The #1 Worst Exercise That Ages You Faster
Shin Ohtake
Creator of Max Workouts
Have you noticed that as you get older, two different groups of people start to emerge amongst other people your age?
In Camp A, you have the people who look 10 or even 15 years younger than their real age who are healthy as a horse. They have bright, youthful looking skin, low body-fat percentage, and high energy levels. They rarely have any serious health issues and seem to be happy, feel great, and are almost always in a good mood.
Then, you have Camp B…these people look a decade older than their real age (and feel it too). They’re always running to the doctor’s office with problems, popping pills like candy for aches and pains, and complain of feeling tired all the time. They carry extra fat (in their bellies, especially), and their skin tends to be more dehydrated, dull, and wrinkled looking.
It doesn’t matter which camp you’re in now (or even if you’re somewhere in between), in the next few minutes, you’re going to discover one of the biggest causes of premature aging, weight-gain and disease (and how to avoid it). Plus, I’m going to show you what you can do instead to slow the aging process down to a crawl — so you can burn off age-related weight..and look and feel YEARS younger! Alright, let’s dig in and get you in Camp A…
First, here’s something you may not realize…
Even though your chronological age can’t be slowed down, your biological age can (if you know how). Science has proven it.
You see, when it comes to biological aging, we don’t all age at the same rate. Aging starts to accelerate once you pass age 40 (trust me, I know), but you DO have the ability to slow the aging process down to a crawl (and even reverse it). You can look and feel years younger than your real age, boost your metabolism to stay lean, fit, and energized — and turn your body into a power house that fends of age-related diseases. And it’s a lot easier to do than you might think…
But, there’s a lot of conflicting advice out there, even in mainstream media like T.V. and magazines. There are so many supplements, fad diets, and trendy exercises that claim to help you slow aging and lose the extra pounds, but the vast majority of these are gimmicky and completely ineffective.
Listen, I’m a science guy (my degree is in Biochemistry) and I’ve been in the health & fitness industry for more than 2 decades, so I’ve spent a lot of time reading studies and working with clients to discover what really works (and helping people avoid what doesn’t). And as you may already know, science has shown that one effective way to slow aging is by increasing your cardiovascular fitness, which is basically a measure of how strong and fit your heart is.
But when you think of building a stronger, healthier heart, what activity comes to mind?
If you said “cardio”, you’re not alone. In fact, most people consider steady-state exercise (like jogging, spinning, doing the elliptical, etc.) to be the best way to build a strong heart, which isn’t surprising since the word “cardio” is short for “cardiovascular”.
In addition, cardio is thought to be a great way to burn fat and lose weight, which is why it’s the most popular form of exercise. It’s also the reason cardio is the most widely recommended form of exercise by doctors and other health and fitness professionals.
A “traditional” cardio session involves doing exercises like running outside or on the treadmill, bike riding or spinning on a stationary bike, or doing any one of a myriad of cardio machines you see at the gym for 45 minutes to an hour (or more). And generally, your cardiovascular fitness is based on distance, duration and speed. For example, how long you last, how far you can go, and how quickly.
This is why fitness trackers are all the rage right now. You can compare your stats with others and get a little friendly competition going as a way to keep you motivated to do more, go further and do it faster.
BUT, there’s a big problem with doing that…
Increasing your distance, duration and speed is NOT an accurate measure of your cardiovascular fitness when it comes to improving your overall health, fitness, and especially when it comes to slowing your aging process.
In fact, doing cardio longer, further and faster has the exact opposite effect!
Countless scientific studies all show that doing cardio over-stresses your body and produces cell-damaging free radicals and inflammation that wreck your body, causing premature aging and chronic age-related diseases. Here are three of the most popular:
Study #1 Reveals:
“Cardio increases free radical production in your body, causing inflammation”
Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. September 2010. 24(9), 2491-2498.
Free radicals are cell damaging molecules that cause inflammation in your body. Inflammation speeds up the aging process. Have you noticed people that do excessive cardio (like marathons) look older and more weathered? Well it’s not just sun damage. It’s cellular damage caused by free radicals from too much cardio. These people are literally getting older quicker!
Study #2 Reveals:
Cardio increases stress hormone “cortisol”, which causes you to gain belly fat.
Elevated Hair Cortisol Concentrations in Endurance Athletes. Psychoneuroendocrinology. September 2011
Cortisol is a stress hormone that causes many negative effects in your body, including loss of lean muscle mass, increased belly fat, and accelerated aging. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the presence of cortisol makes burning fat even more difficult. That’s why you’ll often see runners and others addicted to doing cardio look skinny everywhere except for their belly. Cortisol forces your body to accumulate belly fat and eats away lean muscle — making you look and feel weaker and older.
Study #3 Reveals:
Cardio makes you more hungry and increases your cravings for carb-dense foods, causing you to overeat foods high in sugar.
Sonneville, K.R., et al. (2008) International Journal of Obesity. 32, S19-S27.
Doing typical cardio uses more energy and therefore increases your energy demands. Now this may sound good since that means you’re burning more calories. But here’s the big problem: it increases your appetite for foods like bread, pasta, and other carb-dense foods. That’s because your body naturally wants to replenish the energy you just expended as quickly as possible. And the quickest form of energy comes from sugar, which is why your craving for sugar dramatically increases when you do cardio. This results in over eating foods high in sugar, which spikes your insulin and causes you to gain more fat. And guess what? SUGAR is one of the biggest causes of accelerated aging!
How To Slow The Aging Process & Burn Off Age-Related Weight-Gain
But there’s good news… doing “traditional” cardio like running, biking, or the elliptical is NOT the only way to improve your cardiovascular fitness. In fact, there is a unique and extremely effective way to boost your cardiovascular health and slow the aging process at the same time — without having to experience any of the negative side effects of cardio.
It’s a scientifically-proven method that few people know. And I’ll reveal this little-known information next, but before I do, I want to mention one other crucial fact about anti-aging…
A recent breakthrough study discovered that your Lean Muscle Index (LMI) is an even stronger indicator of health and longevity than your cardiovascular fitness. Simply put, this study found that having more lean muscle mass is just as essential, when it comes to slowing the aging process to stay younger and healthier, as having a strong and healthy heart.
Since you naturally start to lose lean muscle mass as you age, maintaining your lean muscle mass is even more critical if you want to avoid premature aging and maintain a more youthful body inside and out. But guess what exercise causes you to lose lean muscle mass the fastest? Yep, you guessed it…cardio!
As I mentioned a minute ago, there’s an unconventional (but insanely effective) method that enhances your cardiovascular fitness, without causing any of those negative aging effects on your body . Not only that, it also helps you build strong, lean muscle and burn off age-related fat (especially your stomach).
The method I’m about to share with you is well researched, peer-reviewed and scientifically proven to:
Trigger your youth-enhancing hormones that start to decline as you age (especially after age 35) so you can look and feel YEARS younger.
Turn ON your fat burning switch that gets turned OFF as you reach middle-age (which is why you start accumulating more fat after age 35) — so you can start burning off stubborn and unsightly middle-age belly fat.
Reignite your metabolism, which slows down as you age… especially after 40… so you can burn more calories and lose your age-related weight gain.
Regrow your dwindling muscles by activating muscle building hormones that diminish as you get older.
Re-energize your body to regain the youthful vitality you once had, by eliciting a specific enzyme in your body, to produce more energy generating structures that naturally decreases as you age.
The key to this scientifically-proven method is based on doing specific exercises performed at the proper intensity and duration. These essential factors combined together produce a powerful response in your body that literally slows the aging process down by triggering your youth-enhancing hormones.
That may sound too good to be true, but it’s not…
Most people are simply unaware that your body has the potential to slow down aging on it’s own… you just need to know how to trigger the right anti-aging processes in your body. Your body is already equipped with the essential hormones, enzymes, and neurons to make this work — I’m just giving you the blueprint so you can optimize it.
In fact, you probably know someone in your circle of friends or family that looks 10-15 years younger than their real age, but you may never have considered that they’re doing something you’re not.
Well, I’m about to let YOU in on their little age-defying secret!
It doesn’t matter if you’re 35 or 65, once you discover this information, you’ll be able to reclaim your youthful looks and gain more energy than you’ll know what to do with! More importantly, you’ll stop your body from aging prematurely and help prevent chronic age-related diseases, so you can enjoy living a healthier and longer life.
On the next page, I’ll show you the specifics behind this effective anti-aging method, so you can revitalize your body and reboot your sluggish metabolism to get leaner, stronger and more fit...