Pain

USC quarterback Matt Barkley says he is ready to play, pain or no pain. Barkley, who started the first two games and then sat out the loss at Washington because of a bone bruise in his right shoulder, said Tuesday that he was planning to start Saturday night against Washington State at the Coliseum. But Coach Pete Carroll cautioned that he would monitor the freshman's progress before any choice was made between Barkley and Aaron Corp . "It could happen if everything works right," Carroll said of Barkley's starting.

Rafael Nadal would be the first to say he's coming back from sore knees and it's no big thing. Richard Gasquet would be the first to say he's coming back from a raw deal and it's a huge thing. The two young tennis stars played a first-round match on center court at the U.S. Open on Wednesday. Nadal won, as expected. Gasquet showed flashes of brilliance in the 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 defeat, as expected. But this was much more than your routine match. This one had connections, multiple story lines and an off-court soap opera.

His style is a mix of Socrates and Don Rickles. His goal is to coax, bully, tease, demand and manipulate ex-convicts into getting ready to find a job. One of the first chores is to get them to drop the habits they picked up behind bars: lying, faking, refusing to make eye contact, getting verbally aggressive when disrespected, thinking of the whole world as just another overbearing prison guard. Scott Silverman is relentless. "You're doing that thing again, something between a smirk and what you call a smile," he tells one student.

Randy Wolf had what he described as a pain-free bullpen this morning. "I let it go today in the bullpen," Wolf said. Wolf returned to Los Angeles from Arizona on Tuesday night after hyper-extending his elbow in a side session. He missed his scheduled start Friday because of the problem. "The only pitch that I didn't feel good throwing last time was my curveball," Wolf said. "So the first curveball I threw today, I was like, 'All right.' " The Dodgers still don't have a timetable for Clayton Kershaw's return, but the 21-year-old continued to report improvement on his separated non-throwing shoulder.

You roll around on your Swiss ball like a grizzly with a back itch. You do crunches and work your obliques like a champ. So you must have good core stability, right? And core stability will reduce back pain and prevent injury, right? Yes, no, maybe. Research on back pain, experts say, is frustratingly spotty and the subject of debate.

For people living with chronic pain, exercise is often the last thing they want to do. But physical activity could be a key component of some treatment plans, new studies suggest, especially with conditions such as fibromyalgia and arthritis. "The pain doesn't go away completely. It's not a cure. But it's a way to improve how you feel and your ability to function in daily life," says Daniel S.

Time is chasing Arnold Schwarzenegger and catching up. Ordinarily, a politician's body would not be noteworthy. But California is witnessing a singular moment: the deconstruction of one of the greatest bodies of all time. At 15, Schwarzenegger began pounding, pressing and transforming himself into a symbol of physical perfection.

"Did any of us actually decide to stop?" Chris still asks, almost two years after her son, Sam, died of cancer at the age of 17. Discontinuing treatment was not an option. Sam had decided he was willing to tolerate as many rounds of cancer drugs as his body could stand. "Nobody knows the future," Chris says. "And nobody has the right to take a kid's hope away."

beginning, perhaps, as a little tickle, hardly noticeable. Maybe you're in an important meeting and you don't want to fidget. Or maybe your hands are full. So you try to ignore it, but the sensation grows -- an irritating, niggling feeling that gradually occupies more and more of your attention. Finally, you can't take it any longer. You have to scratch the itch.

The 30 or so clinicians and researchers sat cross-legged on cushions or in chairs, their eyes closed, as their teacher led them through a guided meditation. Telling them to relax their bodies and concentrate on their breathing, author and meditation instructor Sharon Salzberg urged them to overcome distractions such as sounds, thoughts and emotions by coming back to the breath each time they found their minds wandering. The goal, she said, was to still the mind.