulness, either. Rojas pointed out that without the optimal gross (最佳的粗肌) and fine motor skills, which make up the skillfulness of our hands, we would be unable to perform daily tasks.

8 . Winter is one of the most magical times of the year to get moving.     1     However, when you wake up in the morning, it can be hard to follow through on an exercise commitment. Here are ways to keep that drive going throughout the cold months.

Work out with a group.     2     This gives you social support and can help with making friends. When you exercise with a group, flaking out (入睡) is no longer an option.

Dress for the weather. When you are working out in the winter, especially if you are exercising outdoors, keep yourself out of the cold in warm layers (层).     3     Make sure the top layer keeps out the snow and rain. If you plan to exercise outside in the dark or in bad weather, where visibility is poorer, wear bright and reflective clothing for safety.

Change up your workout.     4     Doing the same type of training can be demotivating. Those who vary their workout routines are 20% likelier to enjoy the exercise session. Switching up your routine can give you a boost of motivation, and help keep winter workouts fun and enjoyable.

    5     Using phone apps, or a fitbit, or even going low tech and marking your calendar in red pen can help you visualize how you’ve progressed thus far. Finding a system that lets you track your exercise achievements can give you the extra push to get you going when the going gets hard.

New Year’s resolutions are a great opportunity to start an exercise routine. Sure working out during the winter may be an uphill battle, but there are strategies to get us over the hill, and onto a healthier, happier new year.

10 . Making day-to-day activities more intense for a few minutes — such as briefly stepping up the pace of a walk — could offer people who don’t exercise some of the health benefits that exercisers enjoy, according to a new study of roughly 25, 000 adults who reported no exercise in their free time.

Those who include three one- to two-minute bursts of intense activity per day saw a nearly a 40 percent drop in the risk of death from any cause compared with those without such activity. The risk of death from cancer also fell by nearly 40 percent, and the risk of death from cardiovascular (心血管的) disease dropped almost 50 percent, researchers report online December 8 in Nature Medicine.

“This study adds to other literature showing that even short amounts of activity are beneficial,” says Lisa Cadmus-Bertram, a physical activity epidemiologist (流行病学家) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “So many people are daunted by feeling that they don’t have the time, money, motivation, transportation, etc. togo to a gym regularly or work out for long periods of time,” she says. “The message we can take is that it is absolutely worth doing what you can.”

The researchers were looking for bursts of intense activity that met a definition determined in a laboratory study, like reaching at least 77 percent of maximum heart rate and at least 64 percent of maximum oxygen consumption. In real life, the signs that someone has reached the needed intensity level are “an increase in heart rate and feeling out of breath” in the first 15 to 30 seconds of an activity, Stamatakis says.

Regular daily activities offer several opportunities for these bursts, he says. “The simplest one is maximizing walking pace for a minute or two during any regular walk.” Other options, he says, include carrying grocery bags to the car or taking the stairs. “The largest population health gains will be realized by finding ways to get the least physically active people to move a little more.”