I only do 'easy' exercise – but I've never felt better or stronger at 50
Excuse the shameless name-drop, but I was shooting the breeze with Fearne Cotton, 43, last week and she told me she is all about "gentle and calm" exercise. "Nothing strenuous!" she added.
Fearne is not alone in moving away from hardcore workouts. The wellness cognoscenti are shifting away from "feeling the burn" to lower-intensity activities such as walking, swimming and gentle jogging. Or "plodding" as Fearne refers to her runs around Richmond Park.
Over in Hollywood, Demi Moore recently told the press she's given up "hard" exercise. She's traded gruelling cardio and working out on "every machine imaginable" for yoga and dance sessions.
"Even just the idea of what I did to my body, it's so crazy, so ridiculous," she said of her previous routine.
Jennifer Aniston is also taking it down a few notches in the gym, saying recently: "You don't have to kill yourself to be in shape." She now exercises smarter with shorter PVolve workouts and says: "You can have the gain without the pain." When these toned, honed goddesses speak about their regimes, we listen right?
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Many of us were led to believe that your chosen exercise needed to leave you dripping sweat, puce in the face with your heart about to explode out of your chest if you were to achieve real results. We were all about spinning and boot camping and 'feeling the burn' to get our fitness levels higher and, let's be honest, our bodies "in shape."
On the latter we had fully bought into the simplistic equation that calories out must be greater than calories in to see meaningful changes and any data trackers told us super sweaty activities expended the most energy. So that's what we did.
Now we know it's more nuanced than that. It turns out that building a body with more muscle (through lifting weights or exercises using your own body weight) means you are burning more calories all the time. Even when you are at rest, watching The Traitors.
And those kinds of exercises, whilst still challenging, feel doable. Enjoyably even. Calm, precise, controlled.
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Zone two exercise, defined as getting the heart rate up but still being able to hold a conversation, is also having something of a renaissance. It's being touted by the experts as essential to maintaining fitness. It's activities such as fast walking, swimming and jogging. Doing these you are less likely to be injured, but will still burn fat, improve fitness and boost energy. I love zone 2 as I get to chat. My favourite thing.
Of course, ideally, you need a mix of exercise intensity for a good all-round regime. I do some HIIT, some weights and lots of zone 2 exercise and have just signed up for weekly yoga. I've never felt fitter or stronger.
Like Demi and Jennifer, I used to think only punishing exercise achieved anything. Now my mind has shifted to a more holistic view. Meaning I don't lie there in yoga thinking, "This is a waste of time."
Less hard = better results. What a win.
