When the body reaches the age of mid-forties, the decline in level of fitness accelerates. You can slow down this process by staying slim with good nutrition, don’t over-eat, reduce your intake of alcohol, don’t smoke and follow a structured exercise programme designed specifically to suit you.
If you pay attention to these minor areas, it can improve your quality of life and increase your chance of longevity.
Most people that exercise are doing too much, because they become addicted or maybe they are not seeing any results from their hard work, so they train even more and harder.
Exercising too much has a negative effect on your body, because it takes it out of the ‘growth zone’ and into the ‘over-training zone’. When you over-train your body you place it in a catabolic state, which means that it is breaking-down rather than building, so the exercise you are doing is making your body weaker.
The way to avoid this happening, is to have a structured training programme that incorporates ‘rest days’, because your body only recovers, repairs and builds, when you are resting. If you train one day and rest the next, you give your body the chance to repair and build after one session, from which there is little to recover from. But, if you train all week and only rest at the weekend, your body has to recover, repair and build after a whole week of exercising, which places more demand on your body.
You don’t have to do one day on and one day off, but don’t exercise more than three days consecutively. You’ll find that you feel stronger and have more energy, which will help you train better and produce positive results.
If you continually do the same exercises and training programmes, your body moves onto ‘auto-pilot’ and reaches a plateau, where you cease to progress. By varying the type, duration and intensity of exercise, it will demand more of your body, not allowing it to reach your ‘auto-pilot’ mode and producing better results.
Your body only repairs and builds, when you rest. It is vital that you allow your body to recover after exercising, by ensuring that you get a good 8hrs sleep. By giving yourself time to rest and repair, you will feel stronger, fitter and more motivated for your next training session.
Your body will tell you if you are over-training. If you feel irritable, lose your appetite, are not sleeping well or lack energy when you’re training; your body wants a day-off from exercise……so listen to it! It will thank you for it!
It takes about 21 days of repetitive behaviour to form a new pattern in your brain and once this has been formed, it becomes an automatic behavioural pattern. As you adopt and develop new healthy habits, they will slowly replace the old bad habits. Maintaining these healthy lifelong habits, that have stood the test of time and been practiced by centenarians around the world, will invigorate and rejuvenate you.
It is much better to have five small meals throughout the day, rather than three large meals. When you eat smaller portions, you give your body a steady stream of fuel and nutrients, providing it with a drip-feed of energy throughout the whole day. In addition, eating in this way is less demanding on your digestive system, as you are not overloading your body with more than it needs, which reduces the stress on your heart.
The importance of taking regular exercise and the resulting health benefits, are well documented and cannot be over-emphasised. Regular exercise can aid physiological well-being, strengthen your immune system, maintain joint flexibility and increase your energy level, which are just a few of the benefits.
During your day, when you can, choose the more physically demanding option. Try walking or cycling instead of driving or taking the stairs instead of the lift, which will start you on the road to better health and fitness. The best way to achieve better health and fitness, in a safe and structured way, is with a specifically designed training programme from a Personal Trainer. Statistically, you have a 95% chance of realising your health and fitness goals, if you have a Personal Trainer.
Laughter has been proven to boost your immune system, especially the production of the natural cells that help protect the body from illness and disease. Laughter also increases the release of endorphins, which are compounds that give a sense of well-being in the brain. There is no doubt that happy, joyful people live healthier and longer lives.
Water is essential for a healthy, functioning body. Centenarians around the world cite their native water as the source of their good health and longevity, which scientists endorse. They all have in common a pure water source, which is located far from any city and free from chemicals and toxins. Try not to drink water from plastic bottles/containers, as the polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can permeate the water and can have a negative effect on your health. Water from the tap and even from water filters is dead, acidic and is so resisted by the body, that is digests it rather than absorbing it. The best water to drink is living water, which is alive, alkaline and loved by the body so much, that it is immediately absorbed and the body is quickly hydrated with life. Wouldn’t you rather drink life than death?
