Complementary & Alternative Medicine

The Beneficial Effects of Proper Exercise Extend Right to the Soul

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For years people have associated strength training exercise with bodybuilders and athletes. Yet only a very small percentage of men or women possess the genetic ability to develop relatively large muscles and the majority of us do not fit into this category. It seems strange why people would worry about developing too much muscle when they should be worried about the real problem and that is losing muscle.

After reaching maturity in our early twenties our bodies begin a long and gradual degenerative process with muscle tissue loss being at the forefront. This loss amounts to around a half pound per year and continues throughout life. After age 50 the rate of this loss doubles creating a cascade of health problems and increasing disease risk.

Whether they like it or not without adequate and regular muscle building and maintaining exercise adults lose 20 to 40 percent of the muscle they had as young adults. We once believed that this was an evitable part of the aging process but now we know that it is a result of not doing enough muscle toning exercise. We used to get enough of this type of activity in our daily tasks and activities but with technology, cars and modern household appliances we can get through the day without exerting ourselves.

This has a damaging effect on our body and although there is a downward spiral of accelerated aging happening we often are not aware of it until we need to do some physical activity and struggle to find strength and endurance. We may even feel tired, unmotivated and even depressed as this downward spiral drags our health down and our metabolism slows like some old aging engine that has lost its power.

With this neglect of our body they become storage depots for stress, mental instability, disease and illness. But you can totally turn this around with a program of proper exercise to help restore lost strength and inner peace. This is one of the reasons it is difficult to measure the health benefits of proper exercise as it effects extend right to the soul.

People think that as they get older they do not need to bother keeping their strength. But this decision impact on others such as families when a person loses their strength and becomes unable to do the most basic of self care necessities allowing that burden to fall on someone else.

People often think exercise will tire them out but you become more tired sitting around doing nothing. Exercise energizes you and this works like a snowball. Once you create more energy you become more active more often. Then you get more energy pushing you along and it all becomes easier and more enjoyable.

Instead of slowing down and looking for ways to expend as little energy as possible get rid of this negative mindset and trade it for a positive one that looks for opportunities to be really active. Along with your strength training exercise program 2-3 times each week, dig the garden, wash the car, and turn off the television and instead of sitting get moving.

When you adopt a new attitude of moving more you will become healthier in your body, mind and spirit. If you listen closely you will hear an inner voice saying ‘Thank you”.

Want To Live To Be 100?

To a large extent how well you remain and how well you feel for the rest of your life is under your control and you have the power to boost your chances of living a healthier, happier and longer life. We would all love to find that mythic pill or potion that eradicates wrinkles, diminishes our risk of heart attack and averts dementia while ensuring that we live to be 100. A strong, disease free, fit and active, happy, healthy 100 year old that is.

Alas, getting older is still a basic fact of the life cycle, and the human mortality rate still remains at 100 percent. But we can exert some control over our health span and ultimately our life span. Studies have shown that about 25 percent of how we age is determined by genetics; the other 75 percent by what we do and don’t do on a daily basis especially in the way of proper exercise and good nutrition.

Despite the constant promotion of products claimed to extend or increase longevity and prolong vigor there is nothing you can buy in a box or a bottle, no pills or potions have been shown to extend anything other than your credit card balance.

Most of us are born with the genetic wherewithal to live to well over 100 years but the challenge is to prevent premature disease from taking us down before that. There are a few key lifestyle choices you can make that can reduce the risk significantly of the diseases most likely to kill or disable you: heart disease, cancer, diabetes or dementia.

Reams of research suggest regular proper physical activity slows down and can even reverse bodily decline. Rigorous activity that works the muscular system helps circulate blood and therefore oxygen throughout the body’s tissues and organs, delivering nourishment and removing impurities.

If the exercise is intense enough (degree of effort involved) it triggers hormones which instruct the body’s cells to repair, replace, renew and rebuild. So, simple strength training exercise can work its magic right down to cellular level to strengthen not only muscles but bones and all of the body’s systems including the all important immune system. This is where exercising for health really pays off and it can protect you from a nasty disease that can shorten your life.

Just 2-3 sessions each week of a proper exercise program made up of mostly strength training exercise is all that is needed for a multitude of health benefits. But it is important that you seek the help of a fitness professional to set up your program and monitor your results. Your program needs to be regularly changed and tweaked to ensure you continue to progress and receive the fastest and most effective results.

We all should consider ourselves very lucky to be living in an age where this knowledge is available and we all have access to a healthier, longer life. Our parents and especially our grandparents were not so lucky and endured up to 20 years of weakness, frailty, disability and loss of independence.

You have a choice about how you age, you can do it traditionally with the normal expected downward spiral of physical and mental decline or you can take action and be vital, strong, well and youthful with the power of strengthening exercise.

Think about how you want to live the last third of your life? Your future hinges on the lifestyle choices you make right now ? today. Why not enjoy extra years of healthy, productive, ageless living that are right at your fingertips?

We Can’t Stop Getting Older But We Can Stop Feeling Older

As each year passes we get more aches, pains and stiffness, we can lose our balance and appear to shrink in size and height. Over a period of time our habits change and we may become less active than we were when we were younger. As things get harder we stop doing them and stop participating in sports and other physical activities we used to enjoy.

Eventually everything becomes an effort, bending down to pick something up off the floor or walking up several flights of stairs. Instead of continuing to make our body work hard to force it to keep our strength we start to rest it more and more. This starts a very dangerous downward spiral of decline that in fact speeds up the process of aging.

Instead of letting our strength ebb away like some aging old engine we should be fighting to keep things strong and functional. We now know that the health declines that used to be associated with the aging process are really just the result of our lifestyle habits which include whether we do enough proper exercise or not.

You see, the facts are the aging process itself has surprisingly little to do with weak, inflexible muscles, bone loss, stiff joints, poor circulation, and weight gain, loss of energy or even chronic disease.

The ‘big three’ heart disease, cancer or diabetes are called ‘lifestyle diseases’ as they are caused by your lifestyle habits and what you do and don’t do on a daily basis. And this includes one of the most important factors ? proper exercise.

Proper exercise is a program of strength training that keeps the muscular system along with the bones and joints strong and flexible. A proper exercise program does not include low intensity activities like walking, jogging or cycling, gardening, playing with the kids or bird watching. These things are great as part of an active lifestyle but they can never ever replace proper exercise.

Taking a little time out of your week for 2 or 3 sessions of your strength training program and making an effort to be more active in your leisure time helps combat many issues so you can get off the merry go round of accelerated aging. The older people get the less likely they are to be physically active, yet being sedentary and inactive contributes to premature aging. With each advancing year it becomes progressively more important to have the right amount of proper exercise in your life.

Adults who participate in strength training exercise have an easier time with their daily activities and experience fewer chronic diseases. We must cast aside the notion that disease is just part of the natural processes of aging as the long term accumulation of poor lifestyle and dietary habits has everything to do with it.

The good news is that you can do more than just hope for a strong, mobile body as you age and you are lucky as you have access to new research and information that can help you improve the quality of your life at any age. It is never too late to turn back the clock with the powerful age eraser called strength training exercise.