Having been in the diet and exercise industry for over 20 years, I’ve had the opportunity to see lots of people not only make amazing transformations but also look incredible at 40, 50, 60 while even meeting a powerlifter in her 80’s!

The one thing I’ve seen in those who were truly successful was consistency and smart dieting.  Want to reverse your age?  Read on…

Anti-aging, also known as life extension science, is the hottest current trend in fitness. Why? The post-WWII baby boomers are growing old and this is the first generation that has been able to devote lots of time and

Reverse Aging

energy to fitness pursuits on a widespread basis. We baby boomers were more fortunate than our depression-WWII era parents: we have the time, inclination and money to pursue serious fitness. Our medical, scientific and empirical knowledge is unsurpassed, as is our access to plentiful nutritious food, we have a shorter workweek and more disposable income than ever before. You now begin to understand why a huge sector of the American middle class is engaged in fitnessrelated activities – to a degree our ancestors could only dream about. The average American has a higher standard of living than any in recorded history.

Boomers are becoming chronologically challenged so ideas, devices and methods that retard the aging process have suddenly moved to center stage in the fitness limelight. Science, medicine and industry have rushed in to feed the pent-up demand for that which keeps us young. If you are a serious bodybuilder, you are engaged in the most effective system of life-extension ever devised. In the newspapers, magazines and on TV, people are clamoring for effective anti-aging products, supplements and philosophies. From the cover of People Magazine to the TV show Sixty Minutes, substances, techniques and methods that forestall aging are routinely featured. Life Extension Science is defined in a million ways by a million different schools and organizations, but roughly speaking, the movement is about extending not only the length of life itself but also about improving the quality of life as we move deeper and deeper into the golden years.

Not that an organized approach to living longer and better is anything new, just more successful. The ancient Chinese Taoist Monks would drink jade elixirs in a futile attempt to obtain immortality while European Alchemists attempted to construct life-extending potions made with mercury and other deadly trace metals. The Queen of Spain spent millions to send Ponce d’Leon and an expeditionary fleet of ships to search out the oft-rumored ‘fountain of youth’ located somewhere deep in Everglade country. So ours is hardly the first generation that has pondered mightily on how to delay that nasty inevitability - death. In 1900 the life span of the average American male was forty-nine years.

In the space of 100 years that average age has increased to seventy-three years. In addition to living longer, those who don’t smoke, eat a diet low in saturated fat and sugar, avoid excess booze, exercise and avoid stress, routinely live into their 80’s. Never in history has any civilization had a population as old and vast as ours. Further, those who become a little fanatical about their nutrition, exercise and stress-relief are displaying a quality of life deep into old age that is without precedent. Ironically, those who are the absolute finest physical specimens - in relation to their age - are bodybuilders. Bodybuilders, use progressive resistance training, eat light, wholesome meals and perform cardiovascular exercise on a regular basis. As a result, they exhibit a phenomenal degree of fitness: appearing to be decades younger than their sedentary contemporaries. The greatest system for extending the quality of life deep into “old” age is the bodybuilding lifestyle.

The bodybuilding life style (minus drugs) is as effective an anti-aging system as any ever devised. The bodybuilding lifestyle is effective because it is comprehensive and multidimensional: diet, nutrition, supplementation, meal composition, exercise approach and selection, hi-tech machines, aerobic training, fascia stretching, flexibility training, anti-oxidant science and eloquent recuperation strategies – all have combined to stimulate physical progress regardless of age. No matter where you are at in terms of your physical state-ofbeing, if you incorporate these disciplines you will improve in a physical sense: this is a biological fact-of-life. This complex approach is stunningly effective and requires a sound game plan, focused concentration, detailed planning and conserted effort. The bodybuilding approach to anti-aging requires a subtle balance of proper exercise, nutrition, rest and an underlying positive mental attitude.

The pieces, like a fitness puzzle, fit together and form a holistic, synergistic system. Where to start? We start with the first piece of the puzzle: exercise. If you want to live longer and enjoy a high quality of life, put down the remote control, get out of the recliner and move your booty! To get started, you need to perform some form of resistance exercise, using free weights or machines. Resistance training keeps the human musculature functional. The number one reason old people become enfeebled is that the muscles weaken and atrophy. Weight training promotes muscle growth and bone density; weight training virtually eliminates osteoporosis in aging women. Weight trained muscles do not turn flaccid and weak. It is only when muscles are not used that they lose size, strength, range-of-motion and functional ability. Medical science has demonstrated time and again that oldsters with no prior training who commence weight training benefit immediately.

Cardiovascular training is equally as important. The idea behind aerobic training is to stimulate the human heart to pump blood through organs, veins and capillaries at an accelerated rate. Regular high output heart acceleration sessions, done on a regular and consistent basis, result in strong internal organs and clean, artery walls. When the internal plumbing is flushed and cleansed by torrents of blood pumped through the pipes on a regular basis, the deterioration naturally associated with aging is dramatically delayed. This two-prong exercise attack, weights and aerobics, ensures that the body is strong and fit externally and internally. These two exercise formats – resistance training and aerobics - go hand-inglove. One exercise form does not replace the other, one is not used to the exclusion of the other, they are worked in tandem and generate physical synergism. My mother, Kelly Nelson and I live the bodybuilding lifestyle and it has taken years off our lives. Mom is seventy and I am forty-five.

Our young appearance has created quite a stir in the mainstream media. We have appeared in all the muscle magazines, gone on the Rosie O’Donnell Show, had articles written in the national newspapers, appear on TV regularly, have regular photo shoots and a heavy guest appearance schedule that includes exotic locals like Japan. Do any of these media outlets care that we are bodybuilders? Hardly: they book us because they cannot believe that we look as good as we do for as old as we are. They all marvel at us, mom in particular, as we go through our posing routine. Then they all ask the same simple question for which there is no simple answer: How do you do it? What is your secret for staying so young looking?

The answer is to adopt the bodybuilding lifestyle. Easier said then done. Because we are competitive bodybuilders with goals that may be more extreme than what the majority of the population desire or need to get good results, we take things a little further than Jenny Q. Public. Mom and I lift weights 4 to 5 days per week for about an hour per session. We will perform four or so exercises per bodypart and sets are usually held to four per movement. Reps are generally 8 to 15 per set and we incorporate different training and rep tempos. Each muscle group is trained one time per week with maximum intensity and maximum recovery. The exception is calves and abdominals; these are trained four to five times weekly. If you don’t aspire to be a competitive bodybuilder, you can get great health benefits from weight training two or three days per week, for a few sets of 6 to15 reps. Simultaneously, some form of cardiovascular and flexibility training should be performed four to six times weekly. Start with ten-minute cardio sessions and build the session length up over time.

Don’t neglect to obtain proper rest. People who exercise hard need more rest time to recover, regenerate and grow. In this busy world we live in, many people just don’t get enough quality sleep. Try to schedule a regular time to get up and go to sleep every day. Nutrition is the forth component: added to resistance training, aerobics and recuperation. This is the largest gray area for most people. It really is not all that complicated! Rather than eat three, large traditional meals, eat five or six smallish, low fat meals, spaced two to three hours apart, throughout the day. This meal pattern ensures that you maintain positive nitrogen balance, the optimal metabolic state for building muscle and oxidizing bodyfat. Eat a portion of lean protein at each of your regular meals along with plenty of steamed and raw vegetables. Mom and I will complete each meal with a somewhat smaller serving of a starchy carbohydrate: perhaps some sweet potatoes, yams, oatmeal or brown rice. Drink plenty of clean water, and take in lots of quality supplements. We use John Parrillo’s supplements and are partial to his potent whey protein, the various amino acids and his vitamins and mineral formulations, which are terrific for their antioxidative properties.

We avoid refined processed sugary foods and fatty condiments. Eating correctly is difficult, but when you blend the training, diet, rest and nutrition together, the cravings fade as the visible body changes occur almost overnight. Nothing quite excites a person as real and measurable progress. Finally, do not underestimate the power of goals. Challenge yourself to stay motivated and moving forward. Goals come in many forms. Maybe you want to improve your body composition to improve your self-esteem. Perhaps you secretly desire to become a competitive athlete in the sport of your choice. Maybe your goal is more modest and you just want to feel healthier and have more energy and endurance. Perhaps a physical makeover would stimulate you to make a career change or go back to school. Anytime you improve how you feel and look, confidence follows and so does opportunity. That spells a happy and healthy life!