Did you know that Nelson Mandela was 76 when he became President? Or that Ronald Reagan was 69 when he became President of the U.S.? How about how Ray Kroc was in his early 50s when he bought the McDonalds franchise and made it what we know today?
Age is just a number and does not dictate the level of success we achieve; whether that success is on a personal level or a global level. If you have a few minutes to spare, I would like to share with you three principles for staying healthily young at heart:
- Yoga
Keeping your joints agile and easily able to move is the cornerstone of feeling young at heart. Any senior day care worth its weight in salt will have yoga sessions. By moving whenever you want to, without pain, or the use of a walking aid — you are in control. Flexibility exercises such as yoga are incredibly beneficial. You will no longer depend on a walking cane to get around. Here are two easy yoga movements you can do today:
Mountain Pose
The mountain pose fixes your posture (so you have less pain), increases mental clarity, and helps safely boost your heart rate up.
- Stand with feet wide and comfortably apart
- Lower arms to your sides
- Align neck with spine
- Raise your arms to the sky (keeping your neck aligned with spine)
- Hold for as long as comfortably possible
- Lower arms to side
Warrior Pose
This simple movement strengthens your legs and ankles, which are crucial for moving about in your daily life. This movement can be done as follows:
- Stand with your legs 3-4 feet apart
- Turn one foot 90-degrees towards the other foot
- Extend your arms (palms down) to your sides
- Lunge your body gently forward towards the turned foot
- Hold the position for as long as comfortably possible
- Switch to the other side
- Use Foods To Build Impressive Muscle
Certain foods (we know by now) help build and strengthen muscle. Seniors who lead sedentary lifestyles will benefit the most from these foods, as the fear of falling often prevents many of us from doing things we want to. Here are a few foods that are easy to cook up that will add some power to your strength:
- Cottage cheese has about 13g of protein per 4-ounce serving. Protein is essential for building muscle, as many bodyweight bodybuilding athletes confirm.
- Milk is rife with the 8 essential amino acids necessary for proper muscle growth, recovery, and repair following brutal workouts.
- One egg contains 72 calories, 6 1/2g protein and less than a gram of carbs and over 4g of fat. Eggs provide a nourishing replenishment (protein) without adding on pounds due to fat.
I hope you have noticed a pattern: dairy boosts strength. There is a reason why many professional bodybuilders consume dairy: it simply works to build strength and repair muscle. If anyone knows how to build strength, it is bodyweight bodybuilders.
- What Is Your Meaning?
Ask yourself seriously why you want to stay young at heart. What will you have to do to feel young at heart? Figuring out your purpose is one of the most crucial things you can do for yourself to keep yourself happy, young and fulfilled.
Conclusion
Wrinkles should merely indicate where the smiles have been.” Mark Twain
As we age, dementia has a higher risk of setting in. Our cognitive functions decline, our brains simply stop working, or any host of mental diseases takes hold, slowly whittling our minds away to nothingness.
