It's been a long, hard day at the office, and you need a good workout to blow off all that stress. But before you hit the free weights, the stationary bike or the elliptical machine, you spend 10 minutes carefully stretching all those stiff muscles, just as every coach, trainer and physical therapist has advised for as long as you can remember.
The sky is still dark, the road ahead is long and everything hurts. That marathon race, the motivation for putting in all these miles, isn't for two more months. But at least there's someone to talk to.
Have you heard of ''the fat gap?'' It's a term that sprang up last month, when a survey in Great Britain found the majority of overweight people there are oblivious to the fact that they're heavy. Are you, too, caught in the fat gap?
Q: My son is a 14-year-old basketball player who has developed pain over the last month on the outside of his foot. Originally he was able to keep playing but over the last week the pain has gotten bad enough that whenever he runs or jumps he has to stop playing. My family doctor took X-rays, which showed no fracture. He was told to rest it for a couple of weeks, as it might be a sprain.
If you belong to a gym and have fallen off the fitness wagon, maybe a trip to the park or beach is in order. Not to lie on your back, but to get moving again. So says Dr. Rhonda Fine, a Miami psychologist who advises health nuts and the people who train them on how to get their mojo back.
Q: I was doing biceps curls in the gym last week and felt a pop near my shoulder. I noticed a deformity above my elbow that made my arm look like Popeye's, and I also noticed some bruising and swelling in my arm. It is my left arm and I am right-handed. After researching it online, I think I probably have a biceps injury. Does it need to be fixed?
Shauna Davis dances every day, all styles. The teenager has been dancing since she was 3 -- and suffering the aches and pains that go along with it.
Ever wonder if you're getting the most benefit from your workout program? It's important to remember that more is not necessarily better. A big factor in getting results from strength training is choosing a weight that fatigues the muscles by the end of the set. The more repetitions, the greater the muscular endurance. Fewer reps with a heavier weight builds more strength.
One look at TV trainer and author Tracey Mallett's flat abs and rock-hard thighs is probably enough to send most postpartum women into a depressive tailspin.
Q: I have had tennis elbow for the better part of one year. I am not sure if I hurt it playing tennis or working out with weights. I have tried to rest it, take an anti-inflam-matory medication, done physical therapy, and had two cortisone shots.
South Florida offers dozens of ways to stay active, from X-Fit and Zumba classes to new-age yoga and Brazilian jujitsu. Then, there's softball.
Q: I like to golf and usually play three to four times per week. About three months ago I hurt my lower back while playing. I had to rest for about two months until it went away.
It's hard to say what came first -- Bob King's idea that kids as young as 8 could benefit from working with child-size weights, or his need to keep his own three boys busy while he helped train professional athletes across Dallas.
Regular drinkers are likely to do more than tone their biceps with 12-ounce beer can curls, according to a new study.
Crunches, lunges and leg lifts belong in one category of exercise. Standing up on a board and paddling on water belongs in another. Sunny Steurer combines it all in her exercise classes off Fort Lauderdale beach.
Tucked away in a row of warehouses, the South Florida Circus Arts School may not look like much from the outside, but stepping through the front doors can be a transformative experience.
Time magazine's intriguing cover piece of a couple weeks ago, ''Why exercise won't make you thin'' by John Cloud, remained one of the top 10 most read stories on Time's website through last week, in part because we're desperate for a magic bullet.
Are you fat? Then Steve Siebold has this message for you: It's all your fault. If you want to get healthy, start thinking like a fit person, not a fat one, he says.
Q: I would like to get back into running but do not want to get hurt and would like your recommendations as to how to go back to do this safely. I used to run a lot when I was a teenager and in my early 20s but now I am about 40.
When we think about taking our medicine, we don't usually think about taking a walk around the block. But doctors are trying to get the word out that exercise is medicine, and participating in regular physical activity is important to health.
When thinking about the ideal partner for the GO Urban adventure race, Ryan Porter, 23, knew he had to pick his buddy Michael Hoffman, 22. Was it Hoffman's speedy gait that made him the obvious choice? Nope. It was his obsession with treasure hunts.
Shaved heads, tribal tattoos and sensei Kreese telling Johnny to ''sweep the leg'' in The Karate Kid -- all contribute to the mysterious aura that surrounds martial arts.
Q: I am 29 and tore my ACL skiing. My orthopedic surgeon is recommending surgery. I went through physical therapy to get my thigh muscles strong and since I have done that my knee feels good. Do I have to have surgery and what are the possible complications if I do get it?
It's no secret that yoga helps practitioners stay slim. A new study explains why: People who engage in the traditional form of exercise are more in tune with their bodies in general, including at meal times.
Of all the classes available at Primal Fitness in Doral, the one that draws the most queries is parkour. Derived from parcours du combattant, a French term for a military obstacle course, parkour (also called free running) involves traversing through one's surroundings -- usually an urban environment -- and over or around features and obstacles using only one's body and a series of acrobatics movements.
Q: My son is a 16-year-old who was water-skiing last weekend and fell, fracturing his clavicle. At the emergency room, he was put in a sling and told to see an orthopedic surgeon. The orthopedic surgeon suggested surgery as the best chance of achieving normal function and strength in the shoulder. I went online and saw that most clavicle fractures will heal without surgery. What he should do?
Not knowing how to swim in South Florida is like being a fish out of water. Reporter Robert Samuels treads carefully into the world of adult swimming classes.
Learning how to swim as an adult is hard. But Sue Nelson, aquatic programs specialist at USA Swimming, emphasizes that it's incredibly satisfying.
``It allows you to have more flexibility in what you could do with your children or grandchildren going to water parks,'' Nelson said. ``It's cardiovascular, decreases the stress on your joints, helps increase the range of movements. There are many health reasons to do it, and it's fun.''Thousands of crunches, hundreds of bicep curls and a million lunges will never equal a toned body -- on their own.
Target toning works in combination with healthy eating and a regular exercise regimen. Once you have established your healthy habits, target toning is a great way to maintain the pounds lost, define muscle and possibly get you over a plateau.
Playing soccer on the roof is the kind of thing that got you grounded as a kid. Adulthood has its privileges.
Q: I am a 16-year-old tennis player who has had pain in my lower back for the last six months. The pain was initially intermittent, but now it bothers me whenever I serve or hit an overhead.
Q: Thirty years ago I had torn cartilage in my knee and I had the old-time surgery with a big scar and they removed the cartilage. I did really well for about 25 years, but over the last five years I have developed a lot of pain and it has begun to limit my ability to get around.
Two to four times a week, Holly Perkins works with Entourage star Adrian Grenier, putting him through sets of lunges and stepping exercises to keep him buff.
Q: I love playing tennis and over the last few weeks I have had pain in my wrist. It particularly hurts when I hit a backhand. I have no swelling and I went to the emergency room and they took X-rays and nothing was broken. However, I cannot play tennis without it hurting and wonder what it could be.
Ashtanga Yoga Workshop: Lectures and discussions that focus on integration of yoga practice and philosophy into one's life led by Govinda Kai, a certified yoga teacher; 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and 8:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday; Miami Life Center, 736 Sixth St., South Beach; $155 for three days, $35-$40 for one day. 305-534-8988 or www.miamilifecenter.com.
Unlike first kids Malia and Sasha, my brother and I never convinced our parents to let us adopt a dog. My dad said he was allergic, while my mom came up with a more creative excuse: ''We don't believe in species subjugation.'' Actually, they didn't believe in picking up poop.
Your chair could be slowly killing you. ''Chair disease,'' as some informally call it, is an increasingly common malady in the United States that is almost always caused by spending too much time parked on your rear end.
Q: What is the difference between a stress reaction and a stress fracture in an athlete? A: This is a controversial question: when does a stress reaction become a stress fracture?
If nothing else works, Charles Stuart Platkin, the Miami Beach-based ''Diet Detective,'' will badger you into losing weight. There was Jennifer Cadle, 276 pounds. He bought her a huge chocolate cake -- her weakness -- and had her cut a big slice and put it in a box. ''You'd have to walk 2 ½ hours to work that off,'' he told her.
There are so many things to worry about these days. Wouldn't it be nice to cross something off the list? Turns out you can. Researchers have been busy debunking some common medical myths that have been repeated so many times, people assume them to be true. Here are five misconceptions you can stop biting your nails over now:
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