1. DO: Address other people and say, “Good-lookin’ dog.” DON’T: Ask a dog his name. He doesn’t speak English.
2. DO: Bend at the knees to avoid being toppled during scrums. DON’T: Shout “He’s friendly!” as your dog barrels toward others. (“Watch out!” is acceptable.)
3. DO: Keep your dog under control. DON’T: Remark “Oh, look—they’re friends” as your dog violently humps another.
4. DO: Scoop poop. DON’T: Vow to clean it up later.

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The Urban Dweller’s Life-Hack Manual

Rule the Dog Park

1. DO: Address other people and say, “Good-lookin' dog.” DON'T: Ask a dog his name. He doesn't speak English.
2. DO: Bend at the knees to avoid being toppled during scrums. DON'T: Shout “He's friendly!” as your dog barrels toward others. (“Watch out!” is acceptable.)
3. DO: Keep your dog under control. DON'T: Remark “Oh, look—they're friends” as your dog violently humps another.
4. DO: Scoop poop. DON'T: Vow to clean it up later.

Cut a Mountain-Bike Trail

1. Know who uses your local park, and build a consensus about the need for trails. Then connect with the parks-and-rec department. “Don’t go in there expecting them to hand you the keys,” says Dawson Smith, cofounder of the New York City Mountain Bike Association, which promoted the Fort George Hill Trails at Highbridge Park in Manhattan.

2. Prove you have the manpower to build and maintain the trails. Secure funding with a Recreation Trails Grant, given out by the Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration. Contact your state’s recreational-trails administrator for guidance.

3. Connect with Trail Solutions, the ‘s consulting program. It knows how to make the best trails, and, equally important, its support tells park managers you mean business.

4. Once your trail is cut, cultivate a volunteer army and hold events to increase use. Since Highbridge opened, NYCMTB has held numerous races, including Hustle and Flow, which combined downhill, mountain bike, and BMX.

Grow Your Own

The key to maximizing garden production in a city: small pots equal big yields. Here, Colin McCrate, co-owner of the garden-design firm Seattle Urban Farm Company, dispenses advice on what to plant.

1. Salad greens. Fresh-picked arugula, spinach, and mustard greens can add kick to a store-bought salad. They grow fast in the cooler spring months, allowing you to reuse pots for hot summer plants.

2. Tomatoes. One or two plants is enough. “Cherry tomatoes are the best way to start,” McCrate says. “They’re the most vigorous, highest-yielding crops you can get.” Go with Sun Gold for the plumpest results.

3. Beans. To avoid stringing bean poles, get the bush variety. They produce a ton.

4. Herbs. Most grow quickly and thrive in containers. Basil is a great producer, but be sure to buy it as a transplant rather than starting with seeds. Add oregano, rosemary, and thyme to turn your planter into a traditional Italian mix.

Build a Commuter Bike

Strip an old steel road bike to the frame. Work with a shop to equip it with a single-speed drivetrain using the rear wheel listed below, then top it all off with the following components.

1. Wheels: Paul Dorn, co-author of The Bike to Work Guide, recommends a beefy rear wheel to support the extra load (laptop, books, lunch). Have the shop lace up a Miche Primato hub (from $111; ) to a Sun ME14A rim ($31; sun-ringle.com). Retread the bike’s existing front wheel.

2. Pedals: Opt for sturdy two-sided BMX pedals like the Diamondback Sounds ($40; ). If you wear cleats, the Shimano PD-M324 ($85, ) has a clipless attachment on the flip side.

3. Handlebars: Get a riser bar so you’ll be more upright and visible in traffic (from $13; ).

4. Lights: The main idea is to be seen. Knog offers some of the best, easiest-to-mount LED lights (from $16; ).

5. Lock: Low-profile commuters get stolen just as frequently as flashy rides. Improve your odds with the cut-resistant TiGr lock (see our review). ($125; )

Crush Clutter

Alpinist Colin Haley lives in a 300-square-foot shack outside Seattle, which means that if he doesn’t keep his gear arranged, he can’t find his bed. Here are his top three organizational tips.

1. Keep your really small gear in clearly labeled Tupperware containers, which can then be stowed inside sport-specific dresser drawers. Stuff sacks also work great.

2. Hang the big inventory—bikes, kayaks, surfboards—from ropes, racks, or hefty screw-in hooks. This capitalizes on the underutilized top third of your room.

3. When you get home from a trip, spend the extra time to unpack and return everything to its proper place.

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Andy Bagnall had exactly what he wanted in his girlfriend of six months. She was a water-loving, mountain-biking, outdoor junkie who introduced him to backcountry skiing. Now, the 27-year-old was going to introduce her to his sport: whitewater kayaking. Bagnall started kayaking as a 12-year-old boy scout, and he’d dished plenty of pointers to his guy friends seeking whitewater training. His early dates with his girlfriend involved floating and paddling trips, just not on whitewater. So, he thought, no big deal to give her a quick lesson on the basics and head out.

Matt Wilson

Matt Wilson, owner of Telluride Kayak School, and student.

The first roadblock came when Bagnall tried to teach her to roll. The roll is one of the more difficult kayaking skills for beginners to master. She hated the feeling of going upside-down under water, and Bagnall couldn’t teach around the problem. Bickering ensued. “The roll adds heightened stress to any situation,” Bagnall recalls. “Both of us were alphas in our own right, and maybe we were both stubborn. I was guessing at the situation and didn’t really know what to offer her.”

The kayaking eventually worked out, but the head butting during the kayaking lesson proved that their relationship was fallible. A few months down the line they weren’t together, in or out of the water.

One year after the roll-induced relationship fiasco, Bagnall was teaching raw beginners over as a certified instructor at Telluride Kayak School. He now sees why his teaching inexperience caused problems in his relationship, and lucky for you, he wants to share his wisdom.

1. EVALUATE HER FEAR
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is easy to gloss over. When suggesting an adventure sport, think about the key points that might make someone nervous. With a sport like kayaking, you’d evaluate how much she fears water and speed. “You can’t just decide to go kayaking,” Bagnall says. “Getting overwhelmed with the sport will ruin it for anybody.”

Once you’ve identified her fear be sure to respect it, says Dr. Warren Farrell, relationship expert and author of Women Can’t Hear what Men Don’t Say. “Let your partner know they always have control,” Farrell says. “And ask them how they’d like the process to occur.” By letting her dictate the process she will have more control, and a better handle on her fear.

2. TEACH TO HER STRENGTHS
There are three main categories of learning—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic—and professional instructors are taught to use all three. Here is a quick cheat sheet to help you identify which of the three main categories she falls under. After you identify how she learns, think about how to tailor your lessons to that method.

Visual: Does she tend to draw you pictures when she’s telling stories?

Try demonstrating the mechanics of kayaking, so she can see the dos and don’ts. A toy kayak and a hypothetical river course will help her understand how to navigate rapids. If you want to go all out, bring a video camera to the lesson so she can watch herself and see exactly what she is doing wrong—and right.

Auditory: Does she talk through work problems by giving you a blow by blow?

Women tend to need to understand the reasons behind mechanics. Don’t just explain what they need to do, explain why it works to do it that way. For example, when teaching boat control, men are more likely to go for it first and understand mechanics later, whereas women want to understand why strokes work, so they can think through controlling the boat before actually doing the task.

Kinesthetic: Does she gesture a lot while talking?

She will need to physically go through the skills as you teach them. Be sure to start out in a pool or calm pond where she can concentrate on getting a feel for the movement, and you can manipulate her body when she doesn’t get it quite right.

If one tactic isn’t working, try another. Presenting something in different ways is better than repeating the same instructions endlessly.

3. GO SLOW
Once you understand her teaching style, pick an easy spot for learning, scope it out, and take it slow.

Bagnall went wrong because he tried to teach the whole roll in one lesson. When things didn’t progress smoothly, he had no backup plan and became frustrated. You’ll want to start with the basics, anticipate a slow learning curve, and be prepared to stop and come back to a point at another time. “The key is to just take baby steps,” said Bagnall. “Have fun, build confidence, and leave people wanting more at the end of the day rather than wishing they had not done as much as they had.”

For a sport like kayaking, the initial lesson might go something like this.

–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Find the perfect spot: Look for flat water with an easy entry
–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Identify the equipment on-shore: Without teaching her kayaking vocabulary, she won’t understand what you are saying when you reference specifics later.
–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Getting In and the Wet Exit: Before anything else, she needs to know how to get in and out of the boat. Go over this in detail and have her practice in a few different easy to enter and exit locations.
–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Proper strokes: She will need to master holding the paddle correctly as well as a forward sweep and forward stroke, before making the jump from flat to moving water.
–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý T-rescue: Knowing this rescue means that she can right herself without having to swim or roll.
–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý If she’s comfortable, teach her the roll. Try this with your girl: stand in the water and demonstrate the starting and ending position of the roll. Then guide her through the mechanics of getting from point A to B. By standing right there, you will reassure her that nothing bad will happen, and you will see where she is going wrong.
–ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý Move to something fun: If the roll doesn’t come, she can still practice moving around. Save the roll for another practice. If the roll comes, do a simple run in slow moving water.

4. OFFER HER A SANDWICH
Your relationship puts additional stress on the learning environment. In addition to any other fears she might have, your girlfriend will experience a natural fear of disappointing you. A teaching method called The Sandwich is the best way to combat this insecurity. Sandwich each negative comment between two positive comments—For example, say you want to tell her she needs to keep her head down as she rolls, rather than just saying “keep your head down” go for the longer winded, but more effective:Ěý “You’re staying relaxed underwater—perfect—but you need to keep your head down as your roll toward the surface, but your body awareness is excellent.”

It won’t hurt to think up some positives before the lesson, just in case she struggles. It’s much harder to come up with new positives in the moment, especially if you’re frustrated. And, You look hot when you’re angry, does not count.

5. BE FLEXIBLE
If all else fails, remember that you don’t have to learn together. You might think this defeats the purpose, but it could be the better way to go. Married couples tend to prefer to learn separately, while young lovers try to do everything together. Learning separately can still bring the relationship closer, provided both parties are actively engaged in the process. “It helps to see your partner each day during the lesson process,” Farrel says. “It’s important to let your partner share her progress step by step.”

If she wants to learn to kayak, let her do it. You don’t have to be by her side to support her new hobby. Once the heavy learning is out of the way, you can still enjoy the sport together.

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The fitness world has seen plenty of crazes, but is one of the oddest. Created in 2007 by world-class gymnast Christopher Harrison, the workout takes place a few feet above the ground inside a silk hammock. Sound a little too West Palm Beach and wheat grass for you? Harrison swears by the spine and hip stretching techniques, especially for runners and cyclists. Proponents claim that balancing on the swinging silk enhances abdominal workouts and encourages your body to stretch that extra inch. Still sound too gimmicky? We called Harrison for a little bit more background.

How did AntiGravity yoga begin?
AntiGravity is actually an acrobatic performance troupe, and early on we went to India to do the opening number for the Miss India pageant. I wasn’t able to perform because my body was beat up, but while I was there I discovered yoga. Later, we had a retreat at Club Med, and they had a gazebo with eight hammocks that we all played on and made up these cool flips. We put a similar thing up in our gym and found that hanging upside down for a minute would take all the kinks out.

What is an AntiGravity class like?
First off, when you come into class, they measure the hammock exactly for your body, to allow you to evenly distribute your weight between the hammock and the floor. We start with a sun salutation from yoga, go through a conditioning and upper-body strength section, and a core workout. At the end of the class we do some inversions, handstands, and the skydiver (where you are hanging upside down from your legs).

Why are the inversions so important?
When you hang upside down you decompress your spinal column, allowing space to open in between each vertebra, hydrating each disk. If anything is pinched, it gets space. The movements are designed to work on joint mobility, making your spine more flexible. The cheetah is the fastest animal in the world because of its ability to move its spine in both directions. So what we are doing is creating more space in our spine and more mobility in our joints, which, for an athlete, makes you faster.

How else can this benefit the regular athlete?
If you want to stay free from injury, you want to have equal balance with strength and flexibility. Cyclists have really tight hips, especially cyclists who work at a day job where they are sitting in front of a computer. Cyclists who take the yoga class find that it is the best hip-opening technique. There are hip-opening positions you can do on the hammock you would never be able to do any other way, because of the fact you are hanging upside down to do them. Gravity is actually helping open up your hips.

How difficult is it to succeed at hanging upside down in an AntiGravity yoga class?
It’s a lot easier than it looks. We have the regular housewives club, and I’ve got a group of flipping grannies from Halifax, Nova Scotia, who are all doing the class. I have housewives in Ireland who are blowing everyone’s mind with the cardio that they do.

Why not just use gravity boots?
The problem with those is they put tension in your ankles. For AntiGravity yoga you hang from your hips, which is where your spine starts. That allows your spine to decompress and align.

Any unusual perks?
We are doing research on this now, but some people have found themselves an inch taller from the class.

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Tainted Love

Lance is gone, the current champ is embroiled in scandal, and many of the riders lining up on July 2 for this year’s Tour de France will be cheating. So what? It’s still the most exciting three-week event in sports. Six reasons even non-believers should keep watching.

1. It’s Still Better Than Baseball

IF LIFE’S PLEASURES form the bedrock of happiness, my guiltiest one goes like this: Every July, I call up my local cable provider to request a 30-day upgrade, paying a mere $5 for the soothing companionship of Paul Sherwen, Phil Liggett, and the rest of the Tour de France coverage team at the Versus network. We’ll spend 23 blissful days together. Each morning I’ll wake to the sound of Liggett’s breathless accounts of meaningless sprint finishes (“He nips him at the line, but only just!”), key mountaintop battles (“He’s got the bit between the teeth!”), and stunning helicopter shots of the French terrain (“Just look at that buttress!”).

Each night I’ll settle in for the bonus coverage, watching it all over again in slow motion, tolerating Bob Roll’s spastic analysis of remaining contenders like Andy Schleck and Denis Menchov. During these brief studio segments, the hosts will wring their hands and discuss the latest doping controversy, but it’s always mercifully short. You’re in a safe place at Versus; they’ll never pierce your dreamy bubble of denial. When the champion is finally crowned, I’ll pour my own glass of champagne, savoring a victory that will inevitably be revoked due to scandal in the coming weeks. But no worries—I’ve been here before. I’ll just memorize the name of the second-place finisher. Was it Óscar Pereiro or Óscar Freire?

This year, as with the past few, there are people who will want to take this right away from me. They’ll say the whole event is a sham, that cycling is beyond ­salvation. They’ll point out the string of recent champions who have been embroiled in doping controversy. They’ll say they’re tired of me ignoring the kids and mono­polizing our one television. And for a ­moment, I’ll think they’re right and begin my annual sulk. But then I’ll remember: drugs don’t kill cycling; cyclists kill cycling. And I’ll raise my right hand high in the air, clutching my remote. From my cold dead hands, I’ll say.

2. Podium Girl Laura Shelton ­Antoine Knows As Much As Phil Liggett

ON DOPING
You have to put it in perspective. There’s doping in every sport, and cycling is one of the hardest sports in the world. American football? Come on. It’s the nature of the beast of professional sports. If someone wants to not watch the Tour because of the doping scandals, that’s their prerogative, but you can’t go watch ­another sport. They all have their scandals.
ON THE GREEN SPRINTER’S JERSY
Mark Cavendish has ruled the sprints, and I expect him to win again on the Champs-Élysées. He really saves up to win that stage. When he’s on, no one can beat him.
ON THE YELLOW JERSEY
Andy Schleck is going to pull through. I know how bad he wants it. After losing it to Contador last year, he will not give it up again this year. He’s a nice guy, but you can see how much he wants to win.

3. Records* Could Be Broken

*medical records

4. The Pros Have Great Training Tips

As many bike racers will tell you (off the record, at night, under a bridge), blood doping—using transfusions to boost one’s percentage of oxygen-carrying red blood cells—is still the most effective way to gain an edge. Floyd Landis has claimed that he, Lance Armstrong, and other members of U.S. Postal used transfusions during Lance’s string of Tour victories, in part because they’re impossible to detect. (Or were. The World Anti-Doping Agency now has a test that will turn up trace amounts of blood-bag plastic in the body.) We consulted several doctors to show you how it’s done, but we do not suggest you try this at home.

1. Tap a vein.
During the off-season, draw a pint—or several dozen—of your own blood. (Never use a friend’s, which could kill you or raise red flags during a drug test.) Next, add an anticoagulant, such as citrate. Blood bags manufactured by Pall ($15; pall.com) come equipped with 16-gauge needles and are preloaded with anticoagulant.

2. Save it for later.
Freeze your blood to store it.
Put the bags on a Burrell Model AA wrist-action shaker ($1,850; burrellsci.com), then add intravenous-grade glycerol to keep those endurance-boosting red cells from bursting when they freeze.
Store the blood in a liquid-nitrogen freezer ($3,756; bsilab.com) at minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit.

3. Thaw and reinject.
Grab a cold bag and dunk it in a 98.6-degree water bath.
Wash out the glycerol, another potentially lethal and detectable foreign substance, by spinning it off in a Unico large-capacity variable-speed centrifuge ($1,695; medicus-health.com). Reinject your blood over a two-hour period using a gravity drop. Massages and bus breakdowns offer good cover. Side effects include stroke, staph infections, and feigned indignity.

ACCESSORIES
come in a variety of colors. $16 per roll
A can help locate hard-to-find blood vessels. $219
conveniently organize your blood-doping supplies. $199

5. You Can Make It Interesting

The odds on the Tour’s top contenders as of May

6. The Stories They Tell

Cycling history’s most inventive alibis for drug scandals

After testing positive for the veterinary steroid clenbuterol in 2010, Alberto Contador offered a bad-meat defense and then lashed out. “I believed in the anti-doping system,” he said. “I no longer believe.” The controversy won’t prevent him from racing in this year’s Tour, but it did earn him a spot on our list.

1. 1983
Adri van der Poel
Dutch Tour de France Rider
SUBSTANCE: Strychnine
EXCUSE: His father fed him pie made from euthanized pigeons.

2. 1992
Alexi Grewal
1984 U.S. Olympic road-race gold medalist
SUBSTANCE: Opiates
EXCUSE: He’d gorged himself on poppyseed muffins.

3. 2002
Frank Vandenbroucke
Belgian wunderkind
SUBSTANCE: Possession of EPO, morphine, and clenbu­terol
EXCUSE: They were medicines for his anemic dog.

4. 2002
Edita Rumsas
wife of Lithuanian Raimondas Rumsas, who finished third at that year’s Tour
SUBSTANCE: HGH, EPO, and a dozen other banned materials found in her car by French customs agents as she was leaving the countryĚý
EXCUSE: They were for her mother.

5. 2004
Tyler Hamilton
2004 Olympic gold medalist
SUBSTANCE: Caught with somebody else’s DNA in his blood
EXCUSE: The DNA came from his chimeric twin, which had died in utero and been absorbed by Hamilton.

6. 2006
Floyd Landis
dethroned Tour champion
DRUG: Testosterone
EXCUSE: General manliness and whiskey were to blame for above-normal T levels.

7. 2007
Björn Leukemans
Belgian journeyman
DRUG: Testosterone
EXCUSE: Hey, he was having sex when the drug testers showed up unannounced to take his urine sample.

8. 2010
Alberto Contador
DRUG: Clenbuterol
EXCUSE: His steak was contaminated.

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