FIT FOR LIFE
“Those who think they have no time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.”
EDWARD STANLEY
Nutritious food and fitness are a match made in heaven, and like any great relationship, they bring out each other’s very best qualities. The closest thing to a magic bullet for slowing down the ageing process and developing a healthy, strong, fit and lean physique is that golden combination of good nutrition and exercise.
Your entire physical and emotional well-being benefits enormously from this dynamic duo. Increasing your heart rate and working up a sweat regularly through exercise boosts digestion and elimination, blood flow and lymphatic drainage, enhances your fitness and energy levels, supports fat burning, reduces cholesterol levels, improves insulin sensitivity and may even combat feelings of anxiety and depression while boosting your mood with feel-good endorphins.
The scientific consensus supports regular exercise, and suggests that ‘moderate fitness’ can be achieved in as few as 10 weeks by daily walking, cycling and even tending to the garden. In fact, exercise and the path to fitness can incorporate a whole range of movements and different ways to increase your heart rate and work up a sweat.
We all have to start somewhere
For the majority of people, the most daunting and intimidating part of getting fit is where to begin. It can feel like we’re constantly bombarded with conflicting information about health, fat loss and fitness, making it almost impossible to know what to start with.
There seems to be a vast array of diet plans, powders, tablets, shakes, bars, websites, blogs, gyms and fitness experts trying to sell us their products, which is why it is so important to separate fact from marketing. Confusing the public can work in favour of the companies pushing their wares, as it may encourage us to blindly buy into their trends.
Just like food and nutrition, fitness works best when it’s kept as simple as possible. Different types of exercise work for different people, and discovering what you like most is the key to viewing exercise as enjoyable and getting the very most out of it. It should be fun, challenging and changed up regularly to make sure it never gets boring.
Do you love to dance? Unwind in a yoga class? Or maybe jogging along a scenic coastal route really helps to uplift and energise you? No matter how disciplined and determined you may be, it’s very difficult to motivate yourself to get active when it’s something you don’t enjoy.
I used to love running until my hip began to hurt after long-distance runs. I pushed myself for a while longer and forced myself out for runs, until one day I just stopped completely because I was beginning to really dislike running. You can always swap one type of regime for another that suits your age and body type better, and now I much prefer the cross-trainer or bicycle for my cardiovascular exercise.
I have also found that in my thirties, I’m more interested in doing slower and more controlled exercises that really build my core strength and muscle groups, such as Pilates and resistance training in the gym. I used to love boxing and high-intensity treadmill sprints in my twenties, but they don’t suit me so much anymore.
Another important part of staying fit and active is making sure it slots into your lifestyle and that you’re not compromising your health or sleep. If you’re dragging yourself out of bed at 5am to hit the treadmill before work, there’s probably only so long you can keep it up before illness or injury prevents you. A bad experience can quite easily lead to a loss of confidence in your own abilities and even cause you to resent exercise.
If you have joined a gym or fitness class and aren’t sure where to begin, then don’t be afraid to ask questions and look for help. Most good gyms will have fitness experts on hand to advise you. It’s so important to do certain exercises properly to avoid injury, and weightlifting in particular can become more risky if you’re not protecting your neck and back.
Want to change your body shape?
The number of times a week you train will depend on your own lifestyle and personal goals. To maintain your current body, aim to work out three times a week. To really change or sculpt your body, increase it to four to six times a week. You certainly don’t need to spend two hours in the gym each time. Step up the intensity, taking as few rests as possible, and you can get a very good workout done in 30–40 minutes.
My top tip for building muscle tone and really changing your body shape by reducing body fat and increasing lean muscle is to work the muscle until the point of failure. You can do this with heavier weights for three or four sets of 10–12 reps, or lighter weights for more sets and reps. To find out which approach suits you, I recommend that you meet with a trainer before beginning a new exercise regimen. Good technique is crucial if you are to avoid injury and get the most out of your workouts. Add to this an eating plan to support your hard work in the gym, and the results will soon begin to show.
Try to get into the habit of pushing yourself through those final few reps that you think you can’t manage, because they’re the ones that really count. Your brain will probably try to tell your body to stop or that it can’t go on. But mental strength and determination are key, and overcoming your brain’s messages to quit will make all the difference to your fitness and body shape.
To burn body fat, my advice is to do cardiovascular exercise four to five times a week. High-intensity interval training is a tried-and-tested way to torch calories. It can be done on the treadmill, stationary bike, cross-trainer or any other cardio machine. I like to cycle or cross-train for 30 seconds as fast as I possibly can, then slow it right down for 30 seconds and repeat for about 20 minutes. As you get fitter, you can adapt it for a longer sprint time and less recovery time. This type of high-intensity training helps to burn body fat without reducing lean muscle mass, which is also ideal for boosting your metabolism.
Different types of exercise achieve different health, muscle-toning and cardiovascular goals. My advice is to combine a variety of movements to achieve a great boost to your endurance, flexibility and strength. The key is to keep it consistent for the best results.
I’ve tried out many different types of fitness classes and regimes, from aerobics classes to kickboxing and yoga. As much as I enjoyed them, I find that I get the very best overall results from combining weight training with Pilates and cardio.
Do you struggle to make time for regular exercise? I’m often busy working or travelling and finding the time can be difficult, so I have to get inventive with workout routines. It’s possible to do a demanding workout in the space of 10–20 minutes at home using your own body weight, training bands or a TRX, and I’ve been known to sprint up and down hotel staircases to work up a sweat!
The point is to make exercise an enjoyable part of your lifestyle so that it’s a fun challenge, it never feels like a chore and you miss it when you don’t have a chance to do it.
RESISTANCE TRAINING
Weight or resistance training is incredibly important for strengthening all your muscles, for improving your ratio of lean muscle to fat mass and for sculpting your body.
Like many other women, I used to worry that lifting weights would bulk me up like a bodybuilder, so I lifted tiny weights inconsistently and instead focused on cardiovascular exercise. When I was eventually convinced to try proper weight training, I couldn’t believe the difference it made to my body.
It became so much easier to stay slim and toned, as weight training boosts your metabolism by encouraging the body to burn calories for hours after the session while your muscle fibres repair themselves. Of course, I didn’t bulk up but actually slimmed down, as a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat.
Women don’t have enough of the hormone testosterone needed to bulk up in the way that men can. Instead, we produce more oestrogen, which makes us prone to storing fat. Weight training is especially beneficial for women, as it encourages your bones to continuously rebuild and strengthen themselves, helping to prevent the onset of osteomalacia and osteoporosis.
It’s important to train each major muscle and muscle group in the body at least once a week for visible results. Resistance training tones, tightens and sculpts your body while reducing body fat levels and improving muscle tone. I would encourage everybody to consider adding weightlifting to their fitness regimen.
Exercises such as squats, lunges, press-ups and planks work a number of major muscles and can all be done without equipment, using your body weight in the comfort of your own home. As long as you don’t suffer from lower body joint problems, I advise you to incorporate regular squats into your routine. They work your glutes, quads, hamstrings and core and even help to improve your posture, plus they encourage fat burning by boosting your metabolism and increasing the production of growth hormones.
To avoid injury if you’re brand new to it, it would be best to start out with a trainer or workout buddy who knows what they’re doing. If you’re over the age of 35 or have had a sedentary lifestyle for some time, it would be best to arrange a one-on-one consultation with a health and fitness expert before beginning an exercise programme.
CARDIOVASCULAR EXERCISE
Cardiovascular or aerobic exercise boosts your body’s ability to burn oxygen and glucose while benefitting your cardiovascular system by increasing the blood flow to your heart, lungs and muscles and carrying oxygen via your blood to all your tissues. More oxygen-rich blood in the tiny capillaries near your skin’s surface means plenty of nutrients reach your skin to help keep it looking fresh, radiant and young.
As little as half an hour a day of power walking, jogging, swimming, cycling or dancing helps to keep you lean, builds a stronger heart, and supports your lymphatic system in draining away toxic build-up.
I always aim to do some form of cardio exercise about four to five times a week, whether it’s a cycle, a brisk walk or using an exercise machine in the gym such as the cross-trainer, step machine or Wattbike. The impact that it has on my alertness, mood, happiness, health, fitness and body fat makes it time very well spent.
FLEXIBILITY
Depending on the type of class, exercises like Pilates and yoga don’t always get your heart pumping in quite the same way as cardiovascular and high-intensity resistance training or circuits, but they strengthen and elongate muscles, help to improve joint health, tighten your core muscles, lengthen your spine, help your posture, oxygenate your blood and body cells and offer countless benefits for emotional well-being and stress management.
I have loved Pilates for years, and I really like how well it balances out the other types of training I do. Most weeks, I will do three to four classes and the routine changes each time. Some will be more focused on breathing and core, while others really challenge all your muscles and give you a sweaty, full-body strength and conditioning workout.
STRETCHING
Stretching before and after a workout can be just as important as the workout itself. It helps to prevent injury, increases blood flow and encourages long, lean muscles and good flexibility.
It also makes a big difference to muscle tightness and pain over the day or two after an intense workout; sometimes this lingering discomfort can put people off continuing their fitness regime. Take a few minutes to warm up and stretch well before a workout, then a few minutes to cool down and stretch afterwards to avoid those muscle cramps and soreness as much as possible.
CORE VALUES
The band of muscles around your mid-section that make up your core, such as your abdominals and obliques, are probably the most important of all to keep strong for overall strength, fitness and protection from injury. Almost every movement you make, from lifting shopping bags out of the boot of your car to pulling out a chair from the kitchen table and lifting weights in the gym, relies on your core muscles.
In nearly every resistance or Pilates workout I do, I’m working and strengthening my core. Whether you’re a cardio bunny or a weights devotee, working with a strong core can really help to improve your overall posture and form.