Exercise Through the Ages.

​Fitness is all the rage these days - music to my ears!  Through education, support and encouragement, people are taking their health more seriously.  Since the evolution of technology making our lives easier, more desk jobs and less labor work, there was a depleting effect on activity.  But thankfully, we all are realizing we need to find our exercise in other ways; doing things we enjoy rather than doing things we have to do to survive.
 
Your steps towards healthier living is a long term commitment.  We begin to train our bodies from the moment we are born with sitting up, rolling over, crawling and eventually walking.  We continue to develop our bodies until the age of about 18-20 years of age.  Then we get to reap the benefits of our hard work.
 
About the age of 30, our bodies begin to break down slightly faster than it rebuilds.  So exercise and training is of critical need to preserve what we worked so hard to build throughout our adolescent years.  When people decide to kick their fitness habits to the curb, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to coast - and rather put ourselves at risk to rebuild.
 
At age 40 - 50, our bodies begin to break down even faster.  Women and men can lose approximately 1% of our bone mass each year.  Menopause puts women at a higher risk of bone loss.  At the completion of menopause, women can lose up to 5% of bone mass per year for the next 8 to 10 years!  Training through these life changes are critical to ensure our independence in later years.  Men are not exempt from this decline, as 1/3 of all men will develop osteoporosis in their lifetime, now that we do not have the labor intensive lifestyles we once lived.
 
As we get older, our rate of breakdown occurs faster and faster.  Our bones, muscles and supportive tissues become brittle and weak without movement.  If there was ever a need to keep training going, it would be now.  Currently 70% of people over the age of 70 cannot raise 5 lbs over their heads.  In activities of daily living, this can inhibit people from reaching high shelves, or carrying groceries. 
 
All of these changes as we age can be controlled and maintained if we just take the time to do a little exercise everyday.  A small investment in movement, can result in  great investment in the later years.  No one wants to be dependent on others.  Everyone loves his or her ability to freely move through life.  This is an investment that is surely to have a great rate of return.  Just keep showing up.