It does not really matter what your actual age is the big question is how you look, feel and perform. With new technologies emerging we are heading towards the dream of keeping oneself young regardless of our age. We are aware now that how we age is mostly determined by the choices each of us makes every day. These choices include proper exercise and good nutrition.



Far and away, the most important thing you can do to offset the aging process is an exercise program that includes strength training exercise. By doing a properly designed program you don't actually need to spend a lot of time, the trick is to exercise harder (not necessarily longer).

Research has proven over and over that short bouts of intense exercise are more effective than longer workouts. Long, easy workouts have their place in a fitness program, but nothing comes close to high-intensity training for keeping your body young

In regard to exercise, once you hit around 40 plus years, time is of the essence. You don't want to nor can you afford to 'waste time' with the wrong exercise program. Not only that, but if you have been sedentary (the nice way of saying you have parked your butt in a chair for far too long), you have got to be smart about how you 'wake your body up.'

The main reason that you need exercise is the fact that your body loses muscle mass as you age. Strength training creates muscle toning which will offset some of that loss. The way this type of exercise counteracts aging is that it forces your body out of its comfort zone stimulating hormones that tell your cells and body systems to renew, repair, rebuild and replace themselves.

As we get older, our bodies produce fewer hormones over time, leading to the inability to rebuild and repair ourselves, until we eventually break down and die. Muscle toning exercise counteracts this by forcing our bodies to produce more hormones than are produced naturally.

This keeps our muscles, bones, and organs from deteriorating as fast and the result is that, with continued exercise, the aging process is slowed down. Too many people let aging take control and allow their bodies to phase out due to lack of knowledge that this process is preventable.

You may have heard of hormone replacement therapy as a way of holding off the aging process. Well proper muscle building and toning exercise is the cheaper, natural way of doing the same thing. It's also more effective and only 10 -20 minutes a day of putting a bit of effort into your exercise program is all it takes for this response to occur.

Now it is possible to improve almost every aspect of your body - bone mass, muscle tissue, long and short-term memory, healing time, organ function and regain a youthful appearance - by changing your metabolism (your body's engine) and your body chemistry through strength training exercise.

You may also find that it is an enjoyable experience even slightly addictive due to the feel good hormones being produced. And of all of the possible addictions in life, this is the one that will benefit you the most and makes it easier to maintain a permanent exercise habit.

It is a far better way to deal with the underlying causes of aging rather than trying to deal with each symptom by taking some type of medicine or pill. What would you rather be hooked on? Forget about popping pills, proper exercise is a better fat burner, health creator, energy producer and anti-depressant than any man-made drug will ever be.

Maybe when you look in the mirror after just a few weeks and see your body start to change and how much better you feel, you will begin to like enjoy exercise a LOT.