By Derek Bye | B.S. Exercise Science, ACSM-CPT
I have always been a huge advocate of making smart lifestyle choices, rather than relying on medication, to help people create the healthy life they are looking to live. In this article, I’m going to explain three things that you can do everyday to slow down the aging process while costing you no money.
It’s no secret that we live in the world of “instant gratification”. This especially applies to what many people are looking for when it comes to improving their health. We are constantly bombarded with different tricks and techniques that will rapidly get you the results you’re looking for. Many people spend hundreds, if not thousands of dollars purchasing different gimmicks in search of the results they’re looking for. Feeling good and having a good looking body can not be bought and sold despite how much different marketing schemes want you to believe that’s the case. Here are three things you can start working on today to slow down the aging process and help you obtain the results you’re working for.
1. Slow down the decaying of you’re DNA
As many of us have learned at one point or another, DNA is responsible for our genetic makeup and developing us into who we are. What you might not have known is that DNA is composed of chromosomes that are protected by strands of protective proteins called telomeres. As we age, these protective structures get shorter and make the chromosome more susceptible to damage, resulting in aging. It’s pretty much inevitable that everyone’s telomeres will shorten over time, but what we can do is slow down the rate at which these protective structures shorten.
It’s been shown through multiple research publications that exercise is a key component to keeping our DNA as healthy as possible as we get older. More specifically, studies are beginning to show that aerobic training (cardio) is most effective in preventing the shortening of telomeres to help us slow down the aging process. Other factors that will also help keep your telomeres long and strong are keeping your stress levels low (try meditation/prayer) and getting quality sleep every single night. If you’re someone looking to stay young and vibrant (which is probably everyone, I don’t think anyone is excited about growing old) then performing longer bouts of cardio and making sure you get quality sleep every night are going to be very resourceful for you.
2. Increase your natural production of growth hormone (GH)
I could make an entire different article describing what we can do to increase growth hormone (naturally), but for the sake of this article I want to make this short and sweet. Growth hormone is responsible for stimulating the growth of new cells in your body, making it an essential component in slowing the aging process. Here are three ways we can increase GH naturally.
1) Lift weights – relatively heavy compound lifting (full body movements such as a squat, lunge, press, etc.) stimulate the natural production of growth hormone.
2) Intermittent fasting – intermittent fasting is a popular, but very misunderstood trend in the fitness industry. Intermittent fasting (prolonged time with no food) triggers the release of growth hormone because our bodies have a built-in evolutionary response to release GH and preserve muscle mass when food was not readily available all the time like it is today.
3) Get more quality sleep – our bodies actually produce the most amount of GH during our sleep. If you’re someone who misses out on those quality hours of sleep every night, you are doing yourself a disservice because your body is missing out on its prime opportunity to release GH and repair your body.
3. Keep your stress low (decrease cortisol)
This is easier said than done, but high stress will break you’re body down faster than you can imagine. The physiological response to stress is the release of a hormone called cortisol. Although stress is important, we live in a society that triggers stress far to often for many people.
One of the best methods to deal with stress is to meditate/pray on a daily basis. For many, this seems counterintuitive because you feel that you should be working to decrease your stress. Meditation is a proved method that has a physiological effect on the body that lowers stress and has many other benefits for mental health. Try practicing meditation for 10 minutes a day (in the morning/before bed) and you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor. If you can feel your heart rate decrease and your taking long, deep breaths you’re doing it correctly.
To summarize everything we just discussed, I’m going to make a list of things that you can start doing today to keep yourself feeling young, healthy, and vibrant.
• Perform long bouts of cardio 2+ times/week
• Perform relatively heavy compound lifts at least 2 times/week
• Get quality sleep (8-10 hours) every night
• Meditate for 10 mins daily
• intermittent fast (please research before jumping into this!)
D-BYE Lifts 