Much of what happens in our body during a day does so without thought. We breathe. Our hearts beat. Food is digested. Additionally, there is a lot going on throughout our waking hours. We sit and stand. We reach and bend. Walking. Getting dressed. All taken for granted, happening subconsciously.

Until we can’t do it anymore.

Have you ever broken your writing arm? Notice how so many of the things you did on autopilot could no longer be done? The frustration of being unable to do what you’d always done so easily?

The good news is the broken arm healed and you regained its use and all the lost functionality.

But what happens if you lose the ability to do many of the things you have habitually done—forever?

At Risk—Your Independence

A huge determinant of our quality of life as we age is the ability to keep doing the simple things we’ve always done. To do the things we take for granted when we’re young that slowly disappear as the years tick by. The ease at which we climb a flight of stairs. Carrying groceries from the car. Or even being able to drive it, comfortably getting in and out. Taking out the trash. Doing dishes and the laundry. Opening a jar in the kitchen.

At first, we may smirk at the thought of the inability to perform such menial tasks. But for many, this is the reality of aging. The loss of independent living.

The Loss of Independence

What really hurts is when your body betrays you to the point of seriously impacting your independence. The inability to go to the toilet unassisted. The loss of a driver’s licence. Meals brought to you because you can’t make your way to the table. Showering alone is impossible. And forget raising your legs to get into the bathtub.

Once you’ve reached this point, this point of dependence, it comes at a cost. The cost of burdening your spouse and other family members. Or the cost of paying for assisted living.

However, this loss of physicality gets even worse when it truly threatens our existence. Think of the rapid decline into extreme poor health, even death, after an 80-something breaks a hip. In many cases this is the result of poor balance, inadequate overall strength, and weakened bones. All of which are  preventable.

Is this how your want to spend your twilight years? Trading your dignity and independence? A future like this isn’t desirable for anyone. But too many end up here. And so many more are on the way.

The Excuses

The benefits of exercise are incredibly dramatic to one’s quality of life in the later years. So why do so few people exercise? And so many not at all?

The excuses abound. No time. Too busy. Too tired. Nowhere to workout. It’s too late for me. And I’m too old and too out of shape to even start.

All excuses!

You can’t afford not to incorporate exercise into your daily life. The risk of loss of independence in your 60’s, 70’s, and beyond is too great.

Prioritisation

It’s all about prioritisation. In other words, fitting the important things into your life. Start exercising. Stick with it. Experience the benefits. Then, the excuses melt away. First, you begin to enjoy it. Then, it becomes part of your routine. You start to feel more energised. Your capacity to do more of everything increases.

You change your body composition—less fat and more muscle. Your annual physical results improve, as does your bloodwork. Moreover, your lipid profile, heart rate, blood pressure, and triglyceride levels will all head off in the right direction.

Prioritisation: Start Today!

And it matters not what your state of health is today. Nor your age. If you haven’t exercised in 20 years, it doesn’t matter. Start today. If you can barely walk around the block, work up to two blocks in the next two weeks. If you are in your 80’s, a daily ritual will still be of benefit. It will improve the quality of the rest of your life.

It’s simply a matter of prioritising and starting.

Benefits of Exercise

There is no denying the benefits of exercise in longevity. It is an essential habit that needs to become part of the arsenal of every anti-ager.

Here are some of its most rewarding benefits:

1. Proper exercise can maintain the muscular-skeletal system to provide strength and durability as we age. As a result, bone density and muscle mass can be preserved, even increased. The strength to deal with the physical stresses of life can serve to the end.
2. Cardiovascular disease, including heart disease and stroke, kill more people annually than anything else. Exercise can maintain, build-up, and improve overall aerobic and anaerobic capacities. It can enhance essential health markers, like blood pressure, resting heart rate, and lipid profile.
3. The chain of physical health is only as strong as its weakest link. Often that is connective tissue—ligaments, tendons, and cartilage—that facilitate stability and mobility. Exercise can preserve and enhance our ability to move in the future.
4. A beautiful benefit of exercise is its effect on brain health. It helps reduce anxiety and increases mood and cognitive function. Above all, it enhances the restorative quality of sleep.
5. In an age where inactivity has helped create a world-wide epidemic of obesity, exercise can seriously affect weight management. Changing body composition is critical to longevity. Most important is to increase muscle mass and reduce body fat. Exercise is an important tool for accomplishing this.
6. An enhanced immune system is often the result of regular exercise. Our lymphatic system is dependent on movement to function. Exercise helps flush the body of toxins. A strong circulatory system helps strengthen the immune system and its ability to do its job. It can help reduce the body’s risk of chronic degenerative disease—that huge group of life-shortening conditions that cut too many lives too short.

The Components of Exercise

To preserve, even enhance, the capabilities of the human body as it ages is no simple process. The body is a complex organism. Dealing with all life throws at us as time marches on requires a multi-dimensional approach. There are four simple components of exercise most beneficial to the anti-ager. Therefore, it is important any fitness program be set up in a framework to incorporate all four:

The Components of Exercise

1. Aerobic Efficiency is the most recognised type of exercise. Walking and running are the most common types, often referred to as cardio exercise. Endurance is the hallmark of aerobic efficiency—the ability to sustain a workload over a given period. Thus, the goal of aerobic efficiency is, at minimum, to maintain one’s aerobic base. Or better yet, to increase it.
2. Strength Training maintains and develops muscular strength and endurance. A noticeable trait in an aging population is the loss of muscle mass and corresponding overall strength. This can affect many aspects of day-to-day living. This includes basic movements like getting in and out of chairs, carrying groceries, or putting things like dishes in overhead cupboards. Maintaining muscle mass into one’s later years is critical to quality of life. Incorporating strength training into a weekly fitness regimen is essential to the anti-ager.
3. Stability and Mobility Training is the most overlooked aspect of exercise. Yet it’s one that pays huge dividends all through life. Connective tissues—ligaments, tendons, and cartilage—are often overlooked. Relative to other parts of the body, they take longer to heal and develop due to their low blood supply. Combine this with sitting hunched in front of a computer for hours and days on end, you have a perfect storm to conspire against the body’s natural abilities for easy, pain-free movement. Most importantly, combining these two elements with strength gives the body a stable platform on which to live day-to-day with minimal risk to injury and pain.
4. Anaerobic Efficiency differs from aerobic efficiency in terms of effort expended and the physiological systems used in doing so. We recruit anaerobic capability when doing short bursts of effort. Often it’s done at an exertion that doesn’t allow one to carry on a conversation while doing it. Lugging a couple of bags of groceries up a few of flights of stairs or shovelling heavy, wet snow are examples of anaerobic activities. Consequently, ensuring a fitness program provides for the maintenance of one’s anaerobic capabilities will enable the body to accommodate periods of intense physical stress when demanded.

Be the Exception

The Benefits of an Exercise Lifestyle

Too often our vision of the elderly is one of helplessness and dependence. Assisted living, confined to a wheelchair, and moving in slow motion—if at all—is the reality of too many.

Life doesn’t have to end up that way. Like the power of compound interest, the compound effect of exercise can give you a quality of life into your second century.