I love to run but I have to keep my jogs to a minimum. Why? Knee pain. The rest of my body loves the thrill of running but my knees often cry out in protest, meaning I can only run once a week, maybe twice if I'm lucky.

Over at Fitsugar, they've come up with a novel tip to reduce knee pain caused by running: Run backwards. According to Runner's Rescue, this is called retro-running and in several recent studies, it's been shown to effectively reduce knee pain in runners. How does it work? It helps build and stretch your quadriceps and hamstrings to ultimately improve stability.

It doesn't sound easy, but practice makes perfect. Be sure to go slow, and alternate which way you turn your head to look behind you so you don't strain your neck.

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Today my son and I visited the driving range and there was a woman about my age wearing some pretty short shorts. I'm in my mid-30s, so I don't deem those very age appropriate anymore. But, on second glance, the woman looked darn good in those shorts. So, I quickly erased my judgment and decided that if she's got it, she might as well flaunt it.

Fitness Magazine has some tips from personal trainer, Jackie Warner -- star of Bravo's Work Out -- on how you can get your body in perfect shape for shorts. The beginner moves include the plie squat, the donkey kick, and the curtsy lunge. The combination of these three moves will work all the muscle groups that will keep you looking sexy in shorts -- the abs, glutes, hamstrings, and quads. The workout also includes intermediate and advanced twists on the beginner moves.

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What's the name of a person with one leg shorter than the other? Eileen. Sorry, couldn't resist. A chiropractor I visited several years ago stated I had uneven legs, and after a few back cracks and hip stretches they returned to their proper alignment a moment later.

Interestingly uneven legs are usually not the result of one leg bone shorter than the other. Commonly the problem emerges due to a tight hamstring (back of the upper leg) or iliotibial band -- the fascial sheath extending from the upper thigh down the side of the femur, attaching around the area of the knee joint. Runners suffering from muscle/tissue imbalance often overcompensate by favoring their longer leg, and this can lead to injury. However regularly adopting specific stretches can solve the problem and prevent future injuries.

Here's the test to see if your legs are uneven:

• Lie on your back on a flat surface with bare feet and legs together. A friend should place their palms on your hipbones (one hand per hipbone) and gently rock your hips back and forth by pressing left, then right, etc ... for one minute.
• After you're relaxed have your friend check if your anklebones are even. If they are uneven, do these 15 range-of-motion exercises offered by Runners World. Then immediately repeat the buddy stretch above.

If your legs are now even, an imbalance of muscles/tissues is the culprit, not a leg-length discrepancy. Keep up the exercises! If you're still uneven, you might want to seek further help from a sports medicine or orthopedic specialist to confirm and treat a true leg-length discrepancy.

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Just because summer isn't for several more months, it doesn't mean that it's time to let our exercise programs go. People tend to put on more weight during the colder months for a few reasons: 1) Because they probably won't be donning their bathing suits at the beach for quite some time, and 2) Because our bodies are designed to slow our metabolism down -- a carry-over from our more primitive days when food sources became more scarce during the cold season.

For these reasons, and probably about eight thousand others, it's a smart idea to keep stoking the flames of your metabolism right through these frosty months. So, to help you do just that, here's an exercise that that will help you burn some serious calories while toning up your legs.

Called the Step-Up, this cardiovascular movement will help you speed up your metabolism as you strengthen and tone your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and even your calves. To perform this exercise, start by standing in front of a weight bench or any safe substitute for one (tip: take two milk crates, spread them apart, and place a firm, wooden board over them -- a great, makeshift bench). Next, take your right foot and place it on the surface of the bench. From there, step-up onto the bench, using your right leg to power the rest of your body up.

I saw a physical therapist years ago for a sports injury. After an assessment she proclaimed, "You have the tightest hamstrings I've ever seen in a woman!" I felt like I was kicked in the gut. This famous Chicago p.t. had rehabbed thousands of patients over the years. A proclamation like that meant I absolutely had to start stretching my hams.

She gave me a 3 minute daily stretching exercise which I still do today. Initially, it hurt. But after a couple weeks, I felt like a new woman. My hamstrings were never sore, my back was loose, I felt this odd sense of relaxation throughout my whole body. Then I eventually discovered yoga, which is like 'stretching on steroids' to me. I feel like I have just departed a spa after yoga -- a state of relaxation unmatched by any sport.

Here are a few hamstring exercises. The door jam exercise is similar to the stretches I perform, however I use a rope or towel to pull back the raised leg, not a wall. I also stretch the raised leg in the 11:00 am, noon and 1:00 pm positions for 30 seconds each. The best 1 1/2 minutes per leg ever spent. Don't cheat the stretch -- make sure your other leg lays flat on the floor.

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The hamstring muscles, found on the backs of your thighs, are big players not only in fitness and exercise activities, but also in the every day movements of regular living. And unfortunately when a large muscle suffers an injury, such as in a pulled hamstring, it can really put a kink in your plans.

So before every exercise session, or even anytime you're feeling stiff, try this stretch to limber up and get the blood flowing: Sit on the floor with one leg out in front of you and the other leg bent at the knee with the sole of your foot up against the inside of the straight leg. Lean forward slightly, touching your toes if you can. Keep your toes (on the straightened leg) upright and hold the stretching position for 30 seconds. Switch legs and repeat.

And remember that stretching is important for all muscles, for every body!

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