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Learn to exercise like an astronaut

NASA is hosting a Google+ hangout from where you can join astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio as they share their workout tips.

Michelle Starr Science editor
Michelle Starr is CNET's science editor, and she hopes to get you as enthralled with the wonders of the universe as she is. When she's not daydreaming about flying through space, she's daydreaming about bats.
Michelle Starr
2 min read

(Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)

NASA is hosting a Google+ hangout from where you can join astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio as they share their workout tips.

Going into space plays havoc on the human body. One of the biggest problems is muscle atrophy; when the body isn't working against the forces of gravity to move, or even stay upright, thereby putting weight on the muscles of their legs and back, those muscles can waste away pretty quickly. To combat this, astronauts in space have to work out for two hours a day to keep their muscles in check.

As you can see in the video below of astronaut Colonel Michael Hopkins training aboard the International Space Station (ISS), it's pretty intense.

If you'd like to be able to do what he does, Colonel Hopkins will be taking to Google+ on Friday, 7 February at 4.15am AEST to share some of his astronaut training tips. He'll be joined by fellow astronaut Rick Mastracchio, and the pair will be streaming from space, on board the ISS. Joining them Earthside will be astronaut Jeanette Epps, US Olympic bobsledder Curt Tomasevicz, CrossFit Games champion Rich Froning, Houston Texans football player Jared Crick and Peter Moore of Men's Health magazine.

To check out Colonel Hopkins' Train Like an Astronaut program, head over to the Facebook page. You can join the Google+ hangout here. And don't worry if you're not awake in time to catch it — you can submit questions via Google+ beforehand, and the video of the event will be available afterwards via NASA's Google+ page.