Fitness
Jo Whiley: The deaths of my close friends made me rethink my health
During a recent DJ gig in Grimsby, Jo Whiley fell over on stage. Despite spending decades presenting, this was the first time she had ever taken a tumble in front of her audience. It could have been mortifying. But the 58-year-old star has enough experience of live shows to know how to handle such hiccups.
“Actually it was funny,” she says. “You just have to go, ‘oh my God’. It’s much nicer to see someone being honest and vulnerable than trying to hide anything.”
It’s perhaps this approach that helps explain the enduring appeal of the veteran broadcaster, whose reassuring radio voice several generations of listeners have grown up with. From 1993 to 2011, her BBC Radio 1 career spanned the heyday of Britpop and beyond. She subsequently moved to BBC Radio 2, where she continues to present today.
Then there are the gigs, in which she plays Nineties anthems to crowds around the country, ranging from music fans in their late 50s “who went through Britpop and all the festivals,” to the children of those music fans, who show up with their parents.
Having also fronted the BBC’s Glastonbury coverage since 1997, Whiley is the thread that connects us to a pre-internet music era, indulging her listeners’ nostalgia (“those [Nineties] songs stand the test of time”) while retaining her status as cool pop cultural godmother.
So how does the mother-of-four keep herself fit and healthy for a job that’s so full-on? “I never get enough sleep.” Yet viewers haven’t failed to notice that she doesn’t seem to age. What, then, are her secrets?
I’m not the greatest cook but I’m trying to eat better
Whiley is a vegetarian, but she is the first to admit she is not the greatest cook. Nevertheless, she is “trying really hard to eat much better,” she explains when we chat. “We went to Thailand over Christmas because my father-in-law lives there, and I found I was eating so much sugar. It’s a very sweet diet there, and I’ve got arthritis in my fingers and hands, and every morning I would wake up and my fingers would be like balloons.”
On returning home, she resolved to quit sugar, take vitamins and watch her diet. Since January, she has been trying to eat more vegetables, nuts and pulses and cut out sweet foods. “It’s hard!” she exclaims. “You definitely get the crave in the mid-afternoon.”
She and her husband Steve Morton, a music executive, also undergo health checks. During one of these, Morton discovered he had high cholesterol, despite being “really fit and healthy”. Preferring to avoid medication, he focussed on his diet and consumes Benecol yoghurt to lower it.
My closest friends dying has made me health conscious
The Thailand trip wasn’t the only trigger for Whiley’s health kick. In the past few years, she has lost several close friends. “All our big players we used to hang out with have died. So we have to be the party hosts because we have all the kids of all the people who have died coming to our place. That’s a real downer but it’s the actual truth.”
It all happened alarmingly quickly: in 2021, her friend Simon Willis, a BBC radio producer, died of a brain tumour; another friend died of Covid and a third died of cancer, all around a similar time.
“They were the ones we used to go out and do an awful lot of fun stuff with, so all of a sudden you’re like ‘now what do we do?’” says Whiley.
“Honestly, it was a ridiculous phase of everyone disappearing within a very short space of time.”
Processing those losses has been “really, really hard”. Whiley adds: “You have your routine, ‘it’s Friday night so everybody will probably come round.’ And you’re just waiting, looking at the door, going, ‘oh no, he’s not coming round, no he’s dead, he’s not coming round any more’. So you have to fill your time…You still miss them like crazy but you have to work really hard at changing your life to fill those massive gaping holes that they’ve left. It’s been quite a tough two or three years, in that respect.”
Another recent loss is fellow Radio 2 DJ Steve Wright, who died last month at the age of 69. “He meant so much to everyone. The tidal wave of love and thanks to him was really touching.”
Her friends’ deaths have made her determined to do all she can to stay fit and healthy herself. “I think that’s why the diet change has happened and exercise routines have happened.”
I was feeling a bit feeble so I started doing weights
A few years ago, Whiley felt she was becoming “a bit feeble”, so started doing weights. She sees a personal trainer who prepares her for festivals, helping her get toned up with work on her arms and plenty of crunches. A keen swimmer, she is in the water three or four times a week, and goes running with Morton a couple of times a week. “I just love keeping fit. I find it really helps my head and my body. I feel stronger.”
Whiley says she’s not a natural runner – “I’m one of those people who just runs around going, ‘I hate running’” – but she doesn’t struggle to complete a 5K and would “quite like to do another half marathon” to give her something to aim for.
Preparing for a gig requires its own routine involving pre-show stretches and, if possible, a swim, to limber her up. “When I first started [the gigs], I really hurt after the shows and I learnt I needed to get fitter and be more flexible. My shoulders and neck really suffered the next day.”
She compares being on stage to doing a Jane Fonda workout. “For 90 minutes I’m literally jumping up and down the whole time with my hands in the air.”
Despite never drinking while DJing (“I’m too worried I’ll press the wrong button”), she still ends up with a feeling akin to a hangover afterwards. “Because your head’s moving,” she says. “I just wake up like ‘eugh’.”
A third vodka makes me feel horrendous
Like many midlifers, Whiley has found her tolerance drop dramatically with the advancing years. “I just can’t drink very much,” she explains. “It doesn’t take very much. I’ll absolutely have a couple of vodkas but no more than two. If I have a third I’ll feel horrendous the next day.”
When she and Morton throw parties at their home in Northamptonshire – a converted 18th-century barn surrounded by fields and farmland – she tends to be the one going around clearing up the rubbish while the party is in full swing. “I’ll get into my bed and listen to it all happening. It’s so annoying. I drink cider and vodka but literally only at weekends and I know my limitations.”
It feels “unfair” because “my tolerance used to be so much better when I was younger,” she adds. “But I’ve just had to reduce it…because my head feels awful the next morning and I don’t enjoy that feeling.”
The upside of her waning drinking abilities is she is forced to be healthier. “I went through a phase and I look at photographs of myself [during that phase] now and can see the puffiness under my eyes,” she says. “There’s a whole bunch of years where I look at my face and just think ‘God, you really were drinking too much and you look really unhealthy’, and now I don’t get that.”
Gardening and swimming help me relax
Whiley has what many would consider a dream job, playing music for a living. But it’s harder than she makes it look. “It’s stressful,” she says. “I have things that make me very anxious. I do get anxiety quite a lot, so if I’ve got a big gig coming up I will go into a very bad mood for a few days beforehand because I’ll be worrying…No matter how many times you walk out onto a stage in front of people, it’s scary. It’s not a natural thing to do.”
While some are natural born entertainers, she does not class herself as one. “There are people who are introverts, they have to become another person [on stage], and I fall into that category for sure.”
To relax in her spare time, Whiley loves gardening. On a typical weekend daytime, she’ll swim, go for breakfast, meet up with her children somewhere, try and squeeze in some gardening and take the dogs for a walk. Her oldest child, India, 31, lives in London, “so sometimes we’ll go and see her”. Whiley and Morton are also parents to Jude, 25, Cassius, 22, and Coco, 15.
On Saturday nights, Whiley waits until 6.30pm or 7pm before having a drink. “Then I’ll be like, ‘okay, drink time,’ then food and watch television, unless we’ve got a party going on at our house…We never get invited to other people’s parties so we throw our own.”
Fitness
80-year-old fitness icon Joan MacDonald reveals her simple exercise for a stronger, more stable core
Joan MacDonald didn’t enter a gym until she was 70. Really. Since then, the 80-year-old has transformed her health by losing three stone and building significant muscle, and now coaches other women through her training platform, Train With Joan, which she launched to help others boost their fitness at any age.
The premise of her app is simple: minimal-equipment workouts built around no-fuss, effective exercises that can be done anywhere. One ‘powerful core and stability exercise’ she swears by is alternating bodyweight clock taps. ‘This movement helps strengthen the muscles that keep you stable, balanced and moving well as you age,’ Joan explains.
Bodyweight clock taps benefits
Think they look too simple? That’s the point. Joan is adamant that ‘You don’t need complicated workouts to start getting stronger. Sometimes the most effective movements are the simple ones you do consistently.’
According to Joan, regularly performing bodyweight clock taps help:
- ‘Strengthen your core which supports your spine and reduces strain on your lower back.
- ‘Improve balance and coordination, helping you stay steady on your feet.
- ‘Increase hip stability, which supports your knees and joints.
- ‘Build functional strength for everyday movements like stepping, turning and reaching.
- ‘Help reduce fall risk by improving control and body awareness’
How to do bodyweight clock taps
Find a demo from Joan above, along with instructions for how to do them with proper form below.
- Stand on one leg with a slight bend in your supporting knee and brace your core.
- Keeping your hips level, reach your free foot forward to lightly tap the floor in front of you (12 o’clock), then return to the centre.
- Continue tapping to different “clock” positions—such as 3, 6 and 9 o’clock—maintaining your balance and control throughout.
- Complete all reps on one leg before switching sides.
Form tip: Move slowly and focus on staying stable. The goal is controlled movement, not how far you can reach.
How many reps and sets to do
Joan shares her advice, according to your fitness level.
- Beginners: ‘3 taps per leg x 8-10 reps’
- Intermediate: ‘3 taps per leg x 10-12 reps’
- Advanced: ‘3 taps per leg x 12-15 reps’
One of our most frequently asked questions here at Women’s Health? How to build muscle and burn fat at the same time. So, we asked superstar trainer Oyinda Okunowo exactly how to do it. In this 4-week plan – created exclusively for Women’s Health COLLECTIVE members – you’ll get the workouts and nutrition guidance needed to help you on your way to better body composition. Tap the link below to unlock 14 days of free access to Oyinda’s plan and start training today.
Get the plan
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.
In the 19 years since retiring from professional tennis, Tim Henman has barely aged. A large part of that comes down to his approach to fitness. The 51-year-old believes that ‘being active is always going to be a part of my identity’, which helps him maintain a consistent training routine.
Even while spending much of his time covering tennis as a commentator and pundit, and serving on the board at Wimbledon, Henman still makes time for his own athletic pursuits. Especially now that he has a different kind of motivation.
How Tim Henman Stays Fit After Retirement
‘I’ve got a gym at home and I try to exercise pretty regularly because I feel much better for it,’ Henman tells Men’s Health. ‘But one of my passions is wine. So if I’m having a few glasses of wine – you’ve got to treat yourself – then that definitely incentivises me to get in the gym. I’ve always exercised and I think it’s good for me both physically and mentally.’
That doesn’t mean Henman is completing brutal workouts or chasing specific performance goals. Instead, he prefers a straightforward routine that supports his lifestyle and helps him manage the wear and tear accumulated during his tennis career.
‘I don’t run that much anymore. We’ve got dogs at home, so I walk them a lot, and if I’m at tournaments or working, I’ll do quite a bit of incline walking on the treadmill. Then it’s just a good mix of weights and core work. I’m not trying to run any marathons – I’m just trying to stay in relatively good shape,’ he says.
‘I understand my body and know what I can and can’t do, especially because I’ve had three elbow surgeries and a shoulder surgery. So I’m a little careful around those joints.
‘Posture is so important for shoulder health. I focus on resistance-band exercises to make sure I’m strong through my back and maintaining good posture. Then the core is so important, so I try to stay strong through planks and side planks as much as possible.’
Why Henman Is Excited for the Laver Cup
His approach to fitness has changed dramatically over the past two decades. Where he once played tennis every day, Henman admits he’s now lucky if he gets on court twice a year. These days, golf is his sporting obsession.
That doesn’t mean he’s any less passionate about tennis, however, as he prepares to return as Team Europe vice-captain at the Laver Cup this September at The O2.
‘I’m so excited,’ he says. ‘The first time I ever experienced the Laver Cup was at The O2 when Roger Federer was retiring. I’d never seen the event live and I was probably a bit sceptical at that stage. But I was there working for television and, for those three days, I was completely blown away by the delivery of the event, the intensity of the players and the quality of the matches.
‘Tennis is an individual sport and players spend most of the year competing on their own. But I’d struggle to name any player, male or female, who doesn’t enjoy being in a team environment every once in a while.
‘The way the Laver Cup has evolved and grown is so special, and Federer deserves a lot of credit for that vision.
‘With an arena like The O2, it’s one of the biggest venues in tennis. There’ll be 17,000 or 18,000 people packed in there and, with the roof on, the atmosphere is incredible.’
Laver Cup returns to The O2, London, from 25-27 September, bringing together many of the world’s biggest tennis stars as Team Europe takes on Team World in the sport’s unique team competition. Tickets are on sale now via AXS, the official ticketing partner of The O2. Visit lavercup.com for more information.
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
Quote of the day by Cher: ‘Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my…’ – motivating life lessons by Oscar-winning actress of Moonstruck and singer of Believe on exercise, mental health, fitness and how this daily habit can transform your mood and mindset
Quote of the Day Today: Cher on Exercise
Cher said, “Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. Exercise is nothing short of a miracle,” as per BrainyQuote.
What Cher’s Quote Means: Why Exercise Can Transform Your Mood
Cher’s quote highlights the powerful connection between physical activity and emotional well-being. Rather than seeing exercise as only a fitness routine, she describes it as something that consistently helps improve her mood and clear her mind.
Her words suggest that movement can provide more than physical benefits. A workout can help reduce stress, increase energy, and shift attention away from negative thoughts. By calling exercise “nothing short of a miracle,” Cher emphasizes the positive impact it has had on her own life.
Life Lesson from Cher’s Quote
The quote reminds readers that small, healthy habits can make a significant difference in everyday life. While exercise may not solve every problem, making time for physical activity can help people feel stronger, calmer, and better equipped to handle daily challenges. Cher’s message encourages people to view exercise not as a chore, but as an investment in both physical and mental well-being.
Who Is Cher
Cher (born May 20, 1946, in El Centro, California) is an American singer, actress, and entertainer whose career has spanned more than five decades. According to a Britannica report, she is known for her success in music, film, and television and for continually reinventing herself.
Cher’s Early Life
Born Cherilyn Sarkisian, Cher faced financial hardships during childhood and struggled with undiagnosed dyslexia. She left school at age 16 and moved to Los Angeles, where she began her entertainment career.
Cher’s Rise to Fame
Cher found success with Sonny Bono as part of Sonny and Cher. Their 1965 hit “I Got You Babe” launched their careers, and she later became a solo star with number one hits including “Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves,” “Half-Breed,” and “Dark Lady,” as per the Britannica report.
Cher’s Acting Career
Cher earned critical acclaim for films including Silkwood and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Moonstruck (1987). She also starred in Mask, The Witches of Eastwick, Burlesque, and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.
Cher’s Legacy
Cher made a successful music comeback with Believe, winning a Grammy Award for the hit song. She later received Kennedy Center Honors in 2018, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024, and published Cher: The Memoir, Part One the same year, as per the Britannica report.
-
Maine2 minutes agoMaine’s high court keeps transgender athlete referendum off 2026 ballot
-
Maryland6 minutes agoMD woman sentenced to 2 years, $6.8M restitution in multi-million-dollar laundering scheme
-
Michigan18 minutes agoHarmful algal blooms reported on 2 large West Michigan lakes
-
Massachusetts20 minutes agoInsider tips for navigating the Brimfield Antique Flea Market
-
Minnesota25 minutes agoNorthwest Minnesota Foundation awarded $200,000 for child care economic development
-
Mississippi33 minutes agoFamily of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells demand investigation into son’s death
-
Missouri35 minutes agoSEMA sets info sessions for FEMA Public Assistance for late-April storms
-
Montana40 minutes ago8 Most Welcoming Towns In Montana’s Countryside
