Exercise Can Make You Look Younger

Turns out that exercise can get deep in your body, even into your DNA.  Researchers have found that people who exercise have younger DNA–by up to 9 years.  That is an incredible benefit!  

So exercising may do more than help prevent illness, it may actually make you younger.

Thanks to modern research we now know one of the best ways to look younger is through exercise and that strenuous workouts are one of the most effective strategies.

That doesn’t mean you have to be super-fit to reap the benefits.  It just means you need to find your fitness level and exert yourself accordingly.  

So, for example, complete beginners can go from walking to power-walking and intermediates from power-walking to  walk/run intervals. *Always check with your doctor before starting any exercise program.

 WHAT IS STRENUOUS?

 To gauge the intensity of your workout, you can use the Talk Test.

This is a scale of one to ten for describing how hard you’re working – one being extremely easy and ten extremely hard.

If you’re doing a moderate workout, this would translate to a level five on the scale – at this point you should be able to easily hold a conversation as you exercise.

If you’re breathing hard and it’s harder to hold a conversation, you’re working out at a harder pace of around level eight to nine. This is the level you are aiming for to achieve strenuous exercise.

DO THIS: Two to three times per week do high intensity interval training-strength exercises and cardio intervals with no rest between exercises.  Join us at Small Group Fit Club or join a boot camp style class near you.

 Two to three times a week, using the cardio of your choice – such as walking, running or cycling – complete the following workout: After a five to ten-minute warm-up, speed up until you are at around level eight to nine on the Talk Test and hold that for 30 seconds. Recover at an easy pace for one minute. Repeat for a total of five to eight intervals.

CELL REJUVENATION

Telomeres, the biological clocks of cells, get shorter as people age, yet research on 50-year-old marathon runners, recently published in the journal Circulation, showed that the middle-aged runners had telomeres that were as long as 20-year-olds.

And in a long-term study involving 913 pairs of twins, Danish scientists found the twins who looked younger than their true age had longer telomeres.

DO THIS: Using your cardio choice (try running, walking, swimming, skipping or cycling), warm up for eight minutes. Speed up to a comfortably hard pace (around level seven to eight on the Talk Test) and hold for ten to 15 minutes. Recover at an easy pace for five minutes. Repeat once or twice. Do this four times a week.

MUSCLE REJUVENATION

Researchers at Tel Aviv University’s Sackler School Of Medicine looked at how exercise affects ageing in muscles and bones. The results, published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, demonstrated that endurance exercise unlocks the stem cells in muscles, helping to prevent muscle deterioration and make you look younger. 

DO THIS: Five days a week, do 30 to 45 minutes of easy to moderate-intensity cardio (use the cross trainer, hike, bike or swim – anything that keeps you going for at least 30 minutes). Mix up your routine – swim one day, run the next – to train different muscles and beat boredom.

SKIN REJUVENATION

Strenuous exercise makes your heart work harder, pumping more blood throughout your body to all of its various arteries, veins and capillaries, including those just underneath the skin. 

Clare Muir, head of training and education at the International Institute For Anti-Ageing, says this increase in your body’s circulation can improve the look of skin, as well as boosting detoxification and skin cell renewal.

DO THIS: Circuit-training every other day. This is an exercise technique that utilizes a series of moves in swift succession, with no rest in between.

For example: Push-ups into squats, followed by jumping jacks. This allows your workouts to strengthen while burning fat at the same time.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The best way to engage in strenuous exercise is under the watchful eye of a professional trainer.  A trainer can design and modify your workouts to suit your fitness level, goals and limitations.  

I often hear....” I can’t afford a trainer”.  So the question is….. can you afford to be sick or injured?  Would you rather spend your money on prescriptions with side effects?  Is it cheaper and easier to have a stroke?  Or spend time in the hospital?