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Sometimes you get the feeling that if you don't run, cycle or do other aerobic activity for 30 minutes three times a week, it's not "real" sport. And because it's not always that easy, you often don't do it at all. Because everything else doesn't seem to have such an effect. Yet exercise can do a lot for us. But you have to understand the context. Forget the 3 x 30: the relationship between ageing and exercise is not as simple as it is often made out to be.

Only 2 hours away from a good condition

And that doesn't mean 2 hours a day or a week. For years, NASA has been looking into the question of how to maximise the health benefits of exercise with a minimum investment of time. The results of the studies are very encouraging. They show that short but intensive exercise is very effective. (I have already referred to this in another article in a different context: The hormone run) It turned out that - brace yourself - if you exercise intensively for 10 minutes every other day, you can build up excellent fitness (that's all together 30 minutes a week!). After four weeks, most of the study participants' bio-data were fundamentally changed and at a good level. Can 2 hours be used more profitably?

Muscles and age

Sometimes we simply do everything wrong. For example, when we approach old age by taking it easy and reducing our demands. This is because insufficient exertion accelerates ageing processes, and this applies even more as we get older. This means that the older you are, the more important exercise and exertion become. To maintain important functions, the human organism absolutely requires a sufficiently high level of exertion on a regular basis. Optimal physical exertion can reduce typical ageing processes by around 50 per cent. In fact, many of the signs of ageing that are considered normal are caused by a constant decrease in activity and exertion over the course of a lifetime.

Movement is not a burden

Movement alone does not do this. What we need to maintain our strength, healthy bones and joints are intensive compressive, impact and tensile forces. In this context, you can clearly see how much aerobic sport is overrated and strength training underestimated. Strength training can work wonders. It can be carried out despite various age-related complaints and, according to studies, can also be recommended for the very elderly. The process of muscle loss begins at a relatively young age. At the same time, the fat percentage increases. My joy at the fact that I still weigh the same as I did in my youth was suddenly dampened by the realisation that, despite this, the muscle percentage has decreased and the fat percentage has increased inconspicuously. My kilos now contain more fat than muscle, despite having the same figure, which has an impact on my health and the ageing process.

How should you train now?

The recommendation of modern sports science is 30 minutes of short but intensive (!) bodybuilding training twice a week, ideally supplemented by endurance sports. I would also like to point out that muscle and endurance training complement each other perfectly and that you will achieve better results in both areas more quickly if you combine them. And please don't forget the gym, which is open around the clock and costs nothing: Climbing stairs, walking, everyday household chores, gardening, etc. Don't miss out on any opportunity to exercise and strain your body. Cicero already knew: "There is nothing that old age must guard against more than indolence and inactivity."

Source:

Schmitt-Homm, Homm: Handbook Anti-Aging

http://antiagingnews.net/bewegung.html