Fitness

More kids in the U.S. are "severely obese" and Georgia has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the country.

The basic idea was for me to do an off-season bobsled training routine with Elana Meyers. I had no idea what this would entail, and was given no hints, but showed up ready for just about anything.

Feeling cocky because you ran the Peachtree yesterday? Hosting America's largest 10k might have something to do with the fact that we're in the top half of America's best places for exercise.

Every year I run the Peachtree, I’m filled with all sorts of warm and fuzzies about Atlanta and being an Atlantan—which, if you’ve ever attended a pro sports game when we’re playing Boston or Chicago or New York, you know can be a complicated emotion to pinpoint. Here are ten reasons the city’s greatest athletic tradition is one in which we can all partake:

It turns out that playing tennis is not at all like riding a bicycle: there is a painfully steep re-learning curve.

The little girl in roller skates and polka-dotted knee socks looks like a newborn giraffe, stumbling, wobbling, never really finding her footing as she tries to scoot around the track.

Dolvett Quince hasn’t exactly been toiling in obscurity; he’s trained stars like Boris Kodjoe and Justin Bieber. But now the longtime Atlanta trainer is helping America get fit, as the newest cast member on NBC’s The Biggest Loser.

For proof that tennis is a game of “love,” look no further than Kathy Berthelette, who met her husband, Dan Bradley, when she picked up the game in 1986. Their first date was buying her a decent racket. Now Berthelette is president of the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association, the self-proclaimed “largest local tennis league in the country.”

The basic idea—an old one, admittedly—is that you can take in a great deal of a city while running, especially those places where cars are not able to effectively travel. The novel twist is that you can do this with the help of an athletic tour guide, replacing a complicated tourist map with a pair of running shoes. This way, your mind and body both go for a jog.

Why let kids have all the fun? Here are some adults-only recreational leagues. Most offer a range of divisions from low-pressure to ultracompetitive, so you can find a team whether you’re fresh off a college roster or just off the sofa.