We used to believe that as we got older it was natural for us to lose muscle and bone strength along with the loss of other physical attributes that aging brings. However, many people found this unacceptable and started asking questions, challenging the weakness/ill health scenario that we see in older people and scientists began to research this subject.

It turns out that decreased muscle and bone strength and poor health are not necessarily part of getting older and that many of the leading causes of death for people between the ages of 30 and 70 are premature and preventable. It is now known that personal lifestyle habits, in particular proper exercise and healthy eating either accelerate or slow down disease and the aging process.

Today's modern lifestyles although busy are sedentary compared to those of our ancestors who were much more active. For them every single day was full of physical activity and hard work just to meet the demands of daily living. Now we don't have to exert ourselves to find food and shelter.

We are given little opportunity to be active these days thanks to our labor saving conveniences. We sit in our car driving to work, we sit in front of a computer for long periods at work, and we drive home again. At home we tend to park in front of the TV before we go to bed hardly having moved all day.

The long term result of this type of lifestyle is not simply a lack of strength and fitness. This type of lifestyle is actually a huge health threat regardless of your age. Without vigorous movement in our lives the body has no way of staying healthy. It needs this movement to stimulate the growth hormones that instruct every cell, tissue and body system to renew, rebuild, repair and replace them.

When this necessary activity is not present in our lives we start a downward spiral of declining health which can lead to a shorted lifespan of 20 or more years. Somehow we must accept the fact that in the 21st Century a proper exercise program is crucial to our health and particularly to successful aging. A lifestyle without proper exercise is a death wish plain and simple.

Once you accept these facts it is easy to implement the solution. A simple exercise program that contains strength training exercise to keep muscle and bone strength is the most important aspect of your exercise program. It does not have to take long - just 2-3 sessions per week will do the trick.

It is important though that the program is set up properly by a fitness professional as if you waste time on ineffective exercise you will not receive the desired results. Forget the "just go for a walk" scenario that is extremely misleading. After all we all have legs and we all walk. This has done absolutely nothing to stop the epidemic of modern lifestyle disease that one out of every two people on this planet has.

The exercise performed has to be the right intensity (degree of difficulty) to achieve the goal of "fitness" hormones to keep the body healthy and reverse accelerated aging. If you think of your time out with your exercise program as medicine which is both healing and preventative it will seem easier to do. We all have to spend some time with this "self health care" which regenerates our body and mind and give us more years of quality living. Then we can fit more enjoyable stuff into our one and only life.

The benefits of your exercise program will help you avoid serious diseases such as the "big three" heart disease, cancer and diabetes along with at least 30 other illnesses and conditions. Other benefits include being able to control your weight easier, reduction of stress, better sleep, improved mood and feeling and looking so much better.

Take responsibility for your own health and well-being and live your life now so doctors and drugs are not needed down the track. Once you get a disease or illness it is likely it has been smoldering away inside you for years or even decades. Once you have these symptoms it is often too late to fix them. So take it upon yourself as a goal to stay well and healthy right through your lifetime.