When it comes to reducing Biological Age, there is one component that stands out above all others. Not only does it have the greatest weighting factor of any parameter, but it also has an impact on several other parameters. Anyone who saw the show may well suspect, correctly so, that is the 'magic pill' of exercise.

We are a nation of supplement junkies: over 30% of us routinely use dietary supplements and as far back as 1993, we spent $621 million on them (Source: National Health Survey). However, recent studies have shown that we may be wasting our money.

When we talk about ‘longevity’, what we are really referring to is a delaying of the aging process. Aging is an unavoidable process of nature, but we now know that the rate of its development is variable. The anti-aging arena is now a big business – spending in this area is projected to reach a whopping US$42 billion in 2007. We are now constantly bombarded with marketing messages about anti-aging creams and anti-oxidant tablets and other purported longevity enhancing pills and potions. However, do any of them really work? How much of an influence is our lifestyle on our longevity?

Why do we do what we do?

This is a question that is the foundation much of what Anthony Robbins, the great motivational speaker, talks about. He reasons that when you find the why, the right answers come much more easily. This article is not about motivation, but about resistance training, but the question is very pertinent – Why do we train the way we train? If you look in any gym or health club today, you will see people using all sorts of machines to train with and doing a huge variety of isolation exercises in order to stimulate the muscles to become bigger, stronger and more functional.

Fitness Instructors and Personal Trainers the world over continue to write training programs for clients that break the body into various body parts and even individual muscles or muscle groups – they talk about chest, back, biceps, triceps, shoulders, glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves. My point is – do the advances in science support such programs?

Tonight is the inaugural episode of Body and Brain Overhaul, and the idea is to see how an integrated brain-body approach to personal peak performance works on 4 individuals from different walks of life. We will look at how non-athletes can benefit from taking a leaf out of athletes books - specifically, I am talking about an integrated approach that trains both the body and the mind and incorporates recovery strategies as well.