Research has shown us that the human body's decline is due not to the passing of years but to the combined effects of inactivity, poor nutrition, and illness - much of which can be controlled. Breakthrough studies show that regardless of your age or present physical condition, the aging process can be slowed - or even reversed

Your health span is when you are functional, healthy and other wise capable of performing everyday tasks. When physical functional capacity is high it allows self reliance and independent living. On the other hand, the disability zone is usually that period of time (often 10-20 years) that occurs near the end of a person's life when they become increasingly dependant on others.

You may ask "How do you reach the "disability zone"? One of the surefire ways to land yourself in the zone is to avoid proper exercise for most or all of your life. This will ensure that major health risks such as decreased body function and disease shunt you into this disaster area. You see, your lifestyle will speed up or reverse the length of time spent in this zone so the responsibility for this rests entirely with each of us.

It is hard to imagine why anyone would want to avoid increasing the quality of their life. Why risk years of your life for the satisfaction of avoiding vigorous activity? How could sitting on a couch or at a desk for the majority of your life ever make up for lost years or even decades of living?

It is well proven that deaths of people between the ages of 25 and 65 are premature and preventable. The downward spiral of declining health caused mainly by inactivity and poor eating habits with take you there quicker than you can imagine. You have a choice and control over this and by simply practicing better health habits you can generally dictate how long and when you will move into the zone.

If you being healthy is not enough for you to be motivated begin a proper exercise program, think over these benefits.

-Your spouse and children will get to enjoy more quality years with you

-You will be able to enjoy your grandchildren better by being involved more

-Your circle of friends will enjoy you participating in fun, social activities

-You will decide when you retire, not your body or health issues

-You will have more time to enjoy the fun things in life, vacations, hobbies etc

-You will be able to take care of and think for yourself longer

With just 2-3 sessions per week of a proper exercise program that contains strength training exercise adults of any age can do something to help themselves stay out of that disability zone. The program has to be right though and performed correctly to give the best results. Recreational, low intensity type activity like walking, cycling, swimming etc will not do the job so don't be mislead into believing it will.

With your strength training program you can expect to:

?regain muscle tissue loss and increase strength by as much as 200 percent

?rejuvenate and re-energize your body and lose excess body fat

?increase aerobic (heart/lung) capacity by up to 20 percent

?reduce the chances of developing age-related conditions such as the "big three" heart disease, cancer and diabetes

Although we may have been brought up to believe that as we get older we will always be battling one health problem or another and will need doctors and drugs for the rest of our lives, the truth is your body is designed to maintain a well, healthy and functional you.

Don't accept low levels of health and just "getting by". If we function below par we struggle through life in a sluggish way. This is not conducive to getting the most out of one and only ride on this merry-go-round. Our bodies are designed to provide us with optimal energy, to repair when we are sick or injured, and to live a long and satisfying life but we have to give them the tools they need to stay this way.