Wondering what’s best for your health or fitness? We’re looking for reader questions relating to health and fitness issues. If you have a question, e-mail [email protected].

Q:If you have muscle pain, should you continue to workout?

A:It depends on what you mean by “muscle pain” – soreness that results from overloading your muscles in physical activity? No that is a good form of soreness and tells you that you are doing good because the soreness will subside within a few days and you can continue to make fitness gains. If it is truly PAIN as in you cannot move or you will hurt/injure yourself further, then no, stop and see a doctor for a proper evaluation. Some people confuse “pain” with muscle soreness that is a natural part of the breaking down muscle process to getting stronger.

Should you wait until it goes away?

Again, the soreness usually subsides in a few days, but you want to keep exercising to help the process along and make it dissipate sooner. Movement usually helps to loosen you up faster.

Q: How do you calculate your BMI and what is it used for?

A: There are many resources that provide charts for BMI and you simply locate yourself on the chart, but there is also calculations that can be done and they are: 1) dividing weight in kg by the square of the height in meters, or 2) multiplying body weight in pounds by 705 and dividing this figure by the square of the height in inches. For example, the BMI for an 172 lb. (78 kg) person who is 67 inches (1.7 m) tall would be 27: [78 divided by (1.7)squared] or [172 x 705 divided by (67)squared]. It is essentially a height-weight chart calculation. Lowest risk is 22-25 and over 30 is obese and under 20 is underweight (which can also be problematic). BMI is a technique used to determine thinness and excessive fatness that incorporates height and weight to estimate critical fat values at which the risk for disease increases.

Q: If I’m on the go, what are a few things I could eat that are healthy?

A: Drink more water, stay away from sugary drinks and soda, eat foods that are higher in nutrients without elevated amounts of calories. Consume foods that appeal to your senses – not just liquid protein shakes, but apples with peanut butter, celery sticks with PB, and watch the amount of items with high levels of trans fat. READ LABELS!! The fresher the foods the better. There are some decent healthy snack bars in places like GNC or health food sections of grocery stores.

Health questions are answered by Jason Brandenburg, assistant professor, and Karen Hand, instructor in the in the department of kinesiology and physical education.