It’s pretty much common knowledge these days that a healthy body requires healthy habits. That means the right type of exercise supported by the right type of a nutrient-dense diet.

The critical component that is often overlooked in the quest for a healthy and youthful appearance is strength training exercise.

Strength training or resistance training as it is known, is exercise that uses resistance of some sort to strengthen and condition the muscular system. This is achieved with resistance machines or free weights. The amount of resistance that a muscle must work against determines the about of strength it gains.

Strength training does not include aerobic type exercises such as running, bicycling, swimming, walking etc. Although these activities have their place in our overall health, they don’t have the kind of power that strength training provides our body when it comes to retaining our youthful appearance and strength.

We talking about taking it up a few notches to exercise that makes you stronger. Daily activities don’t count either. It’s proper strength training – the kind that stimulates the “growth and repair” hormones (HGH) that are truly empowered to keep us youthful both inside and out. Unfortunately, as we age past 25, our HGH levels plummet. By the time we’re 40, HGH dips to 40 percent of what it was at 20. And, by age 55, it shrinks to a measly 20 percent!

The good news is, research shows that proper exercise can boost HGH by up to 352 percent, sky rocketing self-healing and slashing the risk of death from heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

This dramatic plunge exposes us to the horrors of aging – thin skin, age spots, wrinkles, gray hair, low energy, slower thinking and lack of romantic interest.

The reality is, it’s literally impossible to look youthful without muscle tone. The firm, lean, shapely, healthy body we fantasize about is simply not going to happen without healthy strong muscles and those healthy shots of hormones.

Strength training is empowered to build beautiful, healthy, strong bodies. But, it doesn’t stop there.

Strength Training Helps Glucose Tolerance

Strength training is also a critical player towards reinvigorating the body’s glucose tolerance and increasing the muscle’s insulin sensitivity. This lowers your diabetes risk, lowers body fat and improves body composition (your muscle to fat ratio) to a healthier level.

Since insulin and HGH are proving themselves to be the most important hormones in the body, when it comes to how well you age and how long you live, the role of strength training in keeping us young and healthy cannot be stressed enough.

Ongoing studies reveal that cells of those who regularly strength train properly, appear at least 10 years younger than those who do not! Try and get those results from your creams or potions.

Don’t waste another day. If you allow yourself to live a no exercise lifestyle and continue to do so, spending most of your day sitting, you are passing up the chance to harness the rejuvenating power of your very own stem cells, your growth and repair mechanism, your personal self-healing mechanism in exchange for a slow, inevitable decline in health, energy and even the desire to live.

Strength training is one of the most powerful things you can do to slow the aging process dead in its tracks and get back that younger super healthy body and clear, quick mind you once had.

What are you waiting for?

Looking for something new?…

Check out my quick and easy

Project Me Finally Fit program

At just 10 minutes in length, if you cannot find a way to squeeze this kind of effective workout into your schedule every other day, it’s likely there’s not another one in all existence that could take it’s place.

After all, most things can only be made so simple before they just cannot be made to work at all!

– Carolyn “The 10-Minute Sandbag Workout” Hansen

P.S. I even created a FREE mobile app for you to keep track of your sandbag workouts. With 4 built-in workouts of 7 distinct sandbag movements, you have 28 different exercises to choose from should you decide to create your own custom sandbag works.