Ancient Secret of the Fountain of Youth, by Peter Kelder, foreword by Bernie Siegel, MD. This is a curious little book that details how to put the “5 Tibetan Rites” into your life and exercise routine. The tale is told about a strange visitor returning from the Himalayas in the early 20th Century and looking younger than he did twenty years earlier. He supposedly brought with him these five exercises—a little yoga, a little calisthenics, and a whirling Dervish move—that supposedly regenerate and rejuvenate the body. I can’t vouch for the strange visitor, but the moves are invigorating and if they’re the fountain of youth, I’m drinking.

The Ultimate Fit or Fat, by Covert Bailey. Bailey’s work convinced me, a confirmed couch potato, to start working out aerobically back in the 70s. I wish I could say I’d done it regularly since, but I have done it semi-regularly since at least, with thanks to Mr. Bailey. He explains how only aerobic exercise gets rid of fat—abdominal or any other kind. He says: “The first thing to do is to plant firmly in your head that the problem is not the excess fat, it’s the lack of athletically trained muscle.”

Nutrition and Athletic Performance: A Handbook for Athletes and Fitness Enthusiasts, by Douglas N. Graham, DC. Graham is an athlete himself and has worked with world-class athletes including Martina Navratilova, Ronnie Grandison (NBA), and the US Olympic Diving Team. This book tells the big competitors and those of us who merely show up most days at the gym how to eat to improve performance and health. Topics covered include optimum athletic recovery, mineral salts, weight control, and sample menus—lots of fruit—for athletes.

Yoga Mind & Body, Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center. If I were doing a list of 5 favorite yoga books, this one would be on it, as well, but I’m including it here because it gives such clear, detailed instructions for the classic hatha yoga postures. The illustrations and photographs are the best I’ve seen. This is the if-I-were-stranded-on-a-desert-island yoga book for me.

Younger Next Year (*turn back your biological clock) for Women: Live Stong, Fit, and Sexy Until You’re 80 and Beyond, Chris Crowley and Henry S. Lodge, MD., with a foreword by Gail Sheehy. This is the sequel to Crowley and Lodge’s 2004 bestseller, Younger Next Year, and people who have read both the original (geared to men) book and the one for women seem to prefer the former. I’ve only read the women’s book and I have to tell you: it changed (and intensified) the way I work out, and it’s brought about tremendous benefits. The title sounds like a general anti-aging (I hate that phrase and wish there were a better one) book, but it’s mostly an exercise book, the premise being that if you exercise the way they tell you, you will be younger next year. I’ve done it and I know it’s true. Writer Crowley and Dr. Lodge want you to do cardiovascular exercise 45 minutes at least four times a week and they tell you way. (They got me to change around my schedule to go to the gym when Dr. Phil is on; I couldn’t spend 45 minutes on a treadmill or EFX machine any other way.) And they want us lifting weights, full body, at least twice a week, and stretching some. When you exercise at this level, you really know you’re doing great things for yourself.

Excuse me: I need to get to the gym.

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