Tag hormone balance

Resistance Training: The Ultimate Anti-Aging Tool

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Regular resistance training is one of the most powerful tools for maintaining youthfulness and slowing down the aging process. It benefits the body and mind in multiple ways, including preserving muscle mass and bone density, improving digestion, boosting cardiovascular fitness, and benefitting cognition and mental attitude. Let’s explore these in detail:

1. Muscle Mass Preservation and Growth

As we age, we naturally lose muscle mass—a process called sarcopenia—which can lead to frailty, loss of mobility, and metabolic decline. Resistance training:

  • Stimulates muscle protein synthesis, helping to maintain and build lean muscle.
  • Increases metabolic rate, making it easier to maintain a healthy weight.
  • Enhances insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes.
  • Supports functional strength, improving balance and reducing the risk of falls and injuries.

2. Skin Integrity and Anti-Aging Effects

The skin’s health and appearance are directly affected by lifestyle choices, including exercise. Resistance training:

  • Improves circulation, ensuring better oxygen and nutrient delivery to skin cells.
  • Stimulates collagen production, which helps maintain skin elasticity and reduces wrinkles.
  • Reduces cortisol levels, lowering inflammation and minimizing stress-induced skin aging.
  • Increases human growth hormone (HGH) levels, which contributes to cell regeneration and youthful skin.

3. Digestive Health and Metabolism

Aging often slows digestion and can lead to issues like bloating, constipation, and poor nutrient absorption. Resistance training:

  • Speeds up metabolism, ensuring efficient digestion and energy utilization.
  • Stimulates gut motility, reducing the risk of constipation.
  • Helps regulate hormones like insulin and cortisol, which affect digestion and appetite control.

4. Cardiovascular Fitness and Longevity

While resistance training is not traditionally associated with cardio health, it plays a crucial role in keeping the heart young. It:

  • Lowers blood pressure and improves vascular flexibility, reducing strain on the heart.
  • Enhances circulatory function, improving blood flow and oxygen delivery to tissues.
  • Reduces inflammation, lowering the risk of heart disease.
  • Helps control cholesterol levels by reducing LDL (bad cholesterol) and increasing HDL (good cholesterol).

5. Joint Health and Mobility

Contrary to the myth that weightlifting damages joints, resistance training actually protects and strengthens them. It:

  • Increases the production of synovial fluid, which lubricates the joints.
  • Strengthens the muscles around joints, providing better support and stability.
  • Reduces inflammation associated with conditions like arthritis.
  • Improves flexibility and mobility, reducing stiffness and pain.

6. Bone Density and Strength

Osteoporosis and bone fractures become major concerns with aging. Resistance training combats this by:

  • Stimulating osteoblast activity, which helps build stronger bones.
  • Increasing bone mineral density, reducing the risk of fractures.
  • Enhancing posture and balance, minimizing fall-related injuries.
  • Supporting calcium and vitamin D absorption through hormonal regulation.

7. Hormone Regulation: Testosterone, HGH, and More

One of the most underrated benefits of resistance training is its ability to optimize hormone levels, which naturally decline with age. Strength training has been shown to:

  • Boost testosterone production, which is essential for muscle maintenance, fat metabolism, energy levels, and libido in both men and women.
  • Increase human growth hormone (HGH), which supports tissue repair, fat loss, and skin regeneration.
  • Improve estrogen balance in women, reducing the risk of osteoporosis and metabolic disorders.
  • Lower cortisol levels, reducing stress, inflammation, and belly fat accumulation.
  • Improve thyroid function, enhancing metabolism and energy levels.

8. Mental Attitude and Cognitive Health

Aging isn’t just physical—it’s mental. Resistance training improves cognitive function and emotional well-being by:

  • Releasing endorphins, reducing anxiety and depression.
  • Boosting dopamine and serotonin, improving focus, clarity, and happiness.
  • Enhancing memory and brain function, reducing the risk of dementia.
  • Increasing self-confidence, making you feel strong and capable at any age.

9. Resistance Training and Insomnia

Struggling with sleep? Resistance training can help improve sleep quality and reduce insomnia by:

  • Reducing cortisol levels, helping the body wind down for sleep.
  • Boosting deep sleep cycles (slow-wave sleep), which is crucial for recovery and memory consolidation.
  • Regulating circadian rhythms, ensuring better sleep-wake cycles.
  • Reducing stress and anxiety, making it easier to relax at bedtime.
  • Increasing energy during the day, leading to natural tiredness at night.

Conclusion

Regular resistance training is one of the most powerful ways to stay young, both physically and mentally. It preserves muscle, strengthens bones, supports joints, enhances skin health, regulates digestion, protects the heart, optimizes hormone levels, improves sleep, and boosts mental well-being. If you want to age with strength, vitality, and confidence, lifting weights should be a non-negotiable part of your lifestyle! 💪

A Great Solution For Hot Flashes

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Several months ago, I began using a product called Personal Summer Comfort®, an all natural supplement designed to treat hot flashes in perimenopausal and postmenopausal women.  I went through menopause several years ago, but my thermostat is constantly set on high, and there are times, especially when the mercury climbs outside, when I burn up like the Mojave Desert.  I know you ladies who suffer from hot flashes are well acquainted with that sudden burst of intense heat which is guaranteed to make its sufferer completely miserable.

Personal Summer Comfort® is a high potency formula featuring a combination of herbs which work in tandem to support the nervous system and alleviate those dreaded hot flashes.  Rosemary has proven effects on estrogen balance by its ability to flush the liver of estrogen while also promoting the formation of 2-hydroxy estrogens, supports thyroid function, and  lowers cortisol levels. Sage, oat straw, sarsparilla, spirulina, and kelp, substances which are known for their effectiveness in treating hot flashes and night sweats, are used in this formula as well.

I opted to try Personal Summer Comfort® in the gel-caps, but for women who have trouble swallowing capsules, there is also a liquid formulation.  About a week after I began taking this supplement, I noticed that I was able to sleep at night without fighting a strong urge to throw the covers off my body.  I also noticed that I could comfortably cruise through my day without so much as a warning mini-hot flash.  I have even been able to run a flat iron through my hair on a hot day, a task which was absolute torture before I began taking Personal Summer Comfort®.

I always use myself as a guinea pig for supplements and other products which I endorse, because I have to believe in the product in order to promote it.  Well, I can honestly say that I am a big fan of Personal Summer Comfort®, and I’m thrilled that I can now recommend a product to my menopausal patients and friends which is completely natural, safe and highly effective. 

This is also a great time to start taking Personal Summer Comfort® if you have been suffering from hot flashes, night sweats and irritability.  With summer just around the corner, we ladies need all the help we can get to stay cool and calm!

Check out Personal Summer Comfort® at:

Personal Summer Comfort Homepage

Enter code big20off for 20% off your order.

 

“Do You Still Compete?”

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First Place Masters Bikini 35+ B Class, Team Universe, July 2013

First Place Masters Bikini 35+ B Class, Team Universe, July 2013

Whenever I hear that question now, I have mixed feelings, which range from a sense of longing for the stage, to complete relief that I have not stepped onto a bodybuilding stage for close to two years now. My short answer to the question, “Do you still compete?” is “Probably not.”

Though I competed in four Pro Bikini events, I was struggling so much with metabolic damage and perimenopause that I often think it wasn’t the best idea to jump onto the Pro stage only 4 months after I won my IFBB Pro Card. That sort of strategy might work for a twenty-something competitor who is at the top of the heap, but it didn’t work for my 47-year old body which had been beaten down physically, emotionally, and mentally. I honestly needed a break, but I pushed through, and as a result had ho-hum placings.

It has taken over three years for my body to return to a level of leanness which I feel comfortable with. I know you might assume that I was in a massive spiral with my weight and body fat, but it wasn’t THAT bad, at least not compared with many other competitors who spiral. Nevertheless, I spent over two years with excess fluff that I was not accustomed to at all, and I couldn’t stand how I looked or felt.

Here’s the breakdown of my stats throughout the years:

From age 21 through 43: Between 104-109 lbs., 11-13% body fat
2010 – Age 44: 112-113 lbs., 12% body fat
2011 – Age 45: 114 lbs., 12% body fat
2012 – Age 46: 115 lbs., 12% body fat
2013 – Age 47: FIRST HALF OF YEAR: 117 lbs., 11% body fat SECOND HALF OF YEAR: 119-126 lbs., 13-18% body fat
2014 – Age 48: 121-125 lbs., 14-18% body fat
2015 – Age 49: 119-123 lbs., 12-15% body fat
2016 – (soon to be 50): 115-119 lbs., 11-13% body fat

It has been a veritable see-saw for me over the years. I also firmly believe that I would not have gone through menopause as early as I have if it had not been for all the metabolic insults I made to my poor body as a result of competing. Since 2013, I have investigated every possible cause for the water retention issues which rather suddenly hit me. This year I have FINALLY been able to rid myself of the excess fluid around my midsection, but somehow that was at the cost of the fullness in my glutes which I had worked so tirelessly to achieve during the years in which I competed.

If you ask me what my plans are for competing, don’t be surprised if I evade the question. I realize with each passing day that competing is no longer something which I rely on to define who I am. I have paid my dues and proven my worth, and though I completely understand why people have a drive to compete, I am no longer chomping at the bit to throw on a ridiculously expensive, blingy bikini and stripper heels and put myself at the mercy of a panel of judges.