In search of the fountain of youth, many of you have turned to exercise to add as many healthy years to your life as possible. But is what you’re doing at the gym really making you feel younger and more productive? Is just getting your blood flowing enough to make you look  50-going-on-30?

There is no question that exercise is an effective anti-aging tool — but only if used correctly. It should improve your flexibility, posture, cardiovascular fitness and muscle tone. Does your program effectively address all these areas of fitness?

For example, do you do enough strength training to decrease the muscle loss associated with aging? On average, individuals lose up to one pound of muscle every year starting in their early 30′s. Strength training your entire body is essential to maintaining that muscle and keeping  it burning calories.

Anti-aging exercises are designed to increase flexibility and improve posture and strength. In a recent e-newsletter from one of my favorite trainers, Mike Boyle, he criticized the average gym-goer for doing too many bench presses, bicep curls and bike rides. He said these exercises reinforce poor posture that is typical of the elderly: shoulders rolled forward, neck out, bent over at the waist.

To bench press without at least the equivalent number of sets of back exercises will cause your shoulders to roll forward (from those tight pecs) and neck to stick out. If you really want to look young and spry, you might even want to do more sets of back than chest, like John Romaniello recommends in his program Final Phase Fat Loss.

Sometimes the best approach is to get your body in balance and keep that way from the beginning. Mark Verstegan in his book Core Performance coined the phrase pre-habilitation, meaning doing rehabilitation exercise before injury to make sure that all of the joints in the body are functioning correctly.  These exercises focus on stretching and strengthening muscles around the joint to get the joint in balance. The primary areas of focus are the core, shoulders and knees — areas that are commonly injured. Reducing injuries allows you to work out harder and more consistently.

Back to getting your blood pumping: It can have a tremendous effect on your overall fitness if done correctly. The challenge is that too many gym-goers jump on exercise bikes, watch the TV and forget they are even exercising. Not only is the bike hard on your hip flexors, but it puts you back into a seated position — which you spend too much time in anyway! The shortening of your hip flexors can be detrimental to the health of your lower back. Mike recommends cardiovascular exercise that keeps you upright, like walking or running.

You can’t stay young forever, but why not feel like you are for as long as possible? Focus on doing anti-aging-friendly exercises at the gym.

How to Stay Fit in the Cube

Staying Young: 3 Secrets Drug Companies Don’t Want You to Discover

How Do I Get Off This Plateau?!

Without further ado… let’s start gaining, muscle that is!

Pull Yourself Together

First things first: if you want to be in top form, you need to know how to lift with composure. “Just because you manage to somehow lift the weight doesn’t mean you’re doing it right,” says Mark over at The Man FAQ in regards to gaining muscle.

To prevent injury (and actually accomplish something), start with a muscle building program that tells you exactly what exercise, number of sets, and reps to build shredded muscle. And it always helps to have a friend to spot you. Some basic guidelines: use your core and glutes for strength, use controlled movements (for heaven’s sake, don’t swing!) and balance your weight.

The Fast Track to Ripped

Wimpy cardio won’t bulk you up. That’s why Taylor Lautner—the Twilight star who Men’s Health affectionately calls a “rippled fitness animal”—lifts heavy. Fewer reps, more weight. Think you can gain 30 pounds of muscle in a year? Give Lautner’s training program a try.

You don’t need to ditch cardio completely, but if you’re burning through all your muscle with catabolic exercise, pack a few extra muscle-maximizers into your strength training program.

Don’t let cardio deplete your energy before you even start lifting. Do cardio after weights or on your “rest” days.

Stuck with Robert Pattinson’s skinny guy syndrome? Bah. Hard-gainers can still get buff

3 Ways to Take Control of Your Training

• To keep gaining muscle, switch up your training: try these metabolic circuit pointers to accelerate your routine.
• Don’t train blindly. You’ll reach your goals in record time if you measure results often and keep fine-tuning your program.
• Vince Delmonte the creator of No Nonsense Muscle Building says, “That 97% of muscle building advice is dead wrong.” Follow a program that has been proven to create results for makes the most sense. For Vince’s program Click Here!“

Kettlebells, Barbells or Dumbbells?

When it comes to building muscle, “nothing takes the place of progressive weight training with barbells,” says trainer Mike Mahler, who also dishes thorough instructions for sandbag training, bodyweight training and more. Nonetheless, he’s a big fan of using kettlebells. Wonder why?

What’s the trick to timing your protein shake?

Solid to the Core

Our day-to-day activities can wreak havoc on our alignment—which, in turn, can devastate our training. Strengthening your core muscles (and using them to lift) will improve your body’s balance, prevent injury and strain, and give you unexpected strength. Take the Core Quiz at IdealShape and learn how to exercise this powerhouse in your daily activities.

If a chiseled stomach is your goal, it doesn’t take much to get there: you can get washboard abs fast and without equipment!

Be Good to Your Muscles

Dehydration will nosedive your strength and increase your chance of injury. So make sure you’re hydrated well in advance of your workout, and drink more water on training days.

Prevent middle-of-the-night muscle cramping

Muscle massage is more than a luxury—it’s critical to release that tension in order to prevent injury, protect muscle quality and get the most out of your workouts. The good news is you can do myofascial release yourself. Most gyms have foam rollers, and you can buy one inexpensively for your home gym, too.

Got a question about strength training or program design? Ask us!

If you are ready to get started building pure muscle and putting on the weight you so desperately want starting today, we recommend No Nonsense Muscle Building. Learn more about it now Click Here!

Q: Hi, I need answers on how to get a six pack without any equipment or protein shakes or stuff like that, I’m already in great shape, I’m slim, and exercise daily, like running and push ups, I’ve tried simple sit ups daily but I never see results, if you could help me out that be great. Thanks. – Austin P.

A: Good for you for staying in such great shape, Austin! It sounds like in order to get that chiseled stomach you want, you’re ready to kick it up a notch.

What’s at the Core of Your Core Workout?

Your daily exercise—cardio and strength training—are a great combination for staying slim and strong. But while they may give you a flat stomach, they probably won’t deliver washboard abs (which you’ve probably noticed). You need to incorporate some exercises that target your entire abdominal region. Luckily, you can do this without all the bells and whistles—or equipment and protein shakes—which is exactly what you’re looking for.

COMPOUND EXERCISES. Sit-ups and crunches can be very effective ways to tone your ab muscles; but remember, these are isolated movements. Compound movements, on the other hand, will work the entire ab area. After all, you want a six pack, not a two pack! Your ab region includes these muscle groups: internal obliques, external obliques, rectus abdominals and transverse abdominals. Try to do exercises that work as many of them as possible.

If you’re already doing push-ups, you should be getting a decent ab workout from that, as long as you’re keeping your core engaged (see below). A similar, compound exercise is planks. You can also trade your sit-ups for bicycle maneuver, which works your upper and lower abdominals. Click here for descriptions of both.

PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD. In addition to working several muscle groups at once, your workouts should vary and progress. The body adapts (and “plateaus”) if you don’t change things up and continue pushing yourself to new limits. The only way to build muscle is to build intensity, demanding a little more from your body each time you work out. Add resistance or repetitions to your ab workout—as much as you can add, while still maintaining strength and proper form.

WATCH YOUR POSTURE. Speaking of form, remember to stay conscious of your posture whenever you’re doing ab work. Always keep your abs contracted, or “engaged,” and keep your back straight. This will enhance your workouts and prevent injury and soreness. In fact, you should be keeping your abs tight 24/7! Running? Lifting dumbbells? Making a sandwich? Engage your core, and you’ll see results.

What to Do When You’re Not Working Out

Now that you’ve added more core work to your fitness routine, let’s look at a few other things that will help you define those ab muscles.

Hungry? Well, that’s good! Because you need to feed your abdominal muscles if you want them to grow. Protein is a great way to fuel muscle recovery and growth after a workout. It sounds like you aren’t interested in protein shakes, so you can pig out on other great sources of protein: meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, legumes and soy milk are just a few.

For those who like piling on the protein in shake form, protein powders—whey protein, soy protein, or a shake that combines both—are excellent for building muscle. Whip up a protein shake with skim or soy milk for even more protein.

Of course, you need to eat more than protein for muscle mass: a well-rounded diet with lots of variety and whole foods is the ticket to optimal health.

Thirsty? Even better! Make sure you’re drinking tons of water throughout the day, and stay hydrated during and after your workouts. Dehydration can cause fatigue, dizziness and muscle cramps. Find out why NoMoreBacon’s Ryan Sullivan says H20 is all the rage!

Tired? Puff up your pillows and make sure you get plenty of sleep. Not only is it critical in your teenage years, but everyone trying to build muscle needs to get ample rest. After all, it’s post workout, and primarily when you’re catching ZZZs, that your body builds muscle.

Finally, a few words of wisdom (or consolation): Not everyone can get a six pack, no matter how hard they work their abs. Some people just aren’t built that way. Younger people can struggle to build muscle until they hit puberty, and women have a harder time bulking up than men. Our genes and hormones have a lot to do with it. So if you’ve tried everything and still don’t have chiseled abs, don’t push your body past what it can handle, and don’t resort to steroids. You’re still building muscle, even if you don’t get a body builder’s ab definition.

Core strength should be the real goal. Keep at it, and make your workout routine unshakable with this great pointer from IdealShape.

Blast belly fat—you may just find a six pack under there!

Muscle Gaining for the Cardio Happy

Carbs: a critical, or criminal, part of your diet?