You’re never too old to be FIT as a FIDDLE!

IN TODAY’S pullout — part of the Mail’s Good Health For Life series — Sir Muir Gray, former Chief Knowledge Officer of the NHS and a public health specialist at the University of Oxford, explains the types of exercise that may be key to retaining a strong body at any time of life and why fitness is even more important in your 70s than in your 20s.

So FAR this week, you have read about how diet can help keep the ageing process at bay. Today, the focus is on the other part of the equation — exercise.

But don’t panic: I’m not expecting you to start training for marathons or lifting unfeasibly heavy weights — although there’s absolutely no reason why someone in their 70s, or beyond, shouldn’t be able to do this with the right training.

For most of us, exercise doesn’t have to be quite so intensive. It can be something that fits very easily into our daily lives — and can be utterly transformative.

So, why do I think I’m the best person to be telling you all this?

well, I’ve worked in public health for more than 40 years, doing everything from helping people stop smoking, to developing screening programmes for older people.

I have written books on disease prevention in elderly people, helped develop NHS Choices — the website that informs patients about their health — and I was also the NHS’s Chief knowledge officer.

I’ve even written a book called The antidote To ageing, which looks at the scientific evidence that shows your age does not have to dictate your physical health.

I’m a real advocate for people making choices about their own health and a true believer that anyone can make genuinely positive differences to the quality and length of their life, with just a few changes to their lifestyle. and I don’t just talk the talk, I walk the walk, too. I’m 75 years old and I can still cycle the three miles to the station every day. your age, in numbers, cannot be denied — but it should not be a cause for gloom.

It is a cause for celebration and for taking action to cope with what cannot be denied — namely the effects of the ageing process, which don’t suddenly strike when you hit 50 or 60, but, in fact, started at around the age of 30.

However, ageing is not the cause of problems in your 70s and beyond unless you allow it to control your health and wellbeing.

you can seize control by reducing your risk of developing disease, becoming fitter, and adopting a positive and optimistic attitude to life, with all its opportunities and problems — even if you already have a long-term condition.

I recently attended the 100th birthday party of a friend. The birthday boy gave a wonderful speech saying, among other things, that a few months

earlier, he had flown for the first time to Israel, together with his companion, and fulfilled a long-held ambition to swim in the Dead Sea. And his choice of present? An iPad.

Admittedly, it is exceptional to be so lively at 100, but, if you reach 90 and are relatively free from the effects of disease, you will be able to live on your own, get about by public transport, maybe even still drive a car, and take a lively interest in current affairs.

So, how is it that we all know of ‘old’ 60-year-olds and sprightly 80-year-olds?

There is, of course, no denying the existence of the ageing process and that there are only two phases in life: growing and developing, and ageing.

The turning point varies from person to person. However, there is a biological rate of decline that, even with the best will in the world, an immaculate diet and daily sessions with a personal trainer, we are powerless to escape. And that is the best possible rate of decline. The rate at which we lose the strength to climb a steep slope, for instance, is, unfortunately, likely to be even quicker than this.

I call the difference between the best possible rate of decline and a person’s actual rate of decline the fitness gap.

It was something I first described in an article in the British Medical Journal in 1982, when my work with older people in Oxford convinced me that, for many of them, their problems were caused or aggravated by inactivity and loss of fitness.

Because the rate at which we lose our fitness is determined not by genes or age, but by social factors such as the decisions we make about our lives and the pressures that influence us.

For example, my first job in the public health service required me to own a car, whereas, until then, I had lived on my bike.

There are two important points about the fitness gap.

The first is that an inability to climb stairs at the age of 80, or to get to the loo in time, could be solely the result of a loss of fitness, not the ageing process.

That’s the difference between being young and being older.

When you’re young, lack of fitness affects your lifestyle only if you want to play tennis or football, for example — but, later on, it can be the difference between dependence and independence.

The second important point — and the good news — is that the fitness gap can be narrowed at any age.

And you’re in luck — over the next few pages, you’ll learn how to narrow the gap by improving your fitness.

Take it from me, the results can be absolutely life-changing.