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February is American Heart Month, a time when all people can focus on their cardiovascular health.

Integrate strength training into your program two or three times a week with a personal trainer or coach Measure your progress. Remember, "what is measured, improves." Do a treadmill or bike test in a controlled setting, that can be repeatable. Using metrics like power and pacing. Retest every six to eight weeks Add strength-based classes that are included with your membership two times a week Include active recovery workouts like yoga, Pilates or recovery days to repair, rebuild and continue ...

A few days ago was Tu Bishvat – the birthday of the trees. Tu Bishvat was first designated in order to calculate how old are the trees. On this day, the trees are considered to have aged one more year, and all of the trees that are five years or older can be eaten from. Tu Bishvat is actually the name of the date in the Hebrew calendar. Tu means 15 and Shvat is the name of the month. On a regular year, we celebrate Tu Bishvat by planting trees and eating dried fruits. I remember every ...

Huntington Beach resident Julie Holdaway loves to cook. It’s just one of the many ways she gives to others. Holdaway graduated from Edison High School in 1985, and decades later she participates in a cooking club with some good friends who attended the campus with her. The theme at one recent get-together was Mediterranean food. Holdaway didn’t just bring pita bread from the store — she brought the dough so the friends could make their own pitas on the grill. “She ...

Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy...

Felix Stein and Fred Strauss were German Jewish immigrants who came to America as teenagers in the early 1900s, eventually making their way from New York to Fullerton. Both found work at Stern & Goodman Mercantile, and in 1916 Stein purchased the store from the original owners. Strauss, meanwhile, had opened his own shop around the corner; in 1925 they merged and started the Stein-Strauss Company, which remained in business until 1970. Originally a general store, it expanded into a much ...

Growing up in Israel, one of the things I loved most about Chanukah was going to the Festigal every year. The Festigal is an annual musical show for children. It is held every year during Chanukah and throughout the month of December, traveling from city to city throughout the country. The first Festigal was in 1981 and since then it became a popular Chanukah activity for Israeli families. The performers at the Festigal are well-known Israeli singers and actors. Each year’s Festigal has ...

This past weekend, I shared in a series of experiences that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, a notion shared, no doubt, by all who took part in them. I’ve been wrestling with how best to convey them to you without this message becoming a magnum opus or alternatively diminishing their significance by simply saying too little. Here’s where I came out. I have been privileged to experience many powerful and emotional moments over the course of my career, but the ...

Congratulations to Merage JCC members Tobias Averill, Isaac Evans and David Groner on their selection to Team Maccabi USA as part of the World Maccabiah Games in Israel next Summer! 

Phung Huynh is hopeful for the future.

As an art professor at Los Angeles Valley College, she is constantly inspired by the next generation. “I feel so lucky for that,” she says. “There’s an exciting new group of artists coming up right now.”

As an educator with previous experience at Pasadena’s Art Center College of Design and Scripps College in Claremont, Huynh continues to encourage budding talent. “I’m getting older,” she says. “I need to give a platform for younger and emerging artists. I try to do that as best as I can and support others.”