A new study has found that taking the stairs over the lift (or escalator) doesn’t just make you feel smug – it could reduce your risk of early death by a quarter. Those who regularly climbed stairs were found to be 39 per cent less likely to die from heart problems, and 24 per cent less likely to die from any cause, per the analysis of five studies involving more than 450,000 people.
Using the stairs, researchers suggest, is just one of the ways that people can incorporate exercise into their life, especially if they have sedentary jobs, or cannot find the time to go to the gym. This is crucial for health and longevity, as another study published this week indicates that a small decline in daily exercise can elevate your cancer risk by 15 per cent.
Jacqueline Hooton is a 63-year-old personal trainer who is the owner of Her Garden Gym and author of Strong: The Definitive Guide to Active Ageing. Ahead, she shares all the ways that she turns her own daily life into a workout, as well as ways that she recommends it to her clients (on top of taking the stairs).
Remember we are designed to move
It’s all about a general attitude: seeing how you can embrace it in your day-to-day life rather than taking the easier, more comfortable route. Like taking the stairs instead of the lift. If you live with the attitude that everything isn’t an inconvenience but is rather an opportunity to inject movement into your life, it changes everything.
That comes back to the general attitude of understanding that movement is really important for our health and wellbeing. It’s important for our longevity. We are designed to move.
Grocery shopping and deliveries are just strength workouts in disguise
For example, if you’re at the supermarket and you’ve done a big shop, you can take the bags out of the trolley and do farmer carries to the car, instead of unloading from the trolley right into the car. That is not a major inconvenience, it’s just part of your daily movement.
Compound movements (like squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press and barbell row) form the backbone of a lot of strength training because they are functional movements – we use them all the time in everyday life.
So, when the opportunity comes up to use that movement, I take it. Every time a delivery turns up at my door, the delivery guys will often apologise that it’s a bit heavy and so on. But I just use a deadlift to pick it up from the floor and move it in. The more you do it day-to-day, the more you’re able to do it.
I work on my balance when doing chores
Balance is a really important factor that people can often forget. We’ve probably all heard this idea of standing on one leg when you’re brushing your teeth which is so easy to incorporate. But I actually do it when doing the washing up. When you’re standing at the sink washing up you’ve got a bit of movement involved, turning from washing up bowl to draining board etc. You’re doing a lot more work with your core as well as your balance.
Putting on socks in the morning is another one. I often do that actually in the gym when I arrive because I change from trainers to barefoot shoes for training. It adds that extra level of challenge.
Stretch without leaving your chair
Stretching is another important factor. And if you spend a lot of time at a computer or sitting down it is so easy to add in even from a chair. Stretching out your chest by taking your hands behind your back, or releasing your neck muscles by pulling your head to one side and your arm to the other. It’s incredibly beneficial to relieve stress and make sure you’re not getting a super tight upper body if you’re hunched over a computer all day.
Scrolling on your phone? Stand up!
I also try to do a lot more things standing up to break up being too sedentary. Taking calls standing up, taking meetings standing up and only doing your scrolling standing up. This adds in the sit-to-stand movement as well as reducing sedentary activity. The scrolling one is one I try to do in particular. We all know that thing where you can fall down a rabbit hole scrolling, so standing does two things: it makes us less sedentary, but it also stops us doing as much mindless scrolling. We tend to get bored while standing up, so don’t do it for so long.
Leave the car when you can
I opt to use my bike for local journeys, if not walking: it’s better for me, better for the environment. And you realise that you actually can get that movement in.
Use the countertop while the kettle boils
One other movement that many of my clients – especially as they’re getting older – want to find ways to incorporate are push movements. That’s where countertop push-ups can come in very useful. You’re preparing food or waiting for the kettle to boil and you can throw in a couple push-ups and work a little bit on your upper body strength. So many of us don’t use it daily.
I don’t tend to do these as much (I do floor push-ups) but when I fractured my wrist I had to reintroduce strength training in a safe way. Doing table top push-ups was one of the first things that I could safely do to reintroduce bearing weight. It was really helpful for working my strength up again. And the higher the counter the easier it is.
The more you do it you eventually get down to coffee table level and then all the way down to the floor. Crucially, it’s accessible and actually feels possible.
Find your comfort level
It’s really important for people to understand that all exercise can be made harder and easier, and everyone needs an access point at which they can jump in and fully engage.
I’ve been training for over 35 years and needed to redress to a countertop push-up after my wrist fracture and shoulder surgeries. There’s no shame in that. Each of these exercises has a range of difficulty that can work for everyone, whether they’ve got limited mobility, a health issue, starting from scratch, or they’ve been poorly. There’s always something you can do.
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