Fitness
I’m feeling my best ever at 80: these are my daily habits – and the one thing I never do
Having worked in wellness for over 50 years, what Sue Harmsworth doesn’t know about health and wellbeing isn’t worth knowing. The brand founder, who launched the beloved spa brand ESPA in 1992, has dedicated her whole life to the pursuit of wellness and looking at her now, at 80 years old, she’s clearly been doing something right.
Sue, who splits her time between Farnham, Surrey and Tenerife, has a strict daily routine that helps her stay on top form, and is quick to point out: “Stress, whichever name you put to it – mental stress, anxiety, illness – is at the core of societal problems today.
“We know now that prevention and lifestyle are the most important issues in keeping us healthy. In my view, integrative health and wellness is the way forward, and whether you call it spa, wellness, wellbeing, longevity, health span or something else, it always comes back to the core principles of good nutrition, exercise, good sleep, mindfulness and meditation.”
That said, Sue isn’t immune to the perils of ageing, sharing: “My weakness is joints, so I have to look after my knees and shoulders. That aside, I do think that exercise is a massive part of the reason I feel so good at my age – if I don’t do something active every day, that’s when I feel an ache or pain.”
Here, Sue shares her rigorous wellness routine – as well as the habits she actively avoids. Take notes!
1. Morning stretches
“I start every day with 15 minutes of stretching – bridges, cat cow, child pose, knee rolling, tabletop and so on.”
2. Pool time
“My beloved pool routine includes 40 minutes in the pool – running, jumping, doing weights, squats and lunges, and riding on my aqua bike.”
© Hester Barnes Photography & Film3. Two personal training sessions per week
“Where possible, I do two PT sessions a week. I am also lucky to have a Technogym Kinesis (an all-in-one machine with built-in elastic bands, dumbbells, and more) in my gym at home, and I do rope exercises for my shoulders most days.”
© Hester Barnes Photography & Film4. Water therapy
“I tend to take cool showers and warm baths and use them as therapy. I rely on the shower in the morning for circulation and energy, while the bath (with Epsom salts and oils) helps my sleep process of winding down, because I have no tech in there.”
5. Contrast therapy
“I believe in contrast thermal therapy – always ending with cold. The practice has been around for centuries but is claimed as “new”. I sauna twice a week – hot, cold, hot, cold – always finishing with cold!”
© Hester Barnes Photography & Film6. Body brushing
“I have skin brushed for decade. It’s a form of exfoliation but also helps with circulation, always towards the heart.”
7. Microbiome care
“I have always been aware of the importance of the three microbiomes – oral microbiome, gut health and the microbiome and the skin microbiome. To support mine, I see a hygienist every four months, do swishing with coconut oil, use my electric toothbrush to clean my tongue as well as gums and teeth, and use a water pick as well.”
8. One main meal – and no snacking
“In my eighties, I have to be careful with food. I try to only have one main meal a day, and I try to follow the Original Mayr Clinic principles of no raw after 4, no snacking at all, two fasting days, 16/8, and two vegetarian days.
© Hester Barnes Photography & Film“The quality of the ingredients and nutrient value is more important now and I avoid processed foods and try to cook from scratch and source high-quality produce.”
9. Minimal alcohol
“For the last three years have come off alcohol other than for really important celebrations and then one glass of a great pink Champagne is enough!”
10. Avoiding surgery
“As we age, we want to avoid surgeries as it gets harder to recover, but it’s so important that stay mobile. One issue that has blighted my health is a series of problems with my joints, leading to a hip resurfacing procedure in my mid-50s, followed by joint replacement surgery in both shoulders five years ago which required a lengthy recovery period.
“A few years ago, in my late seventies, I began experiencing pain and discomfort in my knees. I’ve followed a wide-ranging exercise regime my whole life and suddenly I wasn’t able to lift weights to support my muscle strength or do my daily exercises in the swimming pool.
© Hester Barnes Photography & Film“I was struggling to even get up from a chair. It all happened very suddenly and as I was approaching 80, for the first time ever, I started to wonder how I was going to do everything. I felt really panicked.
“I was lucky enough to be treated with a single and non-invasive hydrogel injection called Arthrosamid® with Dr George Bownes, Musculoskeletal, Sports and Exercise Medicine at Citius Health. A year on, I have absolutely no pain in my knees now. I’, able to enjoy all that life has to offer both professionally, pursing projects I’m passionate about including improving access to touch therapies for cancer patients and personally spending time with my children and grandchildren.”
It never feels like there’s enough time in the day – after prioritising your kids, work and other commitments, simply finding an opportunity to get in the gym can prove tricky. But instead of obsessing over gym sessions, Lawrence Price – former professional rugby player, coach and recent guest on MH’s Built for Life podcast – says busy dads should instead prioritise three weekly pillars.
These pillars are less about creating a perfect environment and more about building consistency that works with your life. The idea is that if life gets hectic and one pillar drops off temporarily, the other two pillars keep progress moving.
‘If pillar one is out the window because we can’t train for a couple of weeks, we can still manipulate things by making sure we’re hit hitting pillar one and three by getting those things on point,’ Price tells MH.
The 3 Pillars Every Busy Dad Should Follow
1. Increase Your Daily Movement
Price is a big proponent of increasing your NEAT – non-exercise activity thermogenesis – which is the energy your body uses for daily, non-structured exercises. These include things like walking more, taking the stairs instead of the lift or escalators, and moving during phone calls.
‘If your training window for the day has gone, then the reality is you can still take phone calls on your feet, you can take the stairs. It’s just boring to talk about – it’s unsexy, it’s uncool. But if you get people into that mindset where, whatever your life looks like, you’re prioritising that need. It’s 15% of your total daily expenditure or more,’ Price says.
‘Even even when your training window is put on the back burner, because the hierarchy of needs outside of your own health needs is obviously undulating and sometimes it pulls us away, whatever circumstance you have during the week, just moving more is something you can go towards.’
2. Strength Training
There’s no such thing as training too little – if you’ve only got time for one gym session a week, then make the most of that time and incorporate some strength training. Compound movements help to stimulate muscle growth efficiently.
‘Resistance training is the second pillar. Even if you only get one or two sessions in a week and it’s a really targeted, simple, basic functional hypertrophy routine, you know that when you’re sitting at your desk or when you’re doing the school run, your body is trying to adapt to that stimulus.’
‘If pillars one and two are the energy output pillars, pillar three is the energy input pillar,’ Price concludes.
‘If we have a rough idea of eating in alignment with our energetic needs and body composition goals, even if the environment changes we can still embody the habits and actions that align with our goals and and our visions.’
This is crucial for when you might not have time to train as much as you’d like – adapting your nutrition will still keep you on track with your goals, even if you’re expending less daily energy.
If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.
Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.
Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.
During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.
Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…
You can follow Ryan on Instagram or on X
Fitness
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The latest NHS exercise guidance reinforces what we’ve been preaching for years: hitting that 150-minute weekly movement target isn’t necessarily a get-out-of-jail-free card. It states that prolonged sedentary time is independently harmful, even for those of us who diligently carve out time for the gym. Verbatim, it says ‘prolonged sitting is harmful, even in people who achieve the recommended levels of moderate to vigorous physical activity’.
Chief Medical Officer Professor Sir Chris Whitty has been especially vocal about how detrimental it could be, highlighting hybrid working as a potential health hazard. ‘Without wanting to exaggerate, I think it’s important people think through, for example, hybrid working means quite a lot of people could very easily do very little other than leave their homes, where previously people would be routinely going to work, and that often meant at least some physical [activity],’ he said at a briefing.
I understand his logic, but it’s pretty reductive. Working from home isn’t the villain here – working from one chair is.
When we label remote work as “bad for your health”, we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. In reality, for many – certainly the whole of the Women’s Health office, but also my less-fitness-conscious sister and stepdad, plus my entire friendship group – working from home often means being more active. It means more time to fit in a lunchtime run, to get some steps in before work, or to run some errands on a quick break.
On the other hand, plenty of office workers are more sedentary than they are at home. They sit at a desk for nine hours straight before driving home, whether to be seen to work tirelessly in front of their manager, or simply because they’re pulled from pillar to post in an office setting. For those who do have an office commute, eliminating that often stressful period of the day allows for better sleep, and more time for the movement breaks we need to break up the dreaded sedentary time. Not to mention that many commutes are almost entirely sedentary on a train/tube/bus.
The potential problem, the advice suggests, is the lack of incidental movement – the walk to the train, the stroll to a meeting room, or heading out for lunch – that’s naturally baked into your day when you’re in the “official” office. Without a commute or a day in the office, the onus is on you to manufacture movement in.
Regular stretching counts as a movement break
Without sounding evangelical, I’ve made this a non-negotiable part of my day. On WFH days, I work out or walk every single morning before I log on, and walk again every evening, even if just a lap around the block. During the day, I have a personal rule: if I’m downstairs, I use the upstairs toilet (and vice versa). Sounds excessive, but it forces me to activate my muscles and add to my step count every few hours.
Beyond that, the options are endless if you’re intentional. Use a standing desk or put your laptop on a kitchen worktop during calls. Take every phone meeting on foot, pacing your hallway if necessary. Set a timer to stand up every 30 mins to stretch, grab a glass of water, or do a quick load of laundry.
We don’t need to return to the office to be healthy; we need to bring movement back into our homes. The goal: to stop being professional sitters.
As Women’s Health UK’s fitness director and a qualified Pilates and yoga instructor, Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism.
After earning a first-class degree in journalism and NCTJ accreditation, she secured her first role at Look Magazine, where she launched the magazine’s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!
Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner’s World and Red. Today, she oversees all fitness content across Women’s Health online and in print, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as ‘Fit At Any Age’, which showcases the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise.
She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks – all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how. Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.
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