A while back at the gym, I used to always end up treadmilling next to a girl who sucked down a monster-sized cup of coffee while working out, which I always found slightly odd - who wants to guzzle coffee when she’s all hot and sweaty? But it turns out my fellow gym-goer may have been onto something: According to That’s Fit, a new study from the University of Georgia “suggests that caffeine may be the key to reducing the muscle soreness” that sometimes strikes after exercising. Although experts say that larger studies need to be conducted to confirm this report’s findings, you can still give your workout a little jolt with these possibly pain-relieving products.

...continued: Caffeinate your workout

Over at Dumb Little Man, we just we discovered some very smart advice on keeping your brain healthy as you get older. Here, three of the Alliance for Aging Research’s top tips on protecting your noggin against the effects of aging.

1. Eat a Brain-Healthy Diet

That includes lots of omega-3 fatty acids, either through cold-water fish such as salmon and tuna or through daily dietary supplements like Vitamins Home omega-3 softgels (recommended by Rusty) or Eskimo 3 Fish Oil Supplements (selected by Cosmicopia). “Wave goodbye to winter dry skin and bad moods, this is my staple all round fixer upper,” says the latter of her favorite omega-3 source. “The eskimos know their stuff.”

...continued: Boost your brain power

As the temperature drops and the idea of exercising outdoors - or even trekking to the gym - becomes less and less appealing, it’s good to invest in at least one at-home fitness tool. For the workout-DVD-averse, there’s the Bosu Balance Trainer, a step class substitute that works to tone your muscles, boost your balance, and improve coordination. ThisNexter bknight says the trainer provides the “best all-around workout” and recommends that users “flip it over for balanced squats and curls with dumbbells.” The trainer comes complete with an exercise video, ideal for letting you work your Bosu to greatest total-body benefit.

Not only super for building strength, exercise balls - or stability balls, or balance balls, or whatever you’d like to call them - have got a fun factor that just might motivate you to work out more (because who doesn’t love to bounce up, down, and all around?). But perhaps their most sought-after effect is their ability to tone abs and help shape your core. Says Gordon in his shopcast for the Fit Ball:

“Fit Balls are inflatable exercise balls that are great for helping to develop core/abdominal strength, as well as balance. I use mine for ab work-outs that are low-stress on my back but high intensity for my core. Fit Balls are great overall training tools and I recommend them for any sport which requires solid core strength (which is really just about every sport).”

...continued: Have a ball

If you’re working out for more than an hour, you need to get 500 to 700 mg of sodium for every liter of water you consume, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. But most sports drinks offer about a third less sodium - plus lots of sugar. To get your 700 mg of sodium and zero sugar, ThisNexters micradot, John Stamstad, Gordon, and Alyson recommend dropping a nuun hydration tablet into your water bottle. Micradot, for one, loves the product’s simplicity: “I can fill my bottles at the start of a ride and reload them wherever I end up,” he says. “Tastes are mild and way better than the sugary drinks you’re usually forced to drink/buy and it doesn’t upset my stomach.” The easy-on-the-tummy effect is also key for Gordon, who notes that those who use nuun “don’t have to swill quite so much after you enduro sweat-a-thons. I hate having water slosh around my belly.”

While we very much value the health-related outcomes of working out (greater strength, better cardio function, enhanced energy, to name just a few), we’re not going to pretend like looking good isn’t one of our main motivations for running/biking/whatevering to the point of extreme sweatiness on a regular basis. So it makes sense that when we hit the gym, yoga studio, or trails, we prefer to pack our gear in a bag that’s uber-cute as well as super-functional.

Bored beyond belief with the pleather thing I picked up at Target last summer, I’ve been poking around for a gym bag more worthy of showing off. Of all my ThisNext discoveries, I’m most smitten with the adidas by Stella McCartney Tennis Bag picked by Princess Sarah. Somewhat unfortunate, since I haven’t played tennis since 1997. Then again, perhaps I should take a cue from Sarah herself: “I would take up tennis for this bag,” the princess proclaims.

...continued: Stylin' sports bags

You’ve got your cute yoga pants, your trusty mat, your bottle of water for lots of happy hydration. But what else should you bring to yoga class? Eager to share the good vibes, the yogis around the ThisNext neighborhood have a few suggestions for products that can help make your trip to the yoga studio a much more blissful experience.

First there’s the Yogitoes Skidless Mat Towel, a moisture-absorbing microfiber item featuring lots of little nubs to give you some good grip. Cheena Chandra promises “you will never slip on your yoga mat again!”, while Gail Goldberg’s shopcast calls the towel an “essential for yogis—especially if you sweat.” Matt Reyes, meanwhile, includes the pick on his Yoga Hop list because “you can wash them easily, the colors are great, and they keep your hands and feet from sliding.”

...continued: ThisNext's yoga essentials

Blasting your ears full of motivating music isn’t the only way your iPod can help you through a workout. At Videogame Workout, Glen Raphael blogs about PumpOne’s series of exercise routines created for display on your iPod:

“It’s a simple idea, well executed: a couple screens of text and pictures for each exercise to remind you what to do next and help you keep the right form. There are several exercise levels for each focus area, so you can order a collection and rotate through them for variety.”

So far PumpOne’s got a little more than a dozen kinds of workouts, including PumpedPilates, Pumped(6)Pack, KettlePump, and Pumped Mama.

One more reason for more women to start pumping iron: Lifting weights may help the body to retain calcium, says health and fitness blogger Jazzfanatic. And it looks like more females are catching on to strength-training’s body benefits: Jazzfanatic points to a recent CDC report finding that nearly 1 in 5 women lifts at least twice a week. So very inspiring, I just may go and dust off those ten-pound dumbbells looking all sad and lonely in the corner of my room…

Nothing keeps me going mid-workout like loud, snarly guitars and fast, heavy drums. But for Billy at Beer Belly Blog, the “prevalent use of groove” and “trippy soundscapes” of techno/dance music are the main motivators. (“Listening to this playlist makes me feel like a 10 year old with ADD high on caffeine,” says Billy, who’s got “Jump” from Madonna’s Confessions On A Dance Floor on his iPod workout playlist. “I can do my cardio exercise forever.”)

To discover more of those prevalent grooves and trippy soundscapes, Billy uses Pandora, a free streaming radio service. Here’s how it works:

“Pandora has hundreds of attributes for all the songs in their database and basically match up these attributes to a song that you pick. When songs are selected for you, you have the choice to tell them whether you like it or not. And the longer you listen to Pandora and guide them towards your preference, the more accurate it becomes in picking out tunes that you love.”

On those rotten-mood, fly-off-the-handle, sour-grapes kind of days, getting happy again can be as simple as choosing the right exercise routine. At Changemaker: Healing Mind, Body and Soul, blogger Kathy Berman shares some Prevention magazine tips on working out in any mood. Here’s her solution for chasing the cranky away:

“The best diversion is not the physically challenging in an effort to ‘work out’ the stress but rather to create a workout that challenges you mentally. Learning new moves will help you to switch gears and use your brain for fun instead of staying fixated on your anger. I also use the mental picture when someone is in anger as having a foot on the gas and one on the brake. I believe it is rather pointless to hold on to negative emotion.”

When a blogger shouts, “Coolest Thing EVER,” ThisNext listens. At Onepinkfuzzy, Angie just clued us in to dietitian Joanne Larsen’s online Healthy Body Calculator, a fabulous tool for anyone trying to get his/her weight in check. Just enter some data - weight, height, activity level, etc. - and the site presents you with personalized recommendations on everything from getting more exercise into your schedule to how much calcium you should be taking in daily. The trickiest part is measuring your elbow breadth - a good indicator of your frame size, according to the site - but, hey, you’ve always been secretly curious about the exact width of your elbows, haven’t you?

With a focus on “regaining my former flat stomach,” Jake at The Jake Silver Show (tagline: “Be yourself. Everybody else is already taken.”), has developed a new set of rules for shaping up and slimming down. A few goals worth stealing:

Food! Three Meatless, Healthy Meals per day, no more than 500 calories. Two snacks, no more than 200 calories. (daily calorie intake between 1500-1900 per day) Take vitamins. Drink Green Tea. and other herbal teas. No Sugar or White Crap. Mostly Veggies, Fruits, Nuts, Beans and Soy. Limit Aspartame, Sucralose, etc…

Stop eating by 7pm. (even earlier if possible)

Do “Extra Credit” workout 6 days a week at 5pm.

Time flies when you’re doing the elliptical. Or not. To make your exercise time zip by, personal trainer Sean O’Malley has created Cardio Coach, a series of programs (on CD or MP3) that use high-energy music and motivation to help get you through any cardio workout. Designed to guide you into increasing your endurance, Cardio Coach has won a devoted fan in She Yogini, who recommends trying out the Free Demo Download available now.

21st Century Mom is on the move — always.  “I run, I swim, I bike,” she says.  “I’m slow, I come in at the back of the pack, but I do it and that has to count for something.”

 It counts for a lot.  She’s a woman in her early fifties who has raised three “lovely young adults who like me and think I’m pretty hip. This blog covers everything from middle aged athletic ventures to politics to parenting in the 21st Century.”

 And she doesn’t skimp on the details…like her carefully considered choice of a new set of running shoes — Saucony Hurricanes — after a long affair with Ascis and their Gel Kayano XIs .  Here’s a woman whose fun, smart, and focused.  Worth a look.

Feeling all stressed and stiff? Could be your chi’s not flowing the way it should. In an effort to unblock her own chi (or “vital life force”), Jane at Skinny Daily has taken up qigong, an ancient Chinese practice that integrates physical postures and breathing exercises. With some help from the book The Way of Energy, Jane began exploring qigong “in an effort to work on that all-important, but so-missing-in-my-life sense of balance and body awareness.” So far, qigong has been helping her go with the flow:

“The first thing I noticed was that I ALWAYS walk around with my abs tightened as if I’m expecting to be punched in the gut. Oh dear. But at least, through the qigong, I’m can finally feel what it’s like to truly relax, and that helps a lot.”