Do we have to be a captive slave to the aging process and the negative images that it brings to mind? Is it possible to view this scary process in a different light and with a different attitude? The key to a long healthy life surely is all about attitude. It is about never settling for just an absence of illness or disease. Being healthy is not just a matter of "not being sick".

The sad truth is most of us settle for just that, not even realizing that there can be a lot more to health, such as an abundance of strength, energy and vitality if we just set our sights higher and changed our attitudes.

A recent survey on older people and their attitudes towards exercise and fitness revealed:

? older people believe their need for exercise diminishes and eventually disappears as they grow older

? older people vastly exaggerate the risks involved in vigorous exercise as they grow older

? older people believe they get "enough exercise" even when they do none at all

? older people underrate their own capacities and abilities.

Even though we cannot change the fact that we will age, we do have some control over how we age. No matter what you have been told over the years, you do not automatically enter into a downward spiral of performance and appearance as the years tick by. This happens because people unwisely decrease their activity in line with their beliefs, assuming it is proper to grow old gracefully.

Ingrained old beliefs like this will cause aging to occur at an accelerated rate and the sad part is that nothing is likely to be done to slow the process down. This can result in growing older very ungracefully with significant limits on mobility, independence, self reliance, quality of life and ultimately dignity. The end product is losing the ability to care for ones self and being forced to go into a nursing home.

The loss of muscle and bone strength starting in the mid 30's in the most dramatic decline as we get older. Around 3 kilos of muscle tissue is lost every decade, sapping our strength, lowering our metabolism, gradually decreasing our functional ability and exposing us to a greater risk of illness and disease. If nothing is done to halt this loss weakness and disability are left in its wake and the possibility of an early death.

Our bodies were meant to move and work hard for our whole lives not to sit around and become dormant. A proper exercise program is not some frivolous pastime or optional extra but a form of preventative medicine which is an essential ingredient for maintaining a healthy body and mind.

To recover and rebuild lost strength, strength training exercise is the only exercise that has been proven over and over to substantially slow or even reverse this loss. Decades of strength loss can be recovered after only a few months with the implementation of an exercise program that includes at least 60% of this type of exercise.

Your strength, fitness and your health is your own responsibility. If you haven't already started working to preserve and protect it now is the time to take that first step. Your own path to improve your physical abilities across the course of your lifetime can lead you to becoming stronger and fitter in your fifties and beyond than you were in your twenties.

Your new attitude will have you believing and achieving the fact that you can look and feel younger, stronger, more energetic and vital - perhaps even better that you have ever felt in your entire life.