The Power to Age Well

How would you like to have the power to determine how old you are? Did you know that losing strength, movement and function is not part of inevitable aging? One of the biggest threats to your long-term quality of life is the loss of steady lean body mass; and you can turn it around! Your lean mass consists of muscles and bones. Muscle damage is called sarcopenia and bone loss is called osteoporosis. This condition is related because the muscles produce the mechanical stress needed to keep the bones healthy.

Sarcopenia often begins at age 30 in industrialized countries and begins with rapid loss of muscle fiber. This is a larger fiber, which burns fast and produces the most strength. We lose them first because we stop doing things that use them first. For decades, we have been told to emphasize cardiovascular exercises such as walking, jogging and biking. These activities are very dominant in fiber. This trend has destroyed human muscle function and has drastically affected how we age.

Fat gain is associated with muscle loss as it burns calories. Increasing your body fat levels, along with loss of bone density, decreased energy, negative changes in cholesterol and wrinkled skin are part of "somatopause" or "middle age." Somatopause is directly related to the decline in human growth hormone (HGH) levels, which drops dramatically after 30 years without intervention. HGH is essential for bone and organ growth, tissue repair, healing, muscle growth, brain function, energy, endurance and metabolism. The longer you maintain a high level of hormone growth, the longer you can experience vitality.

Both activities that stimulate both FT and HGH fibers are anaerobic (not aerobic) in nature. Both of these activities are weight training and interval training. Unfortunately, women have also become information on how to make a heavy train. The hormone response from lifting weights to high repetition sets is basically the same as jogging and actually promotes muscle breakdown and fat storage. Such exercises actually damage muscle loss because the stimulation used is not enough to promote growth. When you lift weights, you metabolize the hormones cortisol, epinephrine, growth hormone, testosterone and lactic acid. These combinations work together to make you slimmer, stronger and "younger".

Lifting weights keeps the muscle fibers fast and allows you to move well, catch falls and hold strong bones. Another way to stimulate HGH and fast-twitch muscle fibers is to trade your endurance cardio for a more intense "blast". For example, instead of jogging, you can warm up and then run uphill several times. These changes will dramatically increase cardiovascular fitness and fat burning ability in a small amount of time. At least 30 seconds of high intensity exercise, can increase HGH levels by 530% to help you build lean muscle and burn fat. Relevant Canadian research shows that exercisers perform only forty-30 sprints twice a week for 2 weeks doubling their resistance to exercise testing and increasing their mitochondrial activity by 38%, meaning their muscles and cells can use more oxygen and burn more calories.

If you're ready to make changes now that will improve the quality of your life for decades, it's important to start safe. First you need to lay the ground before adding intensity. You must develop stability, mobility and flexibility while strengthening your joints, ligaments and muscles in preparation for interval training. Even when you are getting ready, your metabolism increases and you burn fat while increasing bone density, posture and muscle tone. After that, you can train strength with heavier weights and increase interval training. Once you practice this method, you will reap all of the rewards described above, effectively reversing or slowing down the aging process!

The Power to Age Well


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