Aging takes place in the body over time. It is a complex process that involves a very wide number of our bodily systems.
Exercise is a critical component in the anti-aging war and no other exercise comes close to offering you the level of benefits to your overall health than resistance training…sometimes called strength training…does.
It’s important to understand that muscle mass tissue is highly involved with the immune system. If you lose muscle mass, you will see a decline in immune function.
There are two primary reasons for this:
The fuel source utilized by the immune cells is the amino acid glutamine which is stored in the muscle cells so it only makes sense then that the more muscle mass you have present on your body to store this amino acid, the more your immune system has to utilize as needed.
Muscle mass is the storage house of protein in the body and protein is required in order to produce the proper antibodies and white blood cells that work at fending off infection and destroying cancer cells.
When your body is sick it uses protein at a much faster rate which helps to destroy diseased cells. Healthy muscle mass provides adequate amino acids for the body to draw upon.
Performing an intense session of strength training that has your heart rate up and your body sweating, causes the circulation of antibodies and killer cells to dramatically increase, giving your immune system a 50-300 percent boost after the strength training session is over.
This boost in immune function gives you an incredible leg-up in the fight against infections while boosting your immune system.
There are key factors to consider when examining how fast or how slowly the process of aging is occurring.
Here are some bio markers to consider:
Strength and Muscle Mass
The more muscle mass you have, the greater muscular strength you’ll have and the higher the total capacity you body will have to defend against age-related declines in fictional performance. The danger is that once muscle mass loss begins it’s like a boulder rolling down a hill and nearly impossible to stop.
Bone Density
Muscle density is the next marker that needs consideration. If you have brittle and weak bones it won’t take much to cause a break or chip. When these continually take place, your skeletal system eventually grows weaker and weaker leading to potentially life-threatening conditions.
Blood Glucose Control
Another term for this is insulin sensitivity and refers to how well your body is going to tolerate glucose that you consume in the form of carbohydrate.
When the body becomes resistant, upon eating carbohydrates (they break down to glucose in the blood stream) the body has difficulty controlling your blood sugar which most times leads to high blood sugar for prolonged periods of time eventually leading to diabetes and fat gain.
If you have good blood glucose control when you consume carbohydrate rich foods you’ll quickly convert them into muscle glycogen and store them in the muscle cells for future use or use the glucose immediately for fuel depending on the activity you are doing.
Without a doubt, strength training is one of the best strategies for boosting glucose control.
Body Composition
Your body composition shows how much of your body is fat mass versus how much is lean muscle mass which impacts both how you look as well as the health that you enjoy.
You can have two people who weigh the same amount with one having 18 percent body fat and the other having 32 percent body fat and they would look entirely different with the one is 32 percent body fat looking larger and heavier than the one who is 18 percent because muscle is very compact tissue and would appear smaller and slimmer.
Cardiorespiratory Fitness
In a nutshell, this is the fitness level of your heart and critical to help avoid heart disease, heart attack and stroke. It’s important that you engage in intense exercise that gets your heart rate up and keeps it there or you are not maintaining the level of cardiovascular fitness that you need to be.
The higher you get your heart rate up even if just for a brief period of time, the stronger the fitness and heart-healthy boosting gains you will enjoy.
Some of the best cardio fitness training is not always on cardio equipment but can be found in strength or interval based training protocols.
Aerobic Capacity
While your cardio-respiratory fitness refers to how well your heart and lungs are able to deliver oxygen to the rest of the body, your aerobic capacity refers to how much total oxygen you can take in during intense physical activity. The more intense your workout the higher this measurement will become so it’s an important factor to know about in terms of your fitness progress.
Blood Lipids
Another marker of aging is your blood lipids. They are going to be linked with your risk factor for a number of diseases…especially heart disease. Blood lipids are fat-like structures that reside in your blood and tissue and are required to help your body function optimally.
If your lipids reach a point where they are too high, you’re going to start suffering from deposits of fat in your arteries eventually leading to problems with blood flow to and from the heart…setting you up with heart disease.
Nutrition also plays a huge role in regards to the level of each type of blood lipid you maintain but regular exercise training also helps improve your blood lipid profile.
Blood Pressure
The last bio-marker to be concerned with is your blood pressure levels. Blood pressure refers to how much total tension there is being placed on your veins and arteries moving to and from the heart to all of your extremities.
Blood pressure that’s too low or too high can cause problems but in the vast majority of blood pressure related cases, it’s the high end of the spectrum causing the issue.
High blood pressure is the result of an inactive lifestyle as well as a diet that is rich in salt and processed foods it can also result when there is plaque lining the blood vessels and arteries, narrowing the width of these major vessels and reducing the amount of total blood traveling through them.
This can lead to heart attack or stroke so it’s an important marker to pay attention to and regular exercise and strength training can lower your blood pressure significantly helping you maintain healthy levels.
A good minimalist strength training program such as “Minimalist Exercise and Nutrition” is going to help you move forward in all of these bio-markers thus improving their current status so that you can see the best anti-aging benefits possible.
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