Our ancestor's lives were very active just to survive the daily search for food. Our modern day lifestyles are just the opposite with little opportunity to be active as everything is automated so we don't have to exert ourselves. Sitting is our main occupation these days, at work, in the car, at the movies, in the plane, and of course hours spent sitting maintaining our addiction to television.

We now know that this type of lifestyle is a huge threat to our health. Our body needs the stimulation of movement, vigorous movement to send signals that instruct every cell, tissue, process and system in the body to continue to grow, repair, rebuild replace and renew and to keep strong for living.

Our present day lifestyles are so sedentary and have so little 'work' in them that the body can only assume this person is no longer needed so he can be eliminated to make room for others at the trough. The signal that the body receives from someone who lives a no exercise lifestyle is to slow down which starts a downward spiral of declining health, then what follows is deterioration, degeneration, decay and?.die.

What signals are you sending to your body on a daily basis? Do you work your muscles vigorously on a regular basis? Did you know that 70% of what we used to believe was due to the aging process is nothing more than our reluctance to get off our backsides and move?

If you don't believe that then what do you think is the problem with our health? You would think that with all the doctors, drugs, tests, procedures, surgeries, and the billions of dollars spent on sickness than we would all be in the peak of good health. But, if you open your eyes and look around, you can see the health of so many people spiraling downward before your very eyes.

And the facts back this up with one out of every two people in this world carrying one or more chronic diseases or illnesses and many with multiple conditions. Two thirds of us are overweight, many obese and many more are tired, lack energy and just plain feel lousy.

Let us take this one step further and get a little more personal. Take a look at yourself in the mirror. Are you happy with the way you look? What about the way you feel? Are you carrying around too much weight and don't have enough energy to do everything you want to in your life?

Whatever your answers are to these questions you can look to your personal lifestyle habits, in particular proper exercise and healthy eating that we know can either speed-up or reverse disease and aging. In addition to the anti aging effects and disease-fighting properties, proper exercise that includes mostly strength training exercise can improve the quality of your life and your general well-being in many other ways.

Some of these include helping you sleep better, reducing stress and anxiety, controlling your weight, brightening your mood, and sharpening your mental functioning.

Your exercise program is like the center pole in a tent. If it is strong and put up correctly it will hold up the tent in high winds. Your own personal strength is your center pole, neglect it at your peril. Remember only strength training exercise is going to do the job, don't ever expect low intensity activity like walking or gardening to be able to replace a proper exercise program because it will not.

Take action and if you don't already have a proper exercise program firmly in your life get one. If you already do ? get stuck in and work it. Don't live your life now so that doctors, surgeries and drugs are needed once the wheels fall off and things are broken somewhere down the track. Think of your exercise program as the only medicine you will ever need to take for a long and healthy life.