5 Science-Backed Exercises That Reverse Aging

Most people think that aging means losing strength, getting stiff joints and eventually giving up your independence. But that's a lie. It doesn't have to be this way. In this video I'm going to show you five movements backed by science that can literally reverse aging. We've taught these to thousands of students, men and women ranging from people in their 30s all the way to 70s, athletes to beginners and they all walk away moving better than people half their age. Look, your body isn't broken because of your age. It is broken because of inactivity. Muscles shrink when you don't challenge them. Joints lock when you stop using their full range. Balance fades when you don't train it. But the body is adaptable at any age. I've seen it happen thousands of times with our students and now I'm going to show you five movements that you can start today to reclaim strength, freedom and resilience. Number one, hanging. Rebuild the shoulders and rewire the grip. Hanging decompresses your spine, rebuilds your shoulders and trains grip strength. And grip strength is not just about opening jars. Researchers literally use it as a biomarker of longevity. If you're a beginner, use a chair to support some of your weight. Let your shoulders gently open and build up accumulated time in the hang position. You can start with five to ten second increments. If you're intermediate, then do a full dead hang, 20 to 40 seconds. Keep the ribs down, neck long, aim to increase time in the hang and build up to five minutes daily. And advanced, build up to 10 minutes daily across variations, mixed grips, scapula pulls, even one arm hangs. A lot of people tell me they don't have anywhere to hang. Apparently they don't have trees, they don't have anywhere to put their rings over. So what you can do is you can find yourself a rail. You can literally grab onto the rail like this, place your feet up onto it and get into this position. You will literally get very similar benefits as you would to hanging. And the more that you kind of allow your lower back to sink down, the more you'll be able to stretch out through that spine and the shoulders. So this is a really nice hack if you don't have anywhere to hang. A 2018 BMJ study showed low grip strength is one of the strongest predictors of early death linked to heart disease, cancer and all cause mortality. One of our students, Chris, who's 61 years old, started with a two second assisted hang. Within weeks, she was at 30 seconds unassisted. She told us she hadn't felt her shoulders this free in decades and it even inspired her to start hula hooping again. The takeaway, hang daily. You will decompress your spine, strengthen your shoulders and literally grip more life. Number two, the deep squat. Earning the human resting position. The deep squat isn't a gym exercise. It's the original human resting position. Lose it and you lose ankle mobility, hip function, spinal health and eventually your independence. If you're a beginner, hold a door frame or a couch, elevate your heels on books, accumulate two to five minutes daily. If you're a complete beginner and you find it very difficult to squat like this, you can use something to assist yourself. So you teach your body to come down in that position, you use it for support and that will allow you to sit back and be able to get down deeper. If you're still struggling, what you can do is elevate your heels. So if you have a step, prop your heels up, squat down. This will make your position much, much easier to do. So you have those two options to work with if you can't get down ass to grass. Intermediate people, squat unassisted, chest tall, get comfortable in that position. Aim for 15 to 20 minutes daily and if you're advanced, then explore different stances. Spend 30 plus minutes across the day. The goal, the squat becomes your natural resting position. The Sitting Rising Test, 2012 European Journal of Preventative Cardiology, showed people who struggled to sit and rise from the floor were five times more likely to die within six years. One of our students, Pamela, had her first breakthrough in the squat after years of stiffness. She messaged us that she sat fully down for the first time in decades. Another student, Tom, went from a shaky 30 second to holding a deep squat for seven minutes. Takeaway, your squat is not optional. It's survival training. Reclaim it and you reclaim your youth. Number three, Sit to Stand, the Independence Test. The ability to get down to the floor and back up again is the line between dependence and independence. Lose it and you'll lose your freedom. If you're a beginner, sit on a chair, stand up without using your hands. Aim to lower the chair over time. If you're intermediate, lower to a low stool or the floor. Rise using only your legs. Lower to the ground with no hands and get up with the hands supporting. Sitting down and standing up can literally be as simple as squatting down to a box and standing up with no hands. When you get better, you can practice squatting down on one leg and coming up on two. Over time, you can practice your cross-legged sits and then eventually, as you improve your mobility, you can do various sits, kneeling positions, transitions along the floor and teaching yourself to actually sit down and stand up with control. The same sitting rising test showed that every point you lose on the test equals a 21% higher risk of death. Patricia, one of our students in her 60s, told us that her dream was simple. I just want to stand up without using my hands. After three months, she did it. Another student, Catherine, filmed herself standing from the floor for the first time in years. The joy on her face said it all. Takeaway, if you can stand from the floor without help, you are literally lowering your risk of early death. Train this daily. Number four, hip mobility, the four-proof foundation. Hip mobility isn't about stretching your hip flexor or doing yoga. It's about survival. Stiff hips equals poor balance and higher fall risks and falls are the number one way that aging robs people of their independence. Beginners should aim to improve their 90-90 hip rotations, gentle rocks on the floor, using hands to assist and slowly increasing the dosage of difficult positioning. Intermediate people start exploring assigned Cossack squats, pigeon poses, and low gait flows, all with intention of increasing load and reducing assistance. And if you're advanced, full locomotion patterns, moving across the floor like a cat, crawling, stepping, flowing, all with ease and freedom. Hip mobility starts with basic things like teaching your body internal rotation, external rotation, and then combining those two patterns. You can also work your way towards doing things like advanced pigeon poses. You can work your way towards 90-90 stretches. And over time, just experience that real freedom that comes with the ability to open your hips. 2014 studies showed that hip fractures in older adults carry a 20-30% chance of death within a year. One of our students, Michelle, couldn't even bend down to feed her dogs without pain. After training her hips, she laughed, sending us a video of her bending forward easily for the first time in years. Another student, Sharon, went from hip pain so bad she couldn't sleep to waking up pain-free. Takeaway, strong mobile hips are your life insurance. They make you foolproof. And number five, isometrics and core stability, the anti-fall armor. Strength that holds you still is as important as strength that moves you. Isometrics, such as planks, wall sits, holds, train stability, balance, and resilience. Your shield against falls. For beginners, start with wall sits, planks, supported balances. If you're intermediate, do longer planks, isometric squats, single leg balance. Start to work towards chest-to-wall handstands. And if you're advanced, do loaded carries, gymnastics holds, static strength work, more handstands, and straight arm strength work. You can also throw in middle and front split holds to strengthen your lower body. Your isometric strength can start with the most basic things, like figuring out your plank, then learning to switch that over to a one-arm plank. You can play around with side planks. Eventually, you would take that isometric over to the wall and practice your chest-to-wall handstands. And for the lower body, you would start with horse stance, work your way up towards your middle split holds, and then switch over to the long lunge hold. All of these will strengthen your hips, your ankles, and your knees. The Lancet Public Health 2018 reported that falls are the second leading cause of accidental death worldwide in older adults. Gail, one of our students in her 50s, said that after three months of adding stability training, she feels stronger, moves better, and feels like herself again. Movement really is medicine. Ingrid, another student, went from hip pain and balance struggles to full pain-free squats. The takeaway? Stability equals survival. Train it daily. These five aren't fitness hacks. They are human non-negotiables. Hang to grit more life. Squat to stay human. Sit to stand to stay independent. Free your hips to avoid disaster. Build stability to bulletproof your future. We've seen it with thousands of our students, from Chris rediscovering play, to Patricia regaining independence, to Sharon sleeping pain-free. Movement doesn't just slow aging, it reverses it. If you want to learn how our students are doing this every day, check out the mobility toolkit in the description. Start today and your future self will thank you.