If you are hitting that middle-age phase of life and are feeling older and less energetic, you are not alone.
It makes sense that you want to know how to feel younger and more energetic.
Most of my clients noticed that they felt a lot older as soon as they hit 40 and they also felt like they just had way less energy.
There are multiple factors at play here and in this article, I’m going to break down what they are and what you can do about it to feel younger and more energetic again.
Aging is a natural part of life and although you will undoubtedly increase your chronological age each year, you can actually slow down your biological age.
Aging is a multifactorial process that involves a lot of biochemistry and although I’m not a scientist – I can tell you with certainty that a big part of aging is a decline in your metabolic health.
Feeling Younger Than Your Age: Solution #1
On this most basic level, as you get older, your cells produce less energy in the form of ATP if you aren’t doing anything to keep those levels high.
As you produce less ATP, you will start to notice the effects of tiredness which I am guessing you are feeling right now otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article.
Now – if you can strategically increase your ATP levels, you will undoubtedly increase your energy levels exponentially.
The best way to increase your ATP levels and improve your metabolic health is bar none by exercising.
In specific, your cardio-respiratory fitness and your strength.
Improving your fitness in both of these categories is not only going to make you feel younger and more energetic but it is going to decrease your all-cause mortality by 5 times!
To put this into perspective, we don’t even have pharmaceutical drugs that provide a 5 fold reduction in all-cause mortality.
That should give you a clue as to why exercise is so powerful for making you feel younger.
I’m not a doctor but I am a strength and conditioning coach and I’m going to write you an exercise and diet prescription for feeling younger and more energetic.
The first item on your hypothetical prescription is going to be 3 days of what is called Zone 2 cardiovascular training.
This type of training involves approaching your lactate threshold but not surpassing it.
Without getting super into the weeds, your lactate threshold is simply the exercise intensity level at which you use lactate as fuel and it doesn’t spill into your bloodstream.
This type of training is so important because it dramatically increases your mitochondrial health.
Your mitochondria is where your body produces ATP.
And if you want to feel younger and more energetic, then you’re going to want to improve your mitochondrial function through zone 2 training.
Although there are fancy devices that can measure your lactate levels and what your threshold is, you can simply approximate and get most of the benefits by exercising at a level where you can hold a conversation – but with some strain.
For most people, this is going to be cycling or jogging at a moderate intensity.
The duration of this type of training is the next important piece of the puzzle.
You want to do this type of training at the aforementioned intensity for 30 minutes – 1 hour for maximal benefits.
At first, you might only be able to tolerate 15 minutes, but as your mitochondrial health improves, you will be able to go longer.
Set your goal of performing 3 cardio sessions by either cycling or jogging – 3 times a week at 15 minutes – 1 hour depending on your current level of fitness.
Gradually build up over time to the 1-hour mark and you will see dramatic changes in your energy levels.
Mitochondrial health is one of the most important aspects of feeling younger and more energetic.
Beat Tiredness As You Age: Solution #2
Okay, the next thing on your hypothetical prescription is 3 days of strength training.
Strength training is going to increase your muscle mass and increase your metabolism and ultimately make you feel younger and more energetic.
There was a report in the New York Times that states:
“Even if you have neglected to exercise in recent years and are now middle-aged, it is not too late. Research shows that you still can substantially remodel your heart and make it more youthful by starting to work out in middle-age, provided you exercise often enough”.
Dr Robert Butler, founder of America’s National Institute on Ageing, once famously stated:
“If exercise could be packed into a pill, it would be the single most widely prescribed beneficial medicine in the nation.”
I did a video about this which you can click below if you want to learn more.
I prescribe my clients a full-body strength training routine 3 days a week.
Keep it nice and simple and hit all your large muscle groups with 3 sets of 12 reps to start.
There are lots of ways of optimally organizing a strength training regimen and I use complicated models to target specific results but for our purposes here –
Pick 2 pulling exercises, 2 pushing exercises, and 2 exercises for your legs.
That puts you at 6 exercises total for your workout with 3 sets of 12 reps.
Start off with light weights if you are getting back into the swing of things and then gradually increase your weights.
Now I know that may seem like a lot to start with, both 3 days of strength training and 3 days of zone 2 training.
But that’s the optimal end goal.
For now, you need to start slow and build up.
You can’t except do go from not working out at all to hitting 6 days a week of exercise.
If you are starting from no exercise at all, I’d recommend just 1 day of zone 2 and then 1 day of strength training.
Then gradually build up as you increase your fitness level.
If you need any help with feeling younger and increasing your energy levels, you can a hold of me by emailing me or commenting below.
You can also find more of my articles related to feeling younger and more energized here.
Cheers and we’ll see you next time!