Keep Healthy, Love Fitness

The first challenge is pursuading people to get their cholesterol tested. The second is making sure they get it done by a healthcare professional, whether that is with a GP or a practice nurse, or at an NHS Health Check. Some pharmacies and supermarkets are starting to offer tests, and there are local initiatives, too. Symptoms of high cholesterol show only when you are starting to get heart disease as a result: you build up a lot of fatty plaque in your arteries, start to experience shortness of breath, chest pains or angina. By that point, the condition is irreversible – and the earlier in life you have a heart attack or stroke, the worse your long-term outcomes are. Prevention is absolutely better than cure. Most people can start with lifestyle factors. As a nation, we know we are not as active as we should be, that we are increasingly overweight and that our intake of saturated fats is too high – that leads to our cholesterol levels being too high. For most people, the first st...

Push, don’t pull It’s a common misconception that rowers have big arms, but rowing is a mainly legs-based sport. Master the sequence of using your legs first when you’re taking a stroke, followed by your hips, and finally pulling your arms. Practising on an indoor rower can be great to improve your technique and fitness before heading out on the water. Build your confidence We use drills to teach new rowers confidence in the boat before they get moving. Try turning your boat 360 degrees as fast as you can, or rocking it side to side, touching the riggers into the water as many times as you can in 30 seconds. It’s a great way for beginners to get used to the wobbling of a boat. Team up Using a crew boat, such as a double or quad, can be a great way to practise: the crew can “sit” the boat by not rowing, so you don’t have to worry about the balance. This is the best way to take full strokes while you’re learning. Farewell to the 2010s… … will the 2020s offer more hope? This has been...

“In 2004, I was the only vegan in the village,” says Fiona Oakes, a multi-world-record-breaking marathon runner. “But now you see vegan runners everywhere.” An animal lover who set up her own animal sanctuary, Oakes started a running club called Vegan Runners in 2004. The idea came about after she saw the long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe on TV and spotted an opportunity. Oakes was a good runner and thought that, if she got faster, she could end up alongside Radcliffe at the start line of the London marathon, on national television, with the words “Vegan Runners” emblazoned across her vest. “It was a way of showcasing the cause,” she says. “I’d been vegan since I was six years old. I’d lost my kneecap from an illness when I was 17 and been told I would never run again. If I could do this as a vegan, it showed that anything was possible.” Back then she was a lone crusader, trying to introduce people to the word “vegan” in a positive way. “Rather than cause disruption and be in ...

The actor Chris Hemsworth – Hollywood leading man, make-believe Thor – employs a small army of fitness professionals to maintain peak condition. There is the personal trainer he has known since he was eight, and the nutritionist and the Pilates coach and the yoga coach and the meditation guru. Even Hemsworth’s stunt double is part of the gang. Collectively the army is known as “The Chris Hemsworth Wellbeing Team”. Now they can be your wellbeing team too. Earlier this year Hemsworth launched Centr, a fitness app that offers “everything you need” to “train, eat and live better,” according to the app’s website. Its content, aimed at both men and women, has been developed by trainers either previously employed by Hemsworth or newly tapped up by the actor to contribute workouts, meditation routines and healthy-eating recipes. Like the patron saints of wellness before him – Paltrow, Motivator – Hemsworth is keen to spread the gospel of wellbeing: eat well, exercise, de-stress. He has spent t...

What is Health? How do you define health? Is it a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being? Is it merely the absence of disease or infirmity? Or is health a resource for everyday life, rather than the objective of living; a positive concept, emphasising social and personal resources as well as physical capabilities? Good health is harder to define than bad health (which can be equated with the presence of disease), because it must convey a concept more positive than mere absence of disease, and there is a variable area between health and disease. Health is clearly a complex, multidimensional concept. Health is, ultimately, poorly defined and difficult to measure, despite impressive efforts by epidemiologists, vital statisticians, social scientists and political economists. Each individual's health is shaped by many factors, including medical care, social circumstances, and behavioural choices. Health Care While it is true to say that health care is the p...

Turning up to a Gymbox class called Cannabliss (membership from £73, gymbox.com) is my twofold nightmare. First, group exercise has always struck me as torture plus humiliation. Second, drug talk makes me feel 107 years old. When I hear anyone rhapsodising about hydroponics or closed-loop extraction or how to core an apple bong, I have a tremendous urge to shout: “Why didn’t you stay in school, you’re obviously smart?” Even if they’re in their early 40s. I suppose if we rebranded Stem subjects as Seed and Buds, we could stop failing our weed heads. Anyway, the idea of enduring their company while on a crosstrainer makes me want to pull a … whitey, is it? In my long shorts, I may as well have turned up to class wearing a baseball cap that reads: “How do you do, fellow kids.” I also arrive late, to fit in better with the apathetic stoners. It is my first mistake. They are all there, in their Lululemon and Nike athleisure gear, fit young professionals who regularly go to the gym and let...

It's always important to take care of oneself using all the principles of good health. Regular check-ups, proper nutrition and healthful living all enable one to keep on top of their health in a careful yet reasonable way. Often one becomes overly concerned with health issues and caught up in a cycle of health worries. One health issue is reconciled when another immediately pops up to take its place. These worries become all encompassing and exhausting after a while. Eventually, the individual realizes that this cycle of health anxieties has intruded upon the quality of their life. A dark cloud, always hovering over daily living, this intrusive form of anxiety has to be addressed. One begins by determining why this is occurring, what purpose does it serve and how to interrupt this behavior. Reason for Health Anxiety Health worries actually serve a purpose and this purpose is not difficult to detect if one looks deep enough into this pattern of behavior. Often this pattern invol...