Posted: April 14, 2005

Athletics: Champion Marathon Runner Uta Pippig Launches New Health and Fitness Program

BOSTON, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Three-time Boston Marathon Champion Uta Pippig today unveiled a trademarked health and fitness program that she has successfully developed and administered to professional athletes around the world, making it available to the public for the first time as a tailored training program to help people achieve healthy living goals.

The multi-tiered program, called Take the Magic Step(TM), has helped train some of the world's top professional athletes and utilizes disciplines and techniques drawn from Uta's knowledge and experience with proper nutrition, yoga, exercise, training and stress management.

Uta believes that a healthy way of life is attainable for people of all ages and she intends to offer the program in individual sessions as well as in seminars, classes and clinics for amateur athletes, business professionals, students, companies, and charitable organizations around the world.

"Busy lifestyles and an enormous amount of information on what is and isn't good for you can make the task of getting healthy feel overwhelming," Uta said. "It is my goal to bring the important information to the surface and help people set and achieve realistic and lifelong goals. Take the Magic Step(TM) is the first step of that journey; the first step out the door."

Uta was introduced to competitive athletics at the age of 13. From that point on, her commitment to health and fitness has led her to victory at three consecutive Boston Marathons, three Berlin Marathons, and a New York marathon. Uta has also competed in the Olympics, broken her share of records, and has been ranked Number 1 in the world in both the marathon and half-marathon.

One of the segments in the Take the Magic Step(TM) program is specially designed for parents and educators, and focuses on creative ways to incorporate healthy habits into kids' busy lives. Uta is particularly concerned about the growing problem of obesity in children today and the lack of exercise in their daily lives.

In it, Uta addresses such issues as:

* The effects of eating well-balanced meals and snacks throughout the school day and how to prepare them,
* TV time: knowing when to tune out and work out
* Physical fitness guidelines and ways to incorporate exercise into a child's daily routine
* Fun workouts, including recommended running schedules for kids of all ages
* How she took the magic step and started running as a young girl
* How she hopes to inspire and motivate children to experience the same thrill

Similar segments in the Take The Magic Step(TM) program are designed specifically around "Building a Healthy Lifestyle," "Motivation & Stress," "Yoga," and "Corporate Health and Nutrition."

Uta Pippig's Website: www.utapippig.com.