Every year, more than 2 million Americans shell out hundreds or even thousands of dollars for chemical peels and microdermabrasion procedures.
Mostly women.
They want to get rid of lines, wrinkles and crow’s feet. They want to look younger.
I get it.
But today I’m going to tell you about a proven wrinkle remedy that’s much easier on the wallet. In fact, it’s free!
Your plastic surgeon or dermatologist will never tell you about it. It’s so effective it would put them out of business.
Clinical research shows this method not only stops skin aging, it actually reverses it. And it can make your skin appear 30 and even 40 years younger.
So what is it?
Exercise.
A recent study found people who exercise can reverse signs of skin aging.1 And it doesn’t matter how old you are when you start.
A Canadian researcher studied a group of volunteers aged between 20 and 84. Half were sedentary. The other half got about three hours of moderate to vigorous exercise a week. He took biopsies from their buttocks where there was no sun damage.
As you might expect, the skin of the older volunteers on average had thicker stratum corneum layers. This outermost layer protects all the deeper layers of your epidermis and your dermis. It’s really built of dead skin cells and some collagen. And as you get older it gets thicker, drier and tougher.
At the same time, the inside layers of the epidermis and dermis begin to get thinner. They lose their juiciness, elasticity and plumpness. You start to look wrinkly and saggy.
But in the study, people who exercised — even if they were over 65 years old — still had stratum corneum layers that were significantly thinner. Their dermis and epidermis were also significantly thicker with more elasticity and plumpness.
In fact, they still had skin that was much closer to a 20- or 30-year-old — even in their 60s!
And it doesn’t just work on your rear.
This same researcher took biopsies from more visible skin in a group of 65-year-old volunteers. Then he put them all on a training program just twice a week for 30 minutes.
At the end of three months, the results were dramatic. The skin from these 65-year-olds looked like it came from someone in their 20s to 40s. Their skin looked MUCH younger.
Here at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine I’ve seen many of my patients use exercise to shave decades from their appearance.
But here’s the thing. Not all exercise will reverse aging. In fact, traditional cardio will make you age faster. You see, long aerobic sessions produce huge quantities of free radicals. Unless these free radicals are mopped up by an abundance of antioxidants in our diets, our immune system can be compromised and make us more susceptible to colds, flus, illness and degenerative disease.
That’s why I developed my PACE (Progressively Accelerating Cardiopulmonary Exertion) anti-aging fitness program. And with PACE less is more — all it takes is 12 minutes a day.
The idea is to start wherever you are. Then you progressively challenge yourself at your own pace. You make incremental increases in your workout only when you’re ready.
Here’s a simple yet powerful exercise you can do right in your living room. It’s called Windmills. You’ll get a fast strength workout for your core, hamstrings, glutes and inner thighs.
- Stand with your feet wide apart and your arms extended straight out to the sides.
- Bend from the waist while keeping your back flat.
- Twist at the waist and reach your right hand to the instep of your left foot. Your left hand will be pointed straight up to the ceiling.
- Return to the starting position and repeat on the other side.
Do these for 30 seconds and then rest. Your goal is to hit a peak of intensity in a short time and then rest. Over time you should be able to do more repetitions and go for a longer period of time.
Click here for a video showing you exactly how to do Windmills.
My YouTube channel also has over 30 different PACE exercises and a complete workout to help you get started. Check it out right here: https://www.youtube.com/user/AlSearsMD/videos.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS
1. Gretchen Reynolds “Younger Skin Through Exercise.” The New York Times, April 16, 2014 (Accessed 10/27/16).