Joan Price says, yes, you can get in shape!

Joan Price, an aerobics instructor and fitness journalist in Sebastopol, California, isn't the type of person you'd expect to find writing an exercise manual. She describes herself as a short, unathletic woman in her 50s who walks with a limp. But from this obscure origin comes a book that just may be the best compendium of user-friendly information that a beginner will ever find. The key to the book's appeal is Price's identification with the needs and trepidations of people who, literally, have never exercised before. A former high school English teacher, Price didn't learn to ride a bike until she was 29, and started taking aerobic-dance classes at 33. Two years later, in 1979, came the event that changed her life: an out-of-control driver hit her head-on one day when she was driving to school. Had it not been for the fact she was in shape, she feels she would've died. As it stood, her doctors weren't sure she would even be able to walk normally, or without pain. She had other ideas: she wanted to teach aerobics. So when Price touches on topics like how to choose a gym, begin an exercise class, lose weight safely, measure progress, or stick with a program, she speaks from the experience of one who got well into adulthood before learning these things.