Let's RESIST Aging!!!

"Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness."~Edward Stanley

YES! Let's resist aging by making resistance training or exercise a part of our regular routines. Studies have shown that resistance training can slow down, or actually reverse the signs of aging. Imagine that! How is this possible? Well let's talk about the fact that we can begin losing muscle mass in our 30's, as a normal part of aging, and we can lose up to 7 pounds of muscle per decade. Those who have never indulged in any type of regular exercise are at greater risk for early loss of muscle mass (Mercola, 2015).

Our muscles play such a significant role in our mental and physical health, it is one of the most important factors in healthy aging. As we age, we need healthy muscles to protect us from metabolic and hormonal decline, diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. Healthy muscle also slows down the aging process and enhances cognitive function (Mercola, 2015). Even someone in their 70's can have an almost immediate improvement in physical health if they begin resistance training.

Meet Mrs. Ernestine Sheperd
who in March of 2010 at the age
of 74, received the title of Worlds
Oldest Performing Female Bodybuilder
 by Guiness World Records.

If you haven't heard of Mrs. Ernestine Sheperd, do yourself a favor and check out her inspirational story. She is AMAZING! She received the title of Worlds Oldest Performing Female Bodybuilder at the age of 74, in March of 2010, and she looks AWESOME! She is now 80 years old and still works out regularly and still looks AWESOME!

For me, I've always worked my abs (core) since Jr. high school. I can't remember missing more than a few months without doing sit ups or crunches. The workouts that I'm doing now are a leg routine that consists of jumping jacks, squats, calf raises, deadlifts, walking lunges, star jumps, kick backs, and wall sits. I also do my crunches and pushups, I've added walking up and down my back stairwell 20 times, and I've added an arm workout. I alternate my leg workout and my stair climbs because it was too much on my knees to do them on the same day. I don't do them all every day, but I've managed to get into a pretty good routine so that I workout on a regular basis now. I don't feel right if I miss more than a day not working out, and I feel FANTASTIC!!!

One of the things that I wanted to mention is that although strenuous resistance training gives the best results, you don't have to go to a gym to do resistance exercises. I do all of mine at home. You don't even need weights, you can use your body weight to build muscle, but it's a good idea to get a few light weights to workout with. I do use weights for certain exercises, especially my arm workout. And don't worry about getting too muscular. Lol! That takes a lot of patience, focus, dedication, and the desire to be muscular. There's plenty of free information online and on Youtube to help you use proper form and to give you plenty of great routines and good advice. Please take advantage of these wonderful tools.

Remember that you shouldn't just jump into resistance training if your not already in decent shape. Take your time to do warmups and build up to where you want to be. Warmups are important for getting blood flow to your muscles to help prevent injury. Also, remember that your tearing down your muscles, so taking a day off after a day on is just as important as your workout day. You need those rest days for your muscles to heal and build. Eating correctly is important too.

Anything worth doing is rarely easy, but it is all worth it in the end. And the way that you'll feel will keep you from questioning whether it's worth all of the hard work. So come join in on resisting aging, and add resistance exercises as a part of your regular routines.

Talk to you all next week! 😊

P.S.~Please always access my references to get a more detailed explanation of my topics. Or even do your own research to get a better understanding of them.~LAF

References

Mercola, J. (2015, October 2). How to prevent age related muscle loss. 

     Fitness.mercola.com

     Retrieved from http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2015/10/02/

     preventing-age-related-muscle-loss.aspx

Photo of Ernestine Sheperd retrieved from http://ernestineshepherd.net/?page_id=2
Photo with ball and mat from Pixabay.com