There are a lot of things that aging does to people, and one of them is that it scores a massive blow on the activeness. The joints start to complain as the bones and muscles weaken.
This is why it is essential that you look out for health and put proper mechanisms such as a comprehensive health insurance scheme in place. But a scheme is not a ticket to instant good health particularly when you’re growing old.
At the moment, aging is irreversible. It is not a disease, so it is not curable. But is there a way to slow down its effects? Better yet, the real question, does exercising have any positive effect on aging?
Lots of research has gone into this and there are many results that pool at the feet of the fact that the effects of aging could be slowed with regular exercising.
So, to answer the question, does exercising influence aging? Yes, it does. Regular exercise can help to hold back the effects of aging in an adult.
However, there are many more details in this article. You would find out exactly how exercising helps keep the effects of aging at bay and leaves you basking in youthful energy for a long time.
Aging and Exercising
According to a study by researchers at King’s College, London, and the University of Birmingham, the telltale signs of aging were not as obvious in adults that had been working out all their lives as it was in adults that had not.
Those that had been working out seemed to look and feel younger because their bodies aged optimally. Those that didn’t engage in constant exercise showed more signs of their age.
The study suggested that what usually causes the onset of aging issues is the body’s lack of energetic activity.
Now that we know that lifelong exercising helps hold off the effects of aging, one may ask, “what about people who didn’t start exercising early in their lives, is exercising still as effective to slow down aging?”
The delightful news is that all hope is not lost if one started working out later in their life. Studies showed that exercising reverses some damages to a heart that is aging, reducing the risk of heart failure as long as one doesn’t wait till it gets too late.
Starting out at middle age could still yield nice rewards, but the longer you wait before exercising, the lesser the rewards.
How Does Exercising Reduce Ageing?
What is it about exercise that slows down the effects of aging? Here are the answers to that question.
- Exercise Enhances the Memory
As one’s birthdays keep counting in the decades, it is normal for some adults to forget. With regular exercise, however, forgetfulness will not be a problem that you face as you age.
Research has it that regularly engaging in aerobic exercises increases the size of one’s hippocampus. This hippocampus is the part of the human brain that handles memory-related information.
- Regular Exercising Helps The Heart Remain Active
The more frequent regular exercise occurs, the lower the chances of having heart-related problems that come with aging.
The heart, like every other muscle in the body, gets weak when it is not put through enough activity. And the weaker the heart gets, the more stressful it is for it to pump blood to the entire body.
But a heart that is strengthened by years of regular exercising always has more miles to run. Also, there are some fats that clog arteries as one age.
These fats are called triglycerides. When the fats accumulate excessively, heart diseases set in. Again, regular exercise solves this.
- Regular Exercise Enhances Blood Flow
Blood vessels need to contract and expand with ease as blood passes through them. Aging dents this flexibility, which leads to a lack of adequate blood supply to the important organs of the body.
Exercising, however, enhances blood circulation. The blood vessels of a disciplined exerciser contract and expand with vigor, making it easy for blood flow.
- Regular Exercises Reduces Belly Fat
When age creeps in, the fat that would normally go down to one’s hips and thighs get to the belly, decide that they don’t want to go further, and settle there.
This is a bad thing as visceral fat increases the chances of one developing heart disease and diabetes.
Also, it gets really difficult to get rid of this fat once it settles in the belly. But once again, regular exercising swoops in to save the day.
With the right exercises, you can burn the belly fat and be fit again.
- Regular Exercising Slows Down Cells Ageing
There are countless cells in our bodies. These cells have what we call chromosomes, which have cap-like components called telomeres.
Long telomeres are associated with longevity, but as one gets older, the length of telomeres become shorter.
According to recent findings, there is a relationship between regular exercising and telomere lengthening.
- Exercising Keeps You Active
Constant exercising makes your body stay in an always-active mode. It would be your default setting, irrespective of age.
- Exercise Improves Your Posture
The weakening of muscles and the change in bone density have their way of making the world know that we are already getting old.
It gradually becomes a lot more difficult to stand up straight and walk smartly. As aging sets in, adults who have not been regularly exercising begin to stoop.
But leave it to exercising to take the sting out of an aging posture. Exercising adults are found to be able to maintain their full height and gait for long.
They are able to stand straighter and walk briskly.
The Bottomline
Is age slowly creeping up on you? Are you beginning to see those little telltale signs that your body has passed its peak and is now slowly taking a nosedive?
And are you seeing the need to hit the gym after you have read what exercising does to you in this article?
