Here are some useful running recovery tips from guest contributor Stephanie Irving, ultra trail runner and veteran of two 100-milers and four 100Ks.

Okay—so what is new in New Year resolutions? We all keep a few, forget about a few, and live knowing that we could live better, “if only….” So, here is my thinking about how you might achieve a few resolution successes.

Much has made about the effectiveness of exercising your gratitude muscle. The health benefits of gratitude are broad and often begin with lowered stress, stronger relationships, and more energy. But how we practice this exercise, and make it part of our daily lives, is the dilemma. Here are five observations about what gratitude is not and a few tips for training the muscle:

Too thin, too little muscle, too lean, too stressed; all describe many of my most driven athletes. What’s the best way to gain muscle and improve performance? Here are my five top tips.

“Go big or go home” is a command that many of us grew up with. But “Go small and get great” is the mantra of the wizened athlete. Which path do you follow? Your choice will determine your health.

Pre-season—whether ski season, basketball, volleyball, or any vigorous sport season—has two goals. The first is to perform better; the second, to reduce injury. What is your program? Here is how to think about it.

CrossFit became one of the world’s largest sports gym chains by motivating people to compete with themselves and with others in a variety of fitness tests. While initially focused on Olympic weight lifting and gymnastics, the CrossFit world morphed into a dizzying variety of athletic performance drills—along the way, becoming a sport unto itself. Now what?

The data is now overwhelming. Eight hours of sleep each night is what humans need for optimal health and performance. Yet most of us don’t get it. What is the fix?

Diets come and go. Advice on water, supplements, energy drinks, and food choices vary like the wind. There are two key principles, however, that have withstood the test of time in our clinic: Protein and water should make up most of your diet. Here is why.

We all experience it. Sometimes, we can use it to our advantage. But more often it is a disease, rotting our insides. Is there a treatment for stress? A vaccine or a cure? Let’s look at performance, relationships, and sleep. Each is affected by stress in a different way, and each has a variety of useful and useless responses.

Sustainability is in. Consumption of non-renewables is out. But what about you? Are you sustainable?

When Serena Williams was penalized during the US Open, she turned her anger against her accuser—the umpire—rather than on her opponent. She lost. At the same event, when Roger Federer suffered from the high heat and humidity he couldn’t wait to get out of the poorly designed Arthur Ashe tennis stadium. He lost.

Gluten-free, vegan, dairy-free…all these variations of diets originally designed to address irritable bowels are exploding—apparently, because people’s bowels are now explosive. Celiac, diverticulitis, irritable bowel syndrome, and their relatives are being diagnosed more frequently than ever. As a society, Americans are becoming both more mindful and more stressed. Could these be linked through the gut?

Ever consider presenting yourself to a Fitness Venture Capitalist as an investment? If you do, the investor will, of course, want to know what your “personal fitness business plan” is. Have you ever even heard of one? Now that you have, this is the time to get it together and invest in yourself.

Each year we share our top tips for a fit New Year. All of us here at The Stone Clinic try to live these tips and see how we do. We recognize that the usual resolutions are often ignored or forgotten—so we try to recommend activities that are addictive. In a sense, we are “drug pushers”; we push endorphins, adrenaline, pheromones, and testosterone, the natural drugs that make our lives, and our patients’ lives, wonderful.