It may be lonely up there on the International Space Station (ISS), but astronauts don't strength train regularly in space to pass the time. They're fighting bone loss, and now they've got a new piece of equipment to try.

On average, astronauts lose one to two percent of their bone mass per month in zero-G. Just imagine how serious this loss could be on a two-year round-trip journey to Mars. To help slow down bone loss, the ISS was recently shipped an advanced Resistive Exercise Device called aRED. By utilizing a system of vacuum cylinders, astronauts can perform a wider variety exercises on aRED than the previous device, at workloads up to 600 pounds.

If only we would all exercise like astronauts. ISS crew lift, run on a treadmill and/or bicycle up to two hours a day. Expedition 14 astronaut Sunita Williams even ran a marathon on the ISS treadmill in April 2007.

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I tend to believe that, if it's good enough for NASA, it's probably good enough for my home. You know, with the exception of the astronaut food -- yuck. And so, hearing that bringing plants indoors is a secret weapon for NASA was all the convincing I needed to start bringing some of my greenery inside.

There are loads of benefits to having plants in your home, beginning with air quality. NASA sponsored research on the removal of chemicals from the air by plants, and found that houseplants helped remove pollutants like benzene, ammonia, and formaldehyde from the air.

Additionally, there's something called the Biophilia Hypothesis, which basically means that our ancestors might have passed on to us a desire to live in green, natural spaces -- a survival advantage for them. What that means for us is that we have a natural inclination toward other living things, and that simply keeping houseplants around could elicit a "feel good" response.

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When I was a kid, I took gymnastics at a local ... gymnastics place (for lack of a better term). I eventually quit, deciding that baseball, basketball and football were more my things. Anyway, the one part of gymnastics I always missed was bouncing around on the trampoline. As the years passed, I've always been tempted to buy one, but for one reason or another never got around to actually doing it. This is a shame, really, because not only are trampolines a lot of fun, using them also burns a good amount of calories.

Studies show that 10 minutes on a trampoline burns just about the same amount of calories as a 30-minute run, and it does so with 80 percent less impact on the ol' bones. Moreover, there are actual exercises you can perform on a trampoline, many of which you're probably familiar with already.

Common moves like the push-up, standing squat, lunges, and even jump squats done on a trampoline require greater use of your core muscles than when done on a hard, flat surface. The instability of the trampoline necessitates a certain amount of stabilization, or else you will tip over ... which is no problem, because then you can literally just bounce right back again.

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I had this article Emailed to me, about how Vibration therapy is the next big thing in workout machines. Why? Because instead of working against you to create resistance, machines that use Vibration therapy work with you, to make you feel calm and un-frustrated but still give you a great workout. What's not clear is just what vibration therapy is or how in the world you get a workout without any resistance. But apparently vibration therapy has been around for a while and is even used by NASA. It can rehabilitate injuries, prevent bone loss and significantly contribute to overall health and wellness.

Have you benefited from Vibration Therapy?

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