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Life today sees many of us 'sitting' for long stints during the day, sometimes at work in front of a computer screen or other sedentary tasks. Our bodies pay the price, the weakening of muscles that we sometimes blame on aging and the stiffening of joints and are often a direct effect of an inactive lifestyle. Many people do not know that starting as early as when we are in our 20's we naturally begin to lose muscle and gain fat. Because of this muscle loss we also have a reduction in our metabolic rate (the rate our body uses fuel). Strength training exercise can help us to offset this change by increasing lean muscle and conditioning our metabolism to work better and more efficiently. Adults who do not exercise lose between 2-5 kilos of lean muscle tissue every decade. While aerobic exercise, such as walking, jogging, or cycling, has many excellent health benefits such as heart/lung fitness, it does not make your muscles strong. Only strength training exercise gives our muscular system the challenge of working harder than it can in everyday life does this and so much more. Another benefit of strength training is that it will increase your metabolism to help you reduce excess body fat. Research shows that adding one kilo of muscle (you would not even notice this) increases the metabolic rate by seven percent, which then ups our daily calorie requirements by 15 percent. This is a huge bonus for weight loss and long-term weight control. Our muscles are made up of very active tissue cells using 25% of the fuel we burn each day. The more muscle we have the more fuel (or calories) we burn. Your exercise program must include at least 60% strength training exercise and the rest aerobic interval training. A Fitness Professional will help you set up the program and teach you the best methods of getting the most benefits from the program. The program should be changed every four to six weeks to keep challenging the body so it will keep getting stronger. Strong muscles require active living. You can't get strong muscles from a pill, a supplement, your doctor, a machine, a bottle, a meal or an herb. It has been proven again and again sedentary living accelerates the aging process dragging down your health and vitality and reducing your quality of life. Once you begin your journey of exercising regularly and when you start to see some improvements you will continue to discover over and over lots more reasons why strength training is so important to being able to enjoy a higher quality of life. So make a plan to get started on your strength training program and instead of getting weaker through the years - work at getting stronger instead!
Do you want to discover the secret to rejuvenating your body and regaining lost vitality and improving the quality of your life? Download my free ebook "I've Found the Fountain of Youth- Let Me Show You Too!" here: how to look younger Carolyn Hansen is a certified fitness expert and fitness center owner who coaches clients to look and feel younger.
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