Fitness
Women who hit this weekly exercise target halve their risk of early death – here’s how to reach it
Staying active is key to lifelong health – but it becomes even more important in midlife. Hormonal changes, particularly during menopause, can lead to reduced muscle mass, lower bone density and slower recovery.
A new study published in PLOS Medicine reinforces this, finding that women who meet recommended physical activity guidelines have around half the risk of dying from any cause compared to those who are inactive.
Researchers from the University of Sydney analysed data from 11,169 women born between 1946 and 1951 (aged 47-52 at the start of the study) over more than 15 years. Participants, part of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, completed nine surveys between 1996 and 2019.
They reported how often they met the World Health Organization guideline of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week between 2001 and 2016.
The study’s results
Just 5.3 per cent of women who met the activity guidelines died during the study, compared with 10.4 per cent of those who didn’t. In other words, staying active throughout midlife was linked to roughly half the risk of death.
Similar trends were seen for deaths from cardiovascular disease and cancer, although smaller sample sizes made these findings less conclusive. Researchers were also unsure whether starting exercise later – in your mid-50s or 60s – offers the same benefits as staying active consistently through midlife.
‘Staying active throughout midlife can make a real difference for women’s long-term health,’ said study author Dr Binh Nguyen, from the Prevention Research Collaboration at the University of Sydney’s Charles Perkins Centre and School of Public Health. ‘Maintaining recommended levels of physical activity over multiple years helps protect against early death,’ she added.
Physical activity guidelines
Like the WHO, the NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week for adults aged 19-64.
Moderate activity includes brisk walking, cycling or dancing. Vigorous exercise includes running, swimming, climbing stairs, and sports such as football or rugby.
How to exercise during midlife
Staying active during midlife can be challenging, particularly if you’re dealing with lower energy levels or physical symptoms linked to hormonal changes.
Former Olympian and Women’s Health trainer Michelle Griffith-Robinson shares her advice for staying consistent and comfortable:
- Wear breathable clothing to help manage overheating and hot flushes.
- Try new activities like Pilates, yoga or martial arts to improve balance and keep things interesting.
- Include strength training at least twice a week to support bone health, reduce body fat and boost metabolism.
- Aerobic exercise releases endorphins, helping to lift mood and maintain a healthy weight.
- If you’re feeling tired, listen to your body and scale back – even a walk counts.
After years living with endometriosis and undergoing seven rounds of IVF, Radio 4 presenter Emma Barnett turned to training with PT Frankie Holah to rebuild strength and a more positive relationship with her body. Download the Women’s Health UK app to access Frankie’s full training plan.
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From the teeth-gritting clench of a bicep curl to the dip of a squat, we tend to think of upwards movements as the most beneficial part of strength training.
The “lifting” motion in which our muscles shorten – known as concentric exercise – is important. But what happens on the way down, when we lower a weight and our muscles lengthen – known as eccentric exercise – can be just as beneficial, according to a new article published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science.
Professor Ken Nosaka, director of exercise and sports science at Edith Cowan University and the article’s author, has been researching eccentric exercise, which includes movements such as chair squats, wall sit-ups and walking downhill, for decades.
What is eccentric exercise and who is it for?
There are three different ways our muscles contract: concentrically (lifting), eccentrically (lowering) and isometrically (staying static). Many common exercises combine all three.
But Nosaka believes we often overlook this second type of movement. His research suggests can be just as beneficial as concentric movement for building strength and muscle size, as well as less fatiguing.
“Eccentric movement is a more powerful stimulus for muscles to get stronger,” he says.
This includes findings that the same strength gains can be achieved with half the reps if you lower instead of lift, while a 2023 study of his found even a single, three-second eccentric arm contraction each day can improve strength.
Given that eccentric exercises require less metabolic energy and oxygen to perform, Nosaka thinks they are particularly beneficial for older and/or sedentary adults.
However, Dr Lewis Ingram, a physiotherapy lecturer at the University of South Australia says purely focusing on just one component of exercise can be a little reductionist.
“I think that the general population should just do the whole exercise. Breaking the exercise down and just doing the eccentric component is a lot more work to do in terms of the feasibility of it,” he says.
A bicep curl, for example, needs to involve an upwards movement for it to be repeated.
But Nosaka says one way to focus on eccentric movement is with the “2:1 method”, which involves using both limbs to lift a weight, and just one to lower it.
He adds that this style of exercise can be just as beneficial for bone density.
“When you are doing eccentric contractions, the tendon is more stretched. The stretch signal is going to the bone, which is getting stronger,” he says. “When you are descending stairs, you have put more weight on one leg, right? So then that can increase bone mineral density.”
While Ingram points out many studies referenced in the paper don’t rely on robust enough evidence – small sample sizes, for example – he says it is important to slow down and focus on eccentric movement to build muscle (around three seconds, according to Nosaka).
He says solely focusing on eccentric movement can be beneficial for elite athletes, and exercises in which someone is not strong enough to perform an “upwards” concentric movement, such as a pull-up.
What muscle soreness after exercise means
Another common belief about exercise is “no pain, no gain”, the idea that muscle soreness correlates to effort and results.
“Eccentric contraction can cause muscle soreness, especially the first time you do it or after a long time without exercising,” says Nosaka.
“But the important thing is that muscle damage or muscle soreness is not necessary if you want to get strong or get a bigger muscle size.”
To prevent the muscle soreness that can come from eccentric exercise, he recommends performing fewer reps at lower loads to start with.
However, hypertrophy or skeletal muscle building does require increasing load over time, says Nosaka.
Ingram agrees that soreness is generally most attributed to eccentric contractions, but is not necessarily an indicator of a good workout, and tends to dissipate with repetition over time.
Keep it simple
One of Nosaka’s favourite eccentric exercises is one we do daily.
“We normally sit down on the chair maybe 20 times a day – at mealtimes, for example, and when you watch TV or you go to the toilet. So whenever you sit down, try to lower yourself more slowly,” he says.
Ultimately, Ingram says the general population should just keep it simple, particularly given most adults fail to meet benchmarks for physical activity.
He says most people should aim to follow the World Health Organisation’s guidelines, which recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity or at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity throughout the week, and at least two strength training sessions per week.
“If we can just get people to do the basics right, then that’s a lot more effective.”
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Christine Lampard swears by one low-pressure and realistic approach to staying fit: NEAT exercise. Standing for Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis, NEAT exercise refers to any movement you do that isn’t planned. For Christine, that means being on her feet doing chores around the house, walking her children to school, or dog walking – it keeps her active, without the pressure of a formal routine.
‘I don’t go to the gym but I’m always moving and I think that keeps me fit,’ she explained in an interview with Woman and Home magazine. ‘Frank is very good with gym stuff but I find that general activeness and not sitting around for too long is pretty good for me. I was up at 5.45 this morning preparing breakfast, making lunches and getting the kids ready.
‘I walked my daughter to school while she rode along on her little scooter and then I took our dog out. I’m also active around the house and it gets my steps up without trying.’
The 47-year-old Loose Women host strongly believes you don’t need a gym membership – or formal workouts – to stay healthy, but walking (a form of NEAT exercise) is a big part of her routine.
In a separate TikTok video for Woman and Home magazine, she explained how it can be so effective: ‘I can be very lazy when it comes to exercise. But actually, I’ve always said this, I walk. I walk and I walk. I don’t do any classes or anything like that. I’d love to get into Pilates but that’s something I’ve talked about for about 20 years and never acted on it. But walking for me, I get the dog and the children out, we go to the park, no matter what the weather is. And I’ve found walking the absolute perfect exercise for me, it gets the heart pumping, keeps everything together, keeps you just generally fit.’
Why is NEAT exercise so effective?
Non-intentional exercise like this makes up significantly more of your TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure – how many calories you burn across each day), compared to the time you spend exercising in a gym doing a planned workout. NEAT makes up 50% of your TDEE, while a planned workout typically counts for roughly 10%. The more you fit movement into your day, whether that be doing household chores, walking instead of taking public transport, using a standing desk instead of sitting down, or carrying shopping instead of using a trolley, the more energy you expend and the bigger the fitness benefits.
Examples of NEAT exercise
Some other examples of NEAT include:
- Walking upstairs
- Walking the dog
- Carry grocery shopping
- Washing the car
- Fidgeting
- Playing with children or pets
- Using a standing desk
- Walking to the gym, shops, office instead of taking public or private transport
- Gardening
Christine’s underlying value is consistency over intensity – you don’t need formal workouts for results if that doesn’t work for you. Research consistently shows that regular, moderate exercise delivers meaningful health and fitness benefits, and sometimes the equivalent of fewer but more intense workout sessions. What matters most is showing up repeatedly.
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.
Regular exercise can help to manage blood pressure, because it makes our hearts stronger.
But according to a huge 2023 study, which looked at 270 trials from 1990-2023, “isometric” exercises might be the most effective at the job, with “wall sits” the best performer among these.
Researchers found that isometric exercise was more likely, on average, to lower blood pressure than aerobic exercise training, dynamic resistance training, combined training, and high-intensity interval training, though all forms were still immensely helpful.
What is isometric exercise?
It involves keeping your body still while you tense specific muscles for a set period of time. You don’t move your joints during the movement.
“Isometric exercise” is sometimes called “static” exercise.
It is the opposite of “dynamic,” or “isotonic” exercise, which involves little load and consistent pressure on various muscles. For example, running and swimming.
Most forms of exercise involve a combination of isometric and isotonic exercise, though some are 100% one or the other.
What are some examples of isometric exercises?
- Wall sits
- Planks
- Glute bridges
- Side planks
- V-holds
- Calf raises
- Hollow holds
- Copenhagen planks.
In the 2023 study we mentioned earlier, published in the BMJ, wall sits (placing your back against a wall with your thighs parallel to the ground) were the most effective of the isometric exercises for lowering blood pressure.
Does that mean I should only do isometric exercises?
The best approach to exercise seems to be a mixture of weight training and aerobic training. This has been linked to increased longevity compared to sticking to one or the other.
Speaking to the British Heart Foundation, senior cardiac nurse, Joanne Whitmore, said: “Exercise is good for your heart health and health in general. It can reduce the risk of heart and circulatory diseases by up to a third.
“Aerobic exercise in particular can help the heart and circulatory system work better through lowering blood pressure. Current guidelines also encourage muscle-strengthening exercises, like yoga or Pilates.
“It’s encouraging to see other forms of exercise explored in this research as we know that those who take on exercise they enjoy, tend to carry on for longer, which is key in maintaining lower blood pressure.
“However, there are other lifestyle choices that can benefit your blood pressure. These include keeping to a healthy weight, eating a balanced diet, cutting down on salt, not drinking too much alcohol and taking any prescribed medication”.
Speak to your doctor if you have a heart condition and want to take up new exercise, she added.
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