The 6 Biggest Exercise Myths Related to Aging, Debunked

You’ve probably heard these lines from a friend, a neighbor, or maybe even your mother, aunts, and grandmother:

“Too much exercise wears me out and just makes me tired!”

“Diabetes runs in my family; I doubt anything can prevent it.”

“Exercise helps my heart and muscles, drinking milk helps my bones.”

and our favorite—

“It’s too late to start exercising and building muscle at my age.”

So many generations of women have lived by these exercise myths— so much so that they’ve become a belief system in our culture and, let’s face it, an excuse to stop working hard for a healthier life. 

What’s more heartbreaking about these myths is they make us feel helpless against our genetics and the aging process— the two things that we readily blame for the diseases we suffer and the weakness, injuries, and limited mobility we experience as we grow older.

The truth is, our common beliefs are just wrong! We have significantly more control over the factors that can change the way we age and improve our quality of life!

Let’s debunk the biggest exercise myths and talk about how a healthy, more active lifestyle and a breakthrough supplement formulated for better aging can help us flip the aging switch and reverse the visible signs of aging, leaving us stronger, more energized, and looking younger than ever!

In fact, a study on cardiac rehabilitation published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information shows that patients with cardiac issues showed more improvements when engaged in HIIT compared to those who do moderate-intensity aerobic exercises.

Bottom line: Get enough deep sleep so your body can unload toxins, repair its tissues, and regenerate its cells. And instead of spending more time resting, do a workout!

3. Exercising is not worth it because genetics is the key determinant of health.

The truth is, our genetics plays a small part in our health and how we age. Our genes only tell us which diseases we are vulnerable to or predisposed to have. BUT our lifestyle choices determine whether we develop the disease or not. 

You can think of your genes as a library, and your lifestyle choices are the books you choose to check out of that library. In other words, you have control over your health. You own the journey to better, healthier aging! How liberating is that?!

Let’s talk about what you can do in terms of sleep, diet, and exercise to override our genes and age better while debunking more myths along the way:

Deep sleep— also called slow-wave or delta sleep— is when your body undergoes healing, repair, and restoration. During deep sleep:

• your cells regenerate
• your tissues and muscles grow
• the blood supply to your muscles increases
• your body restores its energy

In addition, unlike our body, our brain only gets rid of toxins and waste byproducts during our sleep. So, if we don’t get quality sleep, it’s like storing garbage in our brains! This pile of brain garbage can increase our risk of developing dementia and add more to our stress which accelerates the aging process!

All of these happen and apply to us no matter our age or what’s written in our genes. Therefore, every one of us should always do our best to get good quality sleep.

Here’s what you can do to get more deep sleep:

• Establish a sleeping time and waking time and stick to it.
• Don’t consume alcoholic drinks 3 hours before bedtime. Alcohol inhibits the production of our sleep hormone, melatonin.
• Don’t consume caffeinated beverages 6 hours before bedtime. Caffeine disrupts your sleep.
• Put down your screens and gadgets at least 30 minutes before you sleep.
• Empty your bladder before bed.
• Ensure your room is cold and your feet are warm and toasty for maximum comfort.
• Exercise regularly.

Diet

Sticking to a healthy diet is not just about weight management— it’s an essential factor in aging better and healthier, too. And regardless of your age, you can start eating healthy now and still benefit from the results.

In fact, studies show that 90-year-olds who changed their diets at that age lived longer lives compared to those who didn’t. So the lesson here is: it’s never too late to start eating healthy!

Improve your diet by:

• Getting rid of processed foods
• Eating a rainbow of fruits and vegetables and whole foods 
• Consuming anti-inflammatory foods such as those with healthy fats (fatty fish, avocados), cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts), and berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, strawberries)

The most recommended exercise is HIIT (as mentioned earlier) and weight lifting, strength training, or resistance training. But you must consult your physician first to make sure you can ease into your workouts and avoid injury. You might also need a trainer to help you until you can safely perform our workouts independently.

The bottom line is our genes and age don’t affect our health and quality of life as much as our lifestyle choices. Surrendering to what comes with our genes and age impacts our health the most!

4. Exercising and aging cause body aches and pains.

This exercising myth needs to die because it scares women beyond 40 to start exercising. Inflammation— your body’s response to protect itself from infections and heal itself of its injuries— is what causes your aches and pains, not exercising and certainly not aging! Inflammation results in redness, swelling, and pain. 

Inflammation is a healthy and necessary bodily response, but it becomes unhealthy when severe and chronic. Unhealthy inflammation causes chronic pain and puts you at risk of developing diabetes, obesity, and arthritis.

Motion is the lotion that soothes inflammation. Exercising for just 20 minutes every day has anti-inflammatory benefits.  Exercising brings blood flow, oxygen, and nutrients that help repair our tissues and stop inflammation.

Also, exercising promotes muscle growth and strength, which helps you be more active and recover quickly from injuries.
Along with exercise, eat anti-inflammatory foods and get enough deep sleep!

5. Don’t exercise if you have osteoporosis.

Au contraire, exercising helps prevent osteoporosis from occurring or getting worse. However, not all exercises can do the trick. Your bones need pressure to grow healthier and stronger. Therefore, you should engage in weight-bearing exercises.

Changing your diet also helps fight osteoporosis:

• Your bones are not just made of calcium. It also has potassium, magnesium, zinc, silica, and boron, so your diet must also contain foods rich in these minerals.

• Avoid overeating acidic foods like sugar, alcohol, and meats. Acid forces your body to break down your bones and use their nutrients to buffer the acid from your food. Over time, this will reduce bone mass and integrity and result in osteoporosis. 

Not many people realize the relevance of diet and the proper form of exercise to bone health. That’s why osteoporosis is an epidemic that’s been causing falls and broken hips for generations. Now that you have this knowledge, you can help end this epidemic.

Doing some household chores such as gardening, cleaning the house, and doing laundry also qualifies as strength training and medium-intensity cardiovascular exercise.

Now, in case you’re wondering, here’s why it’s essential to maintain healthy muscle mass and strength:

• A healthy muscle mass makes a firm structure and support for your soft tissues and your skin. It keeps your skin tight, elastic, and smooth and prevents it from wrinkling and sagging.

• Muscles are better than fat in burning calories and converting them into energy. Therefore, having more muscle mass increases your metabolic rate. It helps you maintain a healthy weight and prevent obesity and the diseases that result from it. It also gives you enough energy to get more work done and play with your grandkids even after a long day!

• Healthy muscles support mobility, balance, and flexibility which you should maintain to stay active and able for decades to come.

• Healthy muscles recover from injuries faster.

Simply put, healthy muscles promote healthy aging and good quality of life for decades to come!

In summary, exercising— along with a healthy diet and quality sleep— gives us the upper hand over genetics and our age in keeping our body healthy.

But this magic trio becomes more powerful when combined with a cutting-edge dietary supplement specifically formulated to help women maximize the benefits of exercise for better, healthier aging!