We get some leeway with time in regard to how well our body continues to function. They work away like a faithful servant throughout our younger years, doing whatever we ask without question or complaint. Putting up with years of repetitive activity, all or nothing weekend warrior attempts or long periods of inactivity.

But then at a certain point, maybe at a certain age, our muscles and joints begin to make themselves known or rather felt and we start to say things like "my knees hurt or my back isn't what it used to be". It hurts to move so we avoid it where we can.

For many people this muscle and joint pain and the subsequent loss of function are happening at younger and younger ages, as early as the twenties and thirties. Often we don't become aware of this until something dramatic happens like an injury, chronic pain or having to take time off from work to make us wake up and take notice.

This slow insidious breakdown doesn't happen all at once, it's a gradual process often happening over many years while we experience a gradual and barely noticeable decline in our physical capabilities. We become weaker and weaker by degrees. Suddenly one day maybe a small activity like standing on one leg to put pants on becomes difficult. You may say to yourself "when did I lose that?"

It doesn't help much that our modern society has removed most physical activity from our lives. We have access to food and shelter without us hardly having to lift a finger. We are busy, busier than ever, but unfortunately most of us aren't required to work physically much any more. We only move in a few repetitive ways, we sit a lot in our cars, at our jobs and on the couch. We hardly ever have to bend down, lift and carry, reach, stretch or run. When we finally get up out of our chair and attempt to use our body pain and even injury can be the outcome. We are engineered for a lifestyle we no longer live, we cannot expect to remain healthy and function correctly without vigorous activity.

Your strength, flexibility and ultimately your health is your own responsibility. It doesn't take much to reverse this functional decline. Decades of disuse can be corrected in a few months with a strength training exercise program. To rebuild lost muscle mass, bone density and recover lost strength and flexibility, strength training is the only exercise that can do this.

No matter what stage you are at in life, it is never to late to start an exercise program that will have huge benefits that will positively affect all areas of your life. You can continue to improve your physical abilities for the rest of your lifetime. You can be stronger in your fifties, sixties and seventies than you were in your twenties and thirties.

It can be hard to break old mental conditioning and habits in order to rejuvenate your own body and turn your own life around. The choices and actions that you must make now to be at your best functioning level and to ensure a disease free future are not what we have been taught as children.

It may be hard to consciously exercise and eat better, but it is much harder to endure getting a joint replacement, open heart surgery or cancer treatment.

Sounds like a very easy choice. Doesn't it to you?