We often hear, and it immediately makes me angry, that investing time and effort in working out doesn’t make much sense because we’re all going to get old anyway, so what’s the point of all that effort when, let’s be honest, sometimes it’s easier to just lie down and eat ice cream while watching your favorite show, light a cigarette, and not think about whether you got your workout in today.
Of course, we all age and change is the only constant, but the question is how we age and what kind of changes occur, and what we do for ourselves and about them? Are we accelerating degenerative changes through our behavior and approach, or are we giving our body—which is far more intelligent and subtle than we credit it—full support and treating it properly?
Accumulation of effort
I taught classes for retirees at the Gaia Yoga School for several years. I watched women around seventy and saw huge differences—between those who had practiced their whole lives and those who had never done so. The difference was more than obvious, and that was the moment when I saw my own accumulated effort. It’s not for nothing that they say you exercise in your youth for later in life, so when someone tells young people they don’t need to exercise or watch what they eat, it’s a completely wrong approach and a missed point. We don’t exercise to be skinny, but to build and maintain all our body systems as well as possible, to have a healthy posture, and to develop a body awareness that will serve us very well.
Women who have exercised their whole lives vs. those who haven’t
The first group was flexible, strong, agile, and coordinated. For the women in the second group, exercise was torture, and it was hard even to come up with exercises that would gradually melt away the armor of chronic pain they were wearing.
Women in the first group are less prone to injuries and have better control over their bodies.
Of course life throws all sorts of things at you, injuries happen, but today, thankfully, we know that unnecessary inactivity is counterproductive and even harmful. Atrophy is a swift lady.
It’s never too late!
Although it may be a bit harder to start exercising at an older age, it’s never too late! If you haven’t been active until now, get moving. Take it slowly, adding one minute at a time each day—why not?
It’s not easy to be out of shape, but it’s even harder to do nothing to get in shape.
If you start exercising at an older age and don’t have any established routines, walking, swimming, taking the stairs, and similar modifications throughout your day will bring you visible results and motivation.
What do we know today about the importance of exercise?
Today’s studies have shown that regular exercise:
- slows down the aging process and makes it more pleasant and easier
- builds muscles that give us ease in performing everyday functions at any age
- Improves bone strength and reduces the risk of fractures.
- boosts immunity
- slows down cell aging and maintains the ability to divide, which contributes to regeneration
- prevents a whole range of diseases
In addition, exercise has a great effect on our mood and contributes to a healthier, more cheerful outlook on life and events.
How much time is required to invest?
Most people complain about a lack of time, but a good example is that when I asked the women in my group what they had exercised throughout their lives, the most common answer was walking, gentle hiking, summer swimming, and daily gymnastics – 10–15 minutes of exercise right after waking up. So, these are activities that we can very spontaneously and easily incorporate into our daily routine.
Each of us has 10 minutes to ourselves, and that physical activity doesn’t have to be rocket science—it’s just about accumulating minutes. Ten minutes a day, seven days a week, adds up to more than an hour.
Regular exercise becomes a habit, and the feeling of not exercising becomes uncomfortable for our body, prompting us to keep exercising.
It takes 21 days to form a healthy habit. So, in our case, we’re talking about waking up 10 minutes earlier and using the first 10 minutes for simple gym exercises—squats, push-ups, Tibetan exercises, whatever comes to mind.
And what about facial exercises?
It’s exactly the same with our face. Of course we can’t avoid changes, but we can soften them, postpone them, and in the process cultivate a healthy sense of care and awareness.
So every time you think about giving up because you don’t have an hour or two, remember that 10 minutes is a lot more than 0 minutes!!
Check out our selection of online face yoga packages at THIS LINK.
