As all fitness fans know, working out helps keep your body looking toned, supple and generally youthful. And now there's another reason to keep your gym membership going. Exercise may help keep your face younger too.
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Experts at the University of St Andrews have been looking at what life as a couch potato could do to your looks. Using the latest facial imaging technology, they've demonstrated how a lack of exercise might impact on your face.
By taking the average weight gain associated with ageing (about 1.25lb a year for women), they came up with a computer-generated picture of how not exercising might affect someone's looks (think saggy, loose jowls and neck, and extra fat on the forehead and around the eyes).
"The aim of this study was to highlight that an active lifestyle can benefit appearance, in addition to health," explains researcher Ross Whitehead. "By looking at the height and weight of the volunteers, and the consequences of exercising versus not exercising for facial appearance, we were able to build an image of how they would appear in five, ten and 20 years."
We've seen the pictures, and they're not pretty.
"If everyone got to see what they would look like in 20 years they would be straight down to the gym without giving it a second thought," says Catherine Duffy, one of the three volunteers who were 'aged' for the experiment.
So would the thought of a saggy neck or droopy eyelids motivate you to take more exercise? Tell us what you think.