When asked, "What is the one thing I must include in my fitness program?" I say to every one from athletes to senior citizens, "Weight training." Nothing else reaches the entire muscular system like a full-body work out program. It's known to improve posture, bone density, sports conditioning and tone.

If you're skinny and want to be curvy, do weights. If you're a skinny-fat person that is petite with no tone, do weights. If you're on your way to losing 10 to 100 pounds, do weights.

After working with a 54-year old client of mine for two years, she asked, "Do these exercises make you taller? I've been measured at 5'2" all my life and in the last six months I've been measured twice at 5'3"."

I can't say for sure, but it is an interesting thought.

Don't know how and can't afford a trainer? Go to the fitness channel on Comcast's On-Demand. It's free if you subscribe.

Annette Herrick is a West Seattle physical trainer and can be reached at annette@fitnessforvitality.com