In the late nineties and early noughties, wellness wasn’t a thing. Vegans were weirdos, yoga was for hippies and shakes weren’t “immune boosting” or “detoxing”, they were what you got after a big night out.
In the world of glossy magazines, thin was in. Kate Moss famously said, “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels,” and staying sample size was the number one priority for the models and celebrities I worked with daily.
We magazine girls wanted to fit into those outfits too, so we carefully monitored our food consumption. That said, I mostly failed to get into those fashion cupboard clothes because I liked boozy nights out and jacket potatoes too much.
In the nineties, models, celebrities and mere mortals didn’t get super slim by following a balanced diet with lean protein, slow-release carbs and plenty of veggies. No, it was about copious Diet Coke and Marlboros.
Sugar was somehow okay to eat because if you looked on the back of the packet of Frosties or Party Rings, there weren’t a high number of calories. It hadn’t occurred to us all that sugar would be converted to fat.
So accepted was sugar that they even handed out Chupa Chups lollies backstage at the fashion shows.
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Bridget Jones’ battle with her body image was representative of so many of us. We all had a calorie counter ticker taping in our heads. Toast plus a biscuit in the office, plus Pret sandwich plus seven cocktails and accompanying bowls of nuts = 3,000 calories = self-loathing.
To counter such excess, we would then go on horrendous diets such as the cabbage soup diet, the cayenne pepper diet, and the Atkins diet. And do depleting spin/legs bums and tums sessions till we thought we were going to pass out.
Despite all the angst, all the sweat, and all the deprivation I still didn’t look how I wanted. And I suspect Victoria Beckham, who recently said she feels stronger now than in her twenties, when she said she was “addicted” to green juice, was equally dispirited.
VB and I are both now 50, and we have changed up our approach to exercise.
© InstagramWhen it comes to exercise, Victoria says she’s her strongest ever now, and I think she looks happier in her body. She says she now does weights rather than cardio in her five weekly personal training sessions.
I still run with my dog, but using my own body weight (think press ups, triceps dips using a chair) plus free weights in twice-weekly workouts has changed the way I look and feel. Creating muscle means my body burns more calories at rest, which means I can eat more food.
Ahh calories. I don’t have a running total in my head like I used to. I’m just trying to eat nutritious foods that haven’t been too messed about with. To quote author Michael Pollen: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
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Of course, I don’t think VB has changed tact completely. She says she is still “Very disciplined with the way that I eat, the way that I work out and the way I work. That’s just who I am.’
© Photo: InstagramThere are many who would question if she is too slim. But it does feel like she has relaxed a little and arrived at her desired shape in a better way. I’ll leave the final words to her.
“I’m not going to be one of these, ‘Ah, there are too many calories in a glass of wine,’ types. Life’s too short. Let’s have a nice time.”
Cheers to that.
© GettyHELLO! wanted to create a space dedicated to sharing incredible stories from midlife; somewhere you can find inspiring stories of like-minded women, living their best life beyond 45.
Enter, Second Act…
For too long, we were expected to fade into the background when we hit 45, but we’re here to reframe your Second Act as a celebratory, exciting new chapter with endless possibilities ahead.
From women who embarked on new careers in their fifties, to those who travelled the world alone after their children left home, to women who finally felt confident when they reached their forties, Second Act is devoted to celebrating the incredible stories of midlife, and we’d love to have you along for the journey – because being part of a community makes everything more enjoyable.
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We’re always on the lookout for new core exercises to add to our fitness routines, especially ones that help improve form and control. Midlife trainer Dr Won Dolegowski created the barbell back-supported knee raise with exactly this in mind, saying the movement ‘trains your lower abs without stressing your lower back’ while also teaching core control by reducing momentum and swinging.
‘A strong core goes beyond aesthetics. You need it for better posture, to protect your back and to carry you through life,’ she says.
Sarah Campus, PT, instructor, nutrition coach and founder of LDN MUMS FITNESS, explains how to perform the exercise with proper form, why it’s so effective and the key muscles it works.
The movement mainly targets the core muscles, says Campus, including:
Other muscles involved include:
Campus says the exercise offers several key benefits:
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Sarah Campus is a highly qualified women’s PT, Nutrition Coach, Running Coach, Distance Runner, mum of 3 and founder of LDN MUMS FITNESS.
She’s the host of the Soho House Run Club in Chiswick and a STRAVA and TOMMY’s marathon coach and ambassador. She specialises helping non-runners get into competitive distance running.
As a fitness and holistic wellness expert, Sarah regularly features on TV and in Magazines, offering tips and advice to keep the whole family healthy and active.
A study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, drawing on survey responses from almost 400,000 U.S. adults. The objective was to know which leisure-time physical activities people prefer and whether those options align with federal activity guidelines.
The results were notable. Walking appeared as the most frequently reported leisure-time physical activity across both urban and rural groups. In fact, roughly 44.1% of adults indicated that walking was their main form of exercise.
However, popularity did not translate into achieving recommended health standards. Based on the analysis, individuals who primarily walked had the highest likelihood of not meeting either aerobic or muscle-strengthening guidelines compared with other exercise categories. Even more significant, only about one in four walkers (25%) satisfied both recommended benchmarks, while approximately 22% failed to meet either requirement at all. In contrast, participants who reported running, resistance training, or conditioning workouts as their primary activities were considerably more likely to achieve federal physical activity targets.
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that adults get:
While walking can contribute to aerobic activity mainly if done briskly, it generally does not fulfill the strength-training requirement on its own.
The study also revealed geographic variations in exercise behavior. Rural residents were more likely to participate in activities such as gardening, hunting, and fishing, whereas urban residents showed higher engagement in running, cycling, dancing, and weight training. Despite differing preferences, urban participants were overall more likely to meet both aerobic and strength-based guidelines compared to rural populations. Researchers suggest that access to facilities, infrastructure availability, and cultural influences may contribute to these differences.
A key takeaway from the study is that physical activity guidelines are not just about movement, but about different types of movement. Walking supports cardiovascular fitness and daily activity levels, but it does not significantly develop or preserve muscle mass. This distinction is important because muscle deterioration begins gradually with age. Research indicates that adults may lose around 3% to 8% of muscle mass per decade after age 30, a condition known as sarcopenia. This decline is associated with slower metabolism, increased fat storage, reduced mobility, and higher risk of falls and fractures in later life.
Resistance training helps counteract this decline. Studies show it can increase lean muscle mass, boost resting metabolic rate by approximately 7%, and reduce body fat. A large meta-analysis also found resistance training linked to:
The most notable benefits were observed with around 60 minutes per week of resistance exercise, making it a time-efficient health strategy. Additionally, resistance training supports mental well-being by improving mood and increasing BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which promotes brain health and neural growth.
The study aligns with broader longevity research suggesting that higher-effort activities tend to deliver stronger physiological benefits.
Running, weight training, and conditioning workouts share a common feature: they sufficiently challenge the body to trigger adaptation. Walking, although beneficial, generally remains in a lower-intensity range that may not fully satisfy all fitness requirements on its own.
In practical terms:
The researchers emphasized that the findings are not meant to discourage walking but to emphasize gaps between perception and results.
As lead researcher Christiaan Abildso explained:
“We expected to see that walking would continue to be the most common physical activity. However, it was surprising to see that nearly one in four adults who walk as their main activity did not meet either of the physical activity guidelines. That is, they reported less than the recommended 150 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity and fewer than the recommended two days per week of muscle-strengthening activity, such as yoga or exercises with resistance bands,”
He also pointed to wider environmental and structural elements influencing activity levels:
“What we might be seeing in these rural–urban differences in preferences may just reflect what people have access to or what is culturally supported. In our work, we see a need to continue to support our partners in small towns and rural places by creating physical, social, and cultural conditions that support physical activity. This could mean creating a wide shoulder on a country road for running and cycling, helping a senior centre with their chair exercise programming, creating or improving park spaces, expanding the national network of rail trails, renovating abandoned and dilapidated structures (brownfields) into viable activity centres, keeping school facilities open to the public, and many other strategies. Everyone needs to ask, ‘how does what we’re doing affect physical activity?’, in order to help get people more active, more often, in more places,”
1. Is walking good for health?
Yes, walking supports heart health and general well-being. It is a low-impact activity suitable for most people.
2. Can walking replace all exercise?
Not entirely, because it does not build muscle strength effectively. A balanced routine usually includes strength training.
A combination of exercise and an energy-boosting supplement may improve physical fitness in children and adults with Friedreich’s ataxia (FA), although the added benefit of the supplement over exercise alone remains unclear, according to results from a clinical trial.
Those who participated in a 12-week program combining aerobic and strength training with nicotinamide riboside supplementation saw a significant increase in cardiopulmonary fitness, the body’s ability to supply oxygen to muscles during physical activity, compared with trial participants who did not exercise and received a placebo.
However, researchers found no significant difference between the combination group and participants who followed the same exercise program without supplementation, indicating the study did not show a clear added benefit of the supplement beyond exercise alone.
“The combination of nicotinamide riboside plus exercise for 12 weeks was safe and increased cardiopulmonary fitness in children and adults with Friedreich’s ataxia,” the researchers wrote. “Longer studies are needed to establish whether adding nicotinamide riboside to exercise could be considered as part of a long-term, comprehensive treatment approach.”
The study, “Safety and efficacy of individualised exercise and NAD+ precursor supplementation in patients with Friedreich’s ataxia in the USA: a single-centre, 2 × 2 factorial, randomised controlled trial,” was published in The Lancet Neurology.
FA is caused by mutations that reduce the production of frataxin, a protein needed for cells to generate energy. When frataxin levels are too low, cells in energy-demanding tissues, such as the nervous system, heart, and muscles, gradually deteriorate, leading to FA symptoms including impaired coordination, fatigue, muscle weakness, and difficulty walking. People with FA also have markedly reduced cardiopulmonary fitness.
Although current guidelines recommend exercise to help manage symptoms, clinical evidence in people with FA is limited, and participation is often low due to barriers such as fatigue and safety concerns, the researchers noted.
Studies in other conditions have shown that supplementation with NAD+ precursors — compounds that raise levels of NAD+, a molecule involved in cellular energy production — can improve muscle function. These findings have raised the possibility that increasing NAD+ might complement or enhance the benefits of exercise alone. However, there’s limited research on whether these therapies might improve FA patients’ ability to exercise.
The team of researchers in the U.S. conducted a 12-week clinical trial (NCT04192136) involving 66 people with FA enrolled at a single center in Philadelphia from September 2020 to April 2025.
Half of the participants were children, ages 10 to 17, and half were adults, ages 18 and older. Most (56%) were male. The overall mean age was 20.3. At the start of the study, participants generally had lower-than-average muscle mass and slightly higher body fat compared with reference values for the general population.
Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: 17 received a placebo and served as controls, 17 received only the NAD+ precursor nicotinamide riboside, 16 followed a structured exercise program and were given a placebo, and 16 followed the exercise program in addition to supplementation with nicotinamide riboside. All participants completed the study.
The exercise program consisted of three aerobic and two resistance training sessions per week, performed at home under remote supervision. Participants took nicotinamide riboside or placebo orally each day using weight-based dosing: one capsule (300 mg) for patients weighing 24-48 kg (about 53-110 lbs) and three capsules (900 mg) for patients weighing more than 72 kg (about 159 lbs). The study’s main goal was to assess changes in peak oxygen uptake (VO₂), a key measure of cardiopulmonary fitness.
At the end of the 12-week program, participants who received both exercise and nicotinamide riboside showed the greatest improvements in cardiopulmonary fitness. Peak VO₂ increased by 13.2% in the combination group, compared with a 3.9% decline in the control group.
VO₂ rose by 9.5% with exercise alone and 5% with nicotinamide riboside alone, but those changes were not statistically significant compared with controls.
The combination was not significantly more effective than exercise alone, indicating no clear added benefit from the supplement.
Some secondary measures improved. Compared with controls, the combination group reached higher maximum workloads during exercise, and oxygen pulse — a measure of how efficiently the body uses oxygen — improved in both the combination and exercise-only groups. Participants in the combination group also reported spending more time in physical activity and leisure exercise.
The interventions were generally safe and well-tolerated. No serious adverse events were reported, and all side effects were mild or moderate. The most common ones were skin problems (53%), gastrointestinal symptoms (45%), upper respiratory infections (35%), and falls (20%).
Falls, a known barrier to exercise in FA, occurred at similar rates across all groups, and no increase in heart-related or other adverse events was seen in participants assigned to exercise.
In an accompanying commentary, “Targeting exercise, energy, or both in Friedreich’s ataxia,” published in The Lancet Neurology, two researchers in Germany highlighted the study’s implications.
The trial’s findings extend existing clinical evidence on the benefits of exercise in FA by using an objective measure of fitness, such as peak VO₂, and by demonstrating that a home-based intervention is feasible, they wrote. Further studies “are needed to determine durability and clinical significance of fitness gains and to clarify any incremental contribution of nicotinamide riboside beyond structured exercise,” they said.
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