5 Ways A Regular Exercise Plan Will Keep You Younger

Having a proper exercise plan is a must for your fitness goals to be achievable.  Whether your objective is to lose weight, to live healthier, or to keep people guessing your actual age.  Being physically active contributes positively to your overall well-being and actually, greatly helps in slowing down the aging process.

And what woman wouldn’t want that?  Don’t get me wrong though, there is nothing wrong with getting older! When I say the aging process, I don’t mean just the numbers. Slowing down the aging process through a regular exercise plan is not just for vanity reasons, it is also beneficial for our overall health and well-being as well. 

 

THE 5 IMPORTANT FACTORS THAT YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN YOUR EXERCISE PLAN TO STAY HEALTHY AND FEEL YOUNGER:

• GET FLEXIBLE
  

Flexibility is simply muscles and tendons elongating or shortening while we move. Flexibility gets reduced, if not lost, mostly due to our daily habits and not entirely to age. 

For example, habitually slouching over a desk will make you more prone to lose flexibility and with this, your posture will start to deteriorate over time as well.  A hunchback posture will not only give you stiff muscles and tendons but will also give you an appearance that is older than your actual age.

Increase and maintain flexibility by ensuring that stretching before and after workouts is a part of your regular exercise plan.  Incorporating a number of key stretches every day will get rid of your stiffness, elongate your muscles and tendons to prevent injuries, and work wonders for your posture.

Regular stretching will increase your strength and make your body supple which will alleviate that stiff feeling you get from staying in one position for too long.

 

• INCREASE STRENGTH TO INCREASE HAPPINESS
  

As we age, our muscles tend to atrophy and our joints begin to weaken. We become slower and weaker, not to mention more prone to developing osteoporosis. It is vital that we gain more strength as we age. 

One good regime is to include lifting weights to your regular exercise plan. Weight training strengthens the muscles that support our bones and joints and protects our bones from becoming weak and brittle. 

Having a good and regular exercise plan also makes a massive difference to our emotional status leaving us feeling more confident and keeping our mood levels positively high.

Exercising stimulates the release of happy hormones (Endorphins), which are likened to natural opiates.  So, that gym “high” that you get from exercising will drive you to lift more and push harder, and as your strength increases, your happiness and confidence will boost higher as well.

  

• GET UP TO SPEED 

One natural part of aging is that we begin to slow down, and this can be seen and felt in our everyday activities like walking, driving, and even getting out of bed.  With age, our proprioception, the ability to sense stimuli arising within the body regarding position, motion, and equilibrium, starts to wane. 

With this, our reflex gets delayed, and we are more likely to stumble or fall. And there will be times when you'll realize that your memory is no longer as sharp as it used to be and you start to become forgetful as you age. That is because age affects not only our physical body but our brain too.

However, you can work on your speed and mobility at any age or stage of your life. Try your best to speed up where you can. Pushing yourself just a little bit further with short bursts of speed every time you train will really make a huge difference.

As for the brain, exercising not only slows down skin cell aging and tissue damage, but also memory lapses due to age.  There are studies that have proven that fitness improves memory significantly.

So the next time you forget why you've walked into a room or you found your reading glasses in the refrigerator, get your trainers on and head to the gym for a speed and memory-boosting training session!

  

• KEEP IT LEAN
  

As we age, making a conscious effort to stay lean is vital because we lose muscles and tend to put on fat, which fast forwards us into future health problems. So, it is important to ensure that your exercise plan is well thought out and that your diet is optimized, with you eating clean at least 80% of the week.

 

Metabolism naturally slows down as we age, so it’s is more difficult to keep the pounds off as years pass. Schedule short bursts of 4-5 workout sessions in a week to assist you in burning those calories. For the thirtyish or so women, check my recommended routines to ignite faster metabolism and include it in your exercise plan. Remember that the more muscle you have, the higher the calories you will burn.

 

• KEEP YOUR FORM AND POSTURE RIGHT AND STRAIGHT!
  

  

As you lose muscles and your bone density starts to change, your posture begins to change too. Unfortunately, having sedentary lifestyles or sitting in front of the computer/laptop all day doesn't help at all and in fact, adds to the postural stress on your body.

 

If you need to be working on a desk all day, make sure you take regular breaks by getting up to do some stretching or walking around for five minutes.  It is also recommended that you get a standing desk if possible - as it has been proven that you burn calories whilst standing and while working! 

 

You can prevent postural problems with an effective strength training program, which builds muscles for more support and strengthens bones. Standing straight will give you a taller appearance and make you appear younger than your current age.

Working out also makes you feel stronger, so you will naturally be more aware of your form and posture that slouching will become an uncomfortable position you'll naturally straighten up.  Lifting weights and lower, back, and core exercises will assist with supporting your spine, which in turn, will righten and straighten your form and posture.

 

There are endless research and fitness professionals’ articles that proved that just 30 minutes a day of exercise, managing stress levels, and a healthy eating habit can make remarkable changes to your flexibility, strength, speed, lean muscle mass, and posture.  

Exercising not only can take years off your age but also add years to your life!  No matter what your age number say, it is still possible to regain the same sort of strength and flexibility that you’ve had when you were younger through a regular exercise plan and a healthy lifestyle. We can’t stop aging physically but we can exercise regularly to feel fitter, get stronger, and look younger.