Secret Exercise Tricks To Slow Down Aging and Live Longer

A number one fitness goal of yours may be to trim down excess fat—but you're not stopping there! You want to feel fit and incredibly healthy so that you lead a long life. In order to accomplish that goal, strength training on a regular basis is key so you can sculpt lean muscle. Pair that with cardio to enhance your endurance and heart health, and you'll be set up for success. We've put together some secret exercise tricks to slow down aging and live longer that should be on your radar, too, which we'll dive into below.

In order to live a long and active life, you must keep up with your flexibility and mobility, in addition to preserving your joint health. The goal is to ensure you stay pain-free and injury-free while continuing to improve your athletic performance and maintain muscle mass. So without further delay, let's chat about these secret exercise tricks that slow down aging, keep you active, and help extend your life. Keep reading to learn more.

Incorporate different training phases into your fitness rotation.

mature man strength body weight training — Shutterstock

Besides lifting heavier and performing more reps, you can also rotate in different training phases. For instance, you can go through a four to eight-week series that focuses on improving your strength, followed by four weeks of power training (plyometrics), and then four weeks of higher rep work. Having separate blocks and phases allows you to focus on different facets of your fitness, which will carry over to other activities and improve your performance and overall quality of life.

Add in Dead Hangs.

mature woman hanging onto pull-up bar — Shutterstock

A secret exercise trick to improve your quality of life is incorporating Dead Hangs into your regimen. Hanging onto a pullup bar can help decompress your spine, improve your shoulder flexibility, stretch out tight lats, and increase grip and core strength. Test your grip strength by seeing how long you can hang onto the bar, then slowly increase your time under the bar. Eventually, with enough practice, you'll be able to perform this exercise for at least two minutes.

Incorporate supersets.

mature woman doing dumbbell walking lunges, get a lean body after 50 — Shutterstock

In strength training, supersets consist of performing two exercises back to back. The most common superset mixes a lower-body movement with an upper-body exercise. You can also choose exercises that target opposing muscle groups, such as your pushing and pulling muscles.

When performing supersets, you're targeting more muscle groups in your body. This allows you to recruit muscle fibers and increase your heart rate and calorie burn. In addition, you're enhancing your anaerobic conditioning, which helps improve your overall fitness and quality of life.

Related: The Best Fitness Habits That Slow Aging, Trainer Reveals
Here's an example of a superset below:

Dumbbell Deadlift

Begin the Dumbbell Deadlift by placing a dumbbell in front of you with your feet outside of your shoulders. Keep your chest tall and core tight, squat down, and grab the dumbbell. Drive through your heels and hips to come back up, flexing your glutes and quads to finish. Place the dumbbell back down to the starting position before performing another rep. Complete 10 reps.

Lat Pulldowns

trainer doing lat pulldown to demonstrate exercise tricks to slow down aging — Tim Liu, C.S.C.S.

Start your Lat Pulldowns by gripping the lat pulldown bar with your palms facing away from you just outside your shoulders. Lean back slightly, and pull the bar down toward your sternum with your elbows, squeezing your lats at the very bottom of the movement. Resist on the way back up, maintaining tension in your lats. Get a solid stretch at the top of the movement by letting your shoulder blades come up before performing another rep. Perform 10 reps.