👉15 Ways Exercising Can Make You Look Younger

You cannot change your chronological age, but exercising can help you feel and look younger. Some of the benefits of regular exercise include strengthening muscles and maintaining body weight. Exercise also helps you feel more confident and boosts your mood.1

The powers of a regular fitness routine are impressive. Moderate physical activity can improve your mental, physical, and emotional well-being.1

1. Slows Cell Aging

Exercise does not just make you feel younger. Regular physical activity may decrease the aging process in your chromosomes.

Telomeres, or the caps at the end of your chromosomes that control aging, become shorter as you age. Longer telomeres are associated with longevity. Some evidence suggests a link between regular exercise and the lengthening of the telomeres.2

Exercise can slow your biological clock. “Though exercise won’t guarantee you a long life, it can greatly improve your odds,” Frank Frisch, PhD, director of kinesiology at Chapman University, told Health.

2. Gives You More Energy

A workout is like nature’s energy drink. It fires up your brain and body, so you feel more alert and alive.3

“Exercise puts your body in a state of arousal, which translates into more vitality and a greater sense of well-being. Daily tasks become less strenuous and require less exertion,” said Frisch. The pep in your step may make you feel like you have peeled off a decade or two.

3. Keeps Your Skin Soft and Glowing

A dewy sheen on your cheeks from all the sweat dripping off your forehead may be one of many ways fitness keeps your skin young. In one study, researchers looked at a small group of adults aged 20-84 years old. Frequent exercisers older than 40 years old had skin resembling the more supple, elastic skin of people in their 20s and 30s.4

Exercise creates body substances that help slow aging in the skin. The authors stated that more studies are needed to learn how exercise changes skin composition.4

4. Improves Your Posture

Thanks to muscle loss and bone density changes, your posture can take a hit as you age. You can counteract this effect with strength training, which builds muscle and bone health. Strength training that targets your core and along your spine can help you stand taller.5

Working out also makes you feel psychologically powerful. You naturally stop slouching and straighten up.

5. Improves Your Flexibility

Aging can make your muscles and joints stiffer. Regular workouts, especially stretching-oriented routines like yoga and Pilates, keep you loose and bendy.6

You can still boost your flexibility by warming up and cooling down with foam roller exercises if you prefer cardio workouts.7 Try using a foam roller to remove the knots that form in your muscles and reduce rigidity.

6. Helps You Sleep Soundly

Exercise may be the key to improving your sleeping habits if you struggle to get a restful night’s sleep. “Research shows that regular exercisers fall asleep more easily and are more likely to experience deep REM sleep,” said Frisch.

Heart-pumping workouts tire you out, but there’s more to it. Sleeping well helps your body function optimally. You are less likely to feel stressed and toss and turn all night. One study found that exercise helped sleep quality and duration in middle-aged and older adults and people with chronic diseases.8

7. Keeps Your Metabolism High

Metabolism naturally slows as you age. Scheduling regular workout sessions may help you burn calories and maintain weight.

You will torch more calories if you add resistance training to your routine at least a few times a week. Working out with free weights or doing bodyweight exercises helps build muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the higher your calorie burn is. It stays higher all day, even after you have stopped exercising.9

8. Reduces Belly Fat

As you age, fat that used to land on your hips and thighs shows up along your belly, especially if you have gone through menopause.10 Menopause is a natural part of aging that happens 12 months after your last period.

Unlike fat in other body areas, visceral fat can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Visceral fat cushions the organs in your abdominal region.1112

Visceral fat may be hard to lose, but regular cardio sessions may reduce it. High-intensity intermittent training (HIIT) leads to more belly fat loss than other types of cardio that burn the same number of calories.13

9. Makes Your Heart More Efficient

Like all muscles, your heart becomes weak after periods of inactivity. Your heart must work harder to pump blood throughout your body, which raises stress and leaves you quickly tired and winded.14

Moderately intense exercise can strengthen your heart. A brisk 30-minute walk, for example, helps pump oxygen-rich blood more efficiently through your system, which results in less strain.14

10. Protects You From Heart Disease

Regular workouts reduce your risk of hypertension (high blood pressure) and high triglycerides.14 Triglycerides are fat in the blood that can block or harden arteries. High blood pressure and triglycerides are risk factors for heart disease. Heart disease is the most common cause of death in the United States.15

Exercise also improves levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.14 This “good” cholesterol protects your heart from cardiovascular disease.

11. Improves Your Blood Flow

As you age, you may notice that your joints become stiff. Your blood vessels also can lose their flexibility, which makes it hard for them to expand and contract as needed.

Blood vessels cannot deliver oxygen-rich blood to your brain, heart, and muscles if they lose this flexibility. Stiff arteries can raise your blood pressure, which means your heart has to work harder to pump blood.16

Exercise can lower blood pressure and improve circulation. Research has found that simple stretching programs, like yoga or Pilates, help boost artery flexibility.17

12. Boosts Your Mood

You may have heard of “runner’s high,” or the blissful mood boost that can happen during a cardio workout. This feeling comes down to endorphins. Your body releases these when you are active.18

Some evidence shows that gym sessions can trigger changes in other neurotransmitters like dopamine, which are linked to pleasurable feelings.19 These chemicals can help your brain handle stress better.20 The confidence kick you get can also make you feel happier.

13. Reduces Anxiety

A long run outdoors or a scenic hike can distract you from worries and anxieties. There may be a physiological reason why exercise lowers stress levels. “The endorphin release prompted by a workout has a relaxing effect and reduces anxiety,” said Zonoozi.

Meditative forms of exercise, such as yoga or Tai Chi, encourage mindfulness and body movement.21 Staying in the moment so you focus on your breathing and heart rate makes it hard to become stressed about a work project or that big presentation you have.

14. Enhances Your Memory

There’s a stereotype that aging comes with forgetfulness, but this is not necessarily a given. Some evidence suggests that negative assumptions, rather than aging, can hurt people’s perceptions of their abilities. These stereotypes, in turn, can lead to memory deficits.22

Other research has found that everyone, no matter their age, can help their brains age better with exercise. One study found that regular aerobic exercise increased hippocampus size in women with mild cognitive impairment. The hippocampus is the part of your brain associated with memory.23

15. Increases Your Sex Drive

A sweat session improves blood flow all over your body. The extra blood surge makes you more responsive and increases arousal.24

Exercise also psychologically powers your sex drive. “Working out brings on more confidence about your appearance and body, and that puts you in a sexier mindset,” Mary Jane Minkin, MD, a clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Yale School of Medicine, told Health.

A Quick Review

Exercise provides a full array of anti-aging benefits, and looking younger is just one of them. Regular workouts fight aging from the inside out.

The benefits of staying active extend to your physical, mental, and emotional health and even your sex life. Regularly exercising can help you lose belly fat, protect against disease, and handle stress, especially as you age.