DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I ride my bike five miles every day and do so at a fairly good speed. In addition, I have begun weightlifting and follow that with treadmill running. What should my pulse be after I exercise? – Q.D.

ANSWER: The normal lower limit for the pulse when one is sitting is 50 to 60 beats a minute. (The heartbeat rate and pulse rate are one and the same. The pulse is the heartbeat felt in an artery.) The upper limit for the resting pulse is around 100.

Well-conditioned athletes have a pulse rate in the 40s and even lower. Their hearts pump more blood with each beat than the ordinary heart does. Therefore, they need fewer heartbeats.

If you want to gauge heart health, one way is to take your pulse at the end of exercise. One minute later it should be beating 12 fewer beats a minute than it was when you ended exercise.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: What’s the best way to ice an injury like a sprained ankle? Do you just put the ice directly on the ankle and wrap a bandage over it to keep it in place? I’m my school’s basketball trainer – with the help of the coach. – J.J.

ANSWER: Cold has a number of beneficial actions for an injury. It constricts blood vessels, and that stops bleeding. In every injury, blood vessels break. You might not see evidence of it, but it happens. Cold stops swelling. It numbs nerves, and that lessens pain.

Don’t put ice directly on the skin. Put a towel between the ice and the skin. Gently massaging with ice produces a more uniform drop in temperature throughout the area of injury.

Twenty minutes of icing is long enough.

Freezing water in a paper or plastic-foam cup gives you a handy way to apply the ice. Peel away the paper at the end of the cup that comes in contact with the injury and hold on to the cup with the paper end.

If icing produces pain, stop immediately.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have spent eight months trying to increase the size of my biceps muscles. I do arm curls three days a week, and the size of my arms has increased by only an eighth of an inch – at most. What am I doing wrong? – G.B.

ANSWER: Believe it or not, this is an FAQ – a frequently asked question.

Arm curls are exercises done with a dumbbell or barbell. The hands hold on to the weight with the elbows straight and hands at thigh level. The exerciser bends the elbows to bring the weight to shoulder height. Arm curls are a standard biceps exercise. The biceps is the muscle on the front of the upper arm.

You aren’t increasing the circumference of your arms because you’re not doing other arm muscle exercises. You need to exercise the triceps muscle, the muscle on the back of the upper arm. The triceps is the muscle that straightens a bent arm.

The triceps makes up more of the arm circumference than does the biceps. It accounts for at least 60 percent of it. It is also 60 percent stronger than the biceps.

Here’s a triceps exercise for you.

Hold a dumbbell in the hand with the arm straight up in the air alongside the head. While taking a breath in, lower the weight behind your neck. Return to the starting position and repeat eight times. Take a break and do eight more repetitions twice.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have just returned from visiting my daughter and my 17-year-old grandson, who suffered a stroke. He had an AV malformation that bled. He is doing remarkably well. Could he have a recurrence? I would appreciate any information you can give me about this AV malformation. – R.C.

ANSWER: “AV” stands for “arteriovenous,” a word that indicates involvement of both arteries and veins. In your grandson’s case, the AV malformation is a ball of abnormal arteries and veins in his brain that has been there from birth.

Such malformations can bleed. The result is a stroke. The damage and its permanence depend on how much of the brain is involved. Your grandson appears to have weathered with minor disability what could have been a catastrophe.

An AV malformation that has bled once can bleed again. Your grandson’s doctors must be planning further treatment. If it is possible, the entire AV malformation should be removed, if it can be done without harming the brain. Surgical removal is one route to attain the goal. Embolization is another possible treatment. A catheter – a pliable, soft tube – is inched from a vessel in the arm or groin to the AV malformation in the brain.

When it is in place, particles are released into the malformed blood vessels. Those particles provoke clot formation in the vessels, and the clot eventually seals them.

I am sure your daughter will contact you with information on your grandson’s future treatment.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475.