Muscles

Hernias are a common ailment among Americans; more than 4 million people develop the painful condition. And although both men and women develop hernias, female patients may be harder to diagnose. Doctors and patients may not realize the abdominal pain a woman is feeling is because of a hernia. Dr. Hien Nguyen, assistant professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, said the pain can be mistaken for other conditions with similar symptoms, such as adhesions from prior surgery, endometriosis, fibroids and ovarian cysts.

While No. 6 Maryland addresses recent troubles on its offense that cropped up during Saturday's 7-4 loss to No. 13 Johns Hopkins, the team can take some comfort in the play of its defense. The Terps (8-2) are ranked third in Division I in defense, allowing just an average of 7.30 goals and trailing only Hofstra (7.00) and No. 10 Penn State (7.25) in that department. The program is 117-26 in games in which opponents have scored less than 10 goals since 2002. The unit's performance should not be too much of a surprise considering that it was returning a three-year starting goalie in redshirt junior Niko Amato and a bevy of two-year starters, including senior long-stick midfielder Jesse Bernhardt, defensemen Michael Ehrhardt and Goran Murray and senior short-stick defensive midfielder Landon Carr.

On the day after you exercise intensely, your muscles feel sore and you feel tired. What can you do to speed up your recovery so you can compete again on the next day?The most effective way to shorten recovery time for your muscles is to eat carbohydrate-rich foods and drink fluids immediately after you finish your first event. Intense exercise, such as running a fast race or playing a hard game of basketball, uses up muscle glycogen, the main source of energy for your muscles during exercise.

Don't be intimidated by the bikini-clad posterior in the poster in the window of Pop Physique, a new fitness studio in downtown Baltimore. You don't need to wear American Apparel-esque leotards and hot shorts for this class - yoga pants and a tank top will work just fine. Created in California by former ballet and Pilates instructor Jennifer Williams, Pop Physique is a one-hour full-body workout that incorporates ballet barre, Pilates and isometric movements with core strengthening.

Now you can look like Regis Philbin. The 60-year-old talk show maven is flexing his muscles in his new exercise video "Regis Philbin: My Personal Workout.""I never jogged, walked or used a Stairmaster until I followed my doctor's orders last year and found out how much I'd been missing," Mr. Philbin told People magazine.From Wire Reports"Hi, everybody! As you can see, PUFF, PUFF, today we're doing .... whataya call these things, Gelman? Trunk curls? Whatever."You can see where my career's going.

Ask yourself this question: Are you a guy of the male gender If so, I advise you to report to prison immediately, because you are violating a federal law.I base this statement on a letter I got from alert reader Richard Watkins, M.D., who sent me a shocking medical document concerning the federal Anabolic Steroids Control Act. Steroids, as you know, are substances that some guys put in their bodies in an effort to develop bulging, rippling, sharply defined...

An audience of 10.98 million viewers watched the season finale of The Sopranos Sunday on HBO, making it the No. 1 show on television from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m. Last year's finale was seen by 13 million, but on Sunday the competiton included the 58th Tony Awards telecast on CBS and the start of the NBA Championship Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons on ABC. The basketball game drew 10.91 million viewers (70,000 fewer than The Sopranos)...

Most people who have injured the cartilage in their knees are better off not running or jumping for the rest of their lives, but rather relying on other low-impact exercises to maintain physical fitness.At your knee, two bones meet and are held together by four bands, two on the outside and two on the inside. The ends of bones are soft, and they are protected by cartilage, which is a tough, thick white gristle. Cartilage can break when it is subjected to a strong force such as might happen when you are hit on the knee or unexpectedly step into a hole.

Even for those of us in excellent shape, it's common for muscles to feel sore the day after a hard workout. And although taking aspirin may relieve your pains temporarily, it also can delay your recovery.When your muscles feel sore, the best treatment is to take the day off. Don't even stretch.The soreness you feel is caused by bleeding into and damage to the microscopic fibers of your muscles. Exercising with damaged muscles can cause a larger, more serious muscle tear. Then you won't be able to exercise at all.If you are unable -- or unwilling -- to take the day off, you should exercise at a relaxed pace in another sport that stresses muscles other than the ones that feel sore.

Lots of people think that stretching before exercise prevents injuries. There is no evidence that it does, but there is evidence that stretching can help to make you a better athlete.Every time you exercise, you injure some of your muscle fibers. They shorten when they heal, and short, tight muscles are more likely to tear. Muscles and tendons tear when the force on them is greater than their inherent strength. Stretching does not make muscles stronger. Heavy resistance training is what strengthens muscles and makes them less likely to tear.

Mobility, stability and agility are the targets inside the new Kinetics System room at Colosseum Gym in Columbia. Everyone from power-lifters to post-rehab patients can work with trainers to reach their goals, according to trainer Vic Selvaggi. Added in summer 2012 as part of a reconfiguration and expansion of the gym, the Kinetics System room houses specialized pneumatic equipment that trainers use to assess clients' abilities and form before developing a fitness regimen. The goal is to imporve form and functional movement before moving on to weight training, or as Selvaggi puts it, "movement before muscles.

Congratulations, ladies. You kept the barbarians from the gate. On Tuesday, Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri, who famously said that a woman's reproductive system shuts down during "legitimate rape" and prevents conception, lost by 15 points to incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Democrat who was considered an easy target by the tea party. She won women voters ages 18 to 44 overwhelmingly. And Richard Mourdock, who said that if a woman does become pregnant during rape, it is something that God intended, lost the Indiana Senate race to Joe Donnelly.

When the 2012 Westminster Fallfest celebration kicks off on Thursday night, Sept. 27, with the annual parade, Woody Higgs will be right at the front. Higgs, along with five other residents representing Special Olympics-Maryland, Carroll County, will carry the Fallfest banner. "We're really excited," said Donna McGuire, assistant volunteer coordinator for Special Olympics, and Higgs' mother. "This is our first time in Fallfest. " Special Olympics, along with Carroll Hospice, the Taneytown Lions Club and the Stacey Davis Breast Cancer Fund, was selected to be the partners for this year's annual Fallfest.

Orioles catcher Matt Wieters didn't start Friday night's game against theOakland A's, but it wasn't because he is mired in a 1-for-30 slump. Wieters was held out of the lineup because of a tight right bicep muscle. "We want to make sure we can get that full go," Wieters said. "We think if we get a day off today, we'll be good to go tomorrow. We don't want a one-day tightness to turn into something more. " Wieters first noticed the tightness in his arm during his first at-bat Thursday, and it continued to bother him throughout the game.

The All-Star Game brings more than just a midseason shot of excitement to Major League Baseball. It provides much-needed rest for the players, a four-day respite in a 162-game season that often produces fatigue and injury. The players who most need rest are the starting pitchers, who, paradoxically, get the most rest during the season, playing only every fifth day. Yet, midseason pitching swoons, like the Oriole starters have recently experienced, are not uncommon. Perhaps the best-known case of pitching fatigue to occur around the All-Star break was that of Bob Feller, the Cleveland fireballer who at age 17 struck out 17 batters in his fifth major-league start.

Dorothy Acker and her 12-year-old daughter, Audrey, regularly search for new books at the Elkridge library - on a recent trip they were looking for titles on Audrey's middle-school summer reading list. The Elkridge library is closest to their home, but it has some drawbacks. "The library smells musty. It's kind of grungy inside," Dorothy Acker said. Many patrons feel that the library, like Elkridge, has long been neglected. The community has won some recent victories - fighting off a proposed rail transfer facility and securing money for new schools and a park - but residents maintain a touch of indignation when they talk about their neighbors in Ellicott City and Columbia.

Most people don't high-jump, do hurdles or high-kicks, but they do climb stairs and bend over to pick up objects.These day-to-day moves require the muscles of the back of the hip to lengthen as the muscles of the front of the hip contract to bring the leg up.The following exercise stretches the muscle across the front of the hip, commonly called the hip flexor, and will help to increase flexibility.*Lie on your back with one leg straight on the floor; tuck the other knee toward your chest and hold it in place with your hands.

Q: What do you think of a 10-year-old boy lifting weights?A: If your son's interest in lifting weights is founded in a desire to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Bo Jackson, he'll be disappointed. At 10, his body is not yet secreting large enough amounts of testosterone to produce significant muscle growth through weight lifting.Nonetheless, boys can improve muscle tone and increase strength by lifting weights. It is important the regimen not be excessive; tired muscles are more prone to injury.

Only three teams had entered the week with a stingier defense than Johns Hopkins. Maryland's unit proved Saturday night that it's not exactly a paper tiger either. The defensive play of the No. 10 Terps helped them upend the No. 5 Blue Jays, 9-6, at Homewood Field in Baltimore. That unit - which also entered the week ranked eighth in Division I after surrendering just 7.8 goals per game - didn't allow Johns Hopkins to score over the final 29 minutes, 17 seconds of the contest, which was that team's longest drought of the season.

The No. 6 Hereford boys lacrosse team bullied past the competition at Fallston's Fred Sheckells tournament Wednesday, defeting Dulaney 12-3 in the championship game after cruising past No. 11 Winters Mill in the semifinals. Junior attackman Joe Seider scored four goals and added an assist in the title game. Morgan Pritchett had two goals and an assist, and Freddy Bryant chipped in a goal and two assists. After opening the season with a loss to Gilman, the four-time defending Class 3A-2A state champion Bulls have won five straight.