Once while having an echocardiogram to test for heart damage from the breast cancer drug Herceptin, my technician asked me if I was a runner. "I do run," I told him, and then asked how he knew. He told me I had a really low resting heart rate, something runners often have. He seemed impressed by my low number. I was flattered.

Many athletes pride themselves on a low resting heart rate. It means they're in good physical shape and their hearts don't need to pump as hard, say the experts from Reader's Digest. Translation: Low heart rate folks have less risk for heart problems. Higher rates mean the heart needs more oxygen, and the cardiovascular system gets stressed.

The best way to reduce your heart rate is to exercise regularly. While working on your fitness, shoot for this healthy resting heart rate range: 55-65 heartbeats per minute.

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On Monday, I graduated from my rehab stint. Physical therapy rehab, that is. There was no big ceremony or anything. Just me and my therapist reviewing my progress over the past five weeks. It was pretty enlightening, what we talked about, and I left the clinic feeling both successful and motivated.

When I first walked through my rehab clinic doors, I wasn't sure anything could be done to fix the tightness, the limited range of motion, the sometimes pain I felt in the area of my left arm. It had been three long years since I'd had surgery to remove a breast cancer tumor, after all, and almost that long since radiation zapped the whole cancerous area. Both are to blame for what I was experiencing and the way I considered it, if my problems weren't solved long ago, there was little that could be done now.

I was wrong.

My therapist took tons of measurements when we first started working together. I moved, bent, stretched, pushed, and pulled so she could record numbers of all sorts. Then we spent weeks on our tasks. She massaged and manipulated and broke down scar tissue, stiffness, knots. Armed with weekly exercises, I stretched and strengthened by body at home. Together, we achieved victory -- my improved numbers prove it. I'm responsible for 50 percent of the success, my therapist tells me. She takes credit for the other 50 percent.

Before I left my final appointment, my expert shared a few parting words. Here they are.

• My posture is better. She could tell the moment I walked in the door. Must be the exercise in standing tall she'd given me during one visit and my new awareness of the poor posture I'd been carrying with me all these years.

• I should be sleeping on my back, not on my side. Back sleepers enjoy better alignment and less rounding of the shoulders -- one of my posture problems. My assignment from this moment on is to sleep on my back with one relatively flat pillow under my head. I should make sure my pillow fills the gap between my neck and my bed. I should enjoy the benefits of this technique immensely, says my therapist.

• Keep at it, says this same gal who streamlined all my at-home exercises and told me precisely what I need to do to hang on to the results the two of us have achieved.

Lots of you fail to stretch on a regular basis, because you have limited time right? I know it's hard. I'm a Mommy and a professional and I only get so much time to spend at the gym before I simply have to get somewhere else. It's like that for everyone. Given 60 minutes to train, most folks will choose cardio and strength cause those are the things that get us trimmer and harder.

Don't feel guilty about neglecting to stretch at the gym. It's OK. Just don't neglect to stretch all together. If I were to have my way 100% of the time, we'd all have time to do complete cardio, strength training, and stretching at each workout. It's simply not reality though. So......what do you do? Stretch throughout the day!

• When you wake up, stretch like a cat in your bed.
• Stretch out your triceps in the shower.
• Reach down and stretch your hamstrings while tying your shoes.
• While walking through a doorway, grab the door frames at shoulder height, continue to walk through and hold as you stretch your chest.
• While sitting at your desk, twist at the waist and stretch your low back.