I sing the body athletic You’ve finished redecorating the house, repairing the car, and digging the new flowerbed. Everything looks great, so what’s next? Spend the rest of the summer working on yourself. In today’s fast-paced world, it seems that everything gets attention except your body. Remember your New Year’s resolution? Continue what you started in January and make yourself a new body. Along the way, you’ll also get fit. Research now shows that you can change your body’s musculature and aerobic capacity at any age. When it comes to improving your body, it’s never too late.

To get you started, the following list of affordable books includes something for every age group, and some are even small enough to take on end-of-the-summer trips. Whether you’ve been working hard at your health and fitness routine since New Year’s or whether you’re a decades-old, seasoned fitness enthusiast, the information in these books will take you further along in your personal journey to fitness and better health. Power Up: 101 Ways to Boost Your Energy. People at any level of fitness (and any age) will benefit by reading Daryn Eller’s book, because it’s about something we all want more of energy. Eller gives 101 tips on how to get it and how to keep it. How can you get the most out of your running or weight-lifting routine? What tips help you build cardio endurance during your jogging/running workouts or add muscle after your resistance training routine? If you’ve just started working out, which foods can help you fuel your body and maximize those workouts? If you’re a senior just beginning a fitness regimen, how can you keep your energy up? Eller talks high-octane nutrition, energizing workouts, and body-mind revitalizers for powering up the natural, safe way. This is good news for those who are presently on medication or under doctor’s observation. Each topic is relatively short, and the author gives a helpful resource section at the end, complete with e-mail addresses, online addresses, and phone numbers.

The Principles of Running: Practical Lessons from My First 100,000 Miles (Rodale, $15.95, 1579540384) was written by a runner who knows what he’s talking about. I remember Amby Burfoot’s Boston Marathon win while in college in 1968 and was prompted to begin making my own tracks. In his new book, Burfoot offers clear, simple advice to runners who want to improve their marathon performance, reduce their injuries, and attain a better running body. This book is particularly useful for those who are just beginning this sport it’s chock-full of tips and tried-and-true advice acquired over 35 years. You’ll cut a lot of painful corners if you take your advice from someone who’s been there. If you only have time for a short read, you don’t need to follow the chapters in any particular order; the numerous Principles sections cut straight to the most important stuff. Burfoot begins by talking to the new runner. His advice on aches and pains and handling blisters is something you’re going to need. He moves on to women runners and pregnancy, equipment, nutrition, training, weight loss, the weather factor, injury prevention, marathoning, and much more. Give this one to a running friend, new or experienced.

The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies for Seniors (Rodale, $27.95, 1579540112), by Doug Dollemore, is an A-Z guide for seniors and is offered here for those who like to stay physically active, mentally sharp, and disease-free. Through the years, Rodale Press has earned its kudos by delivering first-rate, usable information to consumers who want safe yet effective solutions to their problems, whether personal or environmental. This book is no exception. It’s a large volume and meant to be used. More than 350 doctors and other health care practitioners who specialize in the treatment of seniors share numerous tips and techniques. You will find 1,500 doctor-recommended remedies that can help prevent, relieve, or cure 120 ailments commonly affecting older citizens. Each section of the book discusses the problem; tells you When to See a Doctor ; enables you to try simple, cost effective remedies under Try This First ; offers Other Wise Ways to attack the problem, and then advises you about Managing Your Meds. This large reference provides helpful answers to the questions seniors are likely to ask. Any senior, active or not, will value this book and consult it often.

Massage for Busy People (New World Library, $10.95, 1577310829), by Dawn Groves, is perfect for the sports-minded who are constantly on the go. This little book is small enough to slip into your suitcase next to your workout clothes. Whether using the hotel fitness center equipment or your handy fitness band, you may need something for on-the-road aches and pains that sometimes accompany a more intense workout. Groves demonstrates self-massage techniques that deliver relief in minutes and includes instructions for quick massage when sitting at a desk, in a vehicle, or an airplane. There’s something to ease the body during prolonged walking or standing and a sure-fire cure for lethargy and backache. She also throws in techniques for replenishing your energy as well as easing a stiff neck or a headache so common to travelers (this is great for long summer trips business or pleasure). Clear instructions, varied topics, and 30 photos make this little book the perfect post-workout cool-down and the perfect gift for any health-conscious traveler of any age.

Healing Mantras (Ballantine, $12.95, 345431707), by Thomas Ashley-Farrand, will prove to be a trip down memory lane for those of us who listened to Ravi Shankar in the ’60s. These . . . chanting of songs, verses, and mystic formulas existed long before the development of even the most primitive instruments. In modern times, the healing benefits of liturgical chanting have only recently been rediscovered . . . Ashley-Farrand’s book is the first practical how-to guide in which ancient Sanskrit mantras have been explained and adapted to Western needs.

However, the book is not only for beginners who wish to study the energy-based techniques of sound meditation. It’s for the practiced as well. The author explains how mantras work, how to use your own mantra, and how these rhythms of healing sounds can help solve health problems, allow you to find inner peace, gain mental clarity, and overcome fear. If you’ve always steeped yourself in the Western Tradition, after reading this book you may consider that there are other effective ways to reach a state of wellness and peace in body and mind.

Pat Regel gardens and pumps iron.

Chinese Natural Cures: Traditional Methods for Remedies and Preventions demonstrates that traditional Chinese medicine’s 3,000 years of clinical experience requires no further translation to address modern American health concerns. For people seeking to regain or maintain health with alternative medicine, this ancient healing modality presents a venerable and reliable option.

Beginning with an overview of philosophy and methods, the book presents diagnosis and treatment in extraordinary detail. Treatment often combines food therapy, medicinal herbs, acupuncture, and therapeutic exercise. For sheer volume of information and comprehensive coverage by a renowned expert, Chinese Natural Cures will undoubtedly become an essential source book for patients and practitioners.

Fat chance: help for healthy living If you’re struggling to keep up in our fast-paced world, author Stu Mittleman offers this sage advice: “Life is a marathon, not a sprint, and you must prepare accordingly.” In Slow Burn: The Power of Excessive Moderation, Mittleman shares the secrets of endurance that enabled him to set eight long-distance records, including a world record for a 1,000-mile run. A member of Anthony Robbins’s elite coaching team since 1992, Mittleman energetically motivates and teaches the principles of endurance and energy. His positive can-do enthusiasm is infectious and his exercise tips, valuable. “Suppose you could sleep less yet feel even more rested and alive what would you do with the extra hours that suddenly appear in your day?” Anyone who has incorporated a regular fitness program into a busy lifestyle can attest to sustained energy levels. According to Mittleman, movement is the key: “What your body wants and craves is movement. Movement unleashes your body’s energy potential.” In Slow Burn, Mittleman shows how to achieve your goals by breaking them down into smaller ones. He offers strategies for daily aerobic movement that tap into fat stores and allow weight loss. His nutrition strategies power you up to eat for long-term endurance and life-time vitality. Mittleman’s three-part program (Think, Train, Eat) is a formula for success that anyone can use.

Pat Regel race-walks in Nashville.

Fat chance: help for healthy living Miriam Austin’s excellent step-by-step book, Yoga For Wimps: Poses For The Flexibly Impaired eases you into healthy living by introducing a yoga program that you can do for life. If you want to learn yoga, but think the movements are too difficult to execute, Austin’s book solves the problem. By using such props as a chair, rolled face cloths, books, and an old belt, bending and stretching is much easier even for the flexibly impaired. Each series of yoga movements (poses) is demonstrated in large, color photos and accompanied by easy-to-follow instructions. Because many of the movements in her book are preliminary poses, Austin believes that “regular practice of these poses will prepare our bodies for doing the traditional, more difficult poses” later on. Yoga is an excellent body conditioner, and its affects can be seen and felt in gradual weight loss, improved strength and breathing, sounder sleep, and flexible limbs. Yoga For Wimps is especially recommended for those who haven’t exercised in years.

Pat Regel race-walks in Nashville.

Fat chance: help for healthy living “Focus on permanent, not temporary changes” is the recommendation of Jeffery and Norean Wilbert. “Remember the rule of thumb: Don’t do anything on a diet you’re not willing to do the rest of your life.” This common sense advice appears in their new book, Fattitudes: Beat Self-Defeat and Win Your War with Weight. The Wilberts believe that all too often, those who want to lose weight are their own worst enemy: “Recognize that the universal obstacle to healthy weight management is self-defeating behavior.” Their remedy is to learn to recognize and change your fattitude, which they define as a “thought or pattern of thinking that leads to self-defeating behavior in weight management efforts.” You may not even be aware that you have a fattitude. According to the Wilberts, an adjustment is probably in order if you’re unable to stay on a healthy eating track, if you sabotage your own weight loss success, or if your exercise habits last only a few weeks. In Fattitudes, the Wilberts tackle the complexities of emotional eating, warn you about how certain relationships can set you up for failure, and show you how to establish emotional freedom from the fattitudes that have been at work in your life for a long time. This book will help you find out a lot about yourself and your love/hate relationship with food.

Pat Regel race-walks in Nashville.

Get used to it. For the next 20 years, books on anti-aging will come out regularly. Active boomers may be getting older, but they’ve never just sat around allowing gravity and the years to take their toll. The Boomer Generation was built on youth, beauty, and activity. Sure, they’ll go, but they’ll go kicking and screaming and keeping a sharp lookout along the way for anything that’ll keep them on their surfboards just a little bit longer.

Before long you may take a good hard look in the mirror and decide to start searching for ways to turn back the clock, or at least slow it down. One of the first books you should read is Gary Null’s Ultimate Anti-Aging Program. His recent appearance in the PBS special How to Live Forever was enough to convince many that they can look and feel younger no matter what age they are. Gary Null’s Ultimate Anti-Aging Program will show you how to reverse or eliminate menopause, stop wrinkles and gray hair, keep eyesight sharp, improve sexual performance, end fatigue, keep mentally alert, and improve memory. But it does much more. Null begins by showing you how to assess where you are now and how to begin the program. Then he explains the importance of detoxifying your body of the poisons that accumulate and cause it to age. Fortifying your immune system is next, but fortifying it naturally through nutrition and diet is key. You’ll pick up useful information about building fat-burning muscle and strengthening your bones, and how to use the mind-body connection to conquer stress, banish depression, and lift your spirits. When you’re well into the program, Null continues to guide you with down-to-earth meal planning and gives advice about making choices that will help you stay lean and supple. Appendices contain a helpful section on Specific Applications of Vitamins, Nutrients, and Herbs, and the bibliography offers additional selected reading.

Gary Null, Ph.

D., has authored over 50 books on health, nutrition, and healing, and is recognized for his documentary films and his nationally syndicated radio program Natural Living with Gary Null.

Pat Regel is a reviewer in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee.