Miranda Esmonde-White - Aging Backwards: Reverse the Aging Process and Look 10 Years Younger in 30 Minutes a Day

Every day, no matter what our age or current health status, we have a very clear choice: We can grow older or we can grow younger.

I mean this quite literally.

Some people might not see aging as a choicethey see it as something they have no control over, just like the passage of time. But with the information I share in this book, I hope to convince you that you absolutely do have a choice in the age of your bones, your muscles, your internal organs, and your skin. You can decide if you want to spend your days feeling vital, energetic, and healthy, and joyfully use your body to exercise, travel, and play with your children (or grandchildren)or if you want to be confined to a life of joint and back pain, limited mobility, and a lack of physical strength that keep you sitting on a bench and watching others do the things you once did.

The difference between these two extremes is a matter of 30 minutes a daythats all. You already possess the power to determine your bodys true age. The choice is yours: Passively allow the aging process to take over, or actively counter the aging process in a mere half hour a day.

Me, I like that kind of deal. I plan on staying young forever (or as close to it as I can manage!). And I hope you do, too. I can show you how.

Until very recently, medical researchers believed that many of the negative effects of aging were inevitable. As we grow old, conventional wisdom has told us, our skin sags, our muscles waste away, we gain weight, and we eventually develop a chronic disease, such as heart disease or cancer, which will kill us. (Is it any wonder we are such a youth-obsessed culture?)

But in the past few years, scientists have made tremendous discoveries that offer a different picture of what it looks like to get older. Consider these common myths about aging that have recently been disproved:

Truth: Neuroscientists have proved that, as long as we stay mentally active, our brains can actually keep growing and adding brain cells well into our twilight years, through the miracle of brain plasticity. (And the most powerful booster of brain plasticity? Exercise.)

Truth: If we do absolutely no exercise, yes, our metabolism will start to take a hit at 40. But study after study over the last 25 years has proved that people who consistently exercise three times a week can completely avoid age-related metabolic slowdown and actually retain the same metabolism as people almost 40 years younger.

Truth: We know now that many, many factors have an impact on the health of our skin. And, luckily, the amount of sun exposure can be countered with sunscreen. The amount of free radical activity can be countered with a fruit- and vegetable-rich diet packed with free radicalfighting antioxidants. The impact of gravity on the skins elasticity and firmness can be lessened with plenty of fresh water, enough deep sleep, andyou guessed itexercise. (Recent research found just 3 months of exercising twice a week can restore the skin of 60-year-old sedentary folks to the same state as that of a 20- to 40-year-old!)

Truth: If we dont use it, we will lose it. But if we do use itmeaning, if we engage our muscleswe dont need to lose a single ounce of muscle. One University of Pittsburgh study looked at a cross section of 40 recreational athletes aged 40 to 81 who exercised four or five times a week. They underwent MRI scans, body composition testing, and quadriceps strength testing; the researchers measured their muscle mass and the amount of fat under their skin and between their muscles. The researchers found that, with exercise, the athletes could retain exactly the same levels of lean muscle mass from their forties into their eightiesin fact, some of the older exercisers had even more lean muscle tissue than the younger athletes.

Truth: Our joints fail not from age but from mismanagement. If we learn how to protect our body from intense impact (by learning to walk gently), pay attention to range of motion in our training, and learn the proper ways to support our joints with flexible muscles, our original jointsthe ones we are born with!should remain healthy until our very last days.

Truth: Up to 34 percent of cancer risk is directly attributable to lifestyle choices.

If these truths seem hard to believe, Im not surprised. The dogma has long held that we are powerless against the march of time. After all, research had long found that, between the ages of 40 and 50, adults lose up to 8 percent of our muscle mass, with the loss accelerating to over 15 percent per decade after we hit 75. The assumption has always been that this muscle loss was simply an inevitable consequence of aging.

But just in the last five years, the field of aging research has exploded with new clinical findings. Those scientists from the University of Pittsburgh and other well-respected medical centers have been proving just how wrong the assumption that age equals muscle loss has been. Theyve found that aging is far more a consequence of lifestyle choices than of calendar years. In fact, many of the symptoms we associate with aging are actually the result of not just the wear and tear on our bodies from years of use but also the negative effects of disuse. In our muscles are the keys to our longevitythe mystical wellspring of youth, called the mitochondriathe powerhouses of the cells. If we can keep these mitochondrial fires burning, our musclesnot to mention our bones, hearts, lungs, skincan all enjoy the vitality and energy of youth, right up until our final days.

The secret to keeping these powerhouses well fed and burning strong may surprise you. You dont have to run marathons. (Unless you want to.) You dont have to spend hours grunting in the gym. (Unless youre into that kind of thing.) All you have to do is something that takes just a few minutes every day and makes your body feel lighter, leaner, smoother, more graceful, and relaxed. All you need to do is stretch.

Now, Im not talking about the kind of stretching you do as you get out of bed and yawn in the morning. When I say stretching, Im referring to a very specific kind of stretching, the ESSENTRICS model of toning and strengthening, which I will share with you in this book. Throughout my 30+ years of creating, developing, and teaching this approach, I have seen how it helps people instantly improve their appearance and very quickly improve many aspects of their health and fitness. Ive been amazed at how the ESSENTRICS model can radically change the lives of busy people who thought their fittest years were behind them. And I love to see the looks on peoples faces when they realize how quickly good posture can radically change their appearance. (As I like to say, by using the ESSENTRICS model, you can lose 10 pounds and 10 years in 10 minutessimply by changing the way you carry your body, you will look a decade younger.)

In working with thousands of people on every continent in the world, I have seen how the ESSENTRICS model: