You Won't Believe What Exercise Can Do For You!

Exercise not your favorite past time? I hear ya dollface - I'd rather do almost anything than exercise. But despite it all there's a new piece of research that offers up a pretty good reason to try it.

The study, just published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports, showed that resistance training not only helps strengthen your bones and muscles, it can actually help rebuild your reserve of "satellite " cells - those cells responsible for the growth, healing and regeneration of muscle fiber. And it can do so even if your start exercising in your senior years.

But what's really important about this discovery is that the number of satellite cells we retain in our body appears to decline with age. And that means your muscles can't regenerate as quickly or as effectively as they did when you were young. And that translates into weaker muscles - and less mobility - over time.

But now researchers say that even moderate resistance training - like pulling those over sized rubber bands, or lifting a couple of soup cans or water bottles up and down for 10 minutes every day - can increase satellite cell proliferation, at almost any age!

The end result: The more satellite cells you have, the longer your muscles stay limber and strong - which in turn means your body won't sag and schlump in all the wrong places!

It also means you'll have a better shot at maintaining 'functional fitness' - the kind of strength we all need perform our everyday activities, like vacuuming the carpet or mowing the lawn. Okay, bad choices, who wants to continue doing that? But, how about ...salsa dancing, playing tennis, trying on clothes in Bloomingdales? All those things need good muscle tone too!

The point is, if you begin a strength/resistance training program now, you can not only help build your bone health and guard against osteoporosis, you may also help build your muscle cell reserve which in turn will help support your bones and your body, keeping you looking, feeling, and acting as young as you wanna be, for as long as you wanna be!

All in all - not a bad trade off for lifting a few soup cans, or pulling on a few rubber bands three times a week. So think about it!