Health remedies by royal appointment
Harry’s ring to improve sleep. Kate’s bug-resistant gloves. Camilla’s bunion-beating shoes. So which takes the crown?
FERGIE: ANTI-AGEING FITNESS CLUB
The Super-A Plan, from £10 a month, supera.uk The Duchess of York is a member of Super-A, an online programme that claims to help members ‘become biologically younger than your actual age’.
It’s created by yoga instructor Wayne Lèal and trainer Josh Salzmann — both in their 60s — and uses a mix of yoga, rebounding (a cardio exercise done on a small trampoline) and resistance training videos, as well as recommending a diet to help ‘re-balance’ hunger, weight loss and mood hormones, it says.
The three-month programme ‘mirrors a study from University College London that states it takes 66 days to form a habit. Our tailored programme can help transform your body and mind to start you on a path towards better physical health and improved mental health.’ EXPERT VERDICT: ‘I think this blended approach is fabulous and I like that the trainers are older,’ says Sammy Margo, a physiotherapist in London.
‘Making yourself biologically younger is a bit of a claim, but we know that yoga can slow down the destruction of telomeres — the ends of the DNA strands in our cells that determine how fast we age — so it’s not completely implausible.
‘They also use resistance training, which is important for an older body to maintain muscle mass and muscle strength to reduce frailty. Rebounding can improve bone density and has been shown to improve balance and fear of falling in a 2019 study in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging.
‘The downside is that there may be a greater risk of injury without a trainer, and you don’t have the peer pressure that might make you work harder that you get from an in-person class.’