Keep Healthy, Love Fitness

The best piece of advice I ever had on keeping kids fit at home was from Joe Wicks, the guru of these things: start them young. There are things you can persuade a four-year-old to do with a sticker that, by the time they are six, would be more like a quid; if you wanted to bribe a 12-year-old to do a daily plank, from a baseline of no-daily-plank, that would cost you roughly £1m. Unfortunately, to really make use of this excellent advice, I would have to go back to 2013. I have two 12-year-olds and one 10-year-old. The older two are less biddable, but each has a sport (C has karate, TJ has tennis and cycling) and some semblance of a sport ethic to go with it. The youngest has nothing of the sort. We used to call her H the Quitter, and don’t write in to explain why that is wrong because we knew it was wrong at the time. To concentrate on the big ones: stick to their sport and make it their thing. Even the most rebellious soul cannot help forming habits; if there is any livestreamed...

Nosebleeds are normally a result of a ruptured blood vessel in the nose. Common causes include picking or blowing your nose, sneezing vigorously and high blood pressure. Do not lie down or tilt your head back, as the blood will drip into the back of your throat and block the airway. Sit down, lean forward and pinch the soft part of the nose. You can use an ice pack or frozen peas in a tea towel on the bridge of the nose if you want to, but it is not normally necessary. Pinching the soft part of the nose helps to form a clot and stop the bleeding. Pinch for 10 minutes, then let go to see if it has stopped. If it has not, pinch again. If the bleeding is severe or lasts for more than 30 minutes, or if you are on blood-thinning tablets (which would cause you to lose a lot more blood), you should seek medical help. If the nosebleed has been caused by a head injury, the blood may be thin and watery, which could mean fluid is leaking from around the brain. This could be a sign of a signif...

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...