If you can find a copy of this book by Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D. and Sarah Wernick, buy it immediately if you are the least bit interested in beginning a fitness program, staving off the ravages of osteoporosis, and losing weight. Not just another diet book or exercise book, "Strong Women Stay Young" is a delightfully simple but comprehensive book for anyone of either sex who is contemplating a fitness program for the first time. It will tell you in no uncertain terms that strength-training is virtually a "Fountain Of Youth."

Various studies (references abound within the pages of this book) show that strength-training will lessen the incidence of osteoporosis for women, the bone-thinning scourge of aging while affording increased energy levels and increased strength for your favorite sport and other activities. Taking it one step further, the authors state that strength-training can build bone mass even after osteoporosis has been diagnosed.  The bone-stressing exercises provided within a framework of land-based (non-aquatic) strength-training classes, dumbbell work  and resistance-equipment exercises seem to supply the most effective bone-building benefits.

Aside from all the benefits for your skeletal structure, one of the most heartening things to be found within the pages of "Strong Women Stay Young" is the metabolic increase one derives from regular strength-training; since strength-training builds muscle and since muscle is where most calories are burned, strength-training exercises that build muscle will increase your ability to burn calories more efficiently, allowing you to eat more (healthful) food and to keep your weight down more easily.

The heading of Chapter One is, "Yes you can turn back the clock!", and cites several case studies of post-menopausal women who embarked upon a strength-training program of high-intensity.  Forty of the post-menopausal women were recruited by the author for a small-scale but important study. The control group of 20 women were simply asked to maintain their current lifestyle for a year. The other 20 women were placed on a strength-training program.

Mind you, these are not young "aerobic bunnies", but post-menopausal women, all over forty and all healthy. The control group, those who continued their current lifestyle, lost bone and muscle mass over the course of a single year! Not only that, but the control group slowed down and were less active than just one year previously. By contrast, the strength-training group changed in the opposite direction; after one year of strength-training, their bodies were 15 to 20 years more youthful.

Aside from the aesthetics, they showed small but significant bone density increases,  plus their scores on strength tests soared "to levels more typical of women in their late thirties or early forties."  All participants agreed not to gain or to lose weight in order not to skew the test results. Those in the strength-training group not only traded fat for muscle, but some even dropped a dress-size or two. This book, Strong Women Stay Young is for you if:

1. You have lost strength over the past decade.
2.You periodically say, "I know I should exercise, but I just don't have the energy."
3. At the end of a normally busy day you feel tired and worn out.
4. You feel older than your years.
5. Weight control is harder as time passes even though you are eating less.
6. Your favorite sports and activities are more difficult now than before.

Many classes pay just passing  lip-service to strength-training but if you are diligent, you can find classes devoted strictly to high-intensity  (or "aerobic") strength-training It is time to recognize, along with the rest of the country, that fitness is directly intertwined not just with aerobic activity, but with strength-training as well. If we are to stave off the ravages of premature old age, we must at least consider doing strength-training.