What type of exercise is best as you get older?

Older couple doing planks in the gym

We know that exercise is good for us. It improves our physical and mental health as well as improving longevity. But, what type is best? Most of the recommendations that we hear about are for cardiovascular exercise, but strength training is important too. Recommendations by the World Health Organization (WHO) for adults include 150 weekly minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise …

Baseline

Aspects of Weight loss

Start with a few simple baseline measures of your health and fitness to see your progress. These can keep you accountable and motivated to stick with your plan, because it all adds up and seeing your progress makes it easier to stick with your new habits!

What difference does ten pounds make?

If you don't know where you are going any road will take you there, Lewis Carroll quote over a snowy path that splits into two.

Body composition is important because what you are made of matters, a lot. Muscle is key for healthy ageing. We lose muscle as we age, it is harder to gain and more important to maintain. The benefits of losing ten pounds of body fat or gaining ten pounds of muscle can improve your health.

How are you ageing?

Beautiful watchful eye of a healthy girl and senior woman, ageing in a half and half split face.

Even though we think of time passing in a predictable way, ageing doesn’t. There are many factors that can change our biological age and it now appears that there are two time points where ageing accelerates. How are you ageing?

Exercise is therapy

Health is a state of physical, mental and emotional well-being, and not merely an absence of disease or infirmity. World Health Organization.

Anxiety and depression affect 25% of the world’s population. Mental health is now recognized as a necessary component of health. Exercise has always been considered an important component of good mental health, and if you have ever felt better after a workout you know it makes a difference, but when compared to traditional therapies how does exercise stack up?

Show your heart some love

A stream of hearts across a banner in reds and pinks

February is heart month and here are three ways you can reduce your risk of heart disease.

How to reduce your cancer risk

List of recommendations to prevent cancer. Including be a healthy weight, be physically active, limit sugar-sweetened drinks, limit red and processed meat, don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, don't use supplements, limit processed foods and eat a diet that is full of plant foods, whole grains and beans.

It is World Cancer Day. Reduce your risk of cancer with lifestyle habits. Exercise and diet are powerful tools in reducing your risk of a diagnosis. If you have been diagnosed with cancer, exercise has been proven to repair damage to DNA.

Fancy a cuppa?

Pink tea pot and mug on a wooden table

A new review has strengthened the benefits of drinking tea. If you enjoy a cuppa make sure it is tea with no other ingredients for all the health benefits.

Exercise keeps your brain young

Cartoon brain running on a treadmill

Many studies have proven how exercise improves brain health and you may have noticed that after your workout you have an improved ability to focus. New research shows that we can keep our brain younger with consistent aerobic exercise, resulting in clearer thinking, better memory, and improved mental well-being as we age.

Timing is not quite everything

A clock made from a round, wooden cutting board and a fork and a knife for the hands with two apples between 12 and 3 and the numbers 16:8 indicating time restricted eating.

Most people would agree that nutritional quality is important for health, but what about timing? In particular Time Restricted Eating (TRE) which has been promoted for improving weight loss and metabolic health. Does it work and does it help with weight loss?

Weight loss or fat loss?

Cartoon image of a women in a medical office having her waist circumference measured.

There are many ways to lose weight including surgery, weight loss drugs, fasting, dieting, but the idea is that many people want to reduce their body weight. New research suggests that including waist circumference in the classification of obesity would mean a jump from 40% to 70% of adults in the U.S. that would now be considered overweight or obese. But should you focus on weight loss or fat loss to get the best benefits?

Science Books

cartoon of woman sitting beside a stack of books, reading a book

I love reading and listening to books. Here are eight science books that I listened to this year that I would recommend.