Public-relations consultant; married, two children; Barrington, Rhode Island.

Expert: Dori Venditti, an advanced health and fitness specialist certified by the American Council on Exercise (ACE) and a trainer at Work-Fit, a gym in Lincoln, Rhode Island.

Mary’s goal: “To lose my mommy shape and see some muscle definition.”

Her Challenge: Mary was a devoted runner for many years, until two herniated disks forced her to quit. She then began swimming competitively with a masters team. But after having children, she hasn’t been able to get fast enough to train with them again. “I have two young kids (Connor, five, and Liam, three), and for the past few years exercise has not been a top priority,” she says. Currently Mary tries to swim twice a week at the local Y. On two other days, she works out on an elliptical trainer for 30 minutes and does about 10 minutes of strength training. But she often ends up skipping a day because one of her kids is sick or a client meeting gets in the way. (She works full-time from home.)

The Trainer’s Take: “Mary needs to challenge her body in order to see progress,” says Dori. She should ramp up the intensity of her workouts and add more strength training. To protect her back from further injuries, Mary should also focus on strengthening and stretching her core muscles.

Fitness Solutions

1. Add 10 minutes to the elliptical workout. When Mary gets on the elliptical machine, it’s always for 30 minutes, and the machine is always set at a steady pace at level six. By adding an extra 10 minutes — and cranking the workout up to at least level eight for the duration — she’ll get a significantly more challenging workout. “That’s 20 more minutes a week for her body to burn calories and build muscle,” says Dori.

2. Work out at home. Dori suggested that Mary pick up a few inexpensive items — a mat for doing exercises, a yoga DVD to work on her flexibility, and resistance bands for strength training — for those days when she can’t get to the Y. Dori then taught Mary a strengthening and stretching circuit she can do at home.

3. Give your muscles new challenges. To keep her body from getting too used to one thing, Mary should change her routine every few weeks. For her cardio, she could trade off the elliptical machine with walking uphill on a treadmill. And with her swimming that means building up to some longer workouts and increasing the pace of her strokes.

Three Months Later

“I’ve been exercising much harder now,” says Mary. “The day after swimming or working out, my muscles actually burn.” Mary is also incorporating some at-home exercise into her routine; she bought a yoga video that she tries to do at least once a week. Recently an exercise-related injury sidelined her workouts, but she hopes to resume her routine soon.