It's been a big year for Google, which released its first Fitbit in years and then the latest Pixel Watch within just months of each other, leading to natural comparisons between the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5.

Anyone who looks at these devices can see one big difference (two if you look at the price tags), but after testing them both for a few weeks, I learnt these potentially had more in common than just being on my list of the best Fitbits.

I put both the Fitbit Air and Google Pixel Watch 5 through their paces, doing my usual 8,000 steps a day, multiple running and strength workouts, nights of sleep, and daily movement.

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

Specifications

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: A quick overview

The key difference between the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5 is purpose. One (Fitbit Air) is a genuinely reasonably priced fitness tracker, designed to sit and work discreetly on your wrist while you go about daily life. It'll record your steps, workouts, sleep, and stress all in the background. It's less advanced than the Google Pixel Watch 5, but it's also a third of the price.

The other (Google's Pixel Watch 5) is a premium smartwatch. It's designed to be your left-hand woman throughout the day, and it's designed to provide advanced insights into your wellbeing, from exercise to heart health.

That said, those insights are very, very similar, as they both use the Google Health app. They are especially similar if you sign up for the Premium version of the Google Health app at an additional cost of £7.99 per month (or £79.99 per year). Read on to find out just how similar, and how to choose between the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5 for your next upgrade.

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: What are they like to wear?

The most obvious difference between these two devices is the design. The Fitbit Air is a lightweight, screenless band with a stainless steel buckle. The sensor sits over the wrist, tucked under the nylon band, which is secured with Velcro. The Pixel Watch 5 is undoubtedly more premium, with a domed full-colour screen housed in aluminium with a comfortable silicone strap.

During testing, I noticed that the Google Pixel Watch 5 was more comfortable to wear. While the Fitbit Air is more discreet and can sit next to a small, regular timepiece, looking like a sporty bracelet, it is a little bulkier than I was expecting, and the Pixel Watch doesn't have the same rough-feeling material against the skin.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 has a raised face, but it also sits flush against the wrist, more so than other smartwatches I've tested, so I found it barely noticeable during the day or while I was on my walk. The screen has a default always-on mode, but you can turn this off, so it only comes to life when you purposefully raise your wrist.

That being said, you can wear the Fitbit Air on other parts of the body - such as around the ankle or arm - and you can't do this with the Pixel Watch. It would be inconvenient at best and impossible for most.

Winner: Google Pixel Watch 5 is more comfortable, but it depends on your preference

Fitness tracking on the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

If your main goal in buying one of these devices is to improve your fitness, the Fitbit Air is a great choice at under £100, saving you money you can spend on signing up for the Premium version of the Google Health app.

It does all the basics you can expect from even the cheapest Fitbit (like recording workouts, step count, calorie burn, heart rate, and sleep data) so excellently that it knocks basically any other Fitbit out of the water. Instead of viewing these insights on your watch, you see them in the Google Health app, where you'll get a Gemini-created rundown of your day and activities, highlighting wins and areas to improve. You can also create workouts or take suggestions from a pre-made plan based on your fitness goals, and send those workouts to your watch to follow.

It automatically picked up my walking workouts, too, so didn't have to take my phone out to get going. It truly works alongside you. I was so impressed during testing. I could leave the Fitbit Air on my wrist to tick along throughout the day, and on some days, the only times I opened the app were in the morning and at night. But there all my data was, ready to dive into, with full insights available. It's a hands-off, refreshing way to incorporate health insights into daily life.

All this is true, unless you're a runner or want to see your step count on your wrist as you walk (it updates as you go in the app). Then the Fitbit Air lacks one basic feature: a screen. This isn't a running watch, but the Google Pixel Watch 5 could be. It has all the same fitness-tracking features as above, but you can also see the details on your wrist. This is pretty essential if you're doing a workout where you need to see your distance, pace, and how long you've been moving. Of course, if you're a casual jogger, you may be able to go without this.

Winner: Fitbit Air - unless you want a watch for running workouts

Sleep and health insights on the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

The Pixel Watch 5 is packed with new health features, including a Blood Pressure Trend report, insulin monitoring, and a Sleep Disturbances report. It's as much an independent health monitor as a smartwatch and fitness tracker, comparing your everyday vitals to your baseline and flagging any potential issues.

Many of these aren't available on the Fitbit Air, but some are supported, such as the Blood Pressure Trend reports. It's not a blood pressure reading, but rather insights from an algorithm that compares your data with insights from half a million users and 60 billion hours of heart rate data, so it seems very accurate, and it can flag if your blood pressure is starting to trend upwards.

Insulin Resistance Trend can also be found on both the Fitbit Air and the Google Pixel Watch 5. It's designed as an early detection tool, a non-invasive way to track whether your metabolic health is ticking along normally, using insights from your sleep, fitness, and manually-added nutrition data.

And naturally, as you're not looking at the screen of your Google Pixel Watch 5 while you're asleep, the fact that all the data is in the app makes no difference, whatever device you're using. It's also almost the same data, including sleep stages, duration, and AI insights into the quality of this sleep, but it doesn't have the Sleep Disturbances report, which is exclusive to the Google Pixel Watch 5, for now.

So the Google Pixel Watch 5 has the edge here, but for how much longer, as Google has provided Fitbit Air users with the same sleep data and similar health metrics?

Winner: Google Pixel Watch 5

Smartwatch features on the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is a smartwatch, so it's the better option for Android users looking for a digital assistant to help as much at home and in the office as in the gym. The Fitbit Air doesn't have a screen, so it lacks basically all smartwatch functionality.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is maxed out with Google connectivity. You can pay for a coffee with Google Pay, check out your calendar for the week, set a timer, use your camera remotely, make phone calls, return texts, and so much. Thanks to the improved integration with Gemini, you can also do most of these without touching a single button.

Proactive Suggestions takes into account key information like location, calendar, and messages to display what you actually need. For example, when I was testing the watch, I went to get on a train. My ticket popped up from the app so I could tap through the gate without getting my phone out.

Gesture-led actions came about on the Pixel Watch 3 but they are new and improved for the 5. You can pinch your fingers together to start and stop workouts, answer phone calls and text, and more.

Winner: Google Pixel Watch 5

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: Battery life

The Fitbit Air can last for seven full days and nights on a single charge. The Pixel Watch 5 lasts just 30 hours (on the 41mm option), which is a huge difference. Undoubtedly, the screen and smartwatch features are to blame for the difference, but it seems to be a persistent problem with smartwatches of this calibre. The Apple Watch Series 11 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 have it too.

It makes a difference in daily life. With the Pixel Watch, I found I had to keep taking it off to charge, which meant I didn't have it when I wanted to go for a workout, log steps, or go to sleep. 15 minutes on the charger can get you a full night of battery and more, but it's still a delay.

The Fitbit Air works quietly in the background, maintaining battery and ticking along.

Winner: Fitbit Air

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: Battery life

The Fitbit Air is £84.99, and the Google Pixel Watch 5 is £369, available from the Google Store or third-party retailers like Amazon.

Both are new devices, so I don't expect them to go on sale for a long while, but I'll keep an eye out for deals in the winter seasonal sales all the same.

This is obviously a huge difference - and that difference is reflected in the features. I remain impressed by the Fitbit Air. Its wearability, connectivity to the Google Health app and price are all excellent and offer real value in the world of £300+ fitness trackers. Gym lovers, step-count obsessives, and sleep trackers will be over the moon with it. However, it doesn't offer the vast array of features that the Google Pixel Watch 5 does, and if you're looking for any smartwatch capabilities (right down to setting a timer), then it will be the better option by miles.

Winner: Fitbit Air

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: Which is better?

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is the better all-round fitness tracker and smartwatch, with so many impressive features that I'd be here for hours going through them all. At £369 (with the optional £7.99 Google Health Premium subscription), it is a serious investment.

You can still buy the Google Pixel Watch 4, and it'll be cheaper than the newer model. It has many of the same smartwatch and health tracking features, given it also supports the new Google Health app. As a good middle ground, it's also worth having a look at the Fitbit Charge 6.

The Fitbit Air will be the better option for some people, however. If you're on a budget, you can't do much better for the insights this device offers - even with the free version of the Google Health app.

Overall winner: Google Pixel Watch 5

When you’re trail running or hiking for hours, the last thing you want is tired feet slowing you down, but a thick midsole isn’t always ideal for rough ground. In recent years, many trail shoes have adopted the higher midsole stack found in road running shoes, but without careful design, they can feel like you’re running on stilts.

I recently packed the plush Nike ACG Zegama Trail shoes for a trip to Chamonix, where I hiked and ran on steep and rocky trails for three days. I loved the combination of comfort and capability. With ultra-soft midsoles, a breathable upper, and great grip, I hiked and ran in comfort, whether I was facing hot sun or torrential rain.

As an outdoors journalist, hiker and trail runner, I’ve tested dozens of the best trail running shoes over the years – including a few from Nike – and ACG Zegamas really stand out. I can run or walk for miles in them without aching feet or rubbing. They’ve managed to cram in a lot of foam underfoot without making me feel totally disconnected from the trail. I might think twice about wearing them for running on very rocky trails, but for gravel roads and long days I can hardly think of a comfier shoe.

Nike ACG Zegama Trail review

Specifications

• Size range: 3 - 9.5
• Weight: 247g per shoe
• Stack height: 38 mm - 34 mm
• Heel-to-toe drop: 4 mm
• Lug depth: 4 mm
• Waterproof version available: Yes

What are the Nike ACG Zegama Trail shoes like for running?

I previously tested the Nike Zegama 2 trail shoes, and I found them to be a bit sweaty and lacking room for my high arches. The ACG (All Conditions Gear) model is a noticeable upgrade in both departments. As soon as I pulled them on, I was struck by how spacious and soft they felt underfoot.

I tested them in the white/orange colourway, which, like most Nike shoes, looks really nice, but I always have to question the wisdom of making trail shoes in white. As it turned out, my first jaunt in them ended with an alpine thunderstorm, and despite a good scrubbing, I now own these in brown/grey.

Nike has the super maximalist approach here, using 38mm of super soft ZoomX foam under the heel. It was enough cushion for me to comfortably run on the roads through Chamonix town centre to reach the trail. That said, it doesn’t behave exactly like a high-stacked road shoe, and that's not a bad thing.

Without a carbon plate, the foam feels quite soft rather than super springy, and even though it’s thick, the lack of a rock plate meant that I was still aware of the roots and rocks on the trail. The longest I’ve run in these in one go is 12k, so this hasn’t posed a problem and means I feel I can respond quite well to what I’m running on, but for longer distances I wonder if I’d start to regret the lack of underfoot protection?

It’s no secret that a very high stack shoe can feel a little wobbly, but the low heel-to-toe drop of just 4mm helps counteract the height and creates a much more stable feel that I really enjoy running in. The result is a smooth ride, and even though I’d still choose a more moderate shoe for very uneven trails, I’m not worried about turning an ankle on the level.

The fit is also much improved on previous editions, with tons of room around my toes for comfort. The pair I’m testing is a half size up from my normal size, but if I lace them up well, I can achieve a good fit around my midfoot for stability, and my heel stays locked in place, which definitely increases my confidence.

Another feature I like more than usual is the stretchy ankle cuff to keep grit and debris out. In other shoes, like the Keen Seek trail running shoes, I have to wrestle my foot in, but Nike has a big pull tab. This makes it really easy to put them on. They didn't rub even when my sock slipped down.

The cuff perhaps works better because it’s woven into a more traditional tongue and lacing system, which all works together to provide support without causing pain on the top of my foot.

They could use a lace garage - a spot to tuck away laces - as I find my laces come untied on overgrown trails, and they do lack a little protection around the toe box. I discovered this when I tripped on a tree root. That said, because I’m more likely to save them for straightforward trails and gravel paths, these technicalities shouldn’t pose a problem.

What are the Nike ACG Zegama Trail shoes like for hiking?

Chamonix’s trails are so steep that any run there involves quite a bit of hiking, which gave me a good opportunity to test out the versatility of these shoes, and though I wouldn’t necessarily have guessed it by looking at them, I think they are also among the best walking shoes.

The Vibram rubber outsole has deep lugs arranged in a multi-directional pattern, which meant I stuck to the trails even when they turned to slop in the rain as I was coming down a particularly steep, rooted section.

The uppers are mesh fabric on the outside, and a sock liner on the inside. I found that makes for a really breathable shoe on a hot day, but one that doesn’t feel as though my feet will freeze when the weather turns colder. They did get soaked through when I got caught in the rain, but that didn’t cause me any rubbing. I didn’t have any newspaper on hand to stuff them with, but they were only a little damp the next morning, and not unpleasant to wear again.

The roomy fit around the toe box is ideal for hiking. I find that the longer I’m on my feet, the more my feet swell, and I’m never worried about rubbing or pinching in these shoes.

Also, the very slight rocker sole means that when I did find reasonably flat sections, I was rolling through each step for a very nice, smooth experience. Honestly, the only thing that would give me pause about packing them for a hiking holiday is that they’re quite big. They take up more room in my suitcase compared to the Merrell Morphlite, for example. Saying that, they’re shoes I’d probably be happy to wear to the airport.

Who should buy the Nike ACG Zegama Trail shoes?

These shoes are on the heavier side. Though I didn't notice on the trail, I might not recommend them for racing or speed days. I think they’re a great pick for anyone enjoying longer runs on more straightforward trails, on a mix of trail and road, or who wants technical capability but won't sacrifice comfort.

If you’ve gone all in on the plush feeling of a maximalist shoe and want room for your toes to splay, you’ll really love the all-day comfort of these shoes. But as always, I’d warn you to watch your step on tricky terrain as so much stack could be an invitation to turn an ankle.

Are the Nike ACG Zegama Trail shoes worth buying?

Priced at £154.99, these shoes are a little cheaper than the Zegama 2s, objectively better, and quite competitive for such a technical pair of shoes.

You get a lot for your money, and as long as you’re clear that these are a plush ride for a long, slow day and not a snappy, responsive shoe, you’ll be very happy with them. Also, they look great.

It's been a big few weeks for the world of fitness trackers, and the Google Pixel Watch 5 is the latest to come across my desk. As woman&home's digital health editor, I've been testing these watches for the past six years.

While I've often included Google Pixel Watches in my round-up of the best Fitbits since they used the original Fitbit app to store and display health data, there's a new one now. The introduction of the Google Health app has brought them into a world of their own, and it's better than ever before.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 also comes with new and improved fitness insights, sleep monitoring, AI integration, and smartwatch features. It's truly an all-singing, all-dancing digital companion for every part of life. Now, if only they could make the battery last longer.

Google Pixel Watch 5 review

What is the Google Pixel Watch 5 like to wear?

The Google Pixel Watch 5 sits flush on the wrist. I tested the smaller 41mm option and found it to be very comfortable and unobtrusive during my daily life. For those who want a larger screen or have larger wrists, the device is also available in a 45mm option.

Each comes with a choice of two silicone bands. These interlock like the old-school Fitbit Infinity bands, so they feel secure and stay out of the way.

I've also tested the Google Pixel Watch 3 and Watch 4, so I immediately noticed that the design hasn't changed all that much. There are new watch faces to try - should you choose the Modular face, you'll find the display of steps, active minutes, heart rate, etc is clearer to read.

Fitness and workout tracking on the Google Pixel Watch 5

Since releasing the Google Pixel Watch 4, the brand has introduced Google Health. I first tested it on the Fitbit Air and was very impressed by the new health and fitness features. For example, with the Premium subscription, you can use Gemini to create a workout plan based on your goal, and the weekly overview will prescribe workouts to follow. It's a genuine improvement. Rather than simply logging workouts, it tells you how to improve your routine and actually improve your fitness.

I took the watch out running a few times as well, and I found it clearer to read than many other devices. I also liked how you can customise the data screens to display the information you want first.

When the Google Pixel Watch 5 launched, I heard about a strength training feature that would let you take a workout suggestion (or create your own) and send it to your watch. You'd be able to log reps and sets and follow along with the workout, as you can already with the cardio workouts. Google says this is launching in September, so I'm keeping an eye out, as this will be the first smartwatch of the calibre to do so.

My only comment would be that watches like the Coros Pace 4 have been doing this for ages, and even better, you can start a workout on your watch and record the reps, sets, and rest time. With strength training more popular than ever before, it seems like a miss from such a tech giant.

The GPS tracking has also improved for city dwellers like myself, with double the accuracy in urban environments. While you may be better off with a Garmin watch in the deep countryside, for trails and city running or walking, this is a big win. I like to run through areas with high-rise buildings, and where many of my running watches have lagged or completely disconnected from GPS, this one held firm.

Sleep tracking on the Google Pixel Watch 5

Sleep tracking features on the Google Pixel Watch 5 mostly sit in line with previous models, but they are more accurate - by as much as 15% for sleep stage accuracy, according to the brand. There's also a Smart Wake Alarm. With this, the watch buzzes to wake you up at the ideal time in the morning based on your sleep stages.

There's also a new feature that provides insights into your breathing patterns during the night. The Sleep Breathing Quality metric in the Google Health app is useful if you're concerned about conditions like sleep apnea. While it can't diagnose, it will flag breathing disturbances and create a monthly overview of patterns, which you could then take to your doctor.

You'll see standard insights, including duration and quality of sleep, too. The design of the Google Health app makes viewing all of these easy to understand, even if you're totally new to tracking your sleep.

Smartwatch features on the Google Pixel Watch 5

What makes the Google Pixel Watch a great choice for Android users and the natural pick for anyone with a Google phone is its smartwatch features. Almost anything I can do with my Google Pixel 11 phone (which came out at the same time as the watch), I can do on my watch. This includes making a phone call, texting, using third-party apps like Spotify through my workout headphones, setting an alarm, or creating a route on Google Maps. It even has a torch.

Naturally, Gemini and the Google Pixel Watch 5 go hand in hand. While the AI companion was introduced on the previous version, it's improved here massively and has become scarily helpful. Proactive Suggestions is the biggest upgrade in my view. This takes into account key information like location, calendar, and messages to display what you actually need. For example, when I pulled up to the train station recently, my ticket popped up from the app on my watch so I could just tap through the gate without having to get my phone out.

It's also more hands-free than previous models. Gesture-led actions are something that many smartwatches have done before, but I've only ever really used them when testing previous models of this watch. I started using them more on this device, and then I used them for everything I could. Most often, I raised my wrist to speak to Gemini, gave it instructions (like 'Open a running workout') and then pinched to start it, pause it, and end it. I found my pacing and distance were more accurate than if I'd stopped and done it manually.

It might not sound like much, but when I started doing it in everyday life, it was game-changing. For example, one time I replied to an urgent text, hands covered in banana bread batter, without having to wash my hands, find my phone, and reply.

Of course, all of this requires setting up. I did have to play with the functions for a while, and some can be frustrating to set up if you're not so tech-savvy.

What's the downside of the Google Pixel Watch 5?

The Google Pixel Watch 5 in the 41mm case has up to 30 hours of battery life with typical use and always-on display, and up to 48 hours in Battery Saver Mode. The larger design offers up to 40 hours with normal use and 72 hours in the lower power mode.

It's more than the Apple Watch Series 11, but still, it's not good enough. Regardless of size, you still get less than two full days of regular use. I felt like my watch spent more time on the charger than on my wrist. I had to take it off to charge it regularly, leaving steps, workouts, and nights of sleep untracked.

The day someone creates a device with at least a week of battery life and the full suite of smartwatch and fitness tracking features, I'll give it five stars.

That said, I wouldn't let the battery put you off buying the device. It is the only downside I found during my week of testing, and it has more battery life between full charges than similar smartwatches. You can also get about 15 additional hours with just 15 minutes on the charger, which is impressive.

The w&h verdict: Is it worth upgrading to the Google Pixel Watch 5?

If you're looking to upgrade from a Fitbit, a Google Pixel Watch 3, or you want a smartwatch to pair with your Google phone, then it's certainly worth the jump. At £369, this device sits on par with other premium smartwatches.

If you're using the Google Pixel Watch 4, I'd do a serious deep dive into what updates you can install to use some of the newer features on your older device. You will be able to get some, but not others. For example, the new strength training feature will only likely be available on the Watch 5.

Many features are available on the Google Fitbit Air - the only fitness tracker I've given a 5-star review to. It's a fitness tracker rather than a smartwatch, and it's a band, so it doesn't have a face. You'll lose out on a lot of functionality, right down to the basics like telling the time. However, it is worth comparing for price and the features you want.

New insulin resistance features for early detection (rather than monitoring diabetes) and blood pressure monitoring are also new to this watch in the Health Guardian features, a plus for those monitoring health conditions.

I've loved using this smartwatch over the past week. The AI functions don't feel forced, and they are not complicated to use once you get going - same with the rest of the watch. It fits seamlessly into everyday life, and all are optional.

The solution to living healthier and for longer? Strength training. Lifting weights has been proven time and again to be the route to improved strength, mobility, and flexibility, all important to stay independent with age.

Few people know this more than Jo Whiley. She spoke to expert PT and strength coach Kate Oakley, who works exclusively with women in midlife and menopause, on a recent episode of Dig It, alongside fellow host Zoe Ball.

"I use strength training as an umbrella term. If your goal is to get stronger, strength training is it. All you're trying to do is give your bones work to do. Bone density is declining from our 30s. You don't need barbells, pull-up bars, and the stuff you see all over social media. You can honestly start with a couple of pairs of dumbbells at home and some resistance bands," says Kate.

It's "never too late" to start strength training, she says, and notes that she works with women in their 80s who are picking up weights for the first time. "It's never too late to start, but I would say to start safely and carefully. Don't go from zero to 45 minutes, three or four times a week. Start with 10 minutes, and feel that strength build."

Body weight exercises will be the right starting point, or, "if you feel ready", using a set of dumbbells.

Exercises to start strength training over 60

1. Squats

Kate says that squats are "absolutely top of the list" when starting strength training over 60. "It mimics the movement we need every day. When I start up and sit down from a chair, that's a squat. When we're thinking about older age, we want to be able to get out of bed, out of a car," she says.

There will be a squat variation that works for all women, she notes, even if you think you can't do the exercise.

How to do a squat:

• Stand shoulder-width apart, hands by your sides. If you feel confident, hold your weights.
• Bend your knees and come down as if you were sitting on a chair behind you, making sure to track your knees over your toes.
• Push through your feet to return to standing.

Expert tip: Raise your heels on a set of dumbbells or a few coffee table books, says Kate. "You'll actually be able to get into that squat position because sometimes it's about your ankle mobility or the length of your femur. It's not that you're doing anything wrong or that your body's weird. You just need to find the right squat for you.”

2. Chest press or press-up

You don't need to do a full upper-body dumbbell workout to build strength in your arms, back, chest, or shoulders. Kate recommends doing simple exercise snacks like a tricep or chest press against the kitchen counter while waiting for the kettle to boil. You could also do them against the wall.

"Just keep the elbows in close and push up from the counter. Say you can do 10 one week, maybe the next week you can do 12," says Kate.

How to do it:

• Place your hands against a wall or kitchen counter - any stable surface - and take a step backwards. Stand shoulder-width apart.
• Slowly and controlled, bend your elbows to bring your chest to the surface.
• Push through your hands to come back to standing.
• Repeat the movement.

Expert tip: The higher you take your hands, the easier a tricep press will become, says Kate. If you find you can press away from a kitchen counter, try the press movement against a wall.

Keeping your arms closer together will target more of the triceps (back of the arms). Widening the arms will target more of the muscles in the chest and shoulders.

3. Wall sits

You can even do strength training while brushing your teeth. A wall sit is one of the better quadriceps exercises and glute exercises. If you can do it even for half the time you spend brushing, you'll see serious progress in a few months.

Here's how to do it:

• Rest your back against a wall, drop into a seated position with your hands together in front of your body (or by your sides).
• Make your hips stay facing forward, and your knees stay in line with your toes.
• Try to keep the position for at least 30 seconds.

Benefits of strength training over 60

• Improves bone density and muscle mass: Bone density begins to decline in our 30s, and we start losing muscle mass during perimenopause. It's important to build these up to stay "living the life we want", says the PT.
• Avoids muscle wastage: Jo shares that she's noticed her body change a lot over the last six months, as she hasn't had much time to go to the gym. Kate says that strength training can help avoid this.
• Improves posture: Growing strength in your chest and shoulders will naturally improve your posture and prevent (or minimise) any "humps" or slouching. The best exercise to do is a chest press, shoulder press, or a push-up against the kitchen counter, says Kate.
• May help alleviate aches, pains, and joint issues: "It can feel counterintuitive to start strength training, but actually it can really help," she says. Jo also shared how she has continued exercising with arthritis. "If you've got issues with your knees, if you build strength in your quad muscles (thighs) and glutes (buttocks), then that can really support your knees."

If you are concerned about your ability to strength train safely, speak to a certified physiotherapist and/or qualified personal trainer, who will be able to create a routine that works for you.

Strength training is the gold standard lower-body workout. Whether with your body weight or a set of weights, resistance exercise is key to boosting strength, stability, and bone density as we age.

It's not about all or nothing, though. Different workouts complement your strength training, cardio, or flexibility-focused exercise to create a rounded approach to fitness. A good Pilates workout at home can be one of them.

"While it’s well known for developing core strength, one of the things I love about Pilates is that it works the body as a whole. The core provides a stable foundation, which allows us to work the lower body with greater control and precision," says Pilates instructor and founder of LIM Studio, Isobel Palmer.

A lower-body Pilates workout also works the legs in a really "well-rounded way", she says. "Rather than focusing only on the larger, more obvious muscles, exercises can recruit the smaller stabilising muscles around the hips, knees, ankles, and feet, too."

Lower-body Pilates workout

1. Side-lying leg raises

A side-leg exercise targets muscles around the side of the hip, including the smaller muscles in the glutes (buttocks). "These play an important role in stabilising the pelvis and supporting good lower-body alignment," says Isobel.

Here's how to do it:

• Come down onto your yoga mat and lie with your legs straight, stacked on on top of the other.
• Put your top hand on the floor for balance and rest your head on your lower arm.
• Lift your top leg towards the ceiling. When it reaches hip height, lower it back down.
• Keep all movement slow and controlled.
• Repeat the exercise 8 times on each side.

2. Lunges

Lunges help build strength in the quads and glutes while also challenging balance and stability. "Because you're working in a split stance, they ask the body to control movement through the hips, knees, and ankles while maintaining stability through the pelvis and core," says the instructor.

Here's how to do a lunge:

• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, holding your weights or with your hands on your hips.
• Take a step forward. If you struggle with balance, take the foot out wider.
• Lower your hips until your front and back knee are bent at 90 degrees. Make sure your hips are straight on and your knee sits over your ankle.
• Come down until your back knee hovers slightly above the floor.
• Push through your front foot to return to standing.
• Repeat the movement 8 times on both sides, then switch.

3. Glute bridges

The glute bridge is a classic glute exercise, but it also builds pelvic stability. "Once a regular bridge feels strong and controlled, progressing to a single-leg variation increases the challenge considerably and asks each side of the body to work independently," says Isobel.

Here's how to do a glute bridge:

• Lie flat on your back, placing your feet flat on the floor in front of your buttocks.
• Engage your core and press your lower back into the floor.
• Push through your heels, lift your hips off the floor.
• Make sure your head, back, and glutes form a straight line.
• Clench at the top and hold for a couple of seconds.
• Slowly lower your hips back to the ground.
• Repeat the movement 8 times.

4. Calf raises with a Pilates ball

The calves might be among the smaller muscles in the legs, but they are two of the most powerful as the muscle helps pump blood back up towards the heart. Weak calves are also responsible for many runners and cyclists' injuries.

For the calf raise exercise, Isobel says she likes "placing a small Pilates ball between the ankles as it can help prevent you from simply rolling out through the ankles and allows you to target the calf muscles more effectively".

Here's how to do it:

• Stand tall on your yoga mat with your feet hip-width apart. Place a Pilates ball between your ankles to help with this.
• Slowly rise onto the balls of your feet.
• Pause at the top to squeeze your calf muscle.
• Slowly, lower your heels back down.
• Repeat 8 times.

What are the benefits of a lower-body Pilates workout?

• Builds strength and stability together: "What’s particularly valuable is the variety of muscle recruitment," says Isobel. "Squats and lunges, for example, can develop strength in the quads and gluteus maximus, while the Pilates side-leg series can target the gluteus medius and other muscles that stabilise the pelvis and hip."
• Focuses on alignment and control: "By creating stability through the core and paying attention to how the feet, ankles, knees and hips are working together, we can perform lower-body exercises more effectively," she says.
• Great for beginners: "I think of it as building strength from the ground up: the feet create the foundation, the core provides stability, and from there we can really challenge the legs," she says.

Regular exercise is key to staying healthy, but experts go back and forth on the type of exercise that's most efficient for our bodies - and they want to find out how little of it we can do for the most benefits possible.

A new study has found that just a few minutes of sprinting can be more beneficial for the heart than longer workouts.

The team at Rockefeller University examined how participants’ bodies responded to exercise performed at different intensities and for different amounts of time. They took blood samples before, immediately after, and three hours after two groups of participants did six 30-second cycle sprints or a moderate cycling workout for an hour and a half.

The sprints appeared to change nearly a quarter of the proteins measured in the blood immediately after exercise. This compared with just 0.25% in those cycling moderately. Moderate treadmill workouts affected more proteins than cycling, but the result was still lower than for the short sprint session.

The results, published in Cell Reports Medicine, showed that the sprints changed more than 200 metabolites (small molecules produced during and at the end of metabolism) and increased levels of key proteins involved in blood vessel growth, tissue remodelling and hormonal signalling within our bodies.

The experts then tested how human fat cells responded to the blood collected after sprinting. Using data from 53,000 participants in the UK Biobank, they found that the proteins were associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, including type 2 diabetes. The results showed that only three proteins associated with a lower risk were affected by moderate exercise, compared with 32 changed by sprinting. Over a quarter of those were also linked to slower biological ageing.

"What's exciting here is that just a few minutes of intense exercise can trigger a significant molecular response," says one of the study’s authors, Paul Cohen. "And we still see it after eight weeks of training, which tells us this response isn't simply a product of the body struggling to keep up with unfamiliar stress. It may be that the responses we observed are intrinsic to intense exercise."

Unfortunately, the study was only done on men. The authors say future work is needed to see how it affects both sexes and people who aren’t as physically active. But the findings are further proof that you don't need hours of exercise to see benefits. Jumping on for a quick workout can have benefits. Every little helps when it comes to improving heart health.

What is sprinting?

Before you pull on your running shoes, it's important to know what counts as sprinting. To be sprinting, you need to push yourself to at least 80% of your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age).

You can judge this by feel - it should feel hard and impossible to keep up for more than a minute at best. 30 seconds is about average. Alternatively, one of the best fitness trackers will display your live heart rate and zones, so you'll know when you're in the right one.

Everyone's sprinting speed, whether on the treadmill, bike, or rowing machine, will be different. It's based on your own fitness level, so focus on your own heart rate.

If you have any joint concerns, take to the stationary bike or rower and stay away from the treadmill. Before taking off, do a gentle warm-up for at least 5 minutes and make sure you can use the machine safely.

If you are unsure of how to start sprinting safely, in the gym or outside, speak to a certified personal trainer.

Protein has taken over the headlines in recent years, and so there's a chance we're all stocking up on this nutrient. But in doing so, one has gone under the radar until very recently.

Fibre is a key nutrient for keeping our digestive systems working healthily, lowering our cholesterol levels, and controlling our blood sugar levels. Much like protein, foods rich in fibre are also more filling than others.

Low fibre intake is something woman&home's resident GP, Dr Amir Khan, sees frequently in his patients, yet it's so easy to get enough fibre in your diet if you know the right food swaps to make.

“Kiwi fruit is one of those fruits we often overcomplicate because most of us peel them. But in fact, eating the whole fruit, including the skin, can give you an extra nutritional boost,” he says.

The skin on a kiwi is particularly rich in insoluble fibre. He explains this “supports gut health and helps keep things moving, something that many people struggle with, especially as we get older”. In fact, he says eating the fruit with the skin on will give us 50% more fibre.

A kiwi's fibre is particularly effective at easing digestive discomfort. It increases the volume of our stools, triggers bowel contractions, and increases water content in the gut, softening the stools. For a comfortable toilet trip, this is what you want.

It's thought that 96% of people in the UK don't eat enough fibre, leaving themselves potentially open to constipation, blood sugar spikes, and weight gain in the short term. In the long term, bowel cancer and other gut-related diseases are a risk.

Obviously, there’s a good reason why some people choose not to eat the fuzzy, tough skin. It’s not as sweet and juicy as the green fruit itself, and some people may find it makes their tongue itch or feel uncomfortable. “Of course, the texture of the skin can take some getting used to,” says Dr Khan. “If you’re trying it for the first time, go for golden kiwi fruit. This tends to have smoother, less fuzzy skin. Always give them a good wash.”

Skin-on kiwi also contains antioxidants, including vitamin C and polyphenols, which can help reduce inflammation and support immune health. With winter approaching, this is particularly important.

The fruit may even help you sleep better, the doctor says. “Another interesting benefit of kiwi fruit, skin on or off, is their natural content of melatonin, the hormone that helps regulate our sleep-wake cycle,” he explains.

This study in Nutrients found that eating kiwifruit two hours before bed positively impacted the sleep and recovery of elite athletes. It also found that the folate in kiwis may help with insomnia and restless leg syndrome, which also improves sleep quality. All of this is good news for women who are dealing with perimenopausal sleep issues.

If you have any concerns about your gut health or other symptoms, speak to your doctor, who can diagnose your personal situation.

Anne Hathaway has had a busy few years, making her a huge comeback in roles like The Devil Wears Prada 2, The Odyssey, and Verity, Coleen Hoover's book adaptation due to be released in October. The 43-year-old is looking fit and healthy, with her third child on the way.

Monique Eastwood is the personal trainer behind Anne Hathaway's workouts over the years. Her unique blend of Pilates, strength training, and barre exercises comes from her background as a former professional dancer.

While she has many go-to exercises, she told Women's Fitness there's one move she never leaves out. "I love bodyweight moves like the plank, and you'll always see one in my sessions. It's a fantastic way to build core strength," she says.

Monique, 59, knows how important it is for women to maintain flexibility and muscle mass with age to live healthily and independently for longer. “We all need to be able to hold our own body weight and get off the floor,” she says. “I focus on functional strength.” That's where the plank comes in.

What is the plank?

The plank is an incredibly popular bodyweight exercise which can strengthen your core and improve your balance and stability. Some love it, others loathe it, but incorporating it into your exercise routine will bring many strength and mobility benefits, as well as helping prevent injury.

Here's how to do a classic plank:

• Start on all fours on a thick mat, with your hands positioned directly under your shoulders and knees under your hips.
• Stretch your legs straight behind you. Keep your knees off the ground and your toes flat to the mat.
• Inhale and exhale slowly, while drawing your belly button in and squeezing your glutes.
• Keep your hips up to avoid any sagging in your lower back, and maintain a straight line from your head to your toes.

If you’ve never done a plank before or have any injuries, you can do a half plank on your knees, which won’t put strain on your lower back. You can also do an elevated plank, with your hands resting on a bench if that’s easier.

Variations on the plank include side planks, plank rows with weights, plank with shoulder taps and plank with hip dips.

Benefits of a plank

Even if you can only manage 20 seconds each time, there are lots of benefits to doing the plank exercise regularly. In fact, a study in the European Journal of Sports Science found that doing plank training three days per week for 12 weeks had major benefits.

These include:

• Changes your body composition by increasing muscle mass.
• Improves your cardiovascular fitness by lowering your heart rate, decreasing activity in the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) and increasing parasympathetic nervous activity (rest and digest).
• Improves your posture by strengthening your back, chest and shoulder muscles.
• Improves core strength, both in the abdominals, obliques and back muscles.
• Improves your flexibility by lengthening your hamstrings and foot muscles. Side planks with an overhead arm stretch give a great stretch along the sides of your body.
• It's easy to modify because there are lots of variations to make planks both easier and harder.
• Helps with functional fitness, such as bending, reaching, and carrying, which we all do in our daily lives.
• You can do it at home, on holiday or in a gym. No special equipment or space needed.

Monique, who also trains British star Emily Blunt, doesn’t want fitness to be complicated and off-putting. She recommends making movement part of your everyday life rather than something formal you feel guilty about if you don’t fit it in.

“Start small, build gradually, do activities you enjoy and eat to nourish your body,” she says.

At points this summer, even the thought of wrestling on a sports bra has been enough to keep me away from the gym. I'm finally looking forward to exercise making a workout feel hard, not the heat.

One of my favourite ways to get back in the swing of things is to spruce up my workout wardrobe, even with just a small accessory. That's how I found my way to the Sweaty Betty website this weekend, where there's a 25% off sale. After a little digging, however, I found deals on favourites like workout leggings, coats, tops, and accessories for more like 50% or 60% off.

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Researchers reviewed more than 180,000 postmenopausal women in the UK, creating the largest study on the potential link between HRT and dementia risk.

They found that those who had used HRT for at least one year were 10% less likely to develop any type of dementia and 16% less likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's, in comparison to those who had never used it. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia.

The results, published in Alzheimer's and Dementia, found women using HRT who had undergone surgical menopause and women carrying the APOE4 gene saw the greatest risk reduction, with a 26% lower risk of developing any type of dementia.

Women who started the hormone replacement therapy between the ages of 46 and 56 also saw the greatest benefit, which is when many women will go through menopause.

"While HRT has long been prescribed primarily to relieve menopausal symptoms, such as hot flushes and night sweats, this work suggests it may also play a role in long-term cognitive health for some women," says Professor Anne-Marie Minihane, who led the study as the director of the Norwich Institute for Healthy Ageing at the University of East Anglia.

The study doesn't prove that HRT prevents dementia. There could be several factors that play into why some women's risk of developing dementia is lower than others, regardless of the therapy.

It's still great news for women who are thinking about using HRT now or in the future and can do so, but what if you can't or don't want to?

Many women use HRT alternatives to treat issues like hot flushes and night sweats, as some conditions rule out the possibility of taking the therapy, including a history of hormone-sensitive cancers like breast cancer.

What if you can't take HRT?

For now at least, HRT isn't recommended for preventing dementia. Several lifestyle habits have been proven time and again to boost brain health and lower the risk of dementia by as much as 45%, per a study in The Lancet.

Dr Amir Khan is an NHS GP and woman&home's own resident doctor. He took to Instagram in light of the news and shared some ways women can look after their brain health, no HRT required.

1. Move your body

"Physical inactivity is one of those recognised risk factors. We know regular exercise helps your cardiovascular system, your blood vessels, and your metabolic health, all of which matter to your brain," says the doctor.

He suggests aiming for about 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week. That could include a walking workout on your lunch break, dancing in the kitchen, gardening, or simply getting your heart rate up throughout the day with small changes to your routine. For example, you could take the stairs at the office, rather than going in the lift.

"Any movement counts, but get some strength training in there as well," he says.

2. Look after your heart

What's good for your heart is generally what's good for your brain, says Dr Khan. "Make sure your high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, all of those things are being well managed."

The Lancet study highlighted that high LDL cholesterol in midlife is a risk factor for dementia, so get to know your heart health baselines from your 40s at least, he says.

3. Check your hearing

Losing your hearing, particularly in your 50s and 60s, is one of the recognised potential risk factors for dementia that can be improved with medical help, such as a hearing aid. It's one of the most undervalued ways to lower your risk.

"There are probably several reasons for this, including the extra work your brain has to do to process sound and the fact that hearing loss can lead to people becoming socially isolated," says the doctor.

"Protect your ears from excessive noise. If you notice that your hearing has deteriorated, go and get it checked. Don't just put up with it."

4. Stay social

Much like any other muscle, you have to keep using your brain for it to work well.

Dr Amir Khan says that social isolation itself is a risk factor for dementia, "and there is evidence that people who remain mentally and socially active throughout life have lower rates of dementia."

As well as keeping in touch with friends, he suggests reading books regularly, handwriting regularly, and learning something new often.

"Just seeing your mates for a coffee or a drink absolutely counts as looking after your brain," he says.

5. Protect your head

Perhaps the most basic tip is to physically look after your head. The doctor says this includes wearing a helmet if you're cycling, taking any potential concussions seriously, and maintaining muscle strength and balance with age to help prevent falls.

"All of those things we can all do to reduce our risk of developing dementia," he says.

It's been a few years since the first smart ring was released. With a sensor on the palm side of your index or middle finger, these smart technologies have become a great replacement for chunky, sporty, traditional fitness trackers that you wear on your wrist.

The Ultrahuman Pro smart ring is one of the best smart rings for the technology and insights it delivers. You can get to know almost every ounce of yourself, from your sleep habits to the factors that could trigger a migraine. There is almost no end to what you can learn about yourself, with seemingly endless data at your fingertips. Could it be smaller and more manageable to wear? Absolutely.

I wore the Ultrahuman Pro ring to track my sleep, exercise, stress, and daily life habits over 17 days in the middle of the summer. You need two weeks to allow the ring to calibrate, so I saw the full range of features and insights.

Specifications

• Width: 8.2mm
• Thickness: 2.65mm
• Weight: 3.3 - 4.8g (depending on size)
• Battery life: Up to 15 days
• Charging time: 3 hours
• Material: Titanium
• Size options: 5 - 12

What is the Ultrahuman Ring Pro like to wear?

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro is bulky. At 2.65mm thick, 4mm in width, and weighing at least 3.3g depending on size, it's actually bigger than the older model, the Ultrahuman Ring Air. It took me at least a week of constant wear to get used to it. If we were in the early days of smart rings, I wouldn't think much about it. These days, however, there are rings that offer similar insights at a similar (or lower) price point and are significantly more comfortable to wear.

There's a noticeable cut-out where the sensor sits, ensuring it's always on the palm side of your hand, but it doesn't look premium. It also tells everyone you're wearing a smart ring. Some people won't mind that, but this stopped me from wearing it on some occasions.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro is made from titanium with a coating to protect it from everyday scratches. I would suggest, as with any smart ring, taking it off in the gym if you work out with dumbbells or a barbell. I scratched this ring (as I have done with others) on the rough coating of these weights.

On a positive note, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro colours are sleek. The design's matt finish does look premium, and the colour sits flush with my other gold jewellery. If it were thinner, as I'm sure it will become in future models, I'd have no issue with it.

Sleep tracking with the Ultrahuman Ring Pro

I wore the Ultrahuman Ring Pro every night for two weeks to delve deep into my sleep habits, and I've learnt more about myself at night than I have with almost any other device.

It records the essentials you'll find on almost every sleep tracker, like duration, sleep stages, and lowest heart rate point, and so much more. For example, Sleep Debt displays how much extra rest you need to get back up to your baseline after a few disrupted nights. Restfulness tells you how often you moved during the night. Restoration tells you how much sleep was actually restorative, so even when I slept for fewer hours than normal, I sometimes saw that I got all the rest I needed.

Usefully, at the bottom, you'll see the factors impacting your sleep. On a good day, I often saw that my heart rate dropped early, I had a full night's sleep, and I got to sleep quickly. After a bad night, I felt worse, but I learnt more. For example, if I had a low heart rate variability (HRV) overnight, that told me I hadn't recovered as much as I should have, so I start thinking about what I did during the day. Eating late at night, drinking alcohol, or doing intense exercise too late are all reasons for my low HRV scores.

It's a lot of information, and there aren't as many tabs explaining what each of the metrics means as there are on other devices, like the Coros Pace 4. But if you're already familiar with tracking your sleep and you want more information, you'll have a field day.

Fitness tracking with the Ultrahuman Ring Pro

You can start a workout in the Ultrahuman Ring Pro app, or link it with your Apple Watch, Fitbit, Garmin, record on this device and transfer the data to the Ultrahuman Ring Pro app. I tend to do this as I take the ring off in the gym to avoid scratches and I'm a runner. The ring obviously doesn't have a screen to get my distance and speed data.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro focuses on everyday movement over revealing the small details of your workout. Inactivity Time and Active Hours scores highlight the amount of time I spend sitting at my desk versus moving, whether that be exercising or simply standing and moving around the house. I can see how my daily step count compares to the population and, at the bottom, I can see factors affecting my activity score. This tells me where to improve. For me, I tend to do enough intense exercise but because of my desk job, I spend a lot of time sitting down. It's eye-opening.

The fitness insights on the Ultrahuman Ring Pro don't just tell you what you've done, they give you the data you need to improve your routine, unlike most fitness trackers or even specific running watches. On any given day, I can see what my body needs, written in a plain list.

Health tracking with the Ultrahuman Ring Pro

It was clear to me even in the first few days of using the Ultrahuman Ring Pro that health, not fitness, is the core value. After a night's sleep, you can see how your rest scores should influence your caffeine intake. You'll be told when to start winding down for bed and when to step outside for some daylight throughout the day, both based on your own body clock. It's all about gentle improvements that together make a big difference, rather than solely focusing on exercise, sleep, stress, and so on.

Jade is Ultrahuman's AI assistant. It's new and improved, and you can ask it to dig into your health data for answers. Recently, I wanted to know whether I was doing anything in my daily life that was stopping me from getting better sleep. One question and I got a full, fully explained rundown of my data history and points to improve. It's very impressive.

I wore this ring non-stop for two weeks and have spent hours looking at the data. I'd have to write a review the length of War and Peace to cover every metric I've looked into, and even then, I don't think I've seen them all. It's certainly one for those who want to optimise their routines for better health in a very serious way, right down to the nitty-gritty, or have a specific health concern.

PowerPlugs is a library of add-on metrics you can get for free or buy for between £2 and £5, per my research. These can help you optimise areas that you want to focus on personally. For example, you can get more data on your sleep, like how your screen time, jet lag, or caffeine intake impact your rest. If you frequently get migraines, there's a Plug to help you identify triggers.

You can also download other features through this platform, like a Smart Alarm to wake you up when you hit optimal sleep duration.

Even if you don't want or need all of the insights, you'll appreciate how the data you do want is presented. Graphics and information badges contextualise all of the data the smart ring takes, making it easy to understand.

Another thing worth noting is that the Ultrahuman Ring Pro has superior ovulation and menstrual health tracking compared to any other smart ring I've used. However, you have to pay extra. You can subscribe for £52.99 for two years' use or pay yearly at checkout when you buy the device.

It's also the only device I've seen that asks about parental status at sign-up, which impressed me. No other device I've tried takes children into account when analysing stress, sleeplessness or disrupted nights.

Accuracy and integrations

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro needs two weeks to calibrate before you can trust the data. I found that most of the fitness insights were accurate as soon as I started wearing the ring, but some, like sleep duration, were off by a fair amount. Mine consistently said I'd slept for 12 or 13 hours a night...I wish!

I used a baseline tracker (my Oura Ring 5) against the Ultrahuman Ring Pro, as I do with all the fitness trackers I test. Ultrahuman actually encourages you to do this by allowing connection to various devices so you can "train" the ring. Right now, you can only do it with your heart rate and with a Polar fitness tracker, but the app promised me that step count and connectivity to other devices were coming soon as well.

Although it's disappointing that the feature isn't live with the launch, it's a great sign. My main gripe with every smart ring is how inaccurate the step count is, as the device can pick up hand movements like waving or typing as steps. I hope this will solve this issue for Ultrahuman users.

You can connect your Ultrahuman ring to other fitness trackers, like your Apple Watch or Garmin Watch, or link it to your Apple Health or Google Fit app. If you're a Peloton user, you can link your ring directly to your bike or treadmill for live data, and if you use apps like MyFitnessPal, you can connect to these too for workout data.

Battery life and charging

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro offers a reliable 15 days of life between charges. If you don't pre-program your workout in the app, I've found you can get about 17 days, which is a huge benefit. There's nothing worse than having to take off your fitness tracker to charge it when you're supposed to be wearing it to bed.

This is good for any fitness tracker, with even some of the best Garmin watches struggling to reach this number of days between charges.

The ring charges in a cool metallic box that flashes a light and makes a sound when the ring connects. If you want to take the ring off and travel with it, it works as a handy storage case. The case charges with its own magnetic charging cable. When you wrap it up, the cable holds to itself and the case with magnets. Uniquely impressive for anyone like me who hates a tangled cable. Much like the ring itself, though, this is bulky, and the cable is about the same size as the charging case.

Price and availability of the Ultrahuman Ring Pro

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro is available to pre-order now for £429, with shipping starting from September 15. It's currently not available to buy from third-party retailers like Healf, but as it has stocked previous versions of the ring, I imagine this is to come.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro lists itself as a subscription-free tracker, and this is technically true. For those new to smart rings, it might come as a shock that you'd have to pay for anything beyond the ring, but some require you to buy the ring and then subscribe to access even basic metrics.

However, there are additional fees to use this ring to its full potential. There is an Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) detection feature, which can detect an abnormal heart rhythm for non-diagnostic purposes, but you have to pay extra for it. PowerPlugs cost money, and although Jade AI credits renew, you'll have to buy more credits to ask endless questions.

Is the Ultrahuman Ring Pro worth it?

The bulk of this ring is a real problem for me. Other smart rings are significantly less obtrusive to wear. While Ultrahuman's features and insights are hugely impressive, if you want to reliably track and improve your sleep, fitness, stress, and daily life habits, you won't need all of them. You do need to wear your smart ring comfortably.

That being said, it's an excellent tracker. This is the smart ring for those who want to dive into the minutiae of wellness. If you've already nailed exercising regularly, eating well, getting plenty of fresh air and sleep, and limiting disruptions like alcohol, and you're wondering what more you can do to optimise your routine, this ring has the insights you want.

At over £400, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro is pricey, but it sits level with similar devices. This is how much you can expect to pay for most smart rings. I hope they will get cheaper as the technology becomes more widely available.

Currently, as impressed as I am by the metrics on the Ultrahuman Ring Pro, I can't recommend it over the Oura Ring 5, which offers a great selection of sleep, fitness, and stress monitoring features - more than enough to keep an eye on and make changes to your health. They come in a similar readable format as well, but in a significantly more discreet and comfortable design.

For a cheaper option, the Oura Ring 4 is also a good choice, but this is thicker than the Ultrahuman Ring Pro, so I'd also weigh up the Oura Ring 4 vs Fitbit Air.

Julie Andrews' daily workout habits are proof that a good routine is hard to get out of, for all the right reasons. At nearly 91, she still exercises every day, with yoga workouts among her favourites over the last few decades.

"I have all my life worked out first thing in the morning or something like that - a little less so these days," she told Yahoo Life in 2024. In the same year, she said she felt like she was still in her 50s on an episode of Wiser Than Me.

"Honest to God, as long as the brain holds out, I'm doing okay. You know, and I don't feel bad at all now," she said.

While the star used walking workouts to improve her energy levels and fitness for roles on London's West End early in her career, she told woman&home that it's actually flexibility-boosting workouts that she's relied on to stay "supple".

Back in 2000, she told us: "I work out as little as I can for as much gain as I can. Yoga and a little bit of ballet. Only 30 or 40 minutes every other day. I keep supple for myself more than for roles."

Then, in 2024, she told AARP: "I'm a bit guilty in [the exercise] department now, but I do work out. I do a lot of breathing. I do yoga when I can".

Is yoga a good workout?

Doing yoga is a great way to strengthen muscles, ease joint aches, and improve cognitive function, yoga instructor Libby Stevenson told us when asked about the benefits of doing yoga over 50.

"To stay healthy and to continue enjoying a good quality of life, we need to be proactive in our health to counteract the effects of ageing on the body and mind through good nutrition, regular movement, stress management and getting quality sleep," she says.

Yoga is a bodyweight workout, so it can help beginners strengthen bones and muscles and keep the heart healthy. It also actively improves balance and coordination. "All of which have a positive effect on cognitive function," she says.

That said, while you can do yoga for strength training, most yoga will not protect the bones and muscles as well past menopause as traditional weighted workouts will. The NHS also recommends doing some cardio exercise, e.g. running, walking, cycling, for good health.

Try this 30-minute yoga workout

With exercises including the bird dog, downward-facing dog, the classic plank, and lunges, this is exactly the kind of yoga workout that can help boost strength, mobility, and flexibility if you do it a couple of times a week.

If you've ever woken up feeling sluggish, tired...and confused because you've got an excellent sleep score after clearly a bad night's sleep, you're not the only one. Not every tracker records heart rate variability (HRV), yet it's one of the most interesting metrics on a fitness tracker.

HRV is the tiny difference in time between each heartbeat. The nervous system, which is made up of the sympathetic branch (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest), controls it.

"Although your heart may be beating 60 times per minute, those beats are not perfectly evenly spaced. That variability provides useful information about how the autonomic nervous system is responding to stress and recovery," says Dr Mark Kovacs, a performance physiologist, researcher, and sport technology expert.

I started tracking my HRV when testing some of the best sleep trackers, and I've done it every night for the past year. It's given me insights into my sleep habits and health that I'd not seen before.

What is heart rate variability (HRV)?

Heart rate variability (HRV) is the time between heartbeats, says Dr Kovacs. "In general, a higher HRV relative to your baseline suggests great 'rest and recovery' activity, while a meaningful reduction can indicate your body is stressed or hasn't fully recovered," he explains.

HRV is recorded during REM sleep, and many sleep trackers will pick up on it, recording it alongside other important metrics, like how long you slept for, how long it took you to fall asleep, and any breathing irregularities.

"Sleep duration tells us how long somebody slept, and a sleep score generally combines several estimates about their sleep. HRV gives us something slightly different: insight into how the nervous system and cardiovascular system responded during that period of recovery," says Dr Kovacs, who leads the Kovacs Institute.

I started looking at my heart rate variability

I've been using the Oura Ring for well over a year - first the Oura Ring 4 and now the Oura Ring 5. These rings include HRV in the Readiness Score, but I drilled into the HRV feature alone. This is where I found the most interesting information. Every morning, while drinking my tea and with the previous day's activities fresh in my mind, I take a look at my overnight data.

For me, drinking alcohol before 7 pm doesn't impact my recovery that much, but after 9 pm, I tend to suffer. The same goes for exercise and eating. If I get back from a run late in the evening, after 8 pm, then I feel it overnight. Eating past 10 pm disrupts my sleep, and I don't wake up feeling as rested.

Any expert will tell you that alcohol, exercise, and eating late at night can impact your sleep, but this timing information is personal to me, gathered over a year of testing and experimenting. The results completely changed how I spend my evenings when rest is a priority.

Along with my evening plans, I use this data to plan my exercise routine for the week, more so than my general sleep score. If I've done a hard workout, my HRV will naturally be lower as my body struggles to recover. If that's the case, I'll plan an easier workout or slower run in the days afterwards, and I'll feel better for it. If I don't feel so tired, I'm more likely to exercise, and this has helped me be consistent in my exercise routine.

I'm also keeping a close eye on my HRV as we get closer to winter. A sudden drop in your overnight HRV can be a sign that you're getting ill before you even have symptoms. I saw it a few times at the beginning of the year, and while it's too late to stop anything, it gave me a day or so to stock up on zinc or rearrange my social plans for the week.

With this information, I felt I could make better choices for my weekly routine, with actually very little thinking required.

Having this data is "genuinely useful", says Dr Kovacs. "It encourages us to connect the number with what's happening in our lives. Think: What has changed in the past 24 to 72 hours? Did I train much harder? Did I sleep poorly? Am I under unusual stress? Do I feel as though I'm becoming ill?"

My chosen sleep tracker is the Oura Ring 5, but I've also tested my heart rate variability on the Ultrahuman Ring Pro, the Garmin Venu 4, and the Fitbit Air. All are different prices and have various functions, but they can all record HRV.

What does low heart rate variability mean?

Low HRV means something is up with your body. It could be that glass of wine too close to bedtime, late-night eating, or something more serious. "It can be indicative of poor sleep quality, since sleep fragmentation and brief awakenings can cause sudden spikes in heart rate, leading to a higher HRV," says Dr Chelsie Rohrscheib, a neuroscientist, sleep expert, and the head of sleep at Wesper.

"Individuals with certain sleep disorders may also see atypical HRV," she says. "Insomniacs may find their HRV is lower than expected, whereas individuals with sleep apnoea may have repeated spikes and dips in HR throughout the night."

One low HRV reading may not be a problem, says Dr Kovacs. "What becomes more interesting is when you see a consistent change over multiple nights, and it corresponds with other information, such as poorer overall sleep, unusually high resting heart rate, and reduced fatigue."

Smart devices, like fitness trackers, are not sensitive enough to detect or diagnose sleep disorders. But changes in heart rate, HRV, oxygen levels, or sleep patterns detected on one of these devices can provide useful clues, says Dr Rohrscheib. You can then take this information to your doctor.

If you are concerned about your sleep health, make an appointment with your GP or a dedicated sleep specialist.

How to improve heart rate variability

1. Focus on consistency

If you want to improve your overnight recovery, consistency is key, says Dr Kovacs. Try to get to bed and wake up at the same time every day.

"A late night followed by sleeping in for several hours isn't necessarily equivalent to maintaining a consistently good sleep routine. Think about sleep as something you train, just like physical fitness," he says.

2. Do a variety of exercise

Regular exercise is one of the best ways to improve your cardiovascular health, says the doctor, but challenging workouts add stress to the body and are harder to recover from than more moderate workouts.

"A good weekly program should combine cardiovascular exercise, resistance training and easier recovery days," he says. "If overnight HRV has been noticeably lower than normal for several days and you also feel unusually fatigued, that may be a useful signal to reduce training intensity temporarily rather than pushing through another very hard session."

3. Wind down before bed

“What happens during the final few hours before sleep can have a surprisingly large influence on overnight recovery," says Dr Kovacs, so create a bedtime routine that limits all kinds of stress.

"Alcohol is one of the first things I would look at because even when alcohol appears to help someone fall asleep, it can negatively affect overnight physiology and recovery," says the doctor. "Large meals immediately before bed, psychological stress and very late intense exercise can also keep the body in a more activated state."

A better night's sleep starts here – with the return of our Sleep Awards! Once again, we assembled our health and sleep experts along with our trusted Tester Network to put hundreds of products through their paces, from cooling mattresses and eco-friendly bedding to silent bedroom fans and sleep-tracking gadgets. Only the products that genuinely improved comfort, support and sleep quality for our testers has earned a place on our winners' list.

This year’s winners reveal a fascinating shift in how we sleep. You'll find everything here, from high-tech innovations like noise-blocking earplugs and a sleep-tracking ring, to luxurious bedding solutions including a temperature-regulating mattress protector. We’ve also discovered some brilliant budget-friendly buys that prove you don't have to spend a small fortune to wake up feeling more refreshed.

Ready to upgrade your sleep routine? Consider this your ultimate guide to what to buy for a better night's rest. Read on to discover the 2026 Sleep Awards winners.

Sleep Easy Award winners 2026

Bedding

Pillows & Pillowcases

Tech & Innovation Winners

Joe Wicks has been a constant on television screens and online over the last decade, holding our attention with dumbbell strength training workouts and easy-to-follow recipes. In recent years, he's turned his attention to helping women going through menopause who are looking to adjust their workout routine.

The Strength in Menopause series is four short workouts, available to view on YouTube and his Body Coach app. They've racked up half a million views over the past few months. Joe himself says the workouts are mood-boosting sessions designed to address some of the more common symptoms of menopause, like low energy, a slowing metabolic rate, and muscle and bone density loss.

Being low-impact and requiring minimal equipment, it looks promising to me. But are they worth trying? Or is it just another way to make money from menopause? I tried the first two workouts for a week to find out.

I tried Joe Wicks' menopause workouts

I’ve been doing strength training for a few years now. I started with a brilliant female PT, who helped me build confidence to go to the gym alone, so now I plan my own sessions. On first glance, with just five moves in each, I thought Joe Wicks' menopause workout would be a bit simple for me. How wrong I was!

These routines set my muscles on fire, and the dreaded DOMS set in for days afterwards - partly my fault for jumping in without a proper warm-up or cool down after being away from the gym for a while.

Speaking of jumping, there isn't any. These workouts are built around compound movements like squats and lunges that keep at least one foot on the ground at all times, which is great for beginners and those dealing with achy joints in menopause.

That being said, these workouts are still very much a challenge. Joe’s signature on-screen clock caught me out more than once. The (somewhat relentless) movement of 40 seconds on, 20 seconds off, continuous for 20 minutes, revealed how easy I'd been going on myself during my self-managed gym sessions. Clearly, my rest periods were getting a little too long. The workout was enough to raise my heart rate into zone 3, which is rare for my usual zone 1 or 2-only strength workouts.

The four workouts consist of two upper-body workouts and two lower-body workouts. On first go, however, because I had an hour planned for the gym, I attempted both workouts back-to-back. I only made it halfway through the second one before admitting defeat. The intensity was a little too much to do them back-to-back.

However, at just 20 minutes each, combining both gives you a full-body workout in 40 minutes. One workout alone is enough for beginners or for anyone returning to strength training after some time away.

The exercises in the menopause workout will be familiar to anyone who's done strength training before, but it was useful to have Joe shouting out form and technique tips through the workout. He reminded me to go slow and controlled, rather than just trying to get in as many repetitions as possible. It's better for building strength.

Most of all, you get Joe’s undeniably upbeat attitude and cheery encouragement throughout, as well as moments of realism. Even super-fit Joe has to drop a kilo or two when he finds himself struggling at times, assuring us that we too can swap the weights or even revert to bodyweight if that feels right.

What do the workouts involve?

Workout 1: Upper body

Have a pair of heavy weights and a pair of lighter weights to hand. Do each exercise for 40 seconds, with 20 seconds rest in between each.

• Bicep curls (with heavy weights): Lift each arm in turn, rotating each dumbbell as you pull up. Go slow and controlled rather than swinging them up and down.
• Shoulder press (heavy weights): Rest weights on your shoulder with elbows bent. Push up into full extension above your head, then take them back to your shoulders.
• Bent over rows (heavy weights): Hinge at the hips with a slight bend in the knee. Maintain a straight back (if this is tricky, don’t bend as low), and pull the weights up as you squeeze your shoulder blades together. Pause before dropping the weights down again, with control.
• Overhead tricep extension (lighter weights): Holding each weight behind your head, keep elbows tucked in. Then straighten arms to push the weights up overhead, and back down again.
• Lateral dumbbell raises (lighter weights): Take your arms out wide with a slight bend in the elbow, lift to shoulder height, then pause before slowly dropping back down.
• Repeat those five moves three more times (i.e. four times in total over 20mins).

Workout 2: Lower-body workout

Use one set of heavy weights for all moves. Do each exercise for 40 seconds, with 20 seconds rest in between each.

Here's how to do it:

• Sumo goblet squat (one weight): Take the legs wide, toes turned out, and with one heavy dumbbell in hand, squat down (remembering to keep your back straight) and push back up.
• Reverse lunges (right side): With a dumbbell in each hand and keeping an upright position, step the right leg back with knee dropping (but not touching) the ground. Return to centre before repeating.
• Reverse lunges (left side): Repeat as above with the left leg.
• Romanian deadlifts (RDLs): With a dumbbell in each hand and feet hip width apart, make a slight bend in the knees before hinging at the hips and sliding the dumbbells down your legs, before returning to standing. Push your glutes out as you bend, ensuring you maintain a straight back throughout.
• Dumbbell front squat (one or two weights): With a dumbbell in each hand and feet hip-width apart, squat down while keeping your back straight, before returning to standing. Switch to one dumbbell if two is a struggle.
• Repeat those five moves three more times (i.e. four times in total over 20mins).

Benefits of the Joe Wicks' menopause workout

1. Builds muscle and strength

Between the ages of 30 and 50, women lose three to eight per cent of their overall muscle mass each decade. This decline speeds up as oestrogen declines during menopause, with women over 50 experiencing a five to 10 per cent loss of muscle mass every decade. Lower levels of oestrogen also impact muscle repair and recovery. Luckily, you can slow this decline with strength training.

“Joe’s exercises work well here,” says Edwina Jenner, a personal trainer and strength coach specialising in fitness for over 40. “Squats, lunges and RDLs are compound moves that recruit a large amount of muscle in the legs and glutes. Strengthening our glutes, the biggest muscles in our body, matters, as modern life keeps us sitting so much.”

2. Improves bone health

Oestrogen is essential for maintaining bone strength, so when it declines in perimenopause and menopause, our bones weaken. It leaves us at higher risk of fractures. In fact, the Royal Osteoporosis Society estimates that one in two women over 50 will break a bone due to osteoporosis.

There are measures you can take to reduce the risk, such as HRT, a balanced calcium and vitamin D-rich diet, and exercise. “Strength training helps because bones respond to mechanical loading,” explains Edwina. “When muscles pull against bone while lifting weights, this provides a stimulus that helps maintain bone strength. Squats, RDLs and lunges are particularly useful, as they load the hips and lower body, and strengthen the muscles around them.”

Joe’s menopause workouts won’t provide everything you need to build stronger bones. Edwina recommends jump squats or walkout jump-ups as a good addition to your routine.

But she also says: "Not every woman needs to start jumping. Pelvic floor symptoms and joint issues can be common in midlife, so impact exercise needs to suit the individual."

3. Boosts energy levels

With hormonal changes leaving you feeling like a drained battery, it’s hard to muster enthusiasm for a workout. But exercise will give you that much-needed boost, pumping oxygen-rich blood around the body and brain, and in turn, activating the cell-based mitochondria that produce energy.

For a quick energy-boosting opportunity, Joe’s workouts are accessible at just 20 minutes. It doesn’t take loads of time or mental energy to get it done, says Edwina. “When you’re tired, a long, intense workout can feel like another mountain to climb: this is where Joe’s uncomplicated 20-minute format works really well.”

If motivation is low, focus on tangible outcomes. “Strength training [is about] getting stronger and seeing what your body can do, rather than always making exercise about weight loss. At this stage of life, we need to build a robust, strong body that carries us into the future and protects our independence and autonomy as we age,” adds Edwina.

4. Improves cardiovascular health

Improving cardiovascular health is crucial in midlife as oestrogen, which protects the heart, starts to decline, putting women at higher risk of heart disease and heart attack. Joe’s workouts are slow and steady, rather than full of HIIT-based moves, but that doesn’t mean your heart rate won’t rise (as I discovered).

Commenting on Joe’s routines, Edwina says, “Repeated squats and presses with a challenging pair of dumbbells for 40 seconds, with only 20 seconds of recovery, can send your heart rate climbing considerably.”

Strength training alone isn’t enough to fully replace aerobic exercise, however. Ideally, women should do both.

5. Increases confidence and mood

Low mood and anxiety can be common in perimenopause and menopause thanks to fluctuating hormones. Add in lack of sleep, aching joints and an overwhelming schedule, and mood can worsen. Time and again, research has shown that exercise, which releases endorphins, dopamine and all the other feel-good hormones, can go a long way in lifting us, even when we really don’t feel like doing it.

In fact, a review published in Psychiatry Research found that strength training had, according to numerous studies, a moderate to significant antidepressant effect on people with depression.

Joe has long been an advocate for the mental health benefits of exercise, and that’s emphasised here in his menopause series. As Joe says in workout one, “Regardless of what stage of life you’re in, you’ll always feel better after exercise.”

Are Joe Wicks' menopause workouts worth doing?

Yes, I found Joe Wicks' menopause workouts to be challenging and time-efficient, equally as good for beginners as those who've been working out for a while, since each exercise can be progressed up or down.

Despite his popularity, Joe hasn’t been immune to criticism in the past, and the same goes for his menopause workouts. Some may view these sessions as a cynical ploy to tap into a large, health-aware, midlife audience (‘how can a 40-year-old man relate to the menopausal experience?’, some have said), but I believe that’s unfair.

Sure, coaching by a midlife female PT adds an extra layer of empathy and understanding, but when you solely focus on the movements, they are beneficial for women experiencing perimenopause.

PT Edwina believes Joe's got it right. “Joe Wicks has put together a well-rounded, simple and accessible 20-minute workout routine that removes a key barrier to exercise: finding the time. The format builds confidence without constantly changing sets, which is reassuring for women new to lifting," she tells me.

What's more, he sticks to the essentials. "[Effective] strength training is really about ‘rinse and repeat’: repeating the same movements builds confidence and technique rather than requiring you to learn something new. The basics, done well and repeated consistently, then made progressively more challenging, are what ultimately builds strength,” she explains.

Joe seems genuinely keen to learn more about perimenopause and menopause, and how fitness could improve women’s physical and mental health with age. He also brings his extensive fitness knowledge, encouragement and ‘can-do’ attitude to these exercises, reminding us to “keep believing in yourself”.

Tips for doing Joe Wicks' menopause workouts

• Practice progressive overload: You can't continue to build muscle unless you make your workouts harder over time. “If you can comfortably finish each 40-second interval, your weights are too light. The final reps should feel hard while form stays good," says Edwina.
• Experiment with weight on the first try: I found that I could go heavy on squats and bicep curls, medium for overhead presses, but much lighter on tricep extensions and lateral arm raises.
• Don’t skip the warm-up or cooldown: Even if you’re a seasoned lifter, these (seemingly simple) dumbbell workouts will leave your muscles burning if you don’t prep your body properly, particularly if you’re returning to exercise after prolonged time out from your routine. Gentle stretching, a roller and a massage gun can help here.
• Listen to your body: A bad night’s sleep, poor nutrition, stress. Add hormonal fluctuations into the mix, and you know that how fit and strong you feel can differ greatly, day by day. Edwina says, “On tired or low-energy days, you can still train using lighter weights. It’s about meeting your body where it’s at. Consistency matters far more than smashing every session.”

As we age, we have to adapt the way we exercise and strength train to avoid injury and protect our bodies. This is something DJ and presenter Jo Whiley has been finding difficult as she enters her 60s.

Speaking on the Dig It podcast to fellow host Zoe Ball, Jo admits: "I find it very, very frustrating, the things that I can't do. There's just something in my head that doesn't want to accept that I'm not capable of doing things that I used to."

In the recent episode, the pair speak to strength coach Kate Oakley, who specialises in training menopausal women. She's a huge advocate for women staying strong and active as they age. "We need to be strength training in midlife [to] work on our bone density and our muscle mass, which is declining from perimenopause onwards," explains Kate.

During the conversation, Jo discusses how she's adapted and learnt how to exercise with arthritis after her diagnosis. The condition makes it difficult for her to bend her fingers to hold and grip dumbbells. She tells Zoe and Kate that she has been working with a personal trainer called Adam for over a decade. He has been helping her to adapt her training.

“[My body] has really changed in terms of the ailments that have come along,” she says, before adding that Adam is “constantly telling me different angles to hold things at, different ways to grip onto things. So I can vouch that there are ways that you can adapt your routine. There are different ways around it”.

Woman&home has asked physiotherapists and pain management specialists how to continue exercising with arthritis.

How to continue exercising with arthritis

1. Start lighter

Most people will find they can improve their strength, mobility, and stability with bodyweight exercises or very low resistance, says Nicola Michell, an APA-titled pain physiotherapist with a master's degree in pain management.

"Exercise adaptations for hand or wrist arthritis can include using no resistance at all," she says. "We can make the exercise harder with slow, controlled repetitions, shorter breaks and more repetitions if needed. Think Pilates-style movements where higher repetitions, little pulses, and layers provide the load."

2. Alter your grip

As Jo says, you can still do strength workouts with weights even with arthritis, but you may need to adjust how you hold the dumbbells.

"With arthritis in the fingers or hands, the main aim is often to reduce how tightly the fingers need to close around the weight while still allowing the person to train," says Helen O'Leary, a chartered physiotherapist and clinical director of Complete Pilates.

You can do this in a few ways, she says:

• Make the dumbbell handle thicker: "Wrap a towel, foam tubing or a grip sleeve around the handle. A larger diameter means the fingers do not have to curl as tightly, which can be much more comfortable for painful finger joints."
• Use a relaxed grip: "The dumbbell only needs to be secure; constantly squeezing it as hard as possible adds unnecessary load through the finger and thumb joints," says Helen.
• Try using a lifting strap or grip-assist cuffs: "For exercises like rows, deadlifts, or carries, straps can transfer some of the load from the fingers into the wrists/forearm."
• Use weights with wider, softer hands: "Rubberised or padded handles can be more comfortable than narrow, hard metal ones," she says.

3. Change the weight

That being said, Nicola says that arthritis of the fingers can mean holding a dumbbell or weight is impossible. Everyone is different.

"For those patients, we just skip it and go with resistance bands at the wrists or forearms," she says. "We also look at adding load in other ways, like with a weighted vest, machine, or with barbells on the shoulders instead."

4. Work with what's comfortable

Both Kate and Helen suggest modifying your movements if you have arthritis to limit how far you move.

"You do not always need to move through the deepest or fullest range of an exercise to get stronger," says Helen. "If you are having a difficult day, simply modify how far each exercise goes, rather than stopping altogether."

In the podcast episode, Kate gives the example of a lunge. Hold onto the back of a chair for support and, slowly, just bend your back knee as low as your own joints allow you to.

5. Take it to the pool

Jo has previously said that during flare-ups, she does swimming workouts instead. "I feel quite achy a lot of the time. My joints are really achy, my shoulders, my fingers, my hands, and after I've done something [like swimming] I feel loose, I feel more flexible," she says on another episode of Dig It.

Nicola agrees this is a good idea. "Water exercise can also be both nervous system regulating, add multi-dimensional resistance and settle pain at the same time," she says.

Is strength training good for arthritis?

Yes, says Kate. "It's not going to make the arthritis go away, but it can help. As you build strength in the muscle, it's going to support the joint."

The key to exercising with arthritis is to adjust the weight and reduce the range of motion, says Helen. "Choose appropriate exercises, rather than avoid strength work altogether," she says.

A study in the Journal of Personalized Medicine reviewed almost 30 studies on the effects of strength training on those with knee and hip osteoarthritis and found it was effective in improving pain, strength, and function.

Another in the Journal of Hand Therapy found that strength training safely increased grip strength and reduced pain in those with hand osteoarthritis.

Tips for exercising with arthritis

• Start lighter: "Make sure the focus is on good technique and gradually increase resistance as your confidence and tolerance improve," says Helen.
• Use pain as feedback: "Mild muscular effort is expected, but sharp, increasing or persistent joint pain is a sign to modify the exercise," says the physiotherapist.
• Progress gradually: "Increase one thing at a time, resistance, repetitions, range or training volume, rather than changing everything at once. This way, you know which may have changed your symptoms and which may not," she says.
• Keep moving between strength sessions: "Walking, cycling, mobility work and Pilates can help maintain joint movement without placing the same demands on the body."
• Allow more time for recovery: "Arthritis symptoms can fluctuate, so some days may allow for heavier strength work while others for a lighter session. Be kind to yourself and work with your body," says Helen.

One thing all the experts agree on is that your exercise routine doesn't have to look the same as someone else's. "A squat to a chair, a supported split squat or a leg press may all train similar muscles, but one may feel significantly better for a particular person," says Helen.

If you have significant joint swelling, rapidly worsening pain, instability or are unsure what level of loading is appropriate, working with a physiotherapist can help build a programme around your specific joints and symptoms. This article is not intended as medical advice.

Core strength isn’t just about having strong abs. Your core includes the back, hips, glutes and pelvis, so improving it will help protect these key areas of the body, improve your posture, and prevent future injuries.

Pilates for beginners is one of the best workouts to try if you're looking to improve core strength and mobility for daily activities like climbing stairs and lifting bags, as much as any workout.

Claudia Armani is a Pilates instructor with over 15 years of experience working with clients. "It's a low-impact fitness method that can be adapted to all levels, from complete beginner to seasoned athlete. Each exercise can be broken down and built up, providing a perfect start for those who feel out of shape," she says.

The practice also "works on deep core strength, spinal flexibility, joint stability and flexibility, body awareness, coordination, proprioception, and coordination", she notes. These are often neglected in other workouts. Grab your thick yoga mat - here's where to start...

1. Pilates bridge

The Pilates bridge targets key core muscles, is easy to do and is suitable for beginners. It can also help loosen the hip flexors - a potentially stiff area for those who sit during the day.

Claudia says the bridge, sometimes called the shoulder or glute bridge, “builds spinal and body awareness, spinal articulation, and core engagement”.

How to do a bridge:

• Lie on your back on the mat.
• Bend your legs at 90 degrees.
• Keep your arms straight by your sides.
• Start with your lower back flat on the mat before slowly lifting your hips and spine off the ground.
• Press into your feet and pull your heels into your bum to work your glutes, hamstrings and quads.
• Slowly lower back down onto the mat.
• Repeat 10-15 times.

2. Abdominal curl

This is another move which can easily be done on a mat at home, and it’s the “perfect exercise to counteract hours seated at your desk", says Claudia. "It helps build abdominal strength and thoracic spinal flexibility."

How to do an abdominal curl on a Pilates ball:

• Sit on your mat with your knees bent.
• Tuck the ball behind your mid-back.
• With your hands resting behind your head, lie back over the ball.
• Slowly lift your head and shoulders up and towards your knees.
• Lower back down slowly.
• Repeat 10-15 times.

3. Superman

Box swimming, sometimes known as the Superman exercise, “strengthens your back muscles, improves coordination and stimulates core awareness and proprioception”, which is your body’s ability to sense its movements and the space around it.

This move will activate both the big and small muscles in your back and challenge your deep core abdominals and glutes.

Here's how to do the Superman exercise:

• Come down onto your yoga mat, with your hands and knees on the floor. Make sure your wrists are under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
• Brace your core and make sure to keep your back flat.
• Bring your right arm straight in front of you and push your left leg behind you simultaneously.
• Pause for two to three seconds, keeping your body steady.
• Lower your hand and knee to the floor.
• Switch sides.

Two years since her last appearance performing on stage at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Céline Dion is getting ready for her much-anticipated residency in the French capital.

Céline’s return to the spotlight, following her diagnosis of Stiff Person Syndrome, an extremely rare autoimmune neurological disorder that can cause muscle stiffness tantamount to paralysis, is a hard-fought victory.

Without any FDA-approved treatment for the incredibly rare illness, Céline reveals in a new interview that she has been relying on 90-minute Pilates sessions three times a week, ballet classes twice a week, plus new medication, physical therapy, vocal therapy and immunotherapy.

After being in the spotlight since the age of 13, one might wonder why the superstar is putting herself through this. Emotionally, she says it’s for the fans - and to prove she’s got plenty of fight left in her.

She told Harper's Bazaar, "They paid for tickets. They bought my records. They gave me that luxury. So the least I can do is tell them that I’m alive." She also spoke about the feeling of getting back out in public after battling the syndrome for many years.

She said of her decision to work hard for her return to the stage, "Well, girl, if you don’t want to sign autographs and you don’t want to get yourself pretty and you don’t want to be disturbed because your pasta is going to get cold, you can always stay home. But look at what you have."

Officially diagnosed in 2022, Céline revealed that she was actually showing symptoms of the syndrome as early as 2005. Things got worse around 2020, with Céline taking solace in the isolation that happened to fall at the same time as the pandemic, finding some peace in nature.

She told the magazine, "I love trees so much, and I had this vision of myself trying to disappear through the leaves". She then shared an image of her fans coming to her for the apples from the trees, that she could no longer produce.

"I was trying to tell them, 'I’m sorry, I don’t have any apples to give you anymore'”, when she heard a voice, "But we did not come for the apples; we came for the tree."

This inspired the My Heart Will Go On legend to stop hiding, which led to the release of her confronting and candid 2024 documentary, I Am: Céline.

For the first time, Céline let fans see the extent of her syndrome, including upsetting footage of the singer doubled over in pain, unable to sing clearly, and, at one point, barely able to move or speak.

She was down, but not out. She’s worked hard to be able to put on her upcoming Paris shows - which sold out in minutes.

Announcing the shows, she shared on social media, "This year, I’m getting the best birthday gift of my life. I’m getting the chance to see you, to perform for you."

Gillian Anderson has a refreshing approach to exercise. No treadmill workouts or dedicated strength training routines. In fact, nothing at all up until recently.

Aside from one year where she had a boyfriend who loved to work out, the actress says that she's never exercised regularly - and hasn't done so on principle.

"Don't tell me that I am not OK if I am not exercising," she said on Elizabeth Day's How to Fail podcast. "More than ever, there is a wellness culture that is actually potentially making people even sicker as people have got more and more into exercise, eating well, macros, and you name it."

Since turning 50, however, Gillian has said her attitude to exercise has changed. "Now that I'm 55, I'm finding it for myself. There's a plethora of stuff out there for people, particularly my age and above, talking about longevity. If you want to pick up your grandchildren, you should move your limbs a bit.

"In that context, I feel like OK. I am actually ready. I am going to do it in the way that I want to do it, and that feels good for me," she said, adding that she wanted to get stronger in her core and herself.

"But it's got to be pleasurable for me. There is power in pleasure. If it doesn't [offer pleasure] in some way, then it won't last," she said.

Far from finding the 'perfect workout routine', Gillian has settled into working with a trainer on a workout app and started doing the "smallest things, like not taking the lift, taking the stairs". This is called NEAT exercise.

What is NEAT exercise?

Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis (NEAT) refers to all the calories you burn while you move but don't exercise. "This can include activities such as taking the stairs, parking further away from the office, walking to/from the coffee machine, or even gentle housework," says personal trainer Charlie Bertoia.

It accounts for about half of the calories we burn every day, whereas dedicated workouts would only cover about 10% if you exercised every day. It's more about finding opportunities to move, rather than doing dedicated exercises.

"They are movements that increase the total number of calories you burn throughout the day. This will help manage your body weight and improve blood sugar, cholesterol, and fat, and improve mobility," he says.

According to studies in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, NEAT exercise has also been linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome, as well as improved insulin sensitivity.

"Regular movement breaks throughout the day contribute to NEAT, and people who rack up more calories burned tend to be healthier," says Charlie.

What workouts has Gillian Anderson done in the past?

While the actress has said she's used personal trainers in the past to get in shape for roles, she told The Daily Mail in 2015 that she doesn't "try that hard to stay in shape".

She said: "I go through stages of yoga a few times a week and throw in some running."

This appears to be a habit still, as she told Elle UK last year that she meditates and does yoga, and when she allows herself to take "that space and connect the mind and body", she notices the difference.

How to do more NEAT exercise

• Use a standing desk or set a timer: If you normally work sitting down, it's worth getting a standing desk or having a timer that'll mark a break period for you to stand and walk around. Many fitness trackers have movement alerts that do this to improve the amount of NEAT exercise users do.
• Move while on the phone: Walking around the house while on the phone could improve your levels of movement naturally. You could also get a walking pad to use while watching television.
• Take the long way: If there are two routes you could follow on a walk home, to the office, or to a friend's house, choose the longer one. You'll naturally get more steps in. Equally, if you work from an office, head outside to a spot further away to pick up your lunch.
• Move during television breaks: While this is more of an exercise snack than NEAT exercise, it works. Dr Zoe Williams recently recommended that viewers of This Morning do squats during the show's breaks, working out to 550 squats a week for those who watch the daily program.

When creating a strength training programme, many personal trainers and fitness instructors have the plank in their sessions as a go-to core exercise. I'd do the same. It's a great full-body move that strengthens the core, improves posture, and builds stability.

However, it's a foundation exercise. Mark Harris, a level 4 PT and strength and conditioning coach, says: "It primarily focuses on the muscles through the centre of the body, particularly the rectus abdominis and the transverse abdominis. There are plenty of progression options available, including adding external weight while maintaining the same position."

Keep the classic plank exercise in your workouts, but try a few plank variations, as recommended by this expert personal trainer.

Copenhagen plank

The Copenhagen plank moves the focus from the front of the body to the sides, similar to the side plank. "It's performed one side at a time, making it a unilateral exercise. This can help identify and reduce side-to-side imbalances," says Mark.

I switched to the Copenhagen plank about a year ago. I'm a runner, and as the months ticked by, I saw my balance and full-body stability grow. It translated as much into my treadmill workouts as my strength ones. I also felt the exercise more in my shoulders and arms than in a traditional plank, as you hold one side at a time.

Here's how to do it:

• Bring a weight bench or stool (if doing the exercise at home) near your feet.
• Come down into a plank, resting on your forearm, making sure your elbow is under your shoulder.
• Place the inside of your top foot onto the bench or stool.
• Engage your abs and squeeze your glutes.
• Drive your hips up to the ceiling.
• Your body should form a straight line from head to foot.
• Hold the position then switch sides.

Reverse plank

The reverse plank is one of the only plank variations that focuses on lower-body strength. PT Monty Simmons previously told woman&home that constant sitting weakens and tightens the muscles down the back of the body. Doing reverse planks can help prevent this.

"It trains the glutes (buttocks), hamstrings (back of thighs), lower back, and even the muscles around the shoulders. These are essential for everyday movement."

Here's how to do it:

• Lie down on the floor, propping yourself up on your elbows with your legs out in front of you.
• Engage your core, press into your palms and heels.
• Lift your hips up to create a straight line from your shoulders to your heels.
• Be sure to draw your shoulder blades together and keep your chest open.
• Hold this position.

Plank rows

From the back of the body to the front - plank rows basically do the opposite. "This exercise combines upper-body strength with core stability," says Mark. "Alternating arm rows mean one arm performs the rowing movement while the other stabilises your body in an isometric hold. This challenges strength and stability at the same time."

It's also a great plank variation for those looking to target these muscles who are new to strength work.

Here's how to do it:

• Put two dumbbells (preferably hexagonal ones) on the floor.
• Come down into the high plank position, resting on your hands.
• Hold onto the dumbbells, making sure they are shoulder-width apart and directly under your shoulders.
• Move your weight onto your right arm and pick up a dumbbell with your left.
• Once stable, drive the left elbow up and back towards your hip, as if you're trying to put the dumbbell in your back pocket.
• Repeat the movement.

Moderate exercise includes activities like walking, swimming workouts, cycling, and even gardening. For years, health bodies have been recommending all adults do at least an hour and a half of it every week, combined with regular strength training.

This one-size-fits-all approach needs to be reconsidered, say scientists who led a study published recently in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The researchers reviewed how much exercise we need to do to significantly reduce heart attack or stroke risk, and found that many more than 150 minutes are needed to see a positive impact on heart health.

The team's results showed a 30% reduction in risk among those who did moderate-to-vigorous-intensity exercise for 560 to 610 minutes per week. That's about nine to 10 hours every week, or at least an hour and a half every day. It's a lot more than the current public health recommendations.

Researchers at Macao Polytechnic University in China investigated how physical activity and cardiorespiratory fitness, measured through estimated VO2 max, were associated with disease risk. The analysis used results from 17,088 people with an average age of 57 enrolled in the UK Biobank study between 2013 and 2015. They all wore a fitness tracker for seven days to record their physical activity and completed a cycling test to estimate their VO2 max.

The experts also looked at lifestyle habits such as smoking, alcohol intake, diet, body mass index, resting heart rate, and blood pressure.

The team found that adults who exercised for 150 minutes per week had an 8 to 9% lower cardiovascular risk across all fitness levels. However, the substantial protection (30%) was associated with a much higher level of activity. Just 12% of the participants reached that level of exercise.

A 20% reduction in the risk of cardiovascular events was associated with 370 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise per week among those with the lowest fitness. That's about six hours. Those among the fittest in the group could do 30 minutes less per week and achieve the same 20% reduction, as their VO2 levels were naturally higher.

VO2 max measures how efficiently the heart and lungs work together to deliver oxygen to your muscles. VO2 max levels will naturally decline with age, as our lean muscle mass decreases and muscles work less efficiently.

Do we really need to do 9 hours of exercise a week?

The study shows that at least nine hours of exercise a week has a significant and positive impact on heart health. However, it's important to note that we're talking about moderate-intensity exercise here, says woman&home's digital health editor and fitness instructor, Grace Walsh.

"You can do moderate-intensity exercise outside of a typical workout. It would be very unusual for a regular person with a full-time job to manage nine hours of dedicated exercise every week," she says.

"You can meet this requirement with simple adjustments to your routine. Spend more time moving in your day. For example, if you normally take the bus to the train station in the morning, walk there instead. Taking the stairs at the office will raise your heart rate for a few minutes, more than using the lift would. Spend an afternoon gardening, painting, or tidying up. You'll be surprised how much your heart rate increases and stays in this important zone with these everyday activities," she says.

"Every little bit helps, and the easier and more enjoyable you can make movement, the more likely you are to do it."

Moderate intensity is about 50 to 70% of your maximum heart rate (220 minus your age), so try to stay in this zone as often as possible. "If you have a fitness tracker, you can keep an eye on your heart rate with recorded workouts, active minute monitoring, and live readouts on your wrist," she says.

The study's researchers have also said they support the 150-minute recommendation as a reliable minimum target. They hope the study will motivate people to fit more physical activity into their daily routine.

The study's results were also limited by how the data was recorded. VO2 max was estimated through the on-wrist trackers. For more accurate results, proper tests would need to be done in a lab, where participants wear special masks to monitor oxygen consumption.

If you're new to exercise, speak to your doctor to confirm you can do it safely.

The sea is mirror-like as the first rays of sunshine cast a golden shadow across the Cornish coastline. Although it's July, the cold water is enough to make me gasp. But as I look out towards the horizon, I can't imagine a much better way to begin the day.

“It's beautiful, isn't it?” says a woman as she swims past. I smile and nod before stepping into the water and spending the next 30 minutes swimming, alternating between breaststroke, front crawl and simply floating on my back. It's a world away from my usual early morning walking routine.

While I grew up in Falmouth, Cornwall, these days I live near the hilly Pennines in the North of England, where I spend mornings walking. I try to pull on my walking shoes before emails and deadlines take over. Even if I can only get out for 10 minutes of walking, it's a daily reset. It gives me a chance to clear my head and move before hunching over a laptop for the rest of the day.

Swimming was often in my routine as a teenage club swimmer, but I moved inland as an adult. It had been years since I'd swum before breakfast, and I found I had missed it. Walking will always be one of my favourite ways to enjoy nature and clear my mind, but swimming offers something entirely different. Immersed in the water, it's a complete sensory escape, and I wanted to find out why.

Whether you’re tempted by the sea, a lake or your local pool, I asked the experts why an early swim can do as much for your mind as it does for your body, long after you've dried off.

Benefits of a morning swim

1. It calms your mind before the day begins

Every morning swim started with the same negotiation: "it's too cold" or "I'll go in tomorrow", yet I never once regretted it once I found the courage to get in. Within minutes of entering the water, the mental chatter faded.

Researchers describe the restorative effect of nature as ‘soft fascination’, when natural surroundings gently capture your attention, allowing the brain to recover from mental fatigue. Walking can create this effect, but swimming amplifies it.

“Sounds become softer and more muted, while your visual perspective shifts compared with being on land. There is something inherently calming about being supported by the water; it can feel both physically relieving and mentally freeing, creating a sense of relaxation that is difficult to replicate in other forms of exercise,” says Celia Boothman, a certified triathlon coach and IRONMAN ambassador.

When your face touches cold water, the mammalian dive reflex is triggered. "It's an evolutionary survival mechanism designed to protect your brain and heart from oxygen deprivation," says Celia. "The heart rate drops, your blood vessels constrict and breathing changes. The initial shock can feel intense, but the effect is a sense of calm and reduced anxiety.”

That explains why I climbed out of the water feeling noticeably calmer and more at peace with the day. Any worries I’d woken up with had been left behind in the water.

2. It helps you feel more focused

Morning swims help you feel mentally and physically buoyed too, which can improve your concentration and decision-making for hours after you get out of your swimwear.

“A morning swim doesn’t solve all my problems, but it gives me a few minutes each morning where I feel grounded, capable, and connected. I always come home better able to deal with whatever is waiting for me,” says Sophie Hellyer, former professional surfer, outdoor swimmer and Dryrobe ambassador.

The cool temperature of water also releases endorphins and norepinephrine, which are the brain's natural 'feel-good' and focus chemicals.

“You’ll find that after a morning swim, you’ll have a reinvigorated, sustained mood boost, which is longer lasting than the peak and crash of a morning espresso. That calm, resilient energy can often stay with you all day,” says Celia.

But it's not just a feeling. Celia notes that just 20 minutes of moderate-intensity breaststroke has been shown to improve visuomotor performance, which includes hand-eye coordination, visual reaction time, and spatial awareness.

“The study also found swimming can acutely enhance cognitive function. In other words, a morning swim doesn't just wake up your body, it can also sharpen your mind and set you up for a more productive day.”

This was hugely beneficial for me, as someone who procrastinates. Back at my desk, I wanted to crack on with my to-do list and was more ready to do so than I had been the previous week.

3. Swimming is a full-body workout

One of the biggest benefits of a swimming workout is that it works almost every major muscle group, from your shoulders and back to your core and legs. Yet, the water's buoyancy reduces the strain on your joints and muscles, so it's a low-impact workout.

“Being in the water provides your body with a unique sense of support. The feeling of weightlessness reduces the impact on your joints and muscles. Hydrostatic pressure, a gentle, even pressure around the body, acts like a mild compression garment, helping to improve circulation and reduce swelling and inflammation,” says Celia.

If you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness and strength without too much impact on your joints, then a morning swim is the workout for you. I was happy to be waking my body up without feeling like I'd put it through a gruelling workout.

“You walk out feeling open through the chest, long through the spine and like your body’s been oiled rather than battered,” says Samantha Russo, an elite swim coach at Virgin Active UK who loves seeing more women over 40 discover swimming.

“As the upper back and shoulders become stronger, people stand taller and develop a different relationship with their body. Instead of asking, ‘What do I look like in these leggings?’, the question becomes, ‘What can my body do today?’ That’s powerful at any age, but especially through perimenopause and beyond.”

Water is considerably denser than air, creating natural resistance without the need for weights or high-impact movements. However, swimming isn't a weight-bearing exercise. That's why experts recommend combining swimming with progressive strength workouts, at the gym or at home, to help build stronger muscles and bones.

4. It helps healthy habits stick

Building new habits takes time. Celia is a big believer in making them as easy as possible to stick to. “For many people, mornings are the ideal time to establish a routine because they're generally free from the distractions, competing priorities and decisions that build up as the day goes on. By setting aside time for yourself first thing, you're less likely to let other commitments get in the way and by removing barriers and making the decision the night before, you're much more likely to follow through when the alarm goes off,” she says.

“Consistency isn't about relying on motivation every morning, it’s about creating a routine that makes the healthy choice the easiest one.”

Her advice is simple: Pack your swim bag, lay out your kit and leave everything by the door.

I'd also recommend a swim hat, goggles, and a flask of warming tea if you're heading out in chillier weather.

5. A morning swim is good for sleep

After just a few days of morning swims, I was falling asleep more easily, staying asleep for longer, and waking before my alarm feeling ready for the day. This isn't necessarily about swimming, but it is about swimming in the morning.

Morning light plays a key role in regulating your circadian rhythm, your body's internal clock and exercising first thing outdoors is a great way to expose yourself to natural light early in the day, says Celia. This helps encourage the body's sleep-wake cycle, and may help you sleep better in the evenings.

“While any exercise will increase cortisol to some degree, moderate-intensity activities like swimming generally produce a smaller stress response than more intense forms of exercise," she says. "This means you can enjoy the physical and mental benefits of exercise without placing as much additional stress on your body."

Getting outside for a morning swim also requires you to set an alarm, she notes, and this "consistent wake-up time promotes healthier sleep patterns, making it easier to fall asleep at night, improve sleep quality, and wake up feeling more refreshed".

I'm not sure whether it was the combination of daylight, fresh sea air or the swim itself. Instead of lying awake at 3 am with a racing mind, I felt genuinely sleepy at bedtime and slept more soundly through the night. I also found myself waking naturally around 5.30 am, feeling refreshed rather than groggy and ready for the day, and a dip.

Morning walks vs morning swims

Morning walks will always have a place in my routine, but swimming has earned one too. My aim now is to swim two or three mornings a week before breakfast, which feels realistic. I may not have the sea on my doorstep, but my local pool offers many of the same physical and mental benefits.

As autumn arrives and temperatures drop, an indoor pool will undoubtedly feel more inviting than open water, and having another way to move before breakfast means I can choose what suits my mood, the weather and my body that day. That's a habit worth holding on to.

As Samantha says, morning swimming isn’t about being 'disciplined' or 'hardcore'. It’s about gifting yourself a pocket of time where your body moves, your mind softens, and the day hasn’t had a chance to take over yet.

"Whether you give yourself 10 minutes of swimming or 40, whether you’re gliding serenely or stopping often to catch your breath, you’re still doing something profoundly kind for your future self when the rest of the world is still sleeping," she says.

The key to feeling healthier and happier is starting with the basics. Supplements and fitness trackers are all well and good, but if you're not starting the day on the right note, it's going to be an uphill battle.

"If there's one meal I think is worth getting right, it's breakfast," Dr Amir Khan, NHS GP and woman&home's resident doctor, tells us. "A good breakfast can help stabilise blood sugar levels, keep you feeling fuller for longer, reduce mid-morning cravings, and set you up for better energy throughout the day."

So what should you go for? High-protein foods are key, he says. "Protein helps slow the release of sugar into the bloodstream, supports muscle health, and is one of the most filling nutrients we can eat," he tells us. "Ideally, I'd like to see a source of protein included in every meal, including breakfast."

Dr Amir Khan's favourite breakfast foods

The doctor says he opts for a savoury breakfast every morning. "It doesn't have to be complicated," he says, listing his favourite as eggs (boiled, poached, or scrambled) with wholegrain toast, avocado, mushrooms, tomatoes, or spinach.

"Other great choices include Greek yoghurt with nuts and seeds, cottage cheese on wholegrain toast, or even leftovers from last night's dinner. There's no rule that says breakfast foods must be sweet," he says.

More options include smoked salmon with cream cheese or hummus on wholegrain toast (with the additional benefit of more omega-3 fatty acids for brain health), overnight oats or porridge with chia seeds, or a breakfast burrito. This could contain scrambled eggs, black beans, avocado, and homemade salsa in a wholewheat tortilla.

The ideal breakfast contains three elements, he tells us: "Protein, fibre, and healthy fats. Together, they help keep blood sugar levels stable, support gut health, and keep you satisfied until lunchtime."

But one of the biggest breakfast mistakes the doctor sees is people reaching for sugary foods in the morning. "Sugary cereals, pastries, flavoured yoghurts, and some breakfast bars can cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, followed by a crash a few hours later, leaving you hungry, tired, and reaching for snacks," he says.

For those going through menopause, it's particularly important to avoid this crash. The sugar spike and drop mimics physical stress, according to a study in Maturitas. In turn, this triggers the release of adrenaline and cortisol, which can trigger symptoms like hot flushes, fatigue, and brain fog.

"My advice is simple: stop thinking of breakfast as a chance to eat dessert. Move away from highly processed, sugary options and towards a more savoury, protein-rich start to the day. Your energy levels, appetite and long-term health will thank you for it."

If you were to do 10 squats every time there's an advertisement break on This Morning, you'd do 550 squats in a week. It's a "life-changing" amount of exercise if you don't normally do any, says Dr Zoe Williams, an NHS GP and frequent guest on the ITV show.

Strength training is a valuable way to improve your longevity. That's not only living for longer, but living with a better quality of life. Picking up a set of dumbbells or doing bodyweight exercises boosts muscle mass, bone density, joint strength, helps keep blood sugar levels stable, and improves brain health.

Typically, the NHS suggests doing two strength workouts per week. With this simple hack applied to your own life and habits, the doctor says you can reap the same benefits.

"If our viewers are watching Monday till Friday, that's 550 squats in a week. Now, I guarantee if you do 550 squats a week, going from zero to that, and you sustain that for three months, you'll increase your muscle mass, you'll be stronger, your blood sugar control will be better. It's good for your brain health. It's good for your joints. It will literally be life changing," she says.

If you're not someone who watches the 1.30 hour This Morning show every day, with the 11 advertisement breaks to use as a pre-set workout timer, there are other ways to fit your squats in.

For example, Ted Lasso actress Hannah Waddingham recently revealed she does four minutes of squats every day just by doing the exercise when she's brushing her teeth.

You could do 10 squats every time you get up from your desk at work or go to the kitchen to make a cup of tea or bathroom at home. You could squat while the kettle boils in the morning.

How to do a squat

• Stand shoulder-width apart, hands on your hips or resting by your sides.
• Bend your knees and sit back, as if you're sitting on a chair behind you.
• Once you reach the bottom of the movement, push through your feet to return to standing.
• If you're new to squats, it can be helpful to actually put a chair behind you to touch down on or try a sit-to-stand exercise to build lower-body strength first.

Squats are one of the best quadricep and glute exercises, but they work muscles down the whole of the body, including the core, lower back, hamstrings, and calves.

It's important to sit back in the movement, rather than bend down through the knees, as this can cause some discomfort.

Dr Zoe says it's all about these small daily habits when you're trying to improve your health. If you're someone who's never been interested in exercise, don't set yourself the challenge of a walking workout every day. A brisk 10-minute walk is a good place to start.

"Small things add up as well," she says. "It can just be choosing the harder option. If you work in a building with steps or a lift, making that commitment to always take the steps. Park that bit further away, carry heavy shopping bags. If you go for a walk, take the hilly option or walk at a faster pace."

With Brits facing yet another heatwave, the days of dreary, rainy summers suddenly seem a lot more enticing. Fortunately, Dr Amir Khan has offered a handful of tips for managing the heat.

While the hot weather can prove difficult for everyone, Dr Amir knows that women have to contend with other hurdles when trying to keep cool in summer - such as certain clothes not being designed to be as breathable or comfortable, and what to do with longer hair.

Breaking it down into a handful of specific tips, Dr Amir’s overarching advice is that “comfort wins over everything”. This extends to what we wear in the heat, how we wear it and what can be done with longer hair.

A big part of feeling more comfortable in the heat might be ditching the bra. Doctor’s orders. In a video shared on his social media, Dr Amir - preaching to the choir for many women, no doubt - said, “Let's just talk about bras, right? An entire extra layer of fabric strapped tightly around one of the warmest, sweatiest parts of your body.

“And if you've got larger breasts, you've also got skin on skin contact underneath, which increases sweat, friction, plus a bra sitting on top of all of that.

“That isn't just uncomfortable. That combination of heat, moisture and friction are exactly the conditions that can cause soreness and intertrigo under the breasts, that horrible, red, itchy, sometimes cracked rash that can happen.”

So, in the words of a healthcare professional, the first tip is to ditch the bra. “If your bra comes off, I'm not judging you. In fact, medically speaking, I'm recommending you do”.

Thinking about women’s clothes more generally, Dr Amir notes that a lot of the popular styles - “Fitted tops, shapewear, synthetic fabrics, tight waistbands” - aren’t the best for high temperatures. “Tight, heavy or poorly breathable clothing can make an already uncomfortable situation feel even worse.”

So, his second piece of advice, "comfort wins over everything… [Wear] loose, lightweight, breathable clothes wherever you can”.

His third tip: avoid as much friction as you can. He explained, "Keep the areas under your boobs and other skinfolds as cool and dry as possible."

Finally, for women with longer hair, he explains that "you're actually wearing a small blanket around your neck and shoulders. And I know I'm sounding light-hearted, but it's a serious point.

"When it's extremely hot, our bodies need to be able to lose heat. Sweating and the evaporation of that sweat from our skin is one of the main ways that we do it.”

So make sure to "get that hair off your neck if it helps".

Whether you're gearing up for marathon training or you're just looking to build up your miles, comfort is key. There's nothing more off-putting than a knee niggle thanks to under-supportive or worn-out running shoes.

I ran the Saucony London 10km in the Asics Superblast 3 running shoes, back in July on the first truly hot day of the year, and I could have kept moving past the finish line. Springy yet comfortable, these trainers do what few others manage and blend speed with support.

I've tried close to a hundred pairs of trainers in my time as woman&home's digital health editor. I've trained for two marathons, several half-marathons, and more 10km races than I care to remember. I've also seen my fair share of trail running shoes. While the Asics Superblast 3 sit on the higher side of the price spectrum, and I'd love to see a female fit in the future, these get almost 5 stars from me.

Asics Superblast 3 review

Specifications

• Size range: 2.5 - 14
• Weight: 253g per shoe
• Heel-to-toe drop: 8mm
• Waterproof version available: No

What are the Asics Superblast 3 like to wear?

Supremely comfortable and responsive are the words that first came to mind after taking the Asics Superblast 3 out for a spin. I ran 7km and immediately noticed how soft the soles felt. The wedge of lightweight cushioning means these truly feel like you're running on clouds. In the heat, I was also very grateful for the thin upper.

Thanks to the unisex fit, these shoes have a naturally wider toe box than others. I did notice that my regular size felt a little roomier than usual, but not so much I'd send them back for a smaller size.

While these shoes feel supportive when you're running (more on that later), they aren't the most stable to stand or walk around in. As I'm not used to stacked trainers in my daily life, I often find myself dragging the soles on the pavement when I walk in these. They are exclusively for running. So much so, I've walked to the gym in my Birkenstocks during this heatwave, only to change into them when I get there to use the treadmill. If you're looking for trainers you can run and walk in, I'd recommend the Asics Gel Nimbus 28 or Hoka Bondi 9 instead, or a dedicated pair of walking shoes.

What are the Asics Superblast 3 like to run in?

I felt I could jog along for hours in the Asics Superblast 3. It shouldn't be underestimated how comfortable they are. I worked my way through my 10km run, counting off kilometre after kilometre at a much faster pace than I'd done in training, supported by my shoes. By the end, my feet felt like they could have gone on longer (the rest of my body, not so much).

It's very easy to pick up the pace in these shoes. In fact, as noted, they feel a little wobbly at very slow paces. A jog is fine, but a very slow jog needs a different pair.

The Asics Superblast 3 are noticeably very lightweight, which helps avoid the heavy-footed feeling you sometimes get when trying to run faster when you're tired. They have brilliant energy return as well, so it feels like you're really bouncing through every step. Yet, I still felt stable.

The foam stack in the Asics Superblast 3 is what makes it feel this way. The top layer is called FF Leap foam, and it's been taken from the brand's line of premium racing shoes. It's bouncy and lightweight, built for speed. This is combined with FF Blast Plus foam on the bottom. This is more supportive. Together, they cradle the foot into a rocker shape and naturally push you forward.

To counteract the softness, there's also better support along the sides of the shoe to prevent any ankles from rolling in. For an overpronator like myself, this was a real win.

Who are the Asics Superblast 3 made for?

Since my 10km race, I've run several more times in the Asics Superblast 3, up to 25km, and they are still as comfortable as ever. These shoes would be a good pick for marathon or half-marathon events and training, where you need a little extra support over longer distances.

They are my new favourite for longer runs and for tempo workouts, when I'm trying to improve my speed or increase my running time. Typically, I don't like shoes made for fast workouts. They often have a strong rocker and don't feel stable enough. These don't have that problem, and I'd wear these for anything other than a truly easy run.

Are the Asics Superblast 3 worth buying?

Absolutely. While it's always worth getting a gait analysis test to make sure shoes like the Asics Superblast 3 are a good fit for your running style and feet, I would recommend these to most runners.

The £200 price tag isn't to be sniffed at, but the complementing foam layers go some way to justify the cost, and I have faith they'd stand the test of a few hundred miles.

If you're only going to invest in one pair of shoes, these are ones I'd recommend - provided you're doing more than an easy jog.

You may remember the 12-3-30 workout from a few years ago. Its simple premise and set-up made it a viral sensation on social media - and a great option for those looking to get fitter, maintain muscle, and improve their balance. In 2026, it's as good as ever.

The 12-3-30 is a treadmill workout made popular by influencer Lauren Giraldo. She said: "I used to be so intimidated by the gym, and it wasn't motivating. But now I go and do this one thing, and I can feel good about myself."

In a similar vein, I swapped my after-work walking workout for this session when the ongoing summer heat took a toll on my motivation. I decided it was too hot outside, so I headed to the gym and revisited the 12-3-30 for all its low-impact cardio benefits.

How to do the 12-3-30 workout

The 12-3-30 workout is very simple. Lace up your running shoes and hop on a treadmill, then follow these steps:

• Adjust your incline to 12.
• Increase speed to 3mph or 4.8kph, depending on your treadmill settings)
• Set a 30-minute timed workout on your machine or fitness tracker

If this feels too hard at the beginning, set the incline to three or four instead of 12 and challenge yourself to hold the pace for as long as possible. Build up your time and gradient as you get fitter and stronger.

The speed at which you progress will be different for everyone, so don’t compare yourself - work at the level that’s right for you. It should feel challenging, but not so much so that you feel out of breath and can't continue.

It's also important to maintain good form as you walk. Engage your core, keep your shoulders back and your head up. Always look straight ahead, rather than down at your feet on the treadmill.

The 12-3-30 workout is a more efficient and effective cardiovascular workout compared to flat-surface walking, says Amanda Place, a certified personal trainer and the founder of Sculptrition. "It also can help with engaging various muscle groups, burning calories, and promoting overall fitness," she says, making it a great workout for beginners.

Benefits of the 12-3-30 workout

1. Builds fitness

When I first started exercising properly, about seven years ago, I found that my cardio fitness was letting me down. It was uncomfortable to work out for any longer than 10 minutes in one go.

I've seen how good the 12-3-30 workout is for building fitness. Today, 10 minutes into the workout, I was in my zone 2 heart rate. This is known as the aerobic zone, and it's about a 6 or 7 out of 10 for intensity. You should be able to have a conversation but not sing. It's ideal for building a baseline of cardiovascular fitness, no matter your fitness level.

A recent study by Queen's University found that this heart rate zone improves cardiovascular fitness by enhancing capillary density (how many blood vessels in a muscle) and stroke volume (the amount of blood pumped out of the heart in every heartbeat) with minimal recovery time or joint stress.

There are ways you can adjust the 12-3-30 workout to make it harder. For instance, adding ankle weights or a weighted vest adds resistance to your legs and glutes, and requires you to focus more on core stability.

2. Low impact

The softer surface of the treadmill and slower pace put less pressure on the joints compared to activities like running. This means less chance of injury and discomfort post-workout and more chance of round two later in the week.

"Unlike high-impact exercises, such as running or jumping, the 12-3-30 workout is low-impact. This makes it suitable for individuals with joint issues or new to exercise," says Amanda.

3. Maintains heart health

It's well-established by health bodies and expert facilities, including the Mayo Clinic and Ohio State University, that aerobic exercise like power walking and running helps keep the heart healthy.

The extra effort compared to regular walking makes it work harder to push blood (containing oxygen) around the body. The heart is a muscle just like any other, the more you use it, the more effective it is. In turn, this lowers blood pressure and reduces the risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and other serious diseases.

4. Maintains muscle

Trust me, by the time you've done 20 minutes of walking at a 12% incline, you'll be feeling your glutes (buttocks), hamstrings, calves, and lower back working overtime.

Walking uphill forces the muscles at the back of your body, known as the posterior chain, to work harder than they would on the flat ground. This is just enough pressure to preserve the muscle that you have without stressing your joints.

You can further maintain and grow that muscle by combining the 12-3-30 workout with regular full-body strength workouts in the gym.

5. Versatile

While the heatwave rages on, I wouldn't blame anyone for putting exercise last on the list of priorities. However, this workout can be done under the cooling air conditioning in your local gym or in front of the fan, if you have a treadmill at home.

It's also only half an hour. Most people will be able to find this time in their day, either by adding it into an existing routine (like at the end of a dumbbell workout in the gym) or by waking up half an hour earlier. Make the most of the cool mornings.

As many as 8 in 10 women say that time is their biggest limiting factor when it comes to exercise. I certainly fit in this camp. Yet, even in a busy and hot week, I found the time to do the 12-3-30 workout four times. Next week, I'll be aiming for five times.

Can you do the 12-3-30 workout every day?

Yes, if you're looking for a daily exercise, the 12-3-30 workout could be a great choice. The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise every week, divided up across seven days. You'd only need to do this workout five times a week to hit this target, leaving plenty of time for rest, recovery, and other workouts.

The experts recommend alternating between the 12-3-30 and strength-focused workouts, like a 30-minute dumbbell workout or an upper-body dumbbell workout, to help maintain and grow the muscles somewhat neglected by cardio. For example, you could do the 12-3-30 three times a week and a type of strength training twice a week to hit the overall quota.

Being able to reach above your head, go up stairs, and pick bags up from the floor may not sound like a challenge now, but we all lose at least some mobility with age.

According to the NHS, everyone loses up to 8% of their muscle mass every 10 years between 30 and 50. After 50 and menopause, this rises to 10% unless we do something about it. That something? Strength training.

Olympic hurdler Sally Gunnell is a personal trainer and dedicated strength coach for women. There are a few moves you can do now to ensure you stay moving well into your 80s and beyond, she says. These are known as functional exercises. They mirror movements we make in daily life, strengthening the muscles we need to do them.

One-arm rows

Rows are a staple exercise as they work multiple muscles at once. This one-arm row requires a set of dumbbells and a stable stance, so you can rest on a gym bench or study chair if you need to. Otherwise, follow Sally's demonstration...

Here's how to do a one-arm row:

• Come down into a lunge position, but keep your back leg straight out behind you and turn your foot outwards.
• Rest your arm on your front leg, if needed, and make sure your back stays straight through the movement.
• Taking your dumbbell in the opposite hand to your bent leg, row from a straight arm position towards your hips.
• Move as though you're trying to put the dumbbell in your back pocket.
• Repeat on both sides.

Shoulder press

The shoulders are among the most underrated muscles. The shoulder press is the perfect movement to ensure they get the attention they deserve in an upper-body dumbbell workout.

Here's how to do a shoulder press:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, holding your dumbbells at shoulder level. Turn your elbows out slightly.
• Brace your core and squeeze your glutes (buttocks).
• Press the weights up over your head until your arms are straight at the top.
• Slowly, lower the weights back down with control.
• Repeat the movement.

Split squats

Single-leg exercises like walking lunges and split squats build strength in the lower-body muscles, such as the quadriceps (thighs) and glutes. They also boost balance, as you have to use the smaller muscles to stabilise your body during the exercise.

How to do split squats:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, then take a step back into a lunge position. Hold your dumbbell in the opposite hand to your front leg.
• Make sure most of your weight is planted through your front foot by lifting your back heel from the floor.
• Bend both knees and bring your back knee down until it sits a few inches off the floor.
• Push through your front foot to come back to standing.
• Repeat the movement on both legs.

Other exercises to include

Want to turn Sally's 3-move workout into a longer session? Add in some of the best exercises for longevity. These include:

• Squats or sit-to-stand exercises
• Press-ups (either flat on your yoga mat or against a wall)
• Plank
• Deadlifts or Romanian deadlifts

The upper back muscles might feel tight, and rounded shoulders are almost a given after a day of typing away. Simple mobility exercises can work wonders for stretching out tired muscles.

GP Dr Amir Khan is woman&home's resident GP and a frequent guest on ITV's This Morning and Lorraine. Neck and back problems are issues he regularly sees among his patients. Our heads weigh around 5kg, and when that weight isn’t held in the centre of our bodies, it can cause strain to our neck and upper back.

“Whether you’re a healthcare professional, work at a desk, spend hours driving, or simply find yourself looking down at your phone all day, you’re not alone. ‘Tech neck’ is becoming incredibly common,” he says.

The good news is, the doctor says hunching and aching muscles can be eased without the need for “fancy equipment or hours in the gym” and "just a couple of minutes" of simple cool-down stretches at the end of the day.

Chin tucks

Chin tucks are a personal favourite for the doctor. “Sit or stand nice and tall and just pull your head back until you get that double, or triple chin in my case,” he explains.

He suggests holding the tuck for five seconds before moving your chin forward again. “It just uses all of those muscles you haven’t been using and gets your head back into a neutral position. It’s really good. It supports all those deep muscles that support your head.”

Shoulder blade squeezes

Dr Khan says shoulder blade squeezes are the second exercise he does every day. They’re done by squeezing the shoulder blades together while also keeping the tops of the shoulders low.

“Together and down as though you’re trying to tuck them into your back pocket,” he says. Hold the position for five seconds, and repeat it 10 times.

“If you’re hunching over a desk the whole time, these muscles (across our backs) become lazy. The muscles at the front can tighten up. So you will want to wake them up and improve your posture and take some of the strain off your neck.”

Doorway chest stretch

The final move is a doorway chest stretch. “Stand in a doorway, place your forearms on the frame. Don’t drop your fingers and just gently lean forward and stretch that chest out,” explains Dr Khan. Hold the stretch for about 30 seconds.

“When your chest muscles tighten, they pull your shoulders back, and your neck has to work much harder to hold your head up. Stretching these chest muscles is a nice reverse of that posture, and it feels really good.”

As always, prevention is better than cure. If you spend a lot of time at a desk, take regular breaks, try standing up to work and ensure your computer and chair are all at the correct height.

While Dr Khan’s chest, back, and neck exercises won’t fix more severe causes of neck pain, he says they will make you feel more relaxed after a long day. “If your pain is severe, follows an injury, or is associated with numbness, weakness, tingling, or problems with balance, it’s important to seek medical advice promptly,” he says.

Dr Khan says he does these three exercises to relieve tension in his body, and we don’t think they’ll take up more than five minutes of your day.

Zoe Saldaña's priority is strength training for the future. Weights in the gym, working with a personal trainer, and doing compound exercises (working multiple muscles at once) are the actress's focuses as she approaches 50.

Not least because she's playing a character at peak fitness, about the same age as her, in Yellowstone director Taylor Sheridan's Lioness. Ahead of the third season, Zoe told US Today: "Weight training is essential, especially for women of a certain age. It gives you strength you never thought you had, and that gives me so much confidence. It's like you can do difficult things. Building muscle for [character] Joe inspired me."

It didn't always look this way, she told the Wall Street Journal. "I was a big fan of Pilates for like 20 years. Now that I'm in my 40s, these last two or three years [I have had a] discovery and education around weights. Twenty years ago, I would have been against it. I just felt like we didn't really need it if we were doing cardio," she says.

"Rediscovering techniques that you would have otherwise disregarded" has been really interesting, she says, at an age "when your body needs a little more of a shake up and a lot more attention".

Taking to Instagram ahead of the show's latest season, Zoe said: "Showing up to stay strong. For me. For my family and for all women. 💪🏽" and shared her latest gym workout.

Zoe Saldaña's weights workout

Single-leg deadlifts

Single-leg exercises are among the best glute exercises you can do. They boost lower-body strength, and they improve balance. Working one leg at a time means you have to engage your core and use the tiny stabilising muscles in the ankles, knees, and hips.

Here's how to do it:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, then step forward on one leg and put your body weight through this front leg only.
• Keep a soft bend in your front leg, hinge back (push your buttocks to the back of the room), and grab the kettlebell off the floor with the hand that's opposite your standing leg.
• Make sure your back stays straight and your hips stay facing forward.
• Push through your front leg only to come to standing.
• Repeat the movement.

Squats

Zoe turns a typical squat exercise up a notch by standing with one foot on a step. The added height means she can come down lower than normal and get more of a stretch through her glutes and hamstrings.

Here's how to do it:

• Set up two steps, grab a dumbbell by the plate, and place one of your feet on each of the platforms so you're comfortable.
• Hold the dumbbell between your legs, lowering it between the platforms.
• Complete the squat as normal, as if you're sitting down on a chair behind you.
• At the bottom of the movement, push through your feet to come to standing.

Hip thrusts

Hip thrusters require a barbell, two plates, and if you want to really feel the burn, a resistance band wrapped just above the knees. This forces all the muscles in your glutes to continually work through the movement, instead of taking a break at the bottom.

If you're doing this workout at home, you can take a similar resistance band to Zoe's and do a glute bridge instead. This works all the same muscles.

Here's how to do it:

• To set up for the exercise, place your shoulder blades on a bench behind you and see where your feet naturally sit when you bend your knees to a right angle. This is your foot placement.
• Roll the barbell to your hips.
• Bracing your core, push through your feet to bring the barbell up so your back lays horizontal with the bench. Keen your chin tucked in, and squeeze your glutes at the top.
• Slowly lower back down.

Expert tip: If this foot placement doesn't quite feel right, sit with your back against the bench and straighten your legs. Where your knees are is the perfect foot placement, so make a mark on the floor in this area and use it as a marker for your feet.

Swapping Pilates for strength workouts meant a whole new routine for Zoe, but her personal trainer, Elena Ferretti, says it's not always a perfect one.

Writing in the caption of her own Instagram post, Elena said: "Training doesn't happen when everything is perfect. It happens between calls, chaos, and real life.

"And yes - even a short session counts when it’s done with intention." A lesson we could all learn!

The push-up is in almost every upper-body workout for women I've seen, yet most women (including myself, up until recently) can't do one. In fact, some data suggests that seven in 10 women would struggle to do the exercise without some training.

That's not on us. Women typically have less upper-body muscle mass than men. Our centre of mass is also towards our lower body and hips. But it is easy to start strength training and to build upper-body strength by working the arms, chest, back, and shoulders.

Mark Harris is an expert strength and conditioning coach, level 4 personal trainer, and an ambassador for Mirafit. He says there are two exercises he recommends for anyone looking to work their way up to a full push-up.

How to do push-ups for beginners

Dumbbell floor press

The dumbbell floor press is a great place to start, says Mark. "Performing the exercise lying on the floor prevents your elbows from travelling too far behind your body, as the ground naturally stops them in line with your shoulders. This makes it a safer and more controlled movement for beginners," he says.

It also still allows you to increase the weight as you get stronger, he adds. This is known as progressive overload, and it's what you need to get stronger.

How to do the dumbbell floor press:

• Sit on the floor with two dumbbells, one in each hand. Hold them upright.
• Roll back and lie down on a yoga mat or on the floor, making sure to keep the weights close to your chest.
• Keep your back flat, feet flat on the floor, and elbows at a 45-degree angle from your chest.
• Push the dumbbells up and over the middle of your chest.
• Once at the top of the movement, slowly bring your elbows down until they reach the floor.
• Pause for a moment, then repeat the movement.

Plank

Not everyone likes planks, but Mark says they are "essential" to develop the core stability needed for push-ups.

Here's a reminder of how to do a plank:

• Lie face-down on the floor or on your yoga mat, resting on your forearms.
• Make sure your elbows are right under your shoulders.
• Lift your body up, making sure to keep a straight line from your head to toes.
• Brace your core and squeeze your buttocks.
• Hold this position.

Mark's tips for doing push-ups

Another way to progress to a regular push-up is to do it against a higher surface, he says. "Start with wall push-ups, standing a short distance from the wall and pressing away from it instead of the floor. As your strength improves, you can gradually reduce the angle by moving to a sturdy kitchen worktop or similar elevated surface before progressing to the floor," he says.

"Just make sure it's not a movable kitchen island – I know someone who learned that lesson the hard way!"

Strength and balance are what doctors call 'key mobility indicators'. The stronger you are and the better balance you have, the more likely you are to stay independent with age - and that's what we all want.

A new study from Penn State College of Medicine has found that doing four minutes of strength training every day can boost strength and balance considerably in adults over 65, in as little as 12 weeks.

"The human body is designed to improve very quickly, and just a few repetitions of an exercise performed regularly can lead to huge improvements," says Christopher Sciamanna, professor of medicine and of public health at the college.

"Exercise is about forward thinking - think about what you want to be able to do and train for it," he says.

The study, published in PLOS One, involved almost 100 participants with an average age of 74. Before the study, the participants did about 18 minutes of exercise each week, which is well below the 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise recommended by the NHS and other bodies.

The Penn State 4-minute workout

In the study, participants completed each of the following exercises for 30 seconds, followed by a 30-second break. You can set a timer or use a fitness tracker to keep an eye on the seconds. They did each exercise once per day.

Each participant had a set of resistance bands and an adjustable stepper to do the exercises. You could also use dumbbells if you have them already.

• Assisted push-ups: Place hands slightly wider than shoulder-width against a wall or stable surface (e.g. kitchen countertop) and lower yourself down until you're a couple of inches away. The higher your hands are, the easier it will feel.
• Chair stands: Also called sit-to-stand, this exercise is essentially sitting and standing from a chair unassisted. You can also do squats, but make sure to keep your hands on your knees or hips.
• Two-arm rows: Hold each end of the resistance band, stepping on the bottom to keep it in place. Row the band towards your hips, as if you're putting them into your back pockets.
• Stair stepping: One leg at a time, step up and down from a stable surface. You could also walk up the stairs in your home.

After 12 weeks, the researchers found that this exact workout was enough to create "significant improvements in functional performance". Participants could do an average of four more repetitions in the chair stand test, stand on one leg for three more seconds, and move more quickly from sitting to standing by over two seconds.

This shows how useful the balance exercises are in this workout for healthy ageing. The movements reflect many we do in everyday life. This is called functional exercise, and it helps reduce the risk of falls in later life and helps with everyday activities like climbing stairs, carrying bags, and standing up.

This study was the second one done by the team. The first was a study called FAST (Functional Activity Strength Training). Here, 24 adults performed 30 seconds of push-ups and squats daily, with improved performance over six months.

Other studies, including one in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, have found that a few exercises every week can create the same improvements in strength and balance as longer workouts.

This is key. Exercise recommendations from the NHS suggest that all adults should do at least two days of strengthening exercise every week. Yet, data from NHS England suggests that fewer than one in five do, down to issues with routine, access, and pain.

While this workout still doesn't equal the 150-minute minimum exercise requirements, it's a good start. Participants went from doing under 20 minutes of exercise a week to following the workout over 80% of the time during the study.

"If we can make it short, we’re partway there," said Sciamanna. "These indicators predict your future ability to go into a nursing home, your future likelihood of falling and of developing difficulty walking. They give you a sense of whether or not you're going to be able to be active in the future."

Simple changes to your lifestyle make all the difference when trying to be healthier. Whether it's lifting weights to improve strength or lowering your cholesterol with breakfast swaps, every little helps.

New research has shown that eating one avocado a day is associated with a reduced risk of heart disease in people with obesity.

Researchers from the Penn State Department of Nutritional Sciences linked a daily avocado with a lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particle concentration in the blood. These are particles that carry cholesterol throughout the body. High cholesterol can lead to blocked blood vessels. This can cause a stroke or heart attack.

In the study, published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, the researchers analysed data originally collected from 786 participants in the Habitual Diet and Avocado Trial, a six-month study of adults 25 years and older. Men were eligible for the study if they had a waist circumference greater than 40 inches, and women were eligible if they had a waist circumference greater than 35 inches.

Half of the participants were instructed to maintain their normal diet and activity. The other half were provided with one daily avocado, but otherwise, they followed their normal diet and activity routine.

In the new study, the researchers compared blood samples taken at the beginning and end of the study. They found that levels of LDL particles in the one-avocado-per-day group decreased by 49 nanomoles per litre, which equates to an approximate 4% reduction in heart disease risk.

While this is only a small decrease in risk, eating an avocado is an easy change many people can make to their diets. "Four per cent is a modest reduction compared with the 14% to 29% lower heart disease risk associated with improving the overall diet,” says Janhavi Damani, postdoctoral scholar at Penn State and first author of the study. “However, it is a step in the right direction."

Why may avocados help lower heart disease risk?

Avocados are a fruit rich in monounsaturated (i.e. 'healthy') fats, fibre, and plant compounds that improve cholesterol levels by lowering the number of LDL particles that build up in the body's arteries.

As well as having avocado on its own or in a salad, swapping out fatty dairy products with avocado can have a significant impact on your heart disease risk. A different study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that eating just a quarter of an avocado instead of butter, egg, and cheese in the same portion size reduced the risk of heart disease by 22%.

What are LDL particles?

You might have heard of ‘bad cholesterol’. This refers to LDL cholesterol. It's found in our bloodstream, but it can’t travel through the body on its own. It has to be carried by LDL protein particles. High levels of both of these are linked to cardiovascular disease, but the particles don't show up on a typical cholesterol test, so looking at them individually can help doctors understand patients' health risk.

The researchers highlighted that this risk is often greater in people with abdominal obesity.

"Imagine two people with the same high levels of LDL cholesterol," Damani explains. "Person A carries their cholesterol in fewer, larger LDL particles, and Person B carries their cholesterol in more, smaller LDL particles. Person B's heart disease risk would be higher because their overall particle count is higher even though a test of their LDL cholesterol would look identical."

In the study, the researchers found improvements in LDL particle levels in all participants, regardless of age, ethnicity, sex or BMI. But results from the first Habitual Diet and Avocado Trial showed that eating an avocado daily didn’t reduce body weight or waist circumference in people with obesity. Other studies have shown that avocados might be linked to a lower Type 2 diabetes risk, and their high potassium content can also help keep normal blood pressure.

You won't find Hannah Waddingham in the gym, but the star says she always makes time to "activate" her muscles with short daily workouts and quick bursts of exercise.

Her favourite workout? Calisthenics. This is the practice of using bodyweight movements like squats to challenge strength, balance, and endurance, as in any weighted strength workout.

It's this exercise that the star recommends to her friends. "Activate your muscles - every day. People are very lovely; they talk about my arms. I just keep activated. And never underestimate the value of doing squats the whole time you're brushing your teeth," she tells Women's Health.

Squats are a compound exercise, meaning they work multiple muscles at the same time. Hannah is building strength, stability, and balance at her bathroom sink in as few as two minutes at the start and end of each day.

Otherwise, Hannah says she doesn't do loads of exercise. "Just calisthenics [with] my own body weight and some light weights for 20 minutes in the morning," she says.

Hannah learnt the value of bodyweight exercises after returning to exercise from a back injury a few years ago. After doing no exercise at all for a year and a half, she told Glamour magazine: "I've come out the other side of it now, and so I need to get back into [exercise]. But having been a dancer all my life, Pilates, reformer Pilates, and band work, your own weight is great for the female form."

All of these workouts use bodyweight exercise to some degree, and studies support the practice for healthy ageing. Not just for the body, either. A study in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health reviewed older adults and found improvements in decision-making processes, attention span, and general brain health after a dedicated bodyweight workout program.

Benefits of squats

• Boosts full-body strength: Squats aren't just a quadriceps exercise. You'll feel them in your glutes (buttocks), core muscles, and back.
• Improves posture: As squats train the core and back, and force you to straighten your back to do the exercise properly, your posture will naturally improve.
• Boosts bone density: Squats are a loaded exercise. Every time you squat down, you load your legs, spine, and hips, boosting bone density and helping to ward off conditions like osteoporosis.
• Great for progression: How many squats can you do in two minutes? Make a note and see if you can increase it from one week to the next. You'll know you're getting stronger and fitter if the number goes up.
• No equipment required: As good as a set of dumbbells can be, you don't need any equipment to do regular squats and get stronger.

If you're looking to get back into regular exercise like Hannah did, combining something you're already doing with a new practice is worth trying. It's known as habit stacking.

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, made the concept popular, but it essentially helps you introduce a new habit into your life by linking it up with an old one. E.g. doing squats (new) while brushing your teeth (old). That way, you remember to do it regularly.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death among women under 50 in the UK, but the NHS doesn't offer screenings until age 50.

Under current NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) guidelines, GPs only consider family history when deciding whether to screen a patient under 50 for the disease.

A recent study has called for this to change. The team from the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) analysed data from 1,258 women aged under 50 years recruited to the Breast Cancer Now Generations Study between 2004 and 2011.

They compared the results from the NICE criteria to those from a newly developed tool called Boadicea. This tool combines factors such as family history, genes, lifestyle factors and reproductive history. They found that if all women aged under 50 were assessed, 26.5% would be categorised as at a higher risk and referred for more tests. This would include over a third (34.8%) of women under 50 who develop breast cancer within 10 years.

The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, found that in comparison, the NICE criteria would result in 1.4% of women under 50 being referred for further assessment, including just 4.4% of those women who develop breast cancer.

73% of women under 50 who develop breast cancer within 10 years have no family history of it - the key criterion in the current NICE guidelines.

The team have called for NHS criteria to include other risk factors, such as genes and lifestyle factors, including alcohol intake and body composition. If a high risk is detected early, it can lead to extra monitoring and preventive treatment.

Dr Juliet Usher-Smith from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, the study’s senior author, says: “We need to get better at identifying women at highest risk of breast cancer so that we can intervene early, when there are more options for treating, or even preventing, their disease.

“The current NICE criteria used in general practice are missing up to 95% of women under 50 who will go on to develop breast cancer. It’s time to look again at these criteria in the light of our findings.”

However, the team does recognise that using the Boadicea system on all patients would require a lot more resources and lead to an increase in referrals of women who will not go on to develop the disease.

Professor Montserrat Garcia-Closas from the Institute of Cancer Research says: “There will be a balance to strike: the NICE criteria are much easier to implement, but miss a large proportion of women at elevated risk. But a full risk assessment including genetic testing will place a heavy burden on resources.

“Ultimately, it will be a trade-off between the practical, resource, and cost implications of data collection and risk assessment, and the potential benefits and harms associated with accurate and inaccurate classification of women.”

NICE says it welcomes the findings and recognises the potential of such a risk assessment tool, but adds that the current evidence does not justify a change to its guidelines on breast cancer screening.

Can you request a breast cancer screening?

The NHS only offers screenings for breast cancer for women between 50 and 71. Most are offered one for the first time between 50 and 53, and then they are routine every three years.

If you are over 71, you can ask for screenings to continue as normal, once every three years.

Even if you are eligible for screenings, always speak to your doctor if you spot any unusual symptoms.

If you are under 50, you may be offered a screening if you have any unusual symptoms that may suggest early signs of breast cancer. A new lump, swelling in the armpit, or changes to the breast skin and/or nipple, for example. It's important to speak to your doctor immediately.

For the first time, we’ve handed the reins entirely over to you in our quest to find the best wellness products for women over 40. Of course, our expert editorial team can test products until the cows come home; but the true proof of the pudding is how they fare in the chaotic reality of everyday life. That’s why we enlisted some of our brilliant woman&home Tester Network to put the UK’s leading sleep and wellness products through their paces in their own homes.

After all, a gadget can sound amazing in a clinical testing lab, but that won't tell us how it actually performs when you’re navigating a hot flush at 3 am, struggling to drown out a partner's thunderous snoring, or desperately trying to switch off a racing mind after a relentless day. So to find out, we launched our first-ever Reader Approved Awards – we sent the UK’s bestselling rest and relaxation products straight to our readers' doors to be lived with, slept on, and thoroughly judged in the course of their real lives.

It's honest, real-world testing by real women. From brilliant, budget-friendly mattress toppers that brought new life to a tired old bed to high-tech earbuds that quite literally ‘saved marriages’, these award-winning products have proved that they are worth every penny.

1. Bedding and comfort award winners

Best cosy blanket

Best duvet

Best cooling blanket

Best quilted throw

Best down pillow

Best cooling mattress topper

Best mattress topper

2. Bedtime wellness and aromatherapy winners

Best relaxation candle

Best bath product

Best stress-relieving scent

Best bedtime spray

Best flame-free aromatherapy

3. Sleep tech winners

Best noise-blocking device

Best bedroom fan

How we tested our Reader Approved Award winners

To ensure every award is truly earned, we put each product through a rigorous and impartial review process. Every item on our shortlist was evaluated independently by a panel of at least three different testers in their own homes for a minimum of two weeks.

Our testers integrated these products into their nightly routines, scoring them across a variety of key criteria specific to their category – such as sensory comfort, ease of use, temperature regulation, and overall impact on sleep quality.

Once the testing phase was complete, we calculated the average score for each product from our testers' feedback. We then compared these averaged marks directly against similar products in the category. The items that consistently outperformed their peers and achieved the highest overall averages were crowned our Reader Approved winners.

We’re just getting started – this is only the first instalment of our 2026 Reader Approved Awards, and we’ll be back very soon to reveal the standout winners in our final two categories: Kitchen and Cleaning. From clever culinary game-changers to the ultimate chore-busting sanity savers, keep your eyes peeled for the next batch of reader-approved champions.

Hip pain is no fun for anyone, especially those of us who love to hike and run. But it doesn’t always mean you’re dealing with an injury, and as I found out, sometimes there’s an easy fix.

A couple of years ago, I developed muscle pain in my outer hip, a few inches above the hip joint. It was always worse after a run. It improved if I took a break from my running shoes for a bit. I tried everything to fix it: massage, foam rolling and endless stretching. Nothing helped.

Finally, I consulted a physiotherapist. I expected to get a tendonitis diagnosis and a prescription for rest. Instead, after a thorough examination to rule out injury, she handed me a resistance band and told me to start strengthening my gluteus medius with lateral leg raises. Within a week, my pain was gone.

What is a lateral leg raise?

A lateral leg raise is a glute exercise, meaning it targets muscles in the buttocks. It's particularly beneficial for the gluteus medius, one of three large muscles in the area. When a lateral leg raise is done with a resistance band, the exercise helps "improve strength, endurance, and neuromuscular control of this muscle," says Paula Ralph, a physiotherapist and former endurance cyclist.

Paula explains that when stabiliser muscles in the hip and knee aren't working effectively, the gluteus medius is forced to work harder. As the muscle sits on the outer side of the pelvis, covering much of the hip, this can lead to overload and pain in the hips.

"If weakness or poor stability is the underlying issue, repeatedly stretching the muscle does little to address why it is being overloaded in the first place," she says.

You can do lateral leg raises just about anywhere to strengthen your outer hips and core stabiliser muscles, as long as you have a resistance band. I bring mine along on every work trip and holiday. I’ve now been pain-free for over a year, and I make these movements a regular part of my fitness routine.

How to do lateral leg raises with a resistance band

• Place the resistance band around your thighs, just above your knees.
• Stand with your feet hip-width apart, and if balance is an issue, place one hand on a wall or chair to steady yourself.
• Brace your standing leg so that it doesn’t move, then press your other leg as far out to the side as you can.
• Bring it back in, then bend your knee and draw it up in line with your belly button.
• Repeat 10 times on each leg.

There are a few different approaches to strengthening the gluteus medius, but the lateral leg raise was recommended to me as it also strengthens my hip flexors. These small muscles can often be weak in runners and contribute to hip pain.

Benefits of lateral leg raises

• Improves running form: “Since the glute medius acts as a hip stabiliser, strengthening it helps to protect correct alignment in the lower body," says personal trainer Eloise Skinner.
• May help prevent hip pain: “Keeping the glute medius strong also reduces tendon damage and can promote healthy healing of damaged tendons in this area, reducing the overall feeling of pain or discomfort," she says.
• Improves lower-body stability: “If the stabilising muscles around the hip are not functioning efficiently, or if the body lacks adequate control through the pelvis and trunk, the glute med can become overworked and eventually painful,” says Paula.
• Improves balance: The gluteus medius' job is to move your leg out to the side (hip abduction). It plays a critical role in stabilising your pelvis when you are standing on one leg. This means it is working continuously whenever you are running or walking.

While the lateral leg raise is a great strength training exercise for runners, there could also be other reasons for your hip pain. Paula recommends checking how you run, how often you run, your footwear choices, mobility, and even how tired you are to understand the muscle weakness.

“The key is identifying why the muscle is being asked to work harder than it should rather than simply treating the symptom," she says. Speak to a physiotherapist if you're unsure what's causing the issue and for alternative treatment options.

We all lose our balance occasionally, but there’s a difference between tripping now and then and a declining ability to move. This puts our long-term health and independence at risk.

Falls are one of the most common causes of injury and hospitalisation in the UK. Whatever your age, it's never too early or late to do more balance exercises. A study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that those in their mid-50s who couldn't stand on one leg for 10 seconds had a higher mortality risk.

GP Dr Amir Khan, woman&home's resident doctor, previously told us: "As we age, we naturally lose joint flexibility, and some of the sensory feedback from our feet and inner ear that keeps us steady. Hormonal changes, particularly during the menopause and perimenopause, can also affect muscle strength and coordination. The result is a higher risk of falls, trips, and injuries, even in otherwise fit women."

It's why balance exercises like standing on one leg are so important. "Balance relies on muscle strength, coordination, vision, and the inner ear," he says, and this single-leg exercise can help improve some of these factors.

"As we get older, these systems naturally decline, and poor balance is one of the biggest risk factors for falls," he says. "Simple and powerful, this is one of those small daily habits that add up over time."

Simply stand on one leg for the first minute as you brush and then switch to the other leg for the second minute, Dr Khan says. “It engages your core, strengthens your stabilising muscles and improves something called proprioception, your body’s awareness of its position. And if you want to make it even harder, try it with your eyes closed.”

Dr Khan says this balance exercise is an example of 'habit stacking', which "means linking a healthy behaviour to something you already do. So no extra time and no gym needed". You're already brushing your teeth, so why not work to improve your balance at the same time?

Other healthy morning habits we can add to our morning routines for better sleep and energy throughout the day include hydrating before caffeine and getting outside in the first 10 minutes after waking up.

Other ways to improve your balance

• Strength training: There are many bodyweight or weighted exercises we can do to improve our balance. These include lunges, sit-to-stands, and squats. These will all strengthen your legs, glutes and core, improving balance, mobility and stability.
• Exercise: Yoga, Pilates, dancing and Tai Chi all include movements to help you practice balance techniques. There are one-legged poses which require focus, mind-body engagement and coordination.
• Lifestyle: Not sleeping and eating well can also affect your balance, energy levels and risks of a fall. Try to get eight hours of sleep a night and eat a balanced diet.
• Speak to your doctor: If you feel dizzy or frequently off-balance, speak to a professional. They will check if there’s an underlying health problem causing it. Some medications can also affect your balance.

The summer is upon us! Mine involves a lot of family activities with my three energetic children. We’re going to be hiking and paddleboarding in Dorset, plus swimming, cycling and playing football on holiday with friends. I exercise regularly, but I started including the wall sit exercise in my strength training routine as a hiking exercise to make sure my body could keep up.

Knee pain is something I experience from time to time, especially when walking downhill or running. I think it’s an age problem, but it’s not something I want to get any worse, so I asked my physiotherapist for a knee and leg-strengthening exercise I could easily do at home.

Wall sits are an isometric exercise, meaning you do it in one place, completely still. It's a bodyweight exercise and an underrated way to strengthen all the muscles in the lower body, from the tiny hip flexors to the largest muscle in the body - the glutes.

“Strong muscles are a stress shield to your joints," explains Helen O’Leary, physiotherapist at Complete Pilates. "If you already have knee pain, the wall sit exercise can be particularly helpful for relieving the discomfort for some people, especially if you can’t tolerate moving your knee through range.”

How to do the wall sit exercise

• Stand around a foot away from the wall, with your back to it and your feet hip-width apart.
• Keeping your whole back against the wall, side down until your knees are bent to about 90 degrees.
• Hold this position for about 30 seconds if you can.
• Stand up by driving through your heels.
• Repeat three times.

Benefits of wall sit exercise

1. Reduces knee pain

The wall sit exercise works to reduce knee pain as it strengthens the quadriceps (thighs) without putting pressure on the joint, as you would in a squat, lunge or other quadriceps exercise.

Doing an isometric exercise like this one also helps to build endurance and stability in the area, which works to reduce pain as well. Exercises that put a lot of pressure on the knee, like running and hiking, require this.

I'm looking forward to pulling on my walking shoes this summer and feeling lighter on the downhill as a result of doing this exercise.

2. Builds leg strength

I found that doing three sets of 30-second wall sits every day for two weeks really improved my leg strength. I do a lot of squats during my weekly Pilates and weight training sessions, but I rarely have to hold my legs in position for as long as a wall sit requires.

The first few times I did it, my thighs shook, and I felt incredibly hot and sweaty. It reminded me of how I feel when I have to hold a plank. But as the weeks went on, my quads, hamstrings and calves became used to the static position, and I was able to sit with my hips lower.

Moving my feet impacted the intensity. When I pressed the ground through the balls of my feet, I could feel a greater burn in my quads. When I pressed into my heels, I could feel it more in my glutes. If I pulled my heels back, I could feel it more in my hamstrings.

3. It switched on my core muscles

The core is important when doing a wall sit. You need to maintain an upright posture and keep your back on the wall, and this uses the abdominal muscles, obliques, and lower back.

As the seconds built up, I could feel these muscles switching on to support my stability and help me maintain good posture against the wall.

4. Good for heart health

Research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that isometric exercise can help lower high blood pressure in those with mild elevation, Helen points out.

“In the research protocol, the wall sit is recommended for two minutes," she tells me. "Make sure you are not holding your breath for this time, as it can actually increase blood pressure instead."

5. A mindful moment

Focusing on how you breathe when exercising can improve stamina and lung capacity, but it can also increase the endorphins that flow around the body post-exercise.

I used breathwork to help me get through the pain and shakiness of my legs during my daily wall sits, and found that inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth made the time go faster and helped me stay in position for longer.

It was also a mindful moment in my day, giving me a chance to turn my brain off for a moment. Life is busy but taking time away from my desk to just lean against the wall, breathe and wake up my muscles after sitting down felt so lovely. It became a welcome screen break, even with some mild discomfort.

How to make the wall sit exercise easier

There are adaptations you can make to avoid aggravating or causing any injuries. Helen says you can “reduce the time that you hold the exercise for. You might need to start with 5 or 10 seconds and build up your endurance gradually”.

You can also “reduce the range of motion", she says. "Slide only half the distance if you need to. This will be helpful if you sense that you may struggle to slide back up the wall again."

Anyone can do a wall sit of some kind. You can also experiment with taking your feet wider or moving closer to the wall, holding onto two chairs for support as you lower down or rise to stand.

As you get stronger, you’ll notice you can bend deeper and hold the position for longer. You might even be able to hold a couple of light dumbbells at the same time.

If you really struggle to do a wall sit, squats or sit-to-stand exercises, where you sit down on a chair and strengthen the leg muscles by rising to standing without using your hands, are good alternative quadricep exercises.

Speak to a physio or PT if you have any questions about your form or whether wall sits are suitable for you.

If you ask most personal trainers about the ideal number of strength training sessions to have every week, they'll say between two and three - or even more, depending on your goal. That's regardless of age, too.

It's fair to say this won't be a possibility for everyone, whether that's constraints with time or physical ones like tiredness or joint pain.

That doesn't mean you can't make progress if you're over 60 and looking to get stronger, says Ema Buckle, a personal trainer and women's fitness specialist in her 50s. "The biggest message is that it isn’t too late to start thinking about your health and fitness," she tells woman&home. With three simple focuses, you can get the most out of all the best exercises for women over 60 in just one day in the gym or one dumbbell home workout a week.

1. Prioritise functional movement

"As we age, certain movements get harder to perform, such as sitting to standing, bending over to pick something up, or reaching up to put items away," says Ema. Focusing on functional movements can help you stay mobile throughout life. These should be the priority of you can only lift weights once a week.

"These exercises mimic real life activities, significantly reduce your risk of injury, and preserve your everyday independence," she says.

Functional movements include exercises like:

• Squats: Bending your knees and lowering your body to the floor, as if you're sitting on a chair behind you. It works your quadriceps (thighs), glutes (buttocks), lower back, and core muscles, among others.
• Hinges: Bending at your hips, keeping a flat back, picking something off the floor without bending your knees. This is mostly seen in deadlift exercises.
• Lunge: Builds single-leg balance, stability, and strength by working one leg at a time.
• Push exercises: This could be a chest press, shoulder press, or leg press, with a machine or free weights. It helps with activities like walking and reaching above your head.
• Pull exercises: Think opening a door or taking something down from a high shelf. Exercises like a lat pull down or rows help with this.
• Carry: A farmer's carry is one of the most useful carry exercises, as it closely mirrors carrying shopping bags or suitcases.
• Rotation: Even turning to look behind you can get harder. Rotation exercises, like Russian twists, build core strength and stability to help you do this.

"Find a class that caters to you or a personal trainer who will listen to your needs and give you the basics," says Ema.

2. Focus on full-body workouts

If you can only get into the gym once a week, then you've got to work on each muscle group, instead of doing an upper-body workout one week and a lower-body workout the next. To get stronger, target all the muscles in the body in one session.

As a beginner, I'd adopt a whole-body session, concentrating on the larger muscle groups," says Ema. "These support the majority of our daily movements."

This could be a simple 20-minute kettlebell workout or a 30-minute dumbbell workout. Just because you're working out once a week doesn't mean it has to take hours.

3. Always focus on progressive overload

When you lift weights, you get stronger. Your weights have to get heavier or your workout has to get harder as you get stronger to continue seeing progress. This is progressive overload.

"When you are ready, this type of training is going to help build bone density and combat age-related muscle loss," says Ema. "Start with a low weight and work on your technique."

There are two ways to make sure you're progressively overloading your exercises, says the trainer: increase the amount of reps per set or increase the weight.

"You wouldn't increase week on week, but every four to six weeks, or as the exercise gets easier to perform," she says.

Nutrition is just as important as exercise when it comes to getting stronger. "Muscles require adequate nutrition to fuel and repair," says Ema.

"Aim to consume quality protein (such as eggs, fish, lean meats or plant based alternatives). The recommended amount is 1g per kilogram of bodyweight (for a sedentary adult). However, if you are active, 1.2g will help support muscle growth and recovery," she says.

"I'd recommend a breakfast of two eggs (cooked any way you like) with toast, and then a tuna or lean meat sandwich (or veggie alternative) or lunch, followed by a dinner of salmon or steak and vegetables. You could also include a good quality protein shake after your workout," she says.

Whether you like to make sure you're hitting your step goal and getting eight hours of sleep or training for something special, having one of the best fitness trackers is a good idea. Samsung has just added one to the list - the brand new Samsung Galaxy Watch 9.

I took this one for a spin before its August release to see what's new and improved. The feature that impressed me most was the new Vitals metric. After seven days, you'll get your baseline for skin temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen, respiratory rate, and HRV. When these deviate from normal, you'll get a notification. Instead of simply being a fitness tracker, the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 joins the ranks of the best Garmin watches and the Oura Ring 5 as a device that can cast a second glance over your everyday wellbeing.

After a week of wearing the watch every day and night, I can certainly see the benefits of upgrading, but there are a few details I'd suggest you look at before you do.

Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 review

Specifications

• Size: 42.7 x 40.4 x 8.6 (40mm) or 46.0 x 43.7 x 8.6 (44mm)
• Weight: 31.5g (40mm) or 34g (44mm)
• Materials: Aluminium, glass, silicone
• Battery life: Up to 40 hours (without always-on display)
• GPS: Dual-band (built-in, leave your phone at home)
• Waterproof: Up to 5ATM (50 meters)

Design of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 has a sleek, futuristic design with a round face fixed to a soft square bezel made of aluminium. I could argue the bezel could be made smaller in favour of a larger screen, but I actually love this feature. In the sea of bulky fitness trackers, it adds a stylish element to the watch, turning it from a basic watch into a stylish piece I actually want to wear, versus 'have' to wear.

I'd always suggest turning the 'always-on' function off to save battery life. In this case, battery life increases from up to 30 hours to 40 hours when you do. When the screen is on, it's bright. I could read it even in the scorching sun of midday. While it doesn't sound like anything serious, there's nothing more frustrating (or potentially hazardous) than having to squint at your watch to check your pace or distance during a run or hike.

Despite the 8mm height off the wrist, this watch sits flush and doesn't clip things around the house or in the gym. However, the durability of the aluminium bezel does concern me. As far as I'm aware, it hasn't been made especially scratch-resistant, and it could lose its sleek appearance over time if it's scratched or bumped.

Tracking workouts with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

I can start a workout on my Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 in three taps. The Walking, Running, and Cycling workout modes are pre-loaded, and others are available from a drop-down menu. It's such an easy process. For a walking workout, you'll get duration, distance, steps, average speed, live speed, elevation gain, estimated calories burned, average heart rate, and live heart rate. All on one of the clearest and easiest-to-read screens I've seen on any fitness tracker.

I was very impressed by the additional features you could add to the workout. For example, a heart rate alert to warn if yours is above or below your desired range, and fuelling reminders at your desired distance. It turns this fitness tracker into a contender for one of the best running watches.

Should you forget to log a workout, don't worry. The watch is keeping tabs on your movements at all times, so you'll get a notification and a workout will automatically start. It's saved me on my walking workouts a few times.

When the workout is over, all your data will be available in the Samsung Health app. In here, I can see all my workouts and delve deep into what they mean for my overall fitness. For example, with the sparkling new Cardio load feature, I can set a goal (e.g., cardiovascular fitness or healthy weight) and see how my workouts have contributed to this and where I need to do more - or less.

The Fitness Index feature is also worth noting. This looks at all the pillars of fitness, including flexibility and endurance, and tells you where you're putting most of your efforts. I used this to help balance out my routine. I was doing way too much cardio and strength work and not enough flexibility training up until recently.

All of this is housed in easy-to-read formats with graphics and further information points. It goes to show that advanced insights don't always need to come packaged in advanced language or complicated layouts.

It's also how the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9, like other premium fitness trackers, helps women actively improve their fitness rather than just logging their workouts.

My only complaint is with logging strength workouts. This workout comes under the 'Weight Machines' profile, or you can be incredibly specific and install a whole workout for specific exercises, like press-ups. These are general workout modes. They don't count reps, sets, or break times. Given the advanced features available for running and walking, it would be great to have this as a focus in future models, as found in watches like the Coros Pace 4.

Sleep tracking with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

Sleep tracking features on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 are impressively detailed. All you have to do is wear your watch to bed, and you'll get a Sleep Score in the morning, with a plethora of data about your night.

You'll get basic sleep duration and stages (REM, deep, light) insights, sleep latency (how long it took you to fall asleep after getting into bed), blood oxygen saturation, and skin temperature compared to your baseline. These last two metrics aren't ones I tend to look at very often, but laid out so clearly in the Vitals tab, they can detect if anything is straining your body. For example, if you're getting a cold, your skin temperature will be higher than normal. On other devices, this feature has warned me I'm under the weather before any symptoms.

Otherwise, the sleep-tracking information is very similar to what I've experienced on the likes of Garmin watches and Fitbit devices. So, if it's a sleep tracker you're after really, I'd recommend the Oura Ring 5. Sitting at about the same price, it offers more data on your overnight activities than most other devices.

Smartwatch features on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is as much a smartwatch as it is a fitness tracker. You can essentially leave your Samsung phone at home, confident you can do pretty much everything from your watch.

I liked that the watch's smartwatch features are customisable. Some give you all the apps immediately on set-up, which can leave the screen feeling cluttered if you don't want all of them. On this watch, swipe right and add the tiles you want.

Choose from Google Maps, Spotify or YouTube Music (which you can play directly through your exercise headphones), calendars, alarms and timers, and Google's digital assistant. You can also pay using Samsung Wallet with the bottom side button.

Price of the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9

The Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 is available to buy online from £349. You can also buy it from Amazon, but only in the all-black colourway, and from Argos and Very, but only in black or white.

It is available to pre-order now, with deliveries sent out from August 3 2026.

This is a typical price for a smartwatch like this when compared to similar options like the Apple Watch Series 11 and Google Pixel Watch 4.