Eric Heiden

Folks don't know their full potential until they know their VO2max. Exercise performance physician Massimo Testa, M.D., is one of the foremost experts on VO2max in the world. He explains that your cardiovascular fitness score tells you how efficiently...

Christine Thorburg, also a physician, came to see my colleague Massimo Testa, M.D., and me after she had knee ligament reconstruction. She'd run cross-country in college and had done some recreational cycling at age 30, but that was about it. She asked us...

Even the most robust exercise program won't grant you true fitness if you don't take control of your diet. Exercise changes virtually every tissue in the body via many different pathways -- metabolic, hormonal, neurological and mechanical—says...

As anticipation for the Olympic Games in Vancouver reaches a crescendo, many assume the athletes are also in a frenzy. They picture speedskater Shani Davis or alpine skier Lindsey Vonn putting in the hardest workouts of their lives in the days leading...

Muscle soreness 24 to 48 hours after you exercise is a good sign. It means that you have challenged your muscles and are getting stronger. This is called delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS), and everyone experiences it, even elite athletes. Here's how...

A top athlete who is exhausted and underperforming but experiencing no other symptoms will nonetheless be tested for allergies or exercise-induced asthma and offered treatment. As is the case with many advances in sports performance medicine, however,...

The Tour of California bike race, which attracted a large field of world-class cyclists this year, was held recently. In the first stage, a number of cyclists crashed just before the finish line. I was working the race, and I'm happy to report that...

A top athlete who is exhausted and underperforming but experiencing no other symptoms will nonetheless be tested for allergies or exercise-induced asthma and offered treatment. As is the case with many advances in sports performance medicine, however,...

Quite a buzz was generated this spring by a Harvard study showing that losing weight via exercise is more difficult than previously thought. One of the pitfalls was an insufficient amount of exercise. The study, published in the Journal of the American...

Growing up, my parents taught us that the best activities are the ones that you can enjoy your entire life. As the senior tennis champion of Madison, Wis., my mother set a good example. According to a meta-analysis published in The British Journal of...

The Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a report recommending that adults do muscle-strengthening exercises for all major muscle groups at least twice a week. That's on top of at least 150 minutes of moderate (or 75 minutes of...

When speedskater J.R. Celski won his first Olympic medal with a bronze in the men's 1,500-meter short track at the Vancouver Olympics, I found his success remarkable. It answered important questions I had about Celski's recovery from the bad injury he had...