-By Lucia Moses

Stressed-out consumers are working out more to battle recession blues, which ordinarily might be a good omen for fitness magazines.

But the category had a wimpy performance on the newsstand in the second half of 2008, mirroring declines across the industry as consumers made fewer store trips.

Some managed to improve their results by bumping up public-place copies, while Rodale’s Prevention and American Media Inc.’s Natural Health are taking a different tack, cutting their rate bases later this year.

Time Inc.’s Health and Rodale’s Women’s Health, which redesigned last year, had significant single-copy upticks, as did Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia’s Body + Soul.

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