Fit in 5 at 50+

By Graham Hodson

The World Health Organisation says that physical inactivity has now become one of the biggest threats to our health and wellbeing in the 21st Century, and the older you get, the more important moving becomes.

As we age, our body systems, structures, and functions start to deteriorate, but there is a lot we can do to slow down or prevent this from happening simply by doing a little bit of exercise… because ANYONE can fit in 5 minutes to get fit.

Fit in 5 at 50+ is an easy-to-implement series of short exercises performed at various times throughout the day in manageable "bite-sized" chunks that give exactly the same health benefits as exercising in one long session.

• Achieve immediate and long-lasting results
• Easily fits into your daily routine
• Exercise whenever and wherever you want
• Save money on expensive gym memberships
• No special equipment needed
• Ideal for anyone aged 50+
• Perfect whatever fitness level you are

In this book, you get 57 of the best, most effective exercises to get healthy and stay healthy, all fully explained and with clear, easy-to-follow photographs, as well as 12 resistance band routines.

There are also separate chapters on neck exercises, eye exercises, breathing techniques, and qigong.

However, Fit in 5 at 50+ is so much more than just a book of exercises… it's also a goldmine of health tips and advice that can change your entire life for the better and benefit you for many years to come!

Neck exercises - we all suffer from "tech neck" to some degree which can lead to headaches, tinnitus, and vision problems.

Eye exercises – screen usage and aging can take their toll on your eyes. These special eye exercises relieve eye strain and help recover sharp, clear vision.

Breathing - learn how to escape what some doctors are calling the "epidemic" of dysfunctional breathing and so avoid or reverse many of today's chronic health conditions.

Qigong - an ancient Chinese healing practice whose benefits include lowered stress, anxiety, and blood pressure, and can also improve balance and flexibility. It may even reduce your risk of certain chronic diseases.

Mental Health – it's been proved time and again that those who stay active have much better mental health.

Aches and Pains – being active helps to greatly reduce the joint and muscle pain usually associated with getting older.

Fit in 5 at 50+ is flexible, suits your lifestyle, is easy to do, and… it WORKS!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rockwood Publishing
• Release date: Oct 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215817155

Book preview

What is Exercise Snacking?

Simply put, exercise snacking is exercising in short bursts at various times throughout the day.

It’s a fact that most people don’t go to the gym because they just don’t have the time!

They know it’s good for them.

They know all the health benefits.

They know they should be doing it, but...

They simply don’t have the time!

It’s not a lame excuse, it’s a fact.

People have demanding jobs, have to do overtime to make ends meet, have children to look after, maybe act as carers for ageing parents who might not even live close by, have a house to run, etc.

Many people don’t even have a semblance of a social life, let alone time to go to a gym.

Of course, one of the biggest drawbacks to going to a gym is the TOTAL time it takes out of your day.

Here’s what I mean.

So, you want to do a one-hour workout at the gym?

OK, cool.

You get your kit together, drive to the gym, get changed, do your workout, shower, get changed back, and drive home again.

A one-hour workout at the gym can take, in total, at least two hours out of your day... if not more!

However, with exercise snacking you are breaking down your exercises into bite-sized chunks, which is exactly where the name exercise snacking comes from.

The actual amount of time you spend exercising may not change, but how you achieve that time does, because instead of doing it in one big lump of time, you spread it throughout the course of the day.

In an article entitled Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, it specifies that physical activity of at least 10 minutes performed numerous times throughout the day gave exactly the same health benefits as exercising for a long period of time all at once.

So, the key takeaway from this and other studies is that it is of far greater benefit to be active for a shorter amount of time but more often throughout the day, than it is to be sedentary for long periods of time and then do one long burst of activity, because, as stated before, the damage is already done by sitting and being inactive throughout the day in the first place...

and that damage cannot be undone by one long exercise session.

In other words, taking one or two large exercise sessions per week cannot undo the damage done by sitting down for extended periods.

You have to be sure to not be sedentary for long periods of time in the first place!

Thinking that you can exercise for 1 hour per day so that you can sit down for the other 23 hours is not going to cut it.

In just the same way that you can't outrun a bad diet, you can't out-exercise a sedentary lifestyle.

The conclusion of one scientific study stated that: -

"A prolonged sedentary-time lifestyle was independently associated with negative health outcomes regardless of any other physical activity."

So, no matter how much you exercise, if you sit down a lot, your health will suffer... big time!

A huge advantage of the following routines is that there is no need for any specialist equipment for any of the exercises.

Only a few will show the use of either a stepper or light dumbbells, but these are entirely optional.

You get exactly the same result if you substitute a step or bottom step of a staircase for the stepper, and if you substitute any everyday, easy to hold weighted object for the dumbbells.

I have a stepper and a set of dumbbells in my house, but I use the bottom step of my staircase much more often than I do the stepper simply because it’s quicker and more convenient than setting up the stepper!

Instant exercise... just add human!

Dumbbells can be substituted by a number of everyday, easy to hold, household/office items, and, once again, even though I do have a set of dumbbells, I way more often just pick up and use whatever happens to be close at hand. For example:

Bottles of conditioner

Bags of flour

Large books

Jars of sauce

Reams of printer paper

Large (weighted) tape dispensers

Bottles/cartons of milk or juice

So there’s no excuse!

And don’t forget, the stepper and dumbbells, or their everyday substitutes, only apply to very few of the exercises anyway.

The vast majority of routines don’t need any equipment whatsoever!

So, let’s get up and MOVE!

The Scientific Studies and Evidence

The idea that sitting can be harmful might seem, at first, to be a somewhat ridiculous notion, because sitting is the default human body posture - it's second nature.

But the fact is that sitting is much like eating, absolutely necessary, but too much causes health problems and certainly the majority of evidence suggests that the most sedentary groups of people have a much greater risk of dying early.

One research group found that men who spent the most time sitting gained more weight around the middle, which for men, is the most dangerous place of all to store fat.

In a study at Wolverhampton University in the UK, a group of middle-aged adults who were, generally speaking, relatively inactive and therefore could be at risk of developing type II diabetes, were assigned three different interventions, whereby each one of the participants took part eventually in all three interventions.

These interventions were: -

Sitting for six hours and doing no exercise

Partaking in one bout of brisk walking for 30 minutes

Partaking in six separate five-minute walks, one per hour, therefore also totalling 30 minutes of exercise across the day

The purpose behind the study was to see the effects of all three interventions on two key constituents in the blood, namely, blood glucose (sugar) levels and triglyceride (fat) levels.

From a physiological point of view, when food is taken in, levels of sugar and fats in the blood increase naturally, but if these levels remain high for prolonged periods of time, it can be detrimental to our health.

When we exercise, we use up these sugars and fats and therefore help keep everything under control.

The results were conclusive. Average glucose and triglyceride levels across the whole group fell by around 40% when the volunteers took part in 30 minutes of continuous brisk walking when compared to the day when each of the volunteers didn't partake in any activity and merely sat for six hours.

Probably nothing surprising there.

But most importantly, the authors of the study found that blood glucose levels and triglycerides also fell by around 40% when the same volunteers broke up their 30-minute walking into 6 x 5-minute sessions, spread throughout the day.

Other studies have also had very similar results.

So, if you don't have time for a 30-minute exercise session, break it down into 2 x 15 minutes, 3 x 10 minutes, or 6 x 5-minute sessions, if that fits more easily into your busy schedule.

Over the last couple of decades, as a society, we see exercise as something that takes place separately from the rest of our daily lives.

This is a mistake.

We get up in the morning, have our commute to work, do our work, then it’s the commute home again, we have our exercise session, have our family and social time, then it’s off to sleep.

So, moving and exercise are seen as a stand-alone, separate part of the day, even to the point of getting dressed in specific exercise clothing and going to a specific exercise place like a gym, and all the time we do that, we are making the mistake of not integrating exercise into and throughout our daily routine.

And the keyword there is throughout.

Extensive sitting is a huge problem in all developed countries, with one study showing that of the approximately 16 hours we spend when we are not in bed, 70% of those 16 hours are spent sitting down, which is a frightening statistic!

A good number of studies have shown a link between the amount of time spent sat watching TV and the development of type 2 diabetes, whereby the people who watched the most television were most likely to develop the disease.

However, I must say that other factors need to be taken into consideration in connection with that statistic, in particular, the fact that, as a sweeping, but nonetheless fairly accurate generalisation, those who sit and watch the most TV are the most likely to be those who also have the poorest diet.

A study in the Netherlands in 2017 found that regularly breaking up the periods in which we’re sat down had significantly greater health benefits than going to the gym to do one long set of exercises.

And of particular interest is that the participants didn't do anything particularly strenuous to break up the sitting routine, it was just light walking and, indeed, sometimes just standing, that lead to greater health improvements than with long, structured exercise routines all done in one big lump.

This ties in with a 2020 article from a Harvard University professor who stated that endless heavy-duty arm-pumping and lung-busting street running wasn’t the best way to get and stay fit. He instead encouraged a daytime ritual whereby you get up and move about often, move your legs and feet while seated, and definitely not stay in one place for a particularly long time.

Moving throughout the day has a whole range of health benefits, and listed below are just a few: -

Improves your immune system (because the activity of the cells that fight infection are increased)

Our bodies produce more energy (because of improved mitochondrial production)

Improved gut bacteria

Reduce oxidative stress

Reduced inflammation

Healthy blood pressure

Improved hormonal regulation

Improved circulatory system

Improved lymphatic flow

Improved prevention of dementia

Sitting for prolonged periods of time increases your risk of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, osteoarthritis, and lower back pain. Watching too much television increases your risk of movement difficulties later in life.

It's shocking to find out how research shows that an average office worker in developed countries is sat down for between 12 and 15 hours a day when you also factor in sitting during the commute, sitting to eat, and sitting watching TV.

(Remember, all the figures for how long we sit or are inactive throughout the day DO NOT include the time we spend sleeping).

And please don't think that this is all based on one or a few studies, because data has been collected from 54 countries from around the world and all data leads to the same conclusion, that is: -

The less you sit, the more life expectancy you have, and indeed, sitting less than three hours a day was the optimum.

Exercise Snacking isn't a here today, gone tomorrow fad.

In a study of more than 123,000 people, it was found that women who sat for six hours or more per day had a 94%... and I'll say that again, a 94%