Adequate recovery is essential to not only everyday health but also to improve athletic performance. After a training session or event, you should replenish all the things that were lost during activity: glycogen, fluid, and electrolytes. You also want to build and repair lean tissue, make new red blood cells, and promote healthy immune function.

Coordination and balance are signs of strength and are tied to vitality and overall quality of life, not just athletic performance. Working on coordination and balance is an important part of strength-training regimens, especially for adult athletes as they experience age-related muscle loss.

One of the reasons swimmers experience shoulder problems is because they often don’t target their shoulders with appropriate exercises to increase overall strength and mobility. If you have more durable shoulders, you’ll be a more durable swimmer.

You're on the ninth of 10 x 100s and push off the wall, psyched to bring the set home. After a burst of three dolphin kicks off the wall, it feels like a knife has suddenly pierced your calf muscles. Why does this keep happening? You grab the lane line and grimace while rubbing the screaming muscles and hoping the agony will subside.