Aside from his extraordinary leadership skills which led to his being named "Person of the Year" by Time Magazine, Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon be recognized internationally for his athletic prowess. In particular his judo moves as he and an Olympic Japanese judo medalist will come out with an instructional video soon.

Mr. Putin and Yasuhiro Yamashita shot the instructional video disc as a supplement to a judo manual. The disc is slated to be released on January or February, President Putin said Friday at the opening of a Toyota Motor Corporation's assembly plant near St. Petersburg.

In the most modern and possibly most bizarre move of the global fight against obesity, Santas in English malls are now encouraged to drop weight before Christmas of 2007.

Reports said that the Bluewater Shopping Centre in Greenhithe, Kent has set up a Santa Boot Camp to slim down Mr. Santa and be a good model to children who adore him.

Men in Riccione, Italy are strongly protesting over the opening of a women-only beach on the Adriatic coast of Italy but the women are simply loving the new concept.

Beach 134 at the Riccione resort features "No Men" signs and also no children are allowed to enter. This way the women are encouraged to keep their children at home or leave them with their father to devote some time to them.

A 91-year-old man from Florida has reportedly challenged fitness maestro and former 92-year-old boxing champion Jack LaLanne for a boxing match. The challenger, Roland Fortin, who is a former boxing "cut man", said he thought of the four-round bout at the Tropical Gym in Pompano Beach, where he works out during the winter in Florida.

Fortin's challenge was published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in a half-page ad that was suggested by gym owner Troy Eckonen for Super Bowl Sunday. The purpose of this challenge is to encourage older people to get into shape.

A gym owner in the Netherlands is surprised by the number of offers he is getting after he made the announcement to open the world's first fitness program for nudists. Gym owner Patrick de Man says the "nudifit" classes at his gym in the town of Heteren is attracting attention from the U.S., U.K., Germany and Belgium.

ANP and Expatica quote de Mann as saying, "The thousands of responses on my gym's Web site show that naturists have been waiting for something like this for a long time."