Why you must exercise to stay young

Nobody wants to get old. The very word aging, or rather the process that it implies does not excite us at all. Perhaps that is why many people endlessly seek the mythical fountain of youth to try and live up to the ideals of our youth orientated society. Maybe as society has developed it is only natural for us to strive for longer and healthier lives.

Although how many candles on our birthday cake is important the question that is more important is "How do you look? How do you feel? How do you perform?"

We know now through research that aging primarily results from a disturbance in metabolism. Metabolism is the term for the way cells chemically change the food we eat so that it can be used for energy or stored as fat. It could be called the engine room of our body as it is the sum of the chemical changes and reactions that take place in a cell or a living organism in order to enable its continued growth and functioning to maintain life.

There are two major directions of metabolism that can influence the speed at which we age, how well we function or whether we stay well or succumb to disease. Anabolic or 'growth and repair' activities are those that build. On the other hand, catabolic activities are those that break things down such as where there is widespread tissue destruction (as in dieting), muscle and bone loss (through inactivity), and degeneration in overall health, which greatly accelerates the aging process.

In a catabolic metabolism you may experience symptoms in a slow insidious process in which your body literally starts to breakdown and degenerate. It may take many years before you notice these symptoms and you could mistakenly think that it is part of the aging process, only to realize later that something is not right.

As we get older and become more and more inactive the brain receives signals of weakening body systems. This starts the gradual "shut-down" mode as it assumes that because there is no stimulation of hormones from vigorous exercise that it is time to start the process of clearing this organism from the earth. It changes the metabolism to catabolic - breakdown mode to make way for younger stronger beings.

But if we keep strong and active right throughout our adult life then our body is being told that it does need to stay strong. Powerful 'growth and repair' hormones continue to be released if we do enough muscle building and maintaining exercise. These will keep your body youthful no matter what your age.

We can not only buy more time by being highly active, this time is higher quality time which will allow us to continue to do tasks and activities that we enjoy so we can get the most out of our life. Our body is also better disease proofed and our risk of being taken out by a premature and preventable disease is reduced.

If there is anything that could ever be touted as the fountain of youth, it has to be staying active. And with staying active, comes exercise. Proper strength training exercise that will also strengthen your heart health, keep muscles, bones and joints strong, burn excess calories and fat and regain a youthful appearance. Now it is possible to improve almost every aspect of your body at any age - all by changing your metabolism and your body chemistry with proper exercise.