So, what happens when the body you once knew and trusted not to let you down suddenly starts to show signs of wear and tear from life's daily grind? How does it feel when it takes on a different shape that you don't particularly like and no longer responds to activities and physical exertion like it once did many years ago?

The truth is you really can't use age as an excuse for losing strength and fitness, gaining weight or being out of shape. Loss of youth does not have to mean the loss of these very important factors that determine your overall state of health.

But, while we may know about watching our weight, diabetes risk, arthritis and how we mustn't fall, do we really know how to best prepare ourselves for daily life as we get older? Chances are we do not. Conflicting advice simply tells us to do something ? walk, garden or swim or something that we "enjoy!" In fact, a common phrase is "Anything that gets you moving is better than nothing".

This may be true to a certain extent but only a proper exercise program that contains strength building exercise will even begin to make a dent in slowing the aging process and keep our body functioning properly. You see, starting at age 30 each of us will lose 6-7 pounds of lean muscle tissue every single decade of our life if we don't work at keeping it.

Typically, researchers say, people lose about 30 percent of their muscle strength between 50 and 70, and another 30 percent per decade after that if they do nothing to stop it.

These losses trigger other systems and organs to become less efficient as well as slowing the body's metabolism ? the rate your body burns fuel. To make matters worse, the loss of lean body mass makes people lose strength and energy and become more sedentary. Then a downward spiral continues with the unhealthy cycle further contributing to the ongoing loss of lean body mass.

Unfortunately, we cannot change the fact that we will age, but we can control to some degree the rate at which age happens. Some people unwisely decrease their exercise and activity levels as they age, assuming that it is proper to grow old gracefully. But this can cause a person to grow old very ungracefully, with substantial limits on their mobility, self-reliance and quality of life.

We need to work at keeping our strength as we get older and we can do that by spending 2-3 hours per week on a proper exercise program that will make all of our muscles stronger for everyday living. This is achieved by challenging them with a load greater than what we experience in everyday life. This is especially important now that all meaningful activity has been removed from our everyday technology driven lifestyles.

Among the many added bonuses of increased muscle strength is a boost to the metabolism which improves calorie burning efficiency. Adults who strengthen muscle tissue through sensible strength exercise use more calories all day long, thereby reducing the likelihood of body fat accumulation which can lead to other health problems such as diabetes, back and knee problems and heart disease.

You can see now that mere movement, or "any exercise is good enough", is not really sufficient if you truly wish to be prepared for your later years. To get the very most benefit out of your exercise program seek the help of a fitness professional who will set up your program and teach you correct exercise technique. You also need to be shown what level of intensity (degree of difficulty) you need to apply to each exercise along with the right duration and frequency.

It is now known that older adults respond to appropriate exercise training by becoming healthier and stronger which greatly contributes to overall quality of life. It is never too late to get involved in slowing down your own aging process. Just get stuck in and do it right away before it is too late. It will always be a truly win-win deal for you!