Stretching, 40th Ann. Ed.

I discovered a homemade book called Stretching in 1979. It was aimed at athletes, with stretching routines for some 20 sports. I wrote the author, Bob Anderson, and suggested he add stretches for builders, waitresses, truck drivers, kids, and older people. We started talking. He said he and his wife Jean (who did the drawings) had sold 35,000 copies from a garage in Southern California. Wow! End result: we rented Bob and Jean a house on the beach here in Spring, 1980, and in 3 months, we did a complete revision of the book. We did a first run of 50,000 copies, and the book took off, with Random House as distributor, selling madly. It`s been selling ever since, now over 3-3/4 million copies worldwide, and in 23 languages. As far as I can tell, it`s the best-selling fitness book of all time. Tech Neck An important (and timely) addition to this new edition will be stretches to combat the bad posture caused by (1) cell phone usage and (2) working on computers. Take a look at how bent-over people are when talking on their phones. It`s called "tech neck." The point is, we all spend too much time at screens of various sizes, and it`s not healthy. Not good for the body. Want to take 30 seconds and stretch right now?