iStockPhoto/Fitness MagazineBy K. Aleisha Fetters

Break a sweat for a better date. It turns out that exercise can lead to sweaty pleasures on and off your chosen field of play. The love connection: Exercise-induced endorphins help clear your mind of clutter, up your happiness factor, and rev up your sex drive, says Paul Hokemeyer, PhD, licensed marriage and family therapist.

As if that weren't enough reason to veer off the beaten path, consider this -- research shows that simply doing new things together as a couple ignites the same circuit as does falling in love. By flooding the brain's reward system with dopamine and norepinephrine, mixing up date night can help those butterflies hang around a bit longer.

Read on for 10 fitness dates that will boost your mood and your bond.

Related: Pair Up to Slim Down: The Couple's Workout

Rock Climbing
Your hearts are going to race, and not just in the I'm-about-to-pee-in-my-spandex way. When your body is physiologically aroused (think skyrocketing blood pressure,

Scotty Reifsnyder

The Scientist: Jenny Taitz, Psy.D., is a clinical psychologist at the American Institute for Cognitive Therapy and author of "End Emotional Eating."

The Answer: Some people turn to drugs, alcohol or sex to escape from unpleasant or overwhelming emotions. Many turn to food, which can have similar effects in the brain.

Studies indicate that emotional eaters' brains may be particularly sensitive to the rewards of food, compared to people who don't engage in bad-mood binges, many of whom don't want to touch food during distressing times. Brain scans of emotional eaters show that regions associated with reward and anticipation of reward light up more when they're in a negative mood. Non-emotional eaters, on the other hand, show decreased activation in these areas under the same circumstances.

MORE: The One Thing You Eat Every Day That's Killing Your Diet

Conditioning also plays a role. Eating when we're blue becomes a habit like any other; a region of the brain called

FitSugarSource: Workout Woes: Bad Habits You Should Break Now

We all make mistakes when it comes to keeping fit, but just how much are these choices affecting progress? Some everyday habits may seem minuscule, but see which of these might be holding you back.

• Cutting workouts short: When you leave a class before the stretch, you aren't getting the full benefit your body deserves after all of the exertion you put forth. It's important to cool down and give muscles time to relax and stretch while they're warmed up to help avoid soreness or injury.
• Too many social obligations: It's far too easy to replace a workout with a spontaneous social engagement. Happy hour is one of those tempting times and can be a highly caloric one at that. Not only are you missing out on your intended workout, but you're also now adding more to your plate and glass. If you absolutely have to bail at the last minute, try to do something good for yourself like taking a walk with a friend or even getting a

Source: Cool Down Ideas For Any Workout

No matter how pressed for time you are, you should never skip your post-workout cooldown. Taking a few minutes to stretch muscles helps prevent injury, build muscle, and increase flexibility. Here are four cooldown ideas for your workout.

After a bike ride or Spin class: An hour on your bike or in an indoor cycling class can lead to tight hips and hunched shoulders, not to mention tired leg muscles. Work them all out with cooldown stretches like a basic hamstring stretch, and then move onto your quads. Use a sturdy wall, curb, or tree to help with stretches if you are cooling down after an outdoor bike ride. In class, you can use the stationary bike to help you balance while stretching. Get the rest of the postride stretches here.

After a run: Place emphasis on relieving overworked leg muscles and opening tight hips after a long run; these postrun stretching sequences will make you feel relaxed and rejuvenated after your run. Make sure to

Source: Why You Should Care About Heart Health Month

February marks a month of heart health awareness campaigns, and there's good reason for it. Read on for five important reasons that women, old and young alike, should pay attention to heart disease.

• It's the No. 1 killer of women: Breast cancer may get the attention (and is also a serious and potentially deadly disease), but far more women die each year of heart disease than breast cancer: while one in 31 women will die of breast cancer, the American Heart Association reports that one in three women will die of heart disease.
• Young women are having more and more heart attacks: A recent study that tracked over a million women for 12 years found that women were having more heart attacks at a younger age. The study also found that the women experienced atypical heart attacks with symptoms that were different than what we think of as normal heart attack symptoms (see below).
• 90 percent of women have at least one

AKM-GSIIt's always news when Kim Kardashian does, well, anything but when a photographer snapped a photo of the reality star running errands in Beverly Hills on Sunday in comfy work-out clothes, the Internet exploded at the sight of Kardashian's pregnant body. "Pass me the barf bag, please" , "Wide load!", "If she'd be one of the 7 dwarfs, her name would be Dumpy" were just a few examples of the vitriol.

While Kardashian is no stranger to haters and often willingly courts them just by being herself, slamming a woman's body when she's pregnant is crossing the line. With the body mixing up a chemical cocktail of hormones serving up all sorts of conflicting emotions, the ever-expanding physical changes, and undergoing an identity transformation into motherhood, pregnancy is such a vulnerable time for a woman. Now, imagine going through all that in front of the world and also being called fat?

It's the flip side of the tired "So-and-so flaunts her post-baby bikini body" pressure celebs feel to

Photo: Oprah.comPersonal trainer Ulrick Bien-Aimé had been working with harried corporate executives for years when he noticed something interesting: Many of his clients complained of feeling both physical and emotional stress in their lower back. "Stiffness in the body was the number one issue I heard during workouts," says Bien-Aimé. "When we're anxious or stressed, many of us don't breathe or contract our abdominal muscles properly, and tension builds up." To help clients release trapped energy, he made these four moves mandatory (hold each pose for 15 seconds).

RELATED: How to Tap Into Your Real Power

Start by lying on your back with your legs straight and your hands on your abdomen, about two inches below your navel. Inhale slowly through your nostrils and focus on pulling in your belly. Exhale gradually while pushing your abdomen toward your back.

Next, bring your knees to your chest while continuing to inhale and exhale. Remember not to hold your breath--whenever you extend or exert energy, you

Photo: Getty ImagesBully, beware: You have a shelf life, and it’s not very long.

That’s according to a new, 7-year British study, which found that, for gay and lesbian teens, bullying does indeed subside substantially between the ages of 13 and 20. And researchers believe results would be the same in the U.S.

“The US and UK share many similarities in terms of their battles against oppression and victimization,” researcher Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor at London’s Brunel University, told Yahoo! Shine. The two countries also share a rapidly evolving culture and set of laws around homosexuality—like the House of Commons' overwhelming passage of a gay marriage bill February 5th—that tend to lower incidences of bullying.

But, Rivers stressed, “With so many young people taking their own lives because of the harassment they experience, both here in the UK and in the US, it’s important that we continue to draw attention to the persistent failure to tackle this form of abuse effectively.”

Which brings us