Slow Down Aging
If you’re the type of driver who would rather watch TV and eat during all of your breaks instead of giving your muscles a little workout, better think twice. Here’s the deal: this lifestyle speeds up aging. How? Well, inactivity accelerates aging in two ways: it decreases our muscle mass and gives us extra pounds of fat.
Muscle meltdown
As we age, the quantity and strength of our muscle fibers diminish. Statistically, we lose two to four pounds of muscles every ten years. Decreased number and strength of muscles causes our muscles to lose flexibility, losing our usual range of motion and optimal strength.
I don’t need to tell you that lack of exercise is to blame as much as time passing by. It was found out that not exercising for even just a week weakens our muscles significantly. In fact, if you don’t exercise for a month, you will lose almost 50% of your original muscle strength. Some people may not even notice their atrophied muscles because of the fatty buildup in their body. Blame that too to lack of exercise.
Gaining extra pounds
The simple logic here is that if you are inactive, you gain extra pounds, and extra pounds can age you. But hey, there’s a missing link. How does an increase in weight speed up aging?
Researchers have recently found out that as people become heavier and became more insulin resistant (a common side effect of being fat and heavy), their telomeres (strands of DNA at the end of a chromosome that protect the tip from destruction and classically shorten with age) shrank more than those of people who didn’t increase their weight and developed more insulin resistance, an apparent sign that the aging process was speeding up among overweight. Researchers suppose that the stress caused by increased weight and insulin resistance spawn inflammation and free radicals that damage cells. Simply put, a heavier body ages its own DNA.
The Solution
But the good news is, you can recover what you have lost and slice off what you have gained. Research clearly shows that a healthy lifestyle and exercise can help keep your DNA younger. Research also has shown that almost 90% of chronic illness is due to our activity level and mindset. A great deal of aging is in our minds and can be slowed down.
In studies, regular exercise has been proven to keep you from diabetes, muscle atrophy, cancer, stroke, Alzheimer’s, and heart diseases. Regular workout helps prevent hypertension, reduces body fat, raises High Density Lipoprotein (good cholesterol), lowers Low-Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol), improves circulation, keeps the digestive system healthy, and regulates key hormones.
An anti-aging workout is best for you! This includes consistent cardio, yoga, and weight training.
You can do jogging, cycling (an inexpensive mountain bike can be bungied to the sleeper if you are clever), walking, or other activities that raise your heartbeat for thirty minutes a day for about five times a week. Doing these of higher intensity everyday can be helpful in bringing more blood and oxygen to our brain. These activities also guard your heart by lowering blood pressure, reducing LDL, and keeping arteries flexible to improve circulation.
Lifting weights or other resistance training should also be part of your roster of activities. Weightlifting for 20 minutes a day, twice a week can be of great help in having strong bones, and muscles, which of course includes the heart. For beginners, small dumbbells will do and don’t take up much space under the sleeper. Exercise bands are actually a better choice because they can provide hundreds of pounds of resistance and don’t add weight to the truck.
Doing yoga is one of the best activities to fight stress. It relaxes the body, thereby, keeping stress from burning you out. It also protects the body against free radicals that break down the elasticity of the skin.
More Benefits
Exercise does not only keep you young, it also helps you sleep, firms you up, improves your mood, keeps you slim, and take note of this, charges up your sex life!
Many future articles and blog posts here at driversthriving.com will highlight ways to get exercise, and work on fitness and wellness in general even while living on the road in a truck or RV. Keep coming back!
