Bone Building Body Shaping Workout: Strength Health Beauty In Just 16 Minutes A Day

Joyce Vedral promises you can strengthen and shape your body and build bone in only 16 minutes a day with this illustrated program. This author of numerous exercise and health books (including Eating to Trim and Weight Training Made Easy) and frequent talk-show guest offers basic exercises that purport to work every major muscle group effectively. All of the exercises are compiled into handy pullout charts for quick reference, and dozens of photographs show Vedral's sleek and sculpted 54-year-old body illustrating the maneuvers. In addition to the program, you'll find plenty of solid information about building muscle and bone.

Vedral relies on research indicating that working out with weights aids in building bone density. However, some strength-training experts would advise women to work out with heavier weights if they are strong enough to handle them, rather than the one- to three-pound weights Vedral recommends for her beginners' program. She does say you should raise the heft of your weights when the program becomes easy, so don't miss this point with her emphasis on light weights.

If you're a young woman, Bone-Building Body-Shaping Workout is not only for your mother: according to Vedral, weight training helps you put "bone in the bank" so that you have more to draw from decades from now, and it will increase your fat-burning rate. --Joan Price