Hi There,
Welcome back to K&T blog.
We hope you are doing well and enjoying the festive season. A Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said “The only constant in life is change” , meaning that as much as we want some things in our lives to remain the same they will eventually change, and one such thing is our health and fitness. Given a choice, we would opt to remain fit and healthy for ever, because when health is not great the quality of life seems to get affected greatly, perhaps health is a sign of what real wealth is.
Our reality is that we age, from the moment of conception our cells start to age, our metabolism start to decline around 20 years, from 30 years it starts to become clear that we are ageing e.g high blood pressure, muscle loss, stiff joints, hair loss, wrinkles and hearing, from then on is a continuous process of health decline until end of life. Sometimes we down play this reality and live a life that is contrary, smoking, binge drinking, lack of sleep, unhealthy diet , constantly worrying and stressing.
One thing that standout for us from the ageing process is the weight gain that is experienced around 20 years of age and more so in the 30’s. We point our fingers at metabolism, which begins to decline around 20 years. In simple terms, Metabolism is the process that out bodies undergo to change food into energy that we can use, as we age this process becomes inefficient and lead to excessive weight gain. The good thing is that this process can be improved, and therefore reduce our weight gain and slow down our aging.
There are a number of ways one can improve metabolism, one of the key ways is through strength training. Strength training builds muscles, muscles burns more calories, and burning more calories means improved metabolism ( and weight loss 🙂 ). Building muscle as we age is beneficial for our overall health, not only for improved metabolism but also to counter muscle atrophy, sarcopenia (Age-related progressive loss of muscle mass and strength) and protection from injuries .
Our bodies are capable of building muscles at any age, therefore one need not shy away from strength training at any age, our advice is to start small and progressively increase the weight and intensity at your own pace. We now have added some strength training videos in our workouts section, give them a try or scour the net for strength training exercises you can enjoy, its all worth it.
Until next week, Stay blessed.
PS: Remember to warm up before working out, always.
Kat & Tshepi
Kat & Tshepi 