Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answers. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose one per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz. My doctor told me that that I have "hip instability" and I should work on it, but I have not idea what to do. What types of exercises will improve the strength in my hips? Leena

A. Hi Leena, Great question. I'm sorry your doctor didn't recommend a few visits with a physical therapist, though. That probably would have given you the perfect solution for your situation. Having said that, I work on this a lot with many of my clients, and there are some pretty simple exercises you can do to make your hips more stable.

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I like nothing more than a workout that burns major calories but still ends up being a lot of fun. That's why I enjoy doing dance classes, especially the ones at which I'm pretty terrible -- I just laugh the whole way through. And, I imagine that's pretty much how I think my first try with an Indo Board Balance Trainer would go.

The Indo Board offers a tremendous core workout, which is important whether you're an athlete, a model, or just Joe Schmoe. It's great practice for any board sport, like surfing (which is what Zac Efron uses it for), wakeboarding, water/snow skiing, and more. And, it can be used to improve skills in a variety of other sports, including football, basketball, golf, volleyball, and more.

You can use the standard Indo Board roller that comes with the board, or switch it out for an IndoFLO Balance Cushion, which eliminates all abrupt changes in direction and offers an even more complete workout.

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For more innovative training techniques visit ...

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Skinnier? You? Want to see it? You can! WeightView.com offers you the opportunity, for free, to see yourself at the weight you're striving to become. All you have to do is upload a photo and enter your desired weight loss. Within 48 hours, WeightView.com will email you an image resembling what you would look like.

Talk about motivational tools! The ability to actually see yourself in the body you want to be in? Priceless. Figuratively, and literally. (Remember, I told you it was free!).

Have you been struggling unsuccessfully to lose weight? Maybe it's because the end result just does not feel tangible enough. This little bit of technology might just be what puts you over the edge to a fitter and leaner body.

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I know what you're thinking -- it's a hand weight. Big deal. But is that really all it is? The XCO Trainer promises to "boost your cardiovascular system and increase weight loss by up to a third more" by building and toning muscles while strengthening surrounding tissue and stabilizing joints.

That sounds pretty complex to me -- let's look a little closer at what it does.

Each movement you make creates a delayed soft-impact due to the free-flowing silicone granulates within each foot-long tube. Based on the notion of "Reactive Impact," your body has to work harder to accommodate this shifting of weight, or secondary load, which generates faster results for you.

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I just received a few Element Bars in the mail, and instantly knew I'd need to share them with you. If you're a person who likes to have a protein/energy bar on occasion when you can't grab a meal, or uses them as a healthier version of snacks or desserts ... Element Bars are a fantastic choice. Why? You can design them yourself!

The process is really quite fun, and you'd be surprised how personalized these bars can be. You get to choose things like: bar texture, fruits, nuts, sweets, and nutritional boosters. Once you've made your purchase, the bar you receive in the mail will literally be a custom bar created by you!

I ordered a few of the most popular Element Bars and enjoyed them all. My favorite was "Chocolate Nut Pie". I couldn't decide whether this bar tasted more like chocolate chip cookie dough or brownies, but either way ... it was delicious. I'm actually in the process of trying to keep lean for a photo shoot coming up for of all things, my abs. Ugh! But the bars I chose are high in protein and fiber and low in sugars, so fortunately they fit in with my plan.

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A few weeks ago, I received one of my favorite fitness tools to date. I'm a massive proponent of training with our own body weight. For most of us, it's the heaviest weight we will ever lift. From my eyes as a fitness trainer, we are all just a bunch of massive dumbbells. Isn't that nice of me to say? So my little dumbbells ... I have a cool new tool for you! The Lebert Equalizer will add some fun and give you a bunch of neat things to do with that delightfully heavy body of yours.

The Lebert Equalizer is perfect for pull-ups, push-ups, dips, decline rows, scull crushers, planks and tons of other fantastic strength and cardiovascular training exercises as well. It's light-weight, portable, versatile and not too pricey. For $99.99 you'll get a set of Equalizers along with a free training DVD and a poster to guide you while you train.

Much to their delight (or disgust), many of my personal training clients ages 16 to 62 have been subjected (tortured) with the Equalizers. I kid! The typical exercises one would do with these tools are hard though -- in a good way. My intermediate/advanced fitness level clients have loved the challenges put forth to them each session. I would not allow someone with very little strength to use them though, because without great balance, the Equalizers wobble a bit. Having said that, people wobble on the BOSU, stability ball, and lots of other fitness tools. Balance is an integral part of functional fitness training. I don't reference the wobble to deter you. I just want you to be extra aware not to allow Great Aunt Sue to use them.

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Maybe the whole Body Mass Index (BMI) thing just isn't too accurate. I mean, how can a tool that takes into account only my height and weight really tell me if I'm overweight or not? What about muscle mass -- not that I have too much -- and bone density, and body fat? Don't all these factors play a role in what number appears on my bathroom scale? Surely, they do. Still, BMI measurements serve as a general guide, offering somewhat of a clue about weightiness.

Runner's World offers this cool BMI calculator you might want to check out. It's really easy to use. Just enter your weight (mine is 135) and your height (I'm 5'7") and presto! Your BMI number will present itself in an instant. Mine is 21.1, which means I am in a normal weight range. Here's how the numbers break down, according to the National Institutes of Health.

• Underweight: Less than 18.5

• Normal Weight: 18.5 to 24.9

• Overweight: 25 to 29.9

• Obese: 30 or greater
  
  

For more about Body Mass Index, check out this site. And for a different spin on BMI, use this AOL Body tool. It even includes waist measurement as an indicator.

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I am officially addicted to brushing my teeth! A few weeks ago I got hold of the new Triumph with SmartGuide toothbrush by Oral-B and have been doing that weird licking the front of my teeth thing since. I've always used plain old no-frills toothbrushes, but just recently got to thinking that it wasn't doing the job. Kind of like cleaning your dinner table with a napkin. It removes the big crumbs on the surface, but doesn't really get all the dinner goo that truly needs to be removed. The Triumph is the equivalent of using a scrubby sponge with soap on that table. It does the job a toothbrush is really supposed to do.

Not only do my teeth feel like I've just visited a dental hygienist every day, but brushing has become a strangely enjoyable challenge. The Triumph comes with a neat SmartGuide wireless monitor (a personal trainer for your teeth). The SmartGuide gives me the goal of brushing for two minutes, and encourages me to spend 30 seconds on each quadrant of my mouth. I'm totally in to this. And when I hit the two minute mark.....the monitor gives me a happy face! Woo-hoo! If I keep going, the monitor will wink at me. Who couldn't use a little wink to start your day, right?

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Eating out can be a dangerous proposition for those trying to maintain healthy eating habits. It's just so hard to tell how restaurant chefs prepare their menu items. Ordering a piece of fish may seem like a safe choice but what if it's been doused in butter, cooked in oil, and sprinkled with salt? Not so healthy anymore, right? Right.

Before heading out for your next out-to-eat experience, find out just what's in store by giving this tool at try. I just gave it whirl by typing in my city, state, and zip code and a desired price range. Up popped three dining locations with links to nutritional information for various dishes. Not everything I found met my healthy criteria, but that's the point -- to determine what's good and what's not so good for us.

This online option -- healthydiningfinder.com -- does operate according to some nutritional criteria. Everything you find when you visit must fit these guidelines:

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The FITSTRAP annoys me. Why? Because I didn't invent it myself. I've been training with tubes for at least 15 years and have gone crazy hooking them to the weirdest things in order to anchor them at different heights. I've hooked my tubes to couch legs, door nobs, refridgerators and more. I've even drilled holes to place hooks up and down my walls! Why didn't I invent the FITSTRAP? Why? Why? Why??

I love tubes. Tubes are inexpensive, lightweight, can be enormously challenging, and capable of assisting you to work every muscle in your body. They're perfect for travel, training at home, at the office, for therapy, and cool workouts in the gym. I love tubes! I should have thought of the FITSTRAP. Arrrghh!!

Apparently though, this guy Frank Rotella is just cooler than I am. He invented the FITSTRAP and as soon I get done resenting him.......I'll be grateful he did. The FITSTRAP basically allows any door to serve as a cable machine. It's a long black strap with little loops sewn into it, and a clip on the end so it can be fastened tight around the length of any door. Once it is in place, you place your tube through a loop at a height where you want it to be and get to work.

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WebMD offers a neat interactive tool, which will help you find out how many calories you burned during various activities. Even though most tools like this offer an average guesstimate, not able to take in consideration your exact muscle/body fat ratio......it's pretty close and provides a reasonable guideline.

Use it not only to see how many calories you just burned, but also use it to see how much more you can burn if you take things up a notch. Inspiration is everywhere!