Achieving real health and well-being is about making sustainable changes that work together and stand the tests of time. It's no use spending all your time doing weights if you can't touch your toes, and just as pointless learning how to sprint if you can't do a few push-ups. All effective fitness programs work with five components of health - muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, body fat composition, and flexibility.  While all of these components are important, some of them require extra attention at different times of life.

When you're young, exercise is about setting up good lifelong habits. According to American fitness guru Paul Frediani, “You need to start young to stay young.” If you're in your 20s, your current cardiovascular fitness level can help predict how healthy you'll be later in life. In a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, people in their 20s who performed well in cardio tests had a 50% lower risk of death and 40% lower risk of cardiovascular disease in later life compared with those who didn't perform well. Despite being at your physical peak, however, youth can be a stressful time, making yoga a great way to balance out strength and cardio routines.

As you approach and enter middle age, it's important to develop a fitness program you can stick to. People in their 30s and 40s are often busy with families and careers, with exercise time often hard to find. This is also the age of the great spreading out due to slowing metabolism, with interval and cardio routines two of the best ways to avoid weight gain. It's also important to build strength during this time in order to counteract the weakness that often comes with age. According to Mike Siemens, director of exercise physiology at Canyon Ranch Health Resort, there is no substitute for weights: "You might think anything that works your muscles, like Pilates or a boot camp class, is enough to build muscle back up, but those activities only maintain your muscle mass. Lifting weights can help rebuild what you've lost."

As you get older, exercise becomes just as much about mental health as it is about physical health. According to Associate Professor Briony Dow, Director of the National Ageing Research Institute. “Exercise is important at any age but as we get older exercise becomes even more important for our mental and physical health.” Strength training and flexibility are especially important for maintaining mental capacity and psychological health, with older people who have muscle strength able to live happier and more independent lives.

It's important to know your limits as you age, however, especially if exercise is new to you. According to Paul Frediani, “The big mistake 50, 60, and 70-year-olds make when they go to a gym is doing an exercise program that is beyond their reach and quickly become defeated and stop working out. The fact is we can, through intelligent exercise, mitigate the aging process. So, instead of focusing on being a decade younger, focus on preparing and training to become the healthiest and fittest you can be for the future.”

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