This offers advice on the health benefits of regular physical activity. It includes a scientifically proven fitness test to determine one's starting point and monitor ongoing progress, offering step-by-step instructions, sample programs, and insights on nutrition, weight control, motivation, and overcoming setbacks. Seven chapters examine: (1) "An Active Lifestyle" (e.g., lifetime benefits of exercise, exercising for health, aerobic fitness, and longevity); (2) "Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Health" (e.g., the exercise-energy relationship, weight and body composition goals, ergogenic aids, and eating and exercise); (3) "Getting Ready to Exercise" (e.g., natural history of healthy behavior change, permanent time requirements of regular exercise, and a self-assessment plan); (4) "Assessing Your Fitness: The ACSM Fitness Test" (e.g., why fitness testing is a good idea, and creating a personal fitness profile); (5) "Beginning Exercises" (e.g., aerobic fitness, muscular fitness, body composition, and flexibility); (6) "The ACSM Fitness Program" (e.g., how it works, exercising safely and wisely, and ACSM fitness programs and logs); and (7) "Staying Active" (e.g., maintaining motivation, establishing a routine, and charting progress). (SM)