Physical exercise is one of the most effective weapons against aging. Weight loss and body shaping will definitely make you look younger.
You should be aware that every person feels good and young at a certain weight. Too plump but also too skinny will make you look older. Discover the ideal weight that makes you look younger and check it by letting other people guess at your age.
In addition to the youthful appearance provided by a worked-out body, doing sports gives us a state of self-satisfaction and well-being, which helps us embrace a youthful spirit that shows on the outside.
The self-perception of people who feel young irrespective of their age is: if I have the body of a young person, I can do whatever a young person can do, I have a youthful attitude, therefore, the others see me as young. The only barrier to having this self-perception is a psychological one linked to our chronological age, which can be easily crossed: as long as the others see me as being youthful, why wouldn’t I do the same, since Age is just a number.
Why do we need sports?
It is not something new that nowadays sedentary lifestyles are very frequent and they lead to many types of diseases. The most frequent are cardiovascular diseases, but they are not the only ones. Sports bring many benefits in fighting against a wide variety of impairments by strengthening the body and improving the state of mind.
The evolution of society encourages an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. Throughout our history, we humans have never been sedentary beings – we are built to exercise our bodies, therefore in order to be healthy we need sports.
Physical exercises are good for body and mind alike - they increase concentration and improve memory.
From a psychological point of view, the practice of sports increases our wellness by releasing endorphins, it builds competitive and team spirit, it gives us the joy of success, it fights depression, increases self-esteem and self-confidence, and it helps in dealing with defeat, abilities which are useful in all aspects of our lives.
How to exercise in order to delay the phenomenon of aging and to make our bodies look younger?
It is very important to choose the type of exercise that suits us best: weight lifting, aerobics, yoga, Pilates, running, biking, hiking, tennis, or any other sports. Discovering which are the physical activities that we enjoy will greatly boost our motivation.
Moreover, it is advisable to combine these activities in order to exercise the whole body and avoid boredom. It is very important to stay passionate about sports and to experiment new things.
Important notice for people with health issues: please consult your physician to find out the type, intensity and duration of physical exercises that are good for you!
Being fit is a complex state which depicts from a physical viewpoint the physical abilities and aspect of a person.
Fitness is obtained by means of a wide variety of sports, some of which are mentioned below, tailored to every person’s objectives.
Aerobics
Aerobics requires a sustained effort of low or medium intensity during several minutes, such as cardio training. Unlike anaerobic training, which entails high effort for short periods of time (e.g. weight lifting, sprint, etc.), cardio training is an aerobic training.
Yoga
Yoga can be translated as “union” or “connection”. There are many types of yoga, which have specific features. Some of them focus on the perception of life, of the universe, of the human being, etc.
Considering that our website is dedicated to the maintenance of youth we shall refer to the type of yoga which favors this aspect. From this point of view, we can define yoga as a set of physical exercises, stretching, breathing, and meditation, originating in the Hindu civilization, which benefits our overall wellbeing and performance. A good physical and mental state is directly proportional to the maintenance of youth.
Pilates
Pilates is a set of physical exercises developed by the German Joseph Pilates. Joseph Pilates had a poor health in his childhood, but he became a multidisciplinary professional sportsman and a highly appreciated trainer in the United States and Europe.
Pilates is a system of training very popular in the United States, Canada and Europe.
The Pilates system of exercises focuses mainly on strengthening the core and the back. Pilates exercises are also good for the joints as well as the entire body. They focus on body shape and posture, thus being very efficient in obtaining a body with a youthful look.
How much should we train?
It all depends on each of us, as we each exercise for ourselves and compete only against ourselves and our own weaknesses.
A plan is useful, a progressive program that sets the goal we want to reach. After reaching our goal, the program should be adjusted to help us maintain our newly obtained shape. We should never stop exercising; it should become part of our life, as it is an essential prerequisite for a youthful aspect and a good health.
As a general recommendation a minimum 30 minutes daily workout is advisable, but it all depends on the type and intensity of the workout.
In order to get a youthful look, a higher intensity and longer duration would be best. We should push our limits in order to change, and we should step out of the comfort zone. Our body will adjust to this effort, which will lead to the necessity to increase the duration and/or effort intensity during training sessions: this is how we progress. This stage of continual adjustment of the training and of obtaining the desired results is the most difficult, but also the one that provides the greatest satisfactions.
After reaching the desired shape/weight, maintenance training of lower intensity and/or shorter duration should follow.
From time to time adjustments should be made as our bodies adapt to the type of effort, and no longer respond, so we begin to lose our hardly earned physical shape. What we need to do in this case? Surprise our body with new intensity, duration or type of effort.
Too much sports training?
Slowing down aging and highlighting the youthful look of the body is a complex process: diet, sports, a positive frame of mind, avoiding stress, using skin care products, etc. Sport is an important factor, but it is not the only one, and it cannot compensate for other important aspects. There are people who become almost obsessed with sports and devote a lot of time to it, to the detriment of other very important aspects in life: family, career, etc., a fact that can decrease the person’s quality of life.
Continual overwork, the constant stress of pushing limits, and the excessive loss of weight can make us look older, having an overall negative effect on our health!
Overtraining: it is the result of an excess of eagerness. You can recognize it by the absence of progress and even regress, lack of motivation for training, lack of sleep and appetite. When overtraining appears, rest! Several days of rest until you feel back in shape and in the mood for training will do you good.
Identify the cause for overtraining and eliminate it.
Avoid the feeling of guilt, which works against mental wellbeing, another important constituent that keeps our soul young. Did you miss your daily workout for reasons independent of your will or due to a lack of motivation or low spirits? It is all right, you will work out next time.
Just enjoy the break and the beauty of pursuing your goals. You are not competing with anybody, you will not receive any penalty.
Take the best from your physical activity and do not let yourself get de-motivated by not being able to fully respect your training program. On the contrary, you should be motivated by the fact that you have succeeded in getting right back to what makes you young and beautiful!
What do I do if I have no time for exercising?
Nowadays many people are busy, they simply have no time for sports. What should we do in this case? Well, we make time! It sounds funny, but very often we could make a little time for sports, but we don’t because we don’t even consider we could, we just know that we have no spare time and we let ourselves become sedentary.
Add physical activities to your daily routine: walk whenever you can, take the stairs, do some exercises in your lunch break (stretching, push-ups, squats, etc.). Doing this will help you stay fit.
The final goal is to exercise for health and youth, not to keep a strict training program, especially when you are very busy.