May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. Bellevue University Library has titles to help you meet your fitness goals, sharpen athletic skills, or simply learn more about your favorite activities and athletes. Read on to pump up your knowledge of these resources.

First, let’s “warm up” with some selections on stretching, injury prevention, and recovery to help you train safely and bounce back with ease.

Here are some print books you can find at Freeman/Lozier library:

• The Stretching Bible: The Ultimate Guide to Improving Fitness & Flexibility by Lexie Williamson.
• Yoga for athletes by Ryanne Cunningham
• The Long Distance Runner’s Guide to Injury Prevention and Treatment: How to Avoid Common Problems and Deal with Them When They Happen edited by Brian J. Krabak, MD, MBA, FACSM, and others.

And here’s a comprehensive ebook resource from our online Credo Reference collection:

• Sports Injuries Sourcebook: Basic Consumer Health Information about Sprains, Fractures, Tendon Injuries, Overuse Injuries, and Injuries to the Head, Spine, Shoulders, Arms, Hands, Trunk, Legs, Knees, and Feet, and Facts about Sports- specific Injuries, Injury Prevention, Protective Equipment, Children and Sports, and the Diagnosis, Treatment, and Rehabilitation of Sports Injuries ; Along with a Glossary of Related Terms and a Directory of Resources for More Information

Now on to the main workout; these resources will show you exercises to improve skills and physical fitness:

• The online NYTimes.com Video Collection can be found within our Gale databases.  It contains hundreds of videos on different aspects of exercise for physical fitness.

At the Freeman-Lozier library, we’ve collected a number of titles from Human Kinetics publishers.  Each of these books is fully illustrated with clear anatomical drawings of athletes in action.  They contain detailed exercise instructions for developing the muscle groups and training routines necessary to master athletic skills. Our owned titles include:

• Golf Anatomy by Dr. Craig Davies
• Basketball Anatomy by Brian J. Cole
• Strength Training Anatomy by Frédéric Delavier
• Functional Training by Juan Carlos Santana

Finally, let’s “cool down” and unwind with some more recreational reading. These sports memoirs and biographies are all available in the Freeman-Lozier Library.

• Forward: a Memoir by Abby Wambach
• The Bolt Supremacy: Inside Jamaica’s Sprint Factory by Richard Moore
• Amateur: A True Story About What Makes A Man by Thomas Page McBee
• Tiger Woods by Jeff Benedict and Armen Keteyian
• The Forgotten Legacy of Stella Walsh: The Greatest Female Athlete of Her Time by Sheldon Anderson

Of course, these are just a few of the many sports and fitness titles available at Bellevue University Library. Check out http://library.bellevue.edu/ to search for more great resources.