In some cultures in our world getting older is a measure of wisdom, hard work and experience, something to be respected and even admired. But in today’s culture however, wrinkles and graying hair are looked on in a completely different light so staying youthful looking is important if we want to ‘stay in the game’.
Unfortunately, after age 30, your muscle mass dwindles by approximately 3 to 8 percent per decade. This causes you to lose strength, not to mention calorie-burning power as your metabolism slows. The loss of muscle mass also includes under the skin of your face which acts like the stuffing inside a cushion. Hello wrinkles.
It’s no secret that strength training has important benefits for the entire body and by firming and toning muscle under previously loose, sagging skin will create a tight, toned, shapely body. But the good thing is that when we tone the muscles of the body the face gets to share in the benefits as well.
Usually exercise conjures up images of losing weight, toning muscle and trimming the thighs. We don’t often think of exercise as having any specific beneficial effects on the skin on our face, but it most definitely does and can play a big role in how youthful we look as it has a special anti-aging affect on our skin.
As we get older the natural creation of collagen, a kind of connective tissue that plumps out our skin is reduced. The collagen producing cells in our skin become fewer in number and get somewhat lazier as we get older and the wrinkles start to appear.
Your strength training program increases circulation and delivery of oxygen and nutrients to skin cells nourishing them from the inside with increased blood flow. These things are necessary for collagen production, the support fibers which keeps wrinkles and lines at bay.
To keep your skin looking youthful a proper exercise program is one of the best things you can do. Exercise relaxes you and reduces stress which makes you feel young and more youthful and there is an added benefit of a strength training program in that it will also stimulate the release of youth hormones that will keep your entire body stronger and fitter.
This increased blood supply flushes away potentially damaging waste and toxins. When you are active the cells in the base layer of the skin becomes more active and function better making your skin much healthier. If you have a look at someone who exercises you will find they have fewer wrinkles and look so much younger than someone who does not.
After all it is hard to look youthful without muscle tone, the firm; lean, shapely, well-defined bodies we all would love to own simply aren’t attainable without it.
Strength Training – an Effective Beauty Aide
Strong, toned muscles are the cheapest most effective beauty aid available. There is not one doctor, surgeon, drug or procedure that can give us all-over naturally built, vital looking, firm toned muscle and a feel-good, energetic body. This is something that can only be earned with some good old fashioned “work”.
So, how can a strength training exercise program influence the rate at which your face ages? Surgery or injections may tidy things up of the outside but exercise can make you more youthful from deep down at cellular level where it really counts.
Every time you perform strength training exercise you need to brace every muscle in your body as you push, lift, or pull the resistance (weight). You cannot help but brace the muscles in your face and body at the same time. Just that tension gives them a workout which is like a mini face lift every time you exercise. That’s if of course if you put the correct amount of intensity (degree of effort) into your sessions.
When the tiny facial muscles are tensed in this manner they become firm and taut, lifting and pulling the skin of top of them tighter smoothing out wrinkles and saggy baggy skin. There is not a doctor or surgeon on the planet that can offer anything this good.
It is no secret that people who exercise regularly look many years younger than their inactive cousins. After all our skin is the largest organ of our body and thus the benefits can be enormous to its condition and how it looks when we give it what it needs to stay youthful looking.
Aside from the youthfulness of our skin we will also reap the benefit of the added strength and toning to our overall body, we become fitter, healthier and increase our energy, vitality, endurance and stamina. Those are all things that make us ‘younger’ and more youthful regardless of how many candles on our birthday cake.
Along with your strengthening exercise make sure you are getting between 30-50 percent of your daily calories from high quality protein sources. This includes grass fed lean meats, free range poultry and eggs, fresh fish and seafood from the ocean, legumes, nuts and seeds along with coconut meat and oil for healthy fats. A nutrient-dense “clean” eating plan is the perfect accompaniment for your exercise program.
We can take precautions to keep our skin youthful from the inside and the earlier we begin preparing for the years when our skin starts to show our age minimizes the impact on us.
Forget the expensive procedures, get yourself started on a strength training exercise program that will rejuvenate and revitalize all of your body cells and systems. This will have the effect of stopping the aging process dead in its tracks so you will not only look younger, but feel younger as well.
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You can train yourself for success or you can train yourself for failure, so, be your own coach and get yourself going.
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Malka Enker. 80 years young. Going on to 81 on the 27th of February!