This year the Herald’s award-winning newsroom produced a range of first-class journalism, including Jacinda Ardern’s shock resignation, the Auckland anniversary floods, arts patron Sir James Wallace’s prison sentence, the election of Christopher’s Luxon government and the All Blacks’ narrow defeat in the Rugby World Cup final.
This summer we’re bringing back some of the best-read Premium articles of 2023. Today we take a look at some of the year’s best fitness advice.
Walking is among the world’s most popular forms of exercise, and far and away the most favoured in the United States. And for good reason: it’s simple, accessible and effective. Taking regular walks lowers the risk of many health problems including anxiety, depression, diabetes and some cancers.
However, once your body becomes accustomed to walking, you might want to pick up the pace, said Alyssa Olenick, an exercise physiologist and postdoctoral research fellow in the energy metabolism lab at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
If you can nudge even part of your walk into a run, it offers many of the same physical and mental benefits in far less time.
US federal health guidelines recommend 150 minutes to 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, like brisk walking, or half as much for vigorous activity. That might suggest that running is twice as good as walking. But when it comes to the key outcome of longevity, some studies have found running to be even more effective than that.
But just how much better is running? And how can you turn your walk into a run? Find out here.
Sarah Lindsay “really doesn’t like doing loads of sit-ups”. That may seem hard to believe, looking at her uber-toned middle – but the three-time Olympic speed skater believes core strength is built elsewhere in the body.
While the bid for a summer six-pack may leave most of us blasting through crunches as soon as the first crack of sunlight shows, Lindsay says a shapely midriff is best achieved by working the obliques (the muscles around your waist) and glutes (in your buttocks) – rather than trying to “spot-reduce the body fat around your abs, which you can’t do”.
She adds that, “you actually have to be pretty lean around the mid-section to be able to see visible abs”. Still, a washboard stomach is a frequent goal cited by her clients at Roar Fitness, her personal-training outfit. A six-pack remains the ultimate signifier “that you worked hard for that body, which shows discipline and also self-care… It’s like the pinnacle, as far as being fit goes.”
Having trained celebrities including Ellie Goulding, Mel B, Christine Lampard and Sheridan Smith, Lindsay says that a regimen of three 45-minute weight-training sessions per week is particularly important for retaining muscle, which diminishes with age, and, of course, healthy eating is crucial to making changes that last.
Here’s how Lindsay maintains her own fitness - and her top five ab exercises.
You don’t have to turn to extreme exercise to lose weight. Any exercise will have an impact.
A calorie is burnt when the chemical energy in food is metabolised and turned into kinetic energy through movement.
Luke Worthington, a celebrity personal trainer and qualified sports scientist, explains: “Your heart rate will of course go up because you’re having to deliver the fuel to the working muscles and throw the blood, which moves through the body at an increased rate.”
More calories can be easily burned with high-intensity activity in a shorter period of time, but low-intensity, long-duration exercise is actually a more desirable method for fat loss.
Personal trainer Dalton Wong, who has worked with the likes of Olivia Colman, Jennifer Lawrence and Kit Harrington, explains that losing weight is a “marathon, not a race”, advising that people should approach their weight-loss goals with consistency in mind.
“You will end up burning through quite a few calories if four-hour walks are your preferred weekend activity,” says Wong. “Its low-impact nature means it’s easy on the joints, making weight loss more sustainable. You don’t have to train like an MMA fighter to lose weight. Slow and steady can win the race.”
But if you want to know which exercises are the best calorie burners, we’ve done the sums.
“I’m afraid your HbA1c blood test indicates you’ve gone from prediabetic to actually diabetic,” says the nurse. “Oh dear,” I reply, looking at my worried wife, Sumin, then back to the nurse, “that’s not good, is it?”
“Do you want to hop on the scales?” No, I think, as I slip off my shoes and place my wallet, phone and keys on the table. Rather than hopping on, I creep gingerly on to the scales in a bid to make them go easy on me, and peer over my belly at the reading below: 16st 9lb (107kg). Oops.
Then the nurse takes my blood pressure. It is 124/99. “OK, that’s a little high,” she warns. “But don’t worry, I’ll do it again.” This time, the reading’s even higher. “Oh dear,” I say.
The quite distressing diabetes and hypertension diagnoses I’ve just been dealt give me the shove I need to do something about my diet and fitness. For starters (mmm, starters, duck liver pate with brioche toast just came to mind) I do what seems obvious: I make my portions a bit smaller and try to go easy on the carbs. I cut out the doughnuts and most of the sugary treats.
But on the fitness side of things, I have no idea where to start, what exercises to do or where to do them. Two stressful decades at a desk, hunched over like Gollum, have rendered me stiff and clueless about all things active. Sumin immediately looks to start solving the problem, rather than dwelling on it, because that’s what she does.
Read about the rest of Rob Temple’s fitness journey here.
Yoga has been popular for decades, but participation in the mind-body practice just keeps growing. In 2017, more than 14 per cent of adults in the United States practised yoga, according to a nationally representative survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nevertheless, there are still many misconceptions about the activity. When many people think of yoga, what comes to mind are thin, lithe bodies contorting in impossible ways. But “anybody can do yoga”, said Lori Rubenstein Fazzio, a physical therapist and clinical professor of yoga and health at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
You don’t even have to move your body much, if at all; even if you focus primarily on the breathing, you can still get benefits, said Laura Schmalzl, a neuroscientist and certified yoga instructor at the Southern California University of Health Sciences.
Yoga, which originated in India more than 5000 years ago, has become a staple of American fitness for many reasons. It requires little to no equipment and can be made accessible to nearly everyone. It has also been linked to a growing number of health benefits, including stress relief, better sleep, improved cognition and reduced back pain. Research also suggests that, at least for otherwise sedentary people, yoga improves balance, strength and flexibility as much as many stretching and strengthening exercises do.