Personal Trainers > Professional Advice

Be A Winner

You have strained your adductor muscles, which run down the insides of your thighs. Apply ice ASAP for 20 minutes and then every two hours the first day. During your recovery, avoid stairs and hills.Warm up before you work out, then stretch your legs thoroughly. When you return to action after suffering a groin injury, wrap your entire thigh with an elastic bandage.

Using the same large muscle group, rhythmically, for a period of 15 to 20 minutes or longer while maintaining 60-80% of your maximum heart rate. Think of aerobic activity as being long in duration yet low in intensity. Aerobic activities include: walking, biking, jogging, swimming, aerobic classes and cross-country skiing.

Body Mass Index

Strengthen your rotator cuff by performing internal and external shoulder rotations. (You'll need a trainer to show you how to do these correctly.) Have a coach or trainer assess your weightlifting, swimming or tennis technique.

Teen Weight Training

to lose weight, increase flexibility, tone muscles etc.). Before you begin an exercise program, you must think about what results you want to achieve, then you can gear your exercise program toward attaining your desired results.

Sports Fitness

Treatment: Ice for 10 minutes, three times a day. Avoid stairs. Place a heel lift (a quarter-inch-thick pad of felt) in your shoe to ease the tension on the tendon. (If you felt a pop, get to the emergency room ASAP; you may have a ruptured Achilles.) For three months after you return to action, massage your Achilles with ice for five minutes after each workout, rubbing the ice across your ankle rather than up and down.

As you increase exercise intensity, your body uses more carbohydrates for fuel. If your body uses up its glycogen supply and you keep exercising, your body will burn fat for energy, decreasing exercise intensity. What you eat several days before endurance activities affects performance. Your food the morning of a sports competition can ward off hunger, keep blood sugar levels adequate and aid hydration.

You can also become dehydrated from lots of physical activity if you do not replace fluid as you go, although it's rare to reach a level of even moderate dehydration during sports or other normal outdoor activity. Dieting can sap your reserves of water as well because you're changing the balance of what you eat and drink.