Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power

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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Stronger muscles and bones, increased mobility, lifelong independence, and a new mentality for aging with power—this cutting-edge guide to nutrition, training, and lifestyle will optimize a woman's body for longevity, through menopause and beyond.

“Stop believing the BS about getting older. In Unbreakable, Dr. Vonda Wright lays out the science that proves your best years can still be ahead.”—Mel Robbins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Let Them Theory

“Building muscle and bone are what I like to call my nursing home avoidance plan. There is no better mentor in this important work than Dr. Vonda Wright.”—Mary Claire Haver, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The New Menopause

Strong skeletal muscle drives healthy longevity yet too often women in particular neglect this important measure of fitness. Indeed, more than 70% of women experience musculoskeletal symptoms like joint pain, muscle loss, and reduced bone density as they enter perimenopause and menopause. These symptoms—what Dr. Vonda Wright refers to as the "musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause"—can often set us up for osteoporosis, osteopenia, broken bones, increasingly limited mobility, and reduced independence later in life. That trend stops now. Unbreakable outlines a new and direct path to protecting ourselves against this too-common fate.

Drawing on her decades of experience as a pioneering orthopedic surgeon helping women at all fitness levels to repair their bones and regain strength, Dr. Wright gives clear action steps to shield us from the timebombs of aging in four critical categories:

Exercise: Pinpointing the right combination of cardio and resistance training for you to aid in tissue regeneration and improve metabolic function.
Nutrition: What to eat to extinguish inflammation, repopulate your gut biome, and support strong bones and muscle growth.
Lifestyle: How to manage chronic stress, get more restorative sleep, and turn down systemic inflammation in your daily life.
Supplements: What to take to target the elimination of “zombie cells” and improve your cell function.

Including a six-week, master exercise protocol to jumpstart skeletal and muscular strength, critical information about baseline blood and mobility tests that will help you understand your current health state, and twenty easy, anti-inflammatory recipes, Unbreakable is an invaluable guide to adding more vibrantly healthy life to your years.

Review

“Stop believing the BS about getting older. In Unbreakable, Dr. Vonda Wright lays out the science that proves your best years can still be ahead. Yes, even in menopause. Yes, even with extra pounds. You can still build strength, protect your bones, fire up your energy, and boost your mental and emotional resilience. Age isn’t the problem—misinformation is. This isn’t hype. It’s science-backed, doable, and empowering.”—Mel Robbins, New York Times bestselling author, host of The Mel Robbins Podcast

“Building muscle and bone are what I like to call my nursing home avoidance plan. There is no better mentor in this important work than Dr. Vonda Wright. Unbreakable is an invaluable guide—it’ll help you add strength, vitality, and independence to your years.”—Mary Claire Haver, MD, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The New Menopause

“Unbreakable illuminates the path to enduring strength and vitality for women navigating menopause and beyond. With a harmonious blend of scientific insight and soulful guidance, Dr. Wright offers actionable strategies in nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation to fortify the body against the challenges of aging. This empowering guide serves as a beacon for women aspiring to age with resilience, confidence, and grace.”—Kristen Holmes, PhD, VP, Director of Performance Science, Whoop

“Dr. Vonda Wright lives and breathes the same strategies for aging well that she gives her patients. Read Unbreakable and become the beneficiary of that guidance, too. It gives you the tools to take control of how your body ages so that old age doesn’t take control of you.”—Stacy Sims, PhD, author of Roar and Next Level

“Unbreakable shines a new light on aging. With empathy, hard science, and years of clinical experience, Dr. Wright offers a unique perspective on the inevitable head winds facing all women and tactical advice that is truly accessible to everyone.”—Jeremy London, MD

About the Author

Dr. Vonda Wright is a double-board certified orthopedic surgeon and internationally recognized authority on human performance, longevity, and women's health. The founding director of the Performance and Research Initiative for Masters Athletes (PRIMA), she has served as a physician for athletes at the University of Pittsburgh, Georgia State, the Pittsburgh and Atlanta Ballet, World Rugby, and the PGA. A highly sought after media expert, she has been featured on the Diary of a CEO, Jay Shetty, and Mel Robbins podcasts as well as the Today show, the Dr. Oz show, and in top publications including The New York Times, USA Today, and the Observer. She has authored five books, including Fitness After 40 and Guide to THRIVE. She lives with her husband, a retired two-time Stanley Cup champion, near Orlando, Florida.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

1

The Time Bombs of Aging

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. —Marie Curie

“Get used to it. You are just getting old.”

“Well, that’s just part of aging.”

I hear from people every day that this is the way their doctors—and friends and acquaintances too!—react when they talk about the changes they are experiencing as they get older. It’s as if everyone is throwing up their hands and taking a copout attitude about what it means to age. This is exactly the same sentiment I heard from Eva when we began working together. “Well, I guess I’m just getting old,” she’d said. A learned resignation from her previously vibrant life. Somewhere she had internalized the narrative that normal aging means suffering.

Maybe you have too. If I asked you what it means to age and what aging feels like to you, your response may depend on how old you are right now and how you see aging depicted around you. I remember in my early college years I was in such a rush to be an established adult I would repeatedly tell my roommates to “just grow up!” And now, ironically, I wonder what the hurry was about anyway. How we feel about the passage of time is also determined by what we have seen in our own families or the messages we receive from the media. Your outlook will be very different if you see your elders living vibrant lives decades past retirement, traveling the world and taking time to enjoy the fruits of their labor, or if you see your grandmother or aunts become frail and hunched over or fall and break their hip, resulting in not only tremendous personal stress but changes in family dynamics and tough family decisions.

Gender matters too. If you watch the media or marketing portrayals of how to live longer, you’ll see a gap. For men, more time is often portrayed as longevity, new adventures, and a dignified passing into graying temples and confidence that may be undergirded by Viagra (or the twenty-nine other choices that exist for male vitality). For women, more time in life is at worst portrayed as invisibility and frailty and at best by the message of the need for anti-aging cosmetic procedures to return to the appearance of youthful times.

So, we all have these concepts of aging from our lived experiences and the cultural waters we swim in. But what is aging anyway, and why do we age at seemingly different speeds? From a biological standpoint, what is this lifelong process of aging, and what accelerates it or slows it down?

The Hallmarks of Aging

The very systems and processes that keep us alive—metabolism, immune system, and cellular repair mechanisms—are designed to protect and sustain us. They are pillars of health, working tirelessly to balance energy, repair damage, and fend off disease. But as time passes, these systems can become overburdened or less efficient, turning from protective forces into what I consider molecular time bombs that threaten to break us down.

There are several reasons for this breakdown. Over decades our bodies face relentless wear and tear. Our cells divide, our once healthy metabolic pathways produce damaging proteins, and waste accumulates in our cells. Young bodies can handle and repair this damage easily, but over time, damage accumulates faster than it can be repaired. And our metabolism shifts. While metabolism powers every function in the body, the by-products of energy production—such as oxidative stress and inflammation—can start to cause harm. Initially, these processes are balanced, but as the inflammatory by-products build up, they begin to disrupt healthy function. Cells have a limited number of divisions before they undergo programmed cell death or enter a state of senescence, when they no longer divide and instead secrete harmful inflammatory signals. In short, they become exhausted, so this once useful process of cellular aging results in chronic inflammation and tissue damage. Systems designed to keep us safe, like the immune system, can become overactive or dysregulated, leading to chronic diseases like autoimmune disorders or metabolic syndrome. In other words, our once adaptive homeostasis becomes maladaptive. Or, more simply: The very systems that once shielded us now become time bombs to our health.

While we can’t stop the passage of time, we are not victims of aging. The true power lies in recognizing these time bombs early and taking proactive steps to neutralize them. By shielding ourselves, we can maintain control and build a future of sustained health and resilience.

That’s right, while some scientists believe aging is a disease that needs to be cured, others, like me, believe aging is a superpower. It allows us to grow through our experiences into the richness of life and to live in all the richness we are capable of. The issue is not our aging but our health as we age. We must take action to build an Unbreakable life, in which our healthspan equals our lifespan.

To dive deeper into creating shields for health and longevity, we must first more fully understand the time bombs of aging. How we age can be changed by our lifestyles, and it’s frankly a crime how little we’re taught about the biology of healthy aging. It’s far easier to internalize healthy aging habits and behaviors (like the ones you’ll find in this book) when you know exactly how they change your biology.

I’ve taken the time, therefore, to detail the most important ones here. We have some clear indications of the biological processes that damage our cells and ultimately pave the way for chronic disorders and disease. We also have clear indications about what can help protect us and keep us Unbreakable over time.

For the sake of clarity, I’m going to distill the twelve (and growing) known hallmarks of aging into what I consider the six main molecular time bombs and then explain the key ways you can shield yourself against them so you can not only extend your lifespan but also make your healthspan last as long as you do.

Time Bomb 1: DNA Changes and Damage

Our DNA is not our destiny, and we can stop blaming our parents for our health. Every time I say that in public, I know my mother smiles. Although we inherit our genetic code, or DNA, from our parents, it does not predetermine our full health and lifespan. Only 30 percent of health and aging is the result of genetics. The other 70 percent is caused by our lifestyle choices, which directly influence how our DNA is expressed.

If and how our genetic code is read to dictate the function of our cells, tissues, and bodies as a whole depends on multiple factors. This doesn’t mean our DNA itself changes, but the way our bodies “read” it does, thanks to something called epigenetic change. Our lifestyle choices—how much we exercise and what type of activity we do, what we eat, how we sleep, and other habits and behaviors—can alter the way our genes behave without rewriting our actual DNA code.

This understanding can give us real hope for the future, because it shows that our genetic expression is largely in our own hands. In fact, consider that a single session of aerobic exercise alters more than 9,800 molecules, including proteins, lipids, genes, and immune markers that influence health, and you get just a glimpse of how powerful the right exercise program can be. The promise and curse of epigenetics is that our lifestyle choices can indeed shield our health, but they can also damage healthy gene expression and lead to increased cellular damage, more rapid aging, cancer, and shortened healthspan and lifespan.

I see the profound influence of life choices on health and longevity in my own family. My father’s parents, Oren and Velma Wright, were farmers in Kansas. They survived by working hard and eating the fried, high-fat midwestern diet of the time. Smoking was the norm. The result? Their healthspan was diminished. By their early sixties they had developed cardiovascular and pulmonary conditions, and both died of stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease before their early seventies. My father, Gene, on the other hand, has been an endurance runner my whole life, and although he grew up on the fried fatty foods his parents served, his commitment to self-health shielded him, and at eighty-five he continues to live a vibrant life, daring us all to keep up with him. Though he inherited his parents’ genes, his life choices altered their epigenetic expression and added fifteen years (and counting) to his lifespan.

Included in the category of DNA damage is something called telomere shortening. Telomeres are protective caps that wrap around our chromosomes, which are long strands of DNA that carry genetic information. You can think of them as being like the plastic caps on your shoelaces that prevent them from fraying or, in the case of your chromosomes, from degrading or fusing with one another, which can cause disease. Telomeres will shorten over time, and as they do, cells lose their ability to divide and function properly.

This telomere exhaustion contributes to the aging process and is associated with the development of age-related diseases and accelerated aging. When telomeres become critically short or dysfunctional, they can trigger cellular senescence or apoptosis (programmed cell death), further contributing to aging and age-related pathologies. In fact, older people with shorter telomeres have three times more risk of death from heart disease and eight times increased risk of death from infectious diseases.

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book!!

J.E.F. · October 24, 2025

Great information from a wonderful doctor I have been following for a while! We all need to take her advice and get physically active so that we can be active, joyful, mindful through throughout our remaining years!!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend!

B. · September 1, 2025

Dr. Vonda provides expert insight along with practical steps to age well and create an Unbreakable future. It’s easy to understand, yet thorough in covering what can be a complex subject. This knowledge is invaluable for every woman. I highly recommend!!

5.0 out of 5 stars Just buy the book-best fitness/ health book I've read in 30+ yrs

D. · August 28, 2025

I bought this book yesterday and y'all - I stayed up until 3am to finish it! YES it was that good. I felt like almost everything she addresses was specific to me. How is that even possible?! I've been working hard over the past 18 months and lost 70 lbs. But I'm going to be following exactly what the doc prescribed in this wonderful book. I've read *a lot* of fitness/ health type books and I'm a retired nurse. I appreciated all the detained explanations of why she gives throughout the book. The fitness industry is full of unqualified clowns that give advice that will not work out for older women. I know following the plan and workout routine the doctor outlines in her book will definitely make sure I'm not only unbreakable but unstoppable! I'm recommending this book to every single woman I know! 💪 Do yourself a favor and make YOU a priority and just buy this book y'all!!It even*comes with a great app too!!*Thanks Dr. Wright for all your work, research and help clearing up the murky online advice from the fitness industry. I now know*exactly* what to do and how to plan meals. Looking forward to trying several of your recipes soon!!

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of good ideas but...

J. · September 19, 2025

This book was well written, but some areas were too technical for me to grasp. I found myself skimming those areas, unfortunately.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read

k. · October 9, 2025

I thought this book was a great read, and I learned a lot about exercise and nutrition.

5.0 out of 5 stars Break time is over. Unbreakable is here!

A. · September 5, 2025

This should be in every woman’s personal library. Buy one for yourself, and buy a few more for your girlfriends. This information is so important and detailed but written in such an engaging, encouraging and empowering style that inspires you to jump, jump, jump and lift, lift, lift no matter where you are on the fitness scale. Thank you Dr. Vonda Wright for bringing a whole new awareness on the fact that we can take more control of our bone density health.

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed

L.L. · October 19, 2025

I have watched Dr. Vonda Wright on podcasts, and I participated in her online class. She was knowledgable, and she seemed to really care about helping women improve their bone density and muscle health. So I ordered her book. Unfortunately, her book includes no pictures to go with the exercises she describes. In fact, there are no pictures in the book at all. Appendix 1, Exercise Protocols (pages 235 - 297) lists written directions for exercises, but no photos. There is a website that includes starting and ending positions for the exercises. It's confusing to follow, and unclear. It would have been nice to have a QR Code to a video for each exercise. Women with osteopenia and osteoporosis need to be especially careful when exercising to avoid injuries. I am disappointed, and was expecting a better organized book.

5.0 out of 5 stars Don’t skip this Read!

N.F. · September 29, 2025

This book does not disappoint! Awesome insight!

Great information.

S.U. · October 27, 2025

Great information and guidance. Quite scientific but very interesting and helpful.

Superb

H.J. · September 14, 2025

This is chalked full of important information. I found it not only interesting, useful and motivating. Best health advise for aging women I’ve ever read. True there are no pictures of the exercises but this is a minor issue if you know how to use google.

Vital information

M. · October 5, 2025

Very important information and guidance for long health

Lifesaving.

T.M.M. · September 4, 2025

This book has great insight into how ALL bodies change with time. But MOST IMPORTANTLY, Dr. Wright's message is overwhelmingly optimistic, and gives the reader absolute confidence in their ability to directly and absolutely improve and extend their healthspan. Although geared toward menopausal women, the information in this book is not exclusively for aging women, instead, EVERYONE can benefit from reading this book.

Too much

A.D. · September 29, 2025

Some good ideas and principles in the book but way too much technical detail and the suggested exercises routines are too lengthy and complicated for someone just trying to get a bit of their strength and fitness back. I bought the book on the basis of hearing her on the Zoe podcast where she made the principles sound very simple, but what’s in the book is just way too much (the book itself is also just too long, too big, too heavy, and too wordy, and I love books!). Her overall message of having a strong body in midlife and setting up for an independent old age is really great, but I was disappointed in the book as it is just too much and made me feel defeated before I’d even started. So I’m sticking with the simple principles from the podcast, as I’d rather stick with something simpler and a little less effective than give up completely because it’s all too overwhelming.

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Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power

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Visit the Rodale Books Store

Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power

Product ID: U0593736583

Condition: New

4.5

(206 ratings)

Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power-0

Type: Hardcover

^AED134⁶²

Price includes VAT & Import Duties

Availability: In Stock

Quantity:

Order today to get by 7-14 business days

Delivery fee of AED 20. Free for orders above AED 200.

Returns & Warranty policies

Imported From: United States

At BOLO, we work hard to ensure the products you receive are new, genuine, and sourced from reputable suppliers.

Your trust is our top priority, and we are committed to maintaining transparency and integrity in every transaction.

Unless otherwise stated, all prices displayed on the product page include applicable taxes and import duties.

All items are shipped by air, and any products classified as “Dangerous Goods (DG)” under IATA regulations will be removed from the order and cancelled.

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Review

About the Author

Reviews:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book!!

J.E.F. · October 24, 2025

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommend!

B. · September 1, 2025

5.0 out of 5 stars Just buy the book-best fitness/ health book I've read in 30+ yrs

D. · August 28, 2025

4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of good ideas but...

J. · September 19, 2025

This book was well written, but some areas were too technical for me to grasp. I found myself skimming those areas, unfortunately.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great read

k. · October 9, 2025

I thought this book was a great read, and I learned a lot about exercise and nutrition.

5.0 out of 5 stars Break time is over. Unbreakable is here!

A. · September 5, 2025

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed

L.L. · October 19, 2025

5.0 out of 5 stars Don’t skip this Read!

N.F. · September 29, 2025

This book does not disappoint! Awesome insight!

Great information.

S.U. · October 27, 2025

Great information and guidance. Quite scientific but very interesting and helpful.

Superb

H.J. · September 14, 2025

Vital information

M. · October 5, 2025

Very important information and guidance for long health

Lifesaving.

T.M.M. · September 4, 2025

Too much

A.D. · September 29, 2025

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United Arab Emirates

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Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power

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Unbreakable: A Woman's Guide to Aging with Power

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