A properly executed strength or weight lifting regimen can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, stabilize your blood sugar, reduce the risk of heart disease, increase your strength, and more.

• Circuit and resistance training
• 20-minute weight training routines
• The newest and best weight training equipment
• Combining weight training with other exercise
• Gender differences in weight training goals and routines
• Specific approaches for baby boomers and seniors just starting out
• Using weight training to address specific health conditions
• Preventing injuries
• Weight training for children and teens

Introduction.

Before You Pick Up a Weight.

• Chapter 1: Weight Training for Life.
• Chapter 2: Workout Lingo and Proven Training Concepts.
• Chapter 3: Testing Your Strength, Setting Goals, and Tracking Progress.
• Chapter 4: Examining Tools of the Weight-Training Trade.
• Chapter 5: How to Avoid Dropping a Weight on Your Toe (and Other Safety Tips).
• Weighing In with Weight Training Wisdom.
• Chapter 6: Exercising at Home: Setting Up Your Own Gym.
• Chapter 7: Exercising Away from Home: Clubs, Trainers, and Classes.
• Chapter 8: Stretching: The Truth.
• Chapter 9: Avoiding Common Weight Lifting Mistakes.

Tackling the Exercises.

• Chapter 10: Interpreting the Exercise Instructions.
• Chapter 11: Working Your Back.
• Chapter 12: Working Your Chest.
• Chapter 13: Working Your Shoulders.
• Chapter 14: Working Your Arms.
• Chapter 15: Working Your Abdominals.
• Chapter 16: Working Your Butt and Legs.
• Chapter 17: Working Your Core.

Setting Up Your Workout Programs.

• Chapter 18: Basic Workouts to Get Started.
• Chapter 19: Quickie Workouts for Busy Days.
• Chapter 20: Core Programs for Good Balance and a Healthy Back.
• Chapter 21: Tackling More Advanced Programs.
• Chapter 22: Workouts for Special Needs.
• Chapter 23: Adding Yoga and Pilates for Flexible Strength and Coordination.

The Part of Tens.

• Chapter 24: Ten (Okay, Eleven) G-Rated Things You Can Do with Latex Rubber.
• Chapter 25: Ten Ways to Have a Ball (Almost Literally).
• Chapter 26: Ten Thoughts on Supplements, Diets, and Healthy Eating.

Liz Neporent

Liz's first set of weights (actually, her brother's) were made of blue plastic and filled with sand; when they started leaking sand all over the house, her mother relegated all weight lifting activities to the basement.

Since that time, Liz has graduated into a well-known corporate fitness consultant, designing and managing fitness centers worldwide. Along the way, Liz also was a personal trainer, received a master's degree in exercise physiology, and got certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, National Strength and Conditioning Association, American Council of Exercise, and the National Academy of Sports Medicine. She is coauthor and author of several books, including Fitness For Dummies and Fitness Walking For Dummies and writes frequently for the New York Times, Family Circle, Shape, and others.

She currently hosts a daily internet show on eyada.com.

Suzanne Schlosberg

Suzanne's writing career began her freshman year in college when she was assigned to cover a pre-season NBA game and found herself in a locker room interviewing a dozen, tall, muscular, naked Boston Celtics. She decided she liked this writing stuff. Suzanne went on to become a newspaper reporter and magazine writer. Now a contributing editor to Shape and Health magazine, Suzanne is the coauthor, with Liz Neporent, of Fitness For Dummies and the author of The Ultimate Workout Log. She is also an instructor in the UCLA Extension Certificate in Journalism program. Always happy when she has a barbell in hand, Suzanne has lifted weights in Zimbabwe, Morocco, Iceland, and Micronesia, among other locales. She is the women's record holder in the Great American Sack Race, a quadrennial event held in Yerington, Nevada, in which competitors must run 5 miles while carrying a 50-pound sack of chicken feed.

Shirley Archer

Shirley is a former New York City attorney who traded the fast life for the fit life. A survivor of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome from stress and overworking, her recovery helped her to become a champion of fitness for health and to live fully in body, mind and spirit. She's now a health educator and fitness specialist at the Health Improvement Program at Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, the author of ten fitness and wellness books, an international trainer of fitness instructors, and a frequently quoted media spokesperson worldwide. Her master's degree is in East Asian Studies from Harvard University, and she has special expertise in mind-body exercise. She's a mind-body spokesperson for IDEA, author of a monthly mind-body news column, and a spokesperson for the American Council on Exercise. She's certified by the American College of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, and National Strength and Conditioning Association, among others. She's also a certified Pilates teacher and yoga instructor. She's created a number of corporate fitness programs, including Walking for Workplace Wellness, Fitness 9 to 5, and Stretching and Relaxation Tips for Workday Survival. Shirley believes that healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and that you can live a longer, happier, and better life by choosing fitness every day.