You may have recently noticed you are taking more sick days. You probably are contracting colds and the flu more easily these days than when you were younger. It also may be taking you longer to recover these days.

It is common for the average man or woman over 50 to catch 2 to 4 more colds yearly than someone between ages 20 and 40. Many times this can escalate into sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, or worse. Seniors make up more than 60% of the annual 36,000 flu related deaths. Long waits, inaccurate formulas, and shortages means that you cannot rely on a vaccine to protect you.

To prevent becoming one of those statistics, you need to boost your immune health. Fitness over 50 is the best natural way to improve your immune system. In fact, many fitness experts recommend bodybuilding as a preferred method to improve both your overall health and increase your immune system.

Bodybuilding increases muscle mass which promotes immune health in many ways. Muscle burns more calories than fat and helps prevent weight gain. Doctors have found that overweight people have poor immune health and get sick more frequently. Bodybuilding boosts your circulation, which strengthens your heart and lungs. It also thickens blood vessels. This means that it is easier for antibodies and nutrients to travel through your body to fight colds, flu, infections, and other ailments. This means that you are able to resist illness and can recover more quickly.

Rest is a very important part of bodybuilding over 50 and boosting your immune system. Many of the opponents to bodybuilding claim that it can harm your immune system. However, the fact is that overtraining hurts your immune system, as well as the rest of your body. Those who perform high intensity workouts in short cycles do not give their body adequate rest and are more likely to get sick with longer healing times. This is because they rest only long enough for their body to make minimal muscle repairs. Therefore, the body is forced to focus only on building muscle and must ignore the immune system.

However, bodybuilders using low intensity training often dramatically reduce their number of sick days annually. Typically this is because their training cycle has adequate time for improvements and total body renewal, including your immune system. As you age, you will need more time for rest and renewal. Therefore, you might want to start with a training cycle that includes one day of rest to each day of training.

You also should eat a diet that supports your bodybuilding goals and boosts your immune system. Proteins and complex carbohydrates are preferred. You will also want to include foods rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and mineral. If you do not get these in your diets, then you should take supplements to give yourself a boost while training.

No one can completely prevent ever catching a cold or flu. You can control how often you get sick and your recovery time. These illnesses can have serious repercussions for people over 50. If you want to stay well through the next cold and flu season then you need to focus on fitness now.

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