Proper strengthening exercise can slow and even reverse many components of the aging process and is likely the single most effective way to lengthen and add quality of life. Challenging exercise is empowered to rejuvenate you and take years off your chronological age – it truly is the closest thing to an anti-aging pill.
Human bodies are living systems that require movement and muscular activity in order to function properly.
The muscles are the engine of our body where energy is released, power is produced and movement originates.
On the surface, muscles provide form, strength and balance. They go way beyond just looks. When in top shape, they offer support and shock absorption for the lower back and the plasticity needed for flexibility that tendons and ligament do not so it’s important that you don’t short change the role they play. They are essential to keeping the immune system functioning properly and since the immune system is responsible for detecting and fighting off infections as well as detecting and destroying cancer cells, they can literally save your life.
Lean muscle tissue is crucially important for the immune system in two ways:
Muscle is the primary site in the body where glutamine is formed. Glutamine is an amino acid used as a necessary fuel source by many cells of the immune system – without it they cannot function
Lean muscle tissue is your body’s only way of storing protein. This extra protein is essential because when you get sick, your body will draw on it to produce new antibodies and the white blood cells needed to fight off infection or find and attack cancerous cells. So, if you allow your muscles to shrink and waste away as you get older – if you are not strength training to maintain them, you are losing your ability to create the cells you need to fight off illness.
When illness or injury strikes older people they have a harder time recovering from it because they have lost too much of their muscle and don’t have any reserve of protein to call on when they get sick or injured.
Strength training can increase both the number and the amount of activity of several different types of immune cells – especially the ones whose primary jobs are to detect and destroy cancerous and virus-infected cells.
Additionally, when the heart rate increases, it helps remove germs and speeds the circulation of antibodies and white blood cells (natural kill cells) throughout the body. Studies reveal that white blood cell counts can increase anywhere from 50 to 300 percent after a vigorous exercise session.
Stress is another energy/life killer, it hampers the immune system, increasing the chance of illness. It’s exercise that slows down the release of stress-related hormones and helps relieve stress in a direct way by providing an outlet for and consuming much of the nervous energy that stress produces and indirectly by helping to shift one’s focus away from the external factors causing the stress.
The amount of muscle you have and how much you retain is determined for the most part simply by how much use your muscles get. Use them frequently and you can maintain their strength. Ignore them and suffer the consequences.
Increase the demands made on your bones and muscles, push them to the limits of their capacity by exercise and you can actually increase their strength no matter your age. Your body responds by maintaining stronger ones.
Exercise adds years to your life and life to your years and strength training is the most effective thing you can do to reverse the aging process. You actually change the makeup of your blood for eight to twelve hours after exercising properly. So for the majority of the day, you’re regenerating cells and building a better body and brain.
People that age well and seem younger than their years, exercise regularly, retain their lean tissue mass and as a result enjoy a longer life with fewer illnesses and sharper mental clarity.
Challenging exercise will increase your lean muscle mass, and your metabolic rate – burning more calories and producing more energy. This is the real secret to turning back the aging clock.
Your body is empowered to slow down the aging process and restore itself to a level of wellness that it may no longer be experiencing. Superior health. the kind that pays off long-term, involves maintaining healthy body weight throughout life, eating a healthy diet, and having sufficient physical activity in our lives.
The information here, when implemented as suggested, will be life changing and you will enjoy greater health like never before.
“Reclaim Your Longevity” can help you do just that…
For more tools and resources from Carolyn Hansen to assist you in attaining your health and fitness goals and achieving the success you desire in life, please visit: