EASY EXERCISES TO KEEP YOU YOUNG!
Want to live healthier for longer? You can with our brilliant series by TV’s twin doctors...
EXERCiSE is a miracle cure — or at least a miracle treatment — for almost everything.
Studies consistently show that it can reduce your risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes and even some cancers by up to 50 per cent — and lower your risk of early death by up to 30 per cent.
it can reduce your risk of osteoarthritis by up to 83 per cent and help prevent falls. that’s important because of their effect on lifespan; up to 75,000 older people are admitted to hospital every year with a fractured hip — and, after this, one in five cannot stand up again, while one in three dies within a year.
Exercise can also boost mood and sleep quality, and reduce your risk of depression, dementia and alzheimer’s disease. Put simply, it’s one of the ultimate anti-ageing activities, key to living well for longer.
Contrast that with inactivity, which the department of health calls a ‘silent killer’. the sedentary behaviour that is normal for many of us is bad for your health. NhS statistics show that a lack of exercise could be to blame for one in six deaths, including deaths from cancer, strokes and heart disease — a similar number to tobacco.
Previously in our anti-ageing series, we’ve looked at brain health and sleep. today, we focus on the role of exercise in helping us all live well for longer. here, we look at how to make exercise work best for you.
THE SHORTCUT EXERCISE PLAN
ONE of the key problems with exercising, it seems, is finding the time. With the evidence so stacked in favour of regular activity, it is surprising that we’re not all doing it, and shocking that, according to the British heart Foundation, 44 per cent of adults never exercise.
Many people cite lack of time as their main stumbling block. So is high intensity interval training (or hiit) the solution?
it was invented by dr izumi tabata, who conducted a study in 1996 comparing the benefits of an hour of moderate exercise, five times a week, with what he called ‘tabata’ — 20- second bursts of all- out exercise with ten seconds of rest, for four minutes — four times a week. the hiit workout won hands-down.
Ever since, top athletes in every field of sport have incorporated its principles into their training. But is hiit an alternative in the real world — for people who want to get fit to live well for longer, but feel pressed for time?
as part of the twinstitute, our BBC2 series about health and wellbeing, we decided to find out by pitting identical twins against each other to see if short, hard bursts of activity could match the government recommendation of 30 minutes of exercise, five times a week.
it’s something that interested us both. We ourselves used to be extremely fit; we were on the rowing team at medical school and, early in our careers, did long expeditions, climbing mountains or hiking in the arctic.
But we’re both now 40 and the demands of careers and children mean we face the same obstacles to fitness that a huge number of people in the UK face: time, enthusiasm and tiredness.
One of the twins we tested, Fran horsford, 39, a qualified PE teacher, was no stranger to exercise. her challenge was to commit to sessions of hiit — pushing her heart rate to 90 per cent of its maximum for 15 minutes, three times a week, for six weeks, to gauge its effect on her health and longevity. Fran’s twin, Jess hambling, was given 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, as recommended in official guidelines.
Like Fran, Jess had been sporty, but let her fitness slip.
‘the hiit was brutal,’ says Fran. ‘i had a personal trainer shouting at me, so i put my body through more than i might normally have attempted.’
For Jess, the biggest challenge was making time in her week for 150 minutes of exercise. She ran on a treadmill for 50 minutes, three times a week.
We put the sisters through tests of fitness and stamina. Fran was able to run for 80 seconds longer than she had before the experiment. her body’s use of oxygen — a measure of fitness — improved by 20 per cent, an amazing result.
her resting heart rate had dropped by 28 per cent. this is a measure of how efficiently your heart works, and it is linked to your risk of premature death from any cause, including cardiovascular disease.
a person with a resting heart rate of 70 beats per minute has a 20 per cent higher risk of death from cardiac disease than a person with a resting heart rate of 50 beats per minute. although Jess had spent much more time exercising, the improvement in
her fitness was not quite as dramatic. She was able to keep going for 56 seconds longer than before, while her resting heart rate dropped by 11 per cent.
This is not just a story about fitness — it’s about lifestyle and enjoyment. To perform HIIT properly you need a gym and the process can be intense. But it can be easier to fit in because it lasts such a short time. More time- consuming exercise pro-grammes such as Jess’s can be done wher-ever — and while the results may not be as dramatic, the benefits are tangible.
We were reassured that all exercise has huge benefits for many of the aspects of health that relate to living well for longer, such as heart rate.
If you’re short of time, HIIT might work for you; but moderate exercise can be both joyful and effective.
We ourselves are now both working hard to make sure that we stick to a regular regimen: Xand goes to the gym twice a week for an hour and makes sure he does at least another hour of running.
Chris struggles to get to the gym, but he does a minimum of 30 press-ups, chin-ups and sit-ups every day.
If you want to start exercising, it’s worth starting gently. You often see a disclaimer along the lines of ‘always consult your doc-tor before starting any exercise pro-gramme’, but this isn’t always necessary.
Literally walk before you start to run. The personal trainers at your gym will have advice about how to begin. Your GP can help if you have concerns, and there are excellent resources on the NHS website to guide you towards what may be right for you. But do find a way of getting more active: it will help you live well for longer — and it could save your life. THE Twinstitute is on BBC2 on Wednesdays at 8.30pm.