Strength training—applying resistance to the muscles to stimulate growth and increase circulation—is sometimes called weight lifting. But whatever you call it, building muscle is absolutely essential for women. It helps boost metabolism allowing you to burn calories, keeps your heart rate and blood pressure low, and makes you more resilient to injury and less likely to suffer from back pain. But perhaps most crucial, says author and fitness instructor Joan Pagano, is the fact that stronger muscles help reduce a woman's risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes and osteoporosis.

In her colour illustrated, step-by-step book, Pagano offers a phenomenal health plan, broken down into several programs geared for individual body areas and limitations due to injury. She also includes a useful questionnaire to test your mental readiness plus a "fitness test" that tells you the level at which to begin your specific program.