It is bad enough getting older with the accumulation of the years but to actually look old and be old makes it much worse. Many people around the world don't mind spending many thousands of dollars on an ongoing basis to try and look and stay more youthful.

There is a new trend of "anti aging clinics" springing up to satisfy the need for an effective anti aging solution. People that go to these clinics are injected with several hormones that are claimed to have anti aging effects on the body.

The new kid on the block for anti aging purposes is the most potent of these hormones - human growth hormone (HGH). This "youth" hormone is the master hormone, plentiful in our bodies when we are young, but from the age of twenty one our bodies produce less of it until by age forty, deficiency is common.

Hormones are chemical messengers which travel via the blood stream and help regulate all aspects of the body's metabolism (the rate the body burns fuel) and maintain health. HGH affects all areas of the body influencing the growth (and death) of cells, bones, muscles and organs and promotes healing.

When HGH falls below the required level needed to maintain your body at an optimal level signs of aging such as loss of muscle and strength, an increasing waistline, wrinkles, mid life crises, tiredness, increased risk of disease and illness and many others begin to appear. These are all symptoms of what we call aging.

However the good news is that we now know that there is a much easier, cheaper and safer way to boost your levels of HGH without injecting artificial substances into your bloodstream. Strength training exercise is a wonderful and effective natural way to raise your own anti aging (HGH) levels - the more you work out and keep fit, the more HGH your body produces.

In addition, strength training can reverse muscle and bone loss, reducing your risk of sarcopenia (muscle loss) and osteoporosis (bone loss). It increases oxygenation of tissues and organs throughout your body and enhances your mood and brain function - all positive anti-aging effects. And of course, it also helps you to maintain a healthy weight, increasing your lean body mass and reducing your body fat level so you become stronger and leaner.

To get an HGH spike takes more than a couple of bicep curls with shiny little chrome dumbbells however. Studies show that it takes about 50 minutes of strength training twice a week and it has to be fairly serious.

An example of a typical workout that could produce HGH would be a series of six different strength training exercises targeting different muscle groups - dead lifts and squats are some examples - each one repeated until the muscles you are working feel exhausted.

This is much less daunting than it sounds because you do get to rest for a minute or two between each set of exercises. For another, no one expects novices to work out at a high level straight away.

As with anything else, you should build up to it gradually over a period of many months ideally under the guidance of a fitness professional. Such steps are a good investment in your health and your body given the proven evidence that regular strength training helps maintain your youthfulness and reduces your chances of needing a wheelchair and a nurse somewhere down the track.