Next time you feel like calling someone a pain in the neck, you might as well put a modern spin on it and call them a pain in the knee. Or the kidneys. Or the foot. Thanks to the paces we put our bodies through nowadays -- jobs that have us doing heavy lifting, jobs that have us hunched over a keyboard, workouts we don't realize we're doing incorrectly, not to mention junk diets and dehydration -- pain is something we all seem to endure, over our entire bodies.

Thankfully, most localized pains can be greatly reduced, if not prevented altogether. Sure, exercise may be the last thing on our minds, and heaven forbid we stretch every now and then, but even making a little bit of effort to follow this expert advice could mean we might not have to taste the pain.

Pains of Man

    Knee
    "The two most common reasons for knee pain are overuse and carrying too much weight," says Kerry Aissa, cofounder of the New York-based personal training company SoZo Concept (www.sozoconcept.com ). The fact that men are simply heavier than women contributes to their knee pain; so does the fact that, says Aissa, "Men tend to focus strength training only on their upper bodies." Since you can't build up the cartilage that surrounds your knee, the best way to keep them protected is to build up the leg muscles. Adding a few simple moves to your workout can protect your knees greatly: toe raises work on calf muscles and squats can toughen up the quads - but make sure you stop when your thighs are parallel to the floor so that you don't overextend your knees.

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    Shin splints
    "Shin splints." The term even sounds uncomfortable. Too much running or jumping is usually the culprit of this slow-to-heal problem - and focusing on heel exercises is how to help prevent it. Aissa recommends "reverse toe raises" to strengthen the tibialis anterior, the muscle most associated with shin splints and the "most neglected muscle of the lower leg" says Aissa. To do them: Lift the balls of your feet while keeping your heels on the ground. Hold onto something for balance if you need to.

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    Lower back
    Are you a desk jockey, slaving away at the computer? Congratulations, spoke-in-the-corporate-cog: Your office posture - or likely lack thereof - makes you a prime target for lower back pain. "Gravity pushes the weight of your upper body down onto the lower part of your spine," explains Aissa, "causing a great deal of compression on your discs." If you've got strong abs, they can help out with supporting your back, but you should also pay attention to the erector spinae muscles, the ones that are really responsible for holding you upright. Try this exercise: Get on all fours, then slowly extend an opposite arm and leg (right arm/left leg, left arm/right leg) at the same time and hold it for 10-15 seconds.

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    Neck
    Ah yes, the classic neck pain. Why do men get it more than women? "Men tend to focus strengthening the front of their body - chest, arms, the front of their shoulders - which can pull the shoulders forward too much," says Aissa. To counteract that, strengthen the posterior portion of the upper body, which can be easily targeted on a rowing machine (for your rhomboids), a reverse-fly machine (for your posterior deltoids) and by doing "external rotations" with free weights to pull your shoulders back into a more natural alignment.

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    Heel and arch pain
    Your body wasn't built to stand all day long, yet lots of male-dominated career tracks - from a doorman to a chef to an assembly-line worker - are tracks that, physically, keep you in one place. This can cause the arch of your foot to fall, leading to pain there and in the heel. Luckily, a simple pair of orthotics inserted into the shoe will keep the arch in proper alignment, says Dr. Roy DeFrancis, a podiatrist in Buffalo, NY. In addition, take walks during your breaks to counteract the negative effects.

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    Bunions
    Women may do themselves in by strutting around in four-inch heels all day (and night) long, but men are almost as likely to develop hammertoe bunions. Blame that on buying improper footwear, or blame it on genetics; most experts agree that while lifestyle may have some affect, you're either predisposed to bunions or you're not. The best thing you can do to prevent them is to seeing a podiatrist at the first signs of discomfort, and continue to see him regularly. Unfortunately, surgery is often the only way to correct a bunion.

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    Cluster headaches
    While women experience migraines more than men, men are found to be up to eight times more likely targets for "cluster headaches" - aka, suicide headaches, just to give you an idea of how excruciating they are -- characterized by pain that only occurs on one side of the forehead, or that feels like it's coming from one eye. Like migraines, clusters are known to repeat themselves at regular intervals; in a typical "cluster," it might occur up to eight times a day, anywhere from 15 minutes to three hours each episode, for several weeks. It is almost always accompanied by one or more symptoms such as tears, red eye, runny nose, nasal congestion or facial sweating. There are many ways a doctor might treat a cluster-headache sufferer, but there is one way you might be able to prevent them yourself: studies have shown that heavy smokers are more likely to develop cluster headaches.

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    Kidney stones
    A 2008 publication issued by the Mayo Clinic said that the commonly-called "loin to groin" pain caused by kidney stones is "often described as 'the worst pain I've ever experienced.'" What's worse: Men are more than twice as likely to develop kidney stones than women, according to the publication, and a main cause of kidney stones is damn genetics. But there are things you can do to decrease their likelihood. Drink plenty of fluids, eat lots of fiber, and whatever you do, do NOT submit yourself to one of those all-protein diets. They've been shown to increase your chances of stones - just as sudden weight gain has been show to do the same, and whenever you inevitably give up that silly all-protein diet, chances are you're going to pig out. A lot.

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    Liver pain
    Docs disagree on whether or not liver pain is "real." But if you're the guy who once complained to a physician that it felt like "a brick is tucked under my right rib," you'll probably want to shop around for a rheumatologist or nephrologist who's inclined to believe both you and the ever-increasing amount of research supporting the theory that modern toxins can often overmatch your liver, which was designed thousands of years ago. However, liver pain can often be misdiagnosed, too, so best to get thee to a specialist, pronto. (Psst: Nothing groundbreaking here, but um, you shouldn't drink too much if you're worried about liver pain. Or, you know, a liver transplant down the road.)

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    Penile fracture
    Yup, you read that right. A story published in January by Scientific American says that, even though your member is a boneless piece of meat, there is a membrane in there called tunica albuginea that can tear if the penis is bent severely enough. Most common cause of penile fracture? Here's a hint from Dr. Hunter Wessells, chair of the urology department at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle: "We had this patient who suffered penile fracture after running across the room and trying to penetrate his wife with a flying leap." Most penile fractures require surgery so as not to risk erectile dysfunction down the road, which usually means putting your peter out of commission for a month afterwards. Which, if you're the dude referenced above, probably serves you right.

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