But, consider for a moment, what about the quality of your life and health? It has been predicted only 3 out of 10 people will be healthy enough to really enjoy these golden years, will you will be one of them?

By the time the 21st Century arrived much of the physical demands of our daily lives had been replaced by automation. Modern life today sees many of us 'sitting' and hardly moving for long stints during the day, every day. Our bodies pay the price: the stiffness of joints, the weakening of muscles, the decline in our energy level and the increased risk of disease. We are often quick to blame this on the aging process but instead these changes are a direct effect of inactivity and the sedentary lifestyles that we are living today.

In the last century, another 30 odd years of life expectancy has been added to our lives. For some these years are not a time for happiness and well-being. Although people are living longer in the industrialized world, they are also getting chronically ill at a much earlier age. It seems modern medicine can prolong life; but seems far less able to promote healthy aging.

For many people this downward spiral of declining health, the muscle and joint pain and the subsequent disability is happening at younger and younger ages ? thirties, forties, fifties. For most of us exercise is something we should do, but we choose not to, continuing to live our lives without any disease preventing exercise. We can live like this for many years, or even decades while experiencing a gradual and barely noticeable decline in overall health and physical functioning.

For our bodies to become and remain healthy they require the stimulation of challenging physical activity to replace the "work" they have been designed to do. This is the primary way our bodies renew every living cell each day. In other words we are still hard wired for hard manual labor and our bodies don't know we no longer need to do it.

Our bodies have responded with the loss of our muscle mass and strength as it is no longer needed, the old "use it or lose it" scenario. Our modern world now faces an epidemic of overweight and obese people, sky rocketing levels of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other life threatening illnesses and conditions, all of which have been labeled "lifestyle diseases" as they are considered to be premature and preventable.

Your level of strength is the absolute foundation of your life and equals your level of health. Being physically strong enables you to do more, and be more, which means more of everything ? more vitality, more energy and more out of every aspect of your life.

Wellness living requires each of us taking personal responsibility for our own well-being and implementing positive programs to improve health and quality of life. A proper exercise program that includes at least 60% strength training exercise will rejuvenate virtually every organ in your body, adding energy to your days and years to your life.

This will allow you to squeeze out as much enjoyment as possible to add to your life from those extra years you have been gifted with so you don't waste them!