2 . Many of us start exercising in the hope of losing unwanted pounds. Unquestionably, aiming to be more active is a good thing. But if the main reason is to lose weight, your resolution could very well come to nothing.

For starters, exercise is typically futile for weight loss. Take walking for example. A 150-pound person who walks for 30 minutes will burn, on average, around 140 calories. That’s equal to one can of soda — not exactly a great return on your investment of time and effort. It’s much easier just to skip the soda.

When exercise is added to a diet, the results are equally unimpressive. Researchers found that a combination of dieting and exercising brought no greater weight loss than dieting alone after six months. At 12 months, the diet-and-exercise combination showed an advantage, but it was slight — about 4 pounds.

In studies where exercise has produced meaningful weight loss, participants burned at least 400 to 500 calories per session on five or more days a week. To achieve that, a 150-pound person would need to walk a minimum of 90 minutes or run 30 minutes per day. In short, sessions need to go well beyond what most of us are willing or able to do. And even if we manage to make that much effort, our bodies often compensate (抵消) by eagerness for more food and slowing down metabolism (新陈代谢), effects that over time limit how many pounds we lose.

When exercise fails to meet our weight-loss expectations, we often stop working out. Perhaps the biggest problem with exercising to drop pounds is that it turns physical activity into punishment — a price we have to pay for a slimmer body. How many times have you heard someone say “I’ll need to do extra exercise” after eating too much? We treat exercise as a form of self-punishment for being “bad.” In this case, we’re unlikely to keep doing it for very long.

The conclusion is that we’re more likely to treat exercise positively and actually do it when we focus on our well-being rather than our weight.

5 . Last week, we went to the park again. My little five-year-old daughter Ruthie seemed _________ standing at the base of the huge rock climbing wall. On our first visit, Ruthie had _________ me to let her try climbing the wall, but I had _________ her, afraid that she was undersized. _________, this time the tiny girl made it to the top, while kids twice her size _________ about halfway up. When she touched the _________, I asked, “How do you do that?”

“I just do it,” she said with a shrug, and started on her second pass. Seemingly, if l learnt the _________, I could climb the wall myself. _________ I doubted if I could even do it, with a little _________ I entered the arena (运动场). As I began my __________, I was excited by my own __________ for trying something so difficult. Then, only ten feet up, my __________ and my toes started to tire, and there was __________ no place to rest. My __________ disappeared with the anxiety that I was going to __________ and fall.

__________ will lock up our muscles and minds. To perform well, we have to stay relaxed. “Just do it,” I __________ myself, climbing bravely. One, two, three----I was at the top. I did it!

That day on the rock wall __________ me in my life. Whenever __________ envelope me in icy anxiety, I continue moving by __________ myself of the secret of doing something hard and scary: Just do it.

6 . As we age, even if we’re healthy, the heart just isn’t as efficient in processing oxygen as it used to be. In most people the first signs show up in their 50s or early 60s. And among people who don’t exercise, the changes can start even sooner.

“Think of a rubber band. In the beginning, it is flexible, but put it in a drawer for 20 years and it will become dry and easily broken,” says Dr. Ben Levine, a heart specialist at the University of Texas. That’s what happens to the heart. Fortunately for those in midlife, Levine is finding that even if you haven’t been an enthusiastic exerciser, getting in shape now may help improve your aging heart.

Levine and his research team selected volunteers aged between 45 and 64 who did not exercise much but were otherwise healthy. Participants were randomly divided into two groups. The first group participated in a program of nonaerobic (无氧) exercise—balance training and weight training—three times a week. The second group did high-intensity aerobic exercise under the guidance of a trainer for four or more days a week. After two years, the second group saw remarkable improvements in heart health.

“We took these 50-year-old hearts and turned the clock back to 30-or 35-year-old hearts,” says Levine. “And the reason they got so much stronger and fitter was that their hearts could now fill a lot better and pump (泵送) a lot more blood during exercise.” But the hearts of those who participated in less intense exercise didn’t change, he says.

“The sweet spot in life to start exercising, if you haven’t already, is in late middle age when the heart still has flexibility,” Levine says. “We put healthy 70-year-olds through a yearlong exercise training program, and nothing happened to them at all.”

Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, says Levine’s findings are a great start. But the study was small and needs to be repeated with far larger groups of people to determine exactly which aspects of an exercise routine make the biggest difference.

9 . Created after Beijing successfully became an Olympic candidate (候选人), the Beijing 2022 Education Program is part of the host's wider efforts to encourage its people to participate in winter sports. The program has already gone beyond its original target of engaging 300 million people in snow and ice activities. And by involving schools, children and young people, the program ensures that its Olympic legacy (遗产) will continue to reach the young audience long after the Games.

In a push to engage the younger generation in ice and snow sports, schools and educational authorities have developed a curriculum (课程) that includes winter sports knowledge and history, practical classes for beginners, and an introduction to becoming a winter sports coach. Winter sports clubs have also been set up in schools all around the country, allowing children to develop ice and snow sports skills in the warmer south as well as the cold north.

Sports education is proved to have a positive effect on physical and mental health. It also helps to reduce stress, and build team and organizational skills. When COVID-19 made outdoor participation harder, organizers made sure that children and teenagers could follow a digital Olympic curriculum. Some classes were conducted through websites and broadcasters, with the online materials viewed more than 140 million times. Videos, courses and games were all part of digital efforts to bring the Olympic Games and winter sports closer to the young. Short videos have gone popular, attracting more than 70 million viewers online.

Thanks to sports education, more and more young people have expressed interest in becoming professional athletes. To keep them practising ahead of the next Olympic Winter Games, Mini Winter Olympics will be organized every year. The last ones attracted more than 1, 700 children and seemed to keep growing.