To our ancient ancestors, vigorous activity was part of life, fleeing from predators, hunting for food and other activities for survival necessitated hard exercise on a daily basis. Now let us fast forward to the 21st Century where technology and automation have replaced much of the physical demands of daily life. Our modern life has many of us sitting and hardly moving for long periods all day every day.

Our bodies are not designed for this and are still hard wired for hard manual labor to enable our survival just like our ancestors. Whether we like it or not, our bodies function better, stay well and last longer with vigorous activity and have not adapted well to this reduced level of activity.

Without physical "work" muscles that are not used and kept strong will lose mass and become soft weak and flabby. This in turn slows the metabolism (the rate the body burns fuel) slowly siphoning away our life force. Your body isn't suspended in time, waiting till you might need its strength again; it's heading in a downward spiral of accelerated aging and declining health.

For some people, the muscle and bone loss, joint pain and energy drain is happening at younger and younger ages - thirties, forties, fifties. And this is just the beginning; inactivity affects the brain, blood vessels, liver, sleep, immune system, self-esteem and your ability to use glucose. Your heart and lungs lose their ability to function efficiently and your joints will become stiff, painful and easily injured and your immune system weakens exposing you to disease and illness.

Whether we like it or not, our bodies function better, stay well and last longer when we get regular weight bearing exercise. Whether you choose to accept, believe and act on that reality or not will affect both the quality and the length of your life. Everyday activities or tasks don't count here, to make a difference to this process a proper program that includes at least 60% strength training exercise needs to be adhered to for "life".

When challenged by strength training exercise living parts of your body will continually renew themselves - sweeping out old, cells and tissue, and rebuilding new tissue that is younger, stronger, and healthier. Without the challenge of weight bearing activity your body has no impetus to renew itself, and your tissues grow old, frail, and prone to injury and disease.

There will be so many benefits - you can feel younger, stronger, and more vigorous - perhaps better than you have ever felt in your entire life. Aging is not some static, irreversible biological condition, it is a dynamic state that in most people can be changed for the better no matter how many years they have lived or how long they have neglected their bodies.

Being physically strong and fit is more than striving to live longer; it is striving to live better and is about living every day to your fullest capacity not just getting by.

The strength of your muscles is the most important health related element of physical fitness as you get older so the solution is really easy. Restoring strength is paramount to reversing the devastating consequences of the lack of physical activity in our lives. The quality of your life very truly depends on exercise.