The Ageless Body mindset

According to Howells, managing sleep and stress are just as key to achieving an ageless body as exercise and eating well. ‘What you’ll find with stress, eating and exercise is that they’re intrinsically linked,’ she says. ‘If you sleep better, you’ll feel less stressed during the day and you’ll make better food choices. If you exercise, you’ll sleep better. If you’re sleeping, eating and moving well, you’ll feel more able to handle stress. And so on.

‘Hormonal changes can work against you, but they’re a natural part of ageing and can be countered. Testosterone decreases in both men and women, as does oestrogen in women, and both slow down exercise recovery. In pre- and menopausal women, fluctuating oestrogen can cause crashing fatigue, where exhaustion hits them quite dramatically out of the blue and leaves them feeling wiped out. So it’s not always the time for excessive training. As ever, listen to your body and do what feels good and right.

‘In your 40s and 50s, take a more holistic approach to exercise and be more body-aware; your body needs adequate rest and sleep, more than ever as you get older. And this may mean building more rest days into your weekly exercise schedule as well as varying training intensities throughout the week.

‘Men and women in their late 30s, 40s and 50s are often quite successful and busy in their careers, running a business or managing a team of staff. They may be worrying about ageing parents, or teenagers doing exams. There’s a lot to ruin your sleep at this age, plus they may have built up sleep debt from the child-rearing years and picked up poor sleep habits.”