There Really is a Fountain of Youth Available to Us All

There is a myth that strength and fitness is just for the young. And that all you need to do is to just go for a walk, do some gardening or housework and that is enough to keep the necessary strength and fitness that will keep you healthy. Guess what? It isn't.

Up to the age of about 25 our bodies are continually growing and developing and muscles stay strong even without specific exercise. After this point if the body does not receive the necessary stimulus triggering it to maintain muscle mass and strength, there begins a slow process of muscle wasting. This stimulus is the release of hormones (chemical messengers) which occurs when vigorous activity is performed signaling the body to get stronger.

If you never give your body these signals through being sedentary this loss of muscle continues in stealth like fashion unseen and largely unbeknown to its owner. But you will notice it. This loss of muscle tissue directly and indirectly causes almost all of the so-called age related declines in physical capacity and appearance.

Muscles become weaker and less enduring and bones become weaker and less dense. The metabolism slows down (the body's engine); fat begins to accumulate; the body becomes softer, larger and heavier. The body shape changes as shoulders narrow through lack of use and the midsection widens; and posture sags downwards and forwards moving towards the slumped over position of the elderly.

By age sixty or so these unwanted changes accelerate and occur more rapidly. Many people become so profoundly weak that they have to be institutionalized simply because they can barely get up and move about let alone function properly to care for themselves. Many of the health problems blamed on the aging process are actually symptoms of waning strength and deteriorating fitness caused by laziness, apathy and idleness over a lifetime.

Fortunately, getting back to a very physically active lifestyle will send growth and repair signals throughout your body and brain, allowing you to grow younger again and ward off this downward spiral of declining health, strength and fitness. All of these negative concerns are totally reversible with a proper exercise program.

There is only one type of exercise that will restore your strength and that is strength training exercise. Don't be mislead into thinking that any low intensity cardio type exercise is going to do the job as it won't. Walking, cycling etc can never stimulate the release of the necessary hormones to increase strength. We all have legs and we all walk, it is our mode of transport and is not a proper exercise program.

It is critical that you get help from a fitness professional to set up your program so it will give you the results you want in the shortest possible time. If you have been sedentary for years or maybe even decades the last thing you need is wasted time and effort on ineffective and outdated exercise routines.

Just a couple of sessions a week restores strength, stops bone loss, stops muscle loss, stops the weakening of tendons, restores the joints and stops the pain. An added benefit is the effect on your metabolism (the rate your body burns fuel). Although this rate goes down as we age, you can change your metabolism and burn twice as many calories a day as projected for your age if you have the lean muscle mass that comes from strength training.

The point of exercise is not to "burn off" calories while you are exercising, but rather to tell your body to grow, to build new tissue and to run at a higher metabolic rate all day and all night long, even while you are just sitting around or sleeping. Those extra calories you burn sitting around are how you lose that extra weight.

There is no way you will stay strong without making an effort and making time to fit a proper exercise program into your life. We are well informed with the ton of information available to us all now and it is up to each of us to take advantage of this new fountain of youth.