I recently created a talk on wearable technology for athletes and active people for Sports Medicine University. I also gave it to a local group of Gen The 10 Woman reading tablet-1weekend warriors here in Charleston. In researching the topic, I found a number of amazing products to track seemingly every aspect of your health and fitness. One of the products I liked the best was the Lumo Lift Posture Coach and Activity Tracker. I liked what it does – give you feedback when your posture is poor – that I bought one. I have worn it for about a month, and I love it. What I have found through vibrations I get when I slouch is that my posture is pretty good when I am standing but fairly bad when I sit down to write and type. It clearly is a problem I need to work on, but the Lumo Lift is helping me fix my posture.

David

Book I read this week: Set Your Voice Free: How To Get The Singing Or Speaking Voice You Want by Roger Love. This book helps you identify vocal issues that are preventing you from excelling, whether you want to speak on stage, communicate better in radio or television interviews or any other setting. The accompanying CD offers exercises to help you improve. I do them driving in the car to and from work. It seems to really help, and my voice doesn’t get as tired by the end of the day. Check out his book!

Book I’m reading next week: Roger Love’s Vocal Power: Speaking with Authority, Clarity and Conviction (Your Coach in a Box) by Roger Love. This program appears to focus more on public speaking and communication in settings like interviews. I think it will be extremely helpful for me!

Health
I love coffee, so this is generally good news. Health effects of coffee: Where do we stand? by Sandee LaMotte in CNN

This is fascinating – and good news for patients. Music Can Help Recovery From Surgery by Nicholas Bakalar in The New York Times

Exercise and Fitness
“The best supplement you can do is change the way you approach sleep.” Great insight: How to Supercharge Your Sleep With Nick Littlehales, Sleep Coach to the World’s Best Athletes by Jonathan Levi in BecomingASuperhuman.com

Has anyone tried this one? What’s a Blab? And Why Should You Care? by Jenn Herman in JennsTrends.com

Youth Sports
Terrific recommendations about a huge problem in youth sports: Overuse Injuries and Burnout in Youth Sports by John P. DiFiori, Holly J. Benjamin, Joel Brenner, Andrew Gregory, Neeru Jayanthi, Greg L. Landry, and Anthony Luke in American Medical Society for Sports Medicine

We always hear about youth baseball pitching injuries, but here are some interesting stats on injuries in youth softball pitching: Prospective Female softball throwPlayer-Reported Injuries in Female Youth Fast-Pitch Softball Players by Matthew V. Smith, Randi Davis, Robert H. Brophy, Heidi Prather, Jane
Garbutt, and Rick W. Wright in Sports Health

Productivity and Self Improvement
People can only focus on a task for 3 minutes before getting distracted by email and social media? Wow! Why Distractions From Email and Social Media Are a $1 Trillion Problem by Will Yakowicz in Inc.

Someone telling me they are too busy usually ends a conversation with me. Instead take Jon’s advice: Please stop telling me you’re too busy. by Jon Acuff in Acuff.me

Did you like one of these articles or books? Do you have any others to share? I’d love to hear your thoughts below!

Disclosure: Please note that the links to the books or programs at the beginning of this post are affiliate links. At no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have purchased these books or programs and either have read them or will soon. I recommend them because they are helpful and useful to me and because I feel that they could help many of you. I do not recommend any resources simply because I receive a small commission if you decide to use or purchase any of them. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel that they can help you in your work or personal lives.