“Probably 15 percent of the injuries that I see are directly related to ill-fitting, improper, or worn-out shoes,” says Perry Julien, the Atlanta podiatrist who was in charge of athletes’ foot care for the 1996 Olympic Games. “The right shoe is critical to optimizing performance and preventing injury.” Short of taking Julien along with you, the way to ensure that you choose proper-fitting hiking boots and running shoes is to follow these guidelines:

1. Forget what you know. Strange as it sounds, figuring your size can be dicey, says Phil Oren, internationally known master boot fitter. Start by standing on a Brannock device (that cold metal gizmo found in shoe stores) with your full weight. Take one measurement from the heel to the longest toe. Then take a second based on the alternative method that uses the doodad that snugs to the ball of your foot. Go with the longer of the two sizes.”It’s the proportions of your foot that will ultimately effect what size you buy,” notes Oren. “You need a boot or shoe to bend where your foot bends.”

2. And forget again. Do the above every time you buy a new pair of shoes. Why? The ligaments and tendons in your feet relax as you age, causing them, in effect, to grow.

3. Buy fat. Head to the store late in the day, when your feet are at their pudgiest. “With boots, consider buying an even bigger pair if you’re going to be wearing them most often at elevation or carrying a heavy load,” says Julien, noting that high altitude and the weight of a pack can also cause your feet to swell.

4. Take stock of your socks. First, settle on the type of hosiery your feet need. “Most people just stick with the cotton tube sock they use for everything,” says Oren. “It’s a bad habit.” If you’re prone to blisters, you may need a silk liner; if you sweat a lot, you’ll want an acrylic or polypropylene sock to wick moisture; if your feet are forever cold, try wool.

5. Be flexible. Before you slip on your prospective purchase, make sure it isn’t too stiff. “Hiking boots and running shoes should bend without too much pressure,” says Phyllis Ragley, president of the American Academy of Podiatric Sports Medicine. Holding the shoe firmly by its heel, push up on the toe with two fingers. If it doesn’t bend easily, it may well strain your foot muscles.

Feign interest in joining the climate-controlled confines of your local health club, and you’ll soon be snowed under by a blizzard of value-added incentives. A complimentary session with a personal trainer. Logo-emblazoned fanny pack. Even a free body-fat test. Our advice? Opt for the trainer and skip the test — it won’t tell you much.

That is, at least not according to a study of 16 competitive bodybuilders — folks who live and die by their body-fat percentages — in which Loren Cordain, an exercise physiologist at Colorado State University, found that results from three different body-fat testing methods commonly used at health clubs varied so widely as to be useless. When pinched by calipers, the pump-you-uppers’ body fat averaged 10.4 percent; when dunked in an underwater weighing tank, it rose to 12.5 percent; and when zapped by electricity (fat offers more resistance to electrical currents than muscle, bone, or fluid), it shot up to 16.7 percent. Even retesting using the same technique yields troubling inconsistencies: In a University of Arizona study, researchers deployed four different brands of calipers on the same subject and came up with four different measurements. “Short of carcass analysis,” says Cordain, “there are no absolute ways to test body-fat composition.”

Besides, there’s new proof that body-fat percentage is hardly the be-all and end-all of fitness. A soon-to-be-released study performed at the acclaimed Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research, which monitored 22,000 men, showed that clinically overweight yet clinically fit men had one-third the risk of dying early from cardiovascular disease as men considered to be of normal weight but who fared poorer on a treadmill test. Food for thought, as it were.

Tony Meibock has legs that are bigger than most folks’ waists. And he doesn’t spend the bulk of his days fighting to keep them. Since his retirement after the ’92 Games, the 31-year-old former Olympic speed skater has focused most of his energy designing in-line skates for K2 and refining the skating technique of professional hockey players from the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames — leaving him time for little more than the following routine. Though the rest of us may aspire to less gargantuan limbs, we can all make good use of Meibock’s working stiff’s leg plan. To power up your gams for everything from cycling to a pickup game of soccer, Meibock suggests adding this set of exercises to your normal weight regimen twice a week. Perform each move in succession for 30 seconds, followed by five minutes of running or walking, and then repeat the circuit. The routine will take under 20 minutes.

Dry Skate Stand in a skating position: feet together, legs bent as if you’re about to sit down, lower back slightly bent, and hands resting on the small of your back. Now simulate skating in place: Leading with your hip, glide to the left until you’re crouching over your left leg, right leg fully extended to the side. Drag your right foot in to meet your left foot — but don’t stand upright. Think of your hips moving sideways along a lateral plane while you switch legs and continue.

Duck Walk On a grassy field or lawn, position yourself as if at the end of a lunge: back slightly bent, right foot forward, knee bent at 90 degrees, left knee grazing the ground. Fold one arm at the small of your back and leave the other free to swing like a speed skater’s. Now simply walk forward, low to the ground, scuffing your toes to keep your balance.

Forward Leg Switch Start in a “scissor stance,” with your right leg forward, knee bent 90 degrees, and your left leg back and bent slightly. Now jump straight up and switch legs, before landing in the mirror position. Explode up again as soon as you touch ground.

Single-Leg Squats With your upper body in the skating position, balance your weight on your left leg, holding your right foot just above the ground behind you. Drop into a squat position, bending your left leg until your thigh is parallel to the ground, and come all the way up. Go down and up in smooth, one-second repetitions.

When skimming face-first down a head-high roller, a bodyboarder’s steering apparatus has to be dependably strong. This makes the venerable dip the exercise of choice for devotees of recumbent wave-riding and, by extension, for any other athlete who wants to power up his triceps and outer chest. “To steer across a wave, you rely almost entirely on your shoulders and arms,” says Guilherme Tamega, four-time world-champion bodyboarder and globe-trotting wave- chaser. “And the dip is portable.” Indeed, the move requires nothing more than a couple of chairs or benches to work its muscular magic. Sit on the floor, legs extended in front of you, and position two stable chairs at either side, slightly more than shoulder-width apart. Put your hands on the seats and push up, lifting your keister — but not your heels — off the ground. Next, lower yourself to within a couple inches of the floor, and then press back up. Repeat the dip 15 times, working up to four sets three times a week, or at least as often as your bodyboarding schedule permits.

Mike Teti, coach of the U.S. men’s rowing team, has become something of a reluctant expert on backs. A 12-year national-team rower, Teti competed in three Olympics — and was suffering with herniated discs during two of the Games. “Your lower back acts as a lever in rowing, transferring the force generated by the legs up to the arms,” Teti says. “Rowing improperly or training too hard can easily hurt your back.” Recently, though, Teti’s lower back has remained trouble free, thanks to a simple stretching and strengthening program he developed with team physicians. Teti and his rowers do the following four exercises before and after every water workout.

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“Your abs are the center of your explosiveness,” says perennially top-ranked McPeak, which might explain exactly why she raps out as many as, oh, 1,500 various crunches a night — with no rest between different sets. For good measure, she supplements this cheery regimen with three grueling weight and gym-equipment workouts a week. Why the seeming overkill? To hit all of her abdominal muscles, from every angle. “In my sport, there’s a lot of twisting and diving,” McPeak says, “so you need strength on your sides, as well as the middle of your stomach.” McPeak recommends the following exercises to strengthen your entire abdominal region. Her only caveat: Pay close attention to technique. “If you do 1,500 crunches but don’t do them right,” she asks, “what’s the point?

Photograph by David Roth

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If crunches make you cringe, consider the Pilates Method to strengthen your trunk. Unlike conventional workouts, reverence for the torso is the very cornerstone of this elaborate system of exercise. “Most programs work from the extremities in,” says Carol Appel, a certified instructor in San Francisco. “With Pilates, you focus on developing the abdominals and back first, and then work your way out to the limbs.” The full-body technique comprises some 500 precise “movements” using a mat or one of four unique pieces of equipment — including the spooky-sounding reformer (shown above), a contraption whose leather straps and pulleys give it an alarming resemblance to something Torquemada might have employed — to strengthen your muscles through variable resistance. The movements emphasize controlled breathing and require great focus to perfect, which may explain why Pilates disciples are so uptight about how you practice the method. They’ll insist that you need a one-on-one session with a certified instructor, about $45 an hour, to work that Pilates magic (call 800-474-5283 for information). But we see no harm in trying the following mat movement at home. Lie on the floor, feet flat directly beneath your knees. Bridge your pelvis off the floor, hold your hips with your hands and place your elbows on the floor. Your ribs, hips, and knees should be in line, your shoulders on the floor. Now inhale and lift one leg, straighten it toward the ceiling, and point your toe. As you exhale slowly, flex your foot and lower your leg to the starting position. Do three reps and repeat with other leg.

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Bring Back the Jack

The last time you did jumping jacks was probably in preparation for a rousing game of sixth-grade kickball. Since then, the jack has been outshone by trendier maneuvers, but it remains damn fine exercise. “It’s one of those fundamental movements that benefits the everyday athlete,” says Radu, New York City’s fitness guru for the well-to-do. “It has great cardiovascular results, yet it strengthens the shoulders, hips, knees, ankles…” And so on.
Here’s a refresher of your grammar-school form: Arms at your sides and feet together, simultaneously jump your feet out to a stance just wider than your shoulders and bring your palms together above your head. Be sure to stay on the balls of your feet and bend your knees slightly. Jump back to the starting position. For a warm-up, do 40 reps with no rest. For a quick, stand-alone workout, do three sets of 50 to 100 reps. To stave off jumping-jack ennui, widen your stance or scissor your legs forward.

— Daryn Eller

Trunk work should complement your existing regimen, so to include it simply divide the exercises laid out on these pages into two workouts. On mat days, you’ll do crunches without weights, and stretches — it’ll take ten minutes. On gym days, you’ll do all of these exercises. They’ll take 25 minutes with a short aerobic warm-up. Alternate the two workouts for six consecutive days, and then take one day of rest.

BACK

Mat Day
Do one set of ten pelvic rotations as well as right and left knee tucks. Then do one set of five knee tucks with both legs.

Gym Day
In addition to the stretches, do one set of ten arm and leg salutes, and one set of five back extensions (build to three sets of ten for each exercise).

STOMACH

Mat Day
Do one set of 30 two-count crunches as well as both right and left side crunches (build to three sets of 30 for each exercise).

Gym Day
In addition to the two crunches, do one set of 20 weight crunches and one set of ten ab strap knee-lifts (build to three sets of 30), resting one minute between sets.
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HIPS

Mat Day
Do one hip flexor stretch on each side.

Gym Day
In addition to the stretch, do one set of 15 leg raises, side leg raises, and scissors (build to one set of 45 for each exercise).

Designed to improve balance, coordination, and flexibility, an hourlong NIA class will have you striking yoga’s downward facing dog pose one minute, grunting out a round of tae kwon do-inspired punches to amplified Beck riffs the next, and then gracefully segueing into a slow, shoeless shimmy. “Martial arts teach mental focus and discipline but are extremely linear and tend to work in programmed patterns,” explains New York City instructor Megan MacArthur. “NIA, on the other hand, helps your body to explore all angles.” By which she means that the fresh-air athlete will be more closely mirroring the real motions of outdoor sports.

NIA won’t leave you huffing like a step-aerobics class — the workout goes in peaks and valleys — but it will defuse some of that workaday wired feeling. It dovetails nicely with most programs because it’s low-impact, and the risk of injury is practically nil. Unless, of course, your neighbor gets carried away trying to toss off a kick-boxing move while you’re deep into tai chi.