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Shape Shifting (Exercise)

When to Exercise

Researchers have now discovered there is a right and a wrong time to exercise. If, for example, you like to keep in shape by working out at the gym, then the best time to pump iron is between 5 and 7p.m. This is when your body temperature is highest, making the muscles and other body tissues more responsive and more flexible. It also fits with the notion of the internal bodyclock, or circadian rhythm. The bodyclock works closely with the brain cells and the hormone melatonin, which tells the body when it is time to wake or sleep. Exercise at any time of the day is better than no activity at all, but if you get to know your own bodyclock, you can maximise the benefits of the workouts you are planning.

First thing in the morning, for example, you will have more energy but your joints and muscles will be more stiff. Muscle temperature is low and exercise carries more risks. So, if you plan to exercise in the morning, make sure you warm up first and keep your routine light. Adrenaline levels surge around midday, which is a great time to work out if you can squeeze it into your schedule. This is the perfect time to do a high-energy workout and sweat off those fat-loving toxins. Avoid an intense workout very late at night, since this works against the natural bodyclock and can cause insomnia.

The goal of most exercisers – male and female – is a flat stomach. You may not want or even like a six-pack torso, but nobody likes a tubby tummy. Ask anyone who practises yoga or Pilates (pronounced pee-lah-tees) what they like best about these types of exercise and they will show you their flat stomach. They are proof that you do not have to crunch, grind or contort your body into painful positions but that you can build incredible abdominal strength by working with your muscles.

The reason Pilates works to flatten your stomach is that it exercises all the abdominal muscles at the deepest level. It also works on the corset-like transversus abdominis muscle to improve your posture, which then enhances your overall body shape. You could, for example, do abdominal crunches until you are blue in the face, but if your posture is rubbish, your stomach will still hang out.

I have no scales in my house because I think how you look depends mostly on how you feel about your current body shape. If you know you have been overindulging and feel heavy, then you do not need the needle on the scales to tell you it is time to take yourself in hand and burn off some of that excess fat.

Counting the calories is still one way to lose weight, but it carries with it lots of guilt (especially if you eat more than your allocation for that day or sneak in a chocolate treat) and anyway it is not as healthy as changing to a more wholesome eating plan. It may be depressing but it is true that most people who lose weight by restricting their calorie intake put their lost weight – and more – back on. Those who stay trim by eating a healthier diet and adopting a modest exercise programme fare better at keeping the weight off in the long term.

Any exercise is better than none, but there is no need to punish yourself. Moderate exercise for say, 20 minutes, three times a week, will soon get you into a shape you – and your clothes – can feel happy with. Remember, the rest days in between are just as important as all those sessions in the gym, because it is when you rest that the muscles react to the stress of an exercise session and grow stronger to give you more shape and tone.

Walking

If the only time you ever stretch is to reach for the remote control from the other side of the couch, and if your idea of strenuous exercise is having to carry your own grocery shopping, then walking is where you need to start getting back into shape. It may seem uneventful but it can provide enormous health benefits, from strengthening the heart and lungs to building strong bones, hips and knees. It is easy and low-impact, which makes it safe – and it’s free. If you walk with a friend, it will be sociable too.

A brisk walk can help lower cholesterol and the risk of heart disease. If you can walk about 10 miles (16 kilometres) a week and you walk fast enough to get your heart pumping, you can lower this risk by an estimated 50%. Fast walking can provide as many fitness benefits as swimming or cycling, but you will need to build up to this faster pace.

The only thing you need to get started is a pair of non-slip, shock-absorbing and ankle-supporting walking shoes. Start your new walking workouts by choosing easy and comfortable flat surfaces to walk on. On your first day walk for just 10 minutes to get used to the idea of walking for its own sake. Build up over time to walking on gentle inclines, which will make the session more aerobic. Try to walk every day or at least three times a week. If the weather’s bad, put on a raincoat or go walk in the mall. Walking each day will also help you to get the 20 minutes of natural daylight we all need to help the body make vitamin D, which is important for strong bones (see Sunlight, page 44). After six months of regular walking, you will feel stronger and be in much better shape.

Trail Running

Jogging may still be one of the most popular sports (in the UK it ranks No. 3 after rambling and fishing), but it is too hard on the knees for most people. Trail Running, where you run on soft ground over fields, through woods and pasturelands is a much better option. It is vastly more stimulating than running on the spot in a hot and sweaty gym, wondering how the model-type girl on the machine next to yours keeps her thong in just the right place, and for many runners it takes on a meditative quality and acts as a superb anti-stress activity. Better still, trail running burns 20% more calories than running on concrete.

So if you really want to completely change your body shape, then running is the best sport for you. I have, for example, seen 40-year-old women with the classic English pear-shape (heavy thighs and hips) streamline their entire figure within a few months, thanks to a regular 30-minute trail-running regimen.

To get started, you need comfortable running shoes that will support your ankles and a schedule which you promise yourself you are going to stick to. If you plan to be out running at different speeds and for a long time, you also need clothing (and plenty of layers) that will accommodate your body’s changing temperatures.

If you have done little or no aerobic exercise for quite some time, do not make the mistake of limbering up and expecting to be able to jog around the block in one go. In fact, on your first venture out you are not going to run at all. Not one inch. What you are going to do is get used to the idea of being outside in your sports kit and familiarise yourself with the route you plan to take for your first-ever trail run.

On day two, you will run but only for one minute. You will cover the same route as the previous day, but will alternate running and walking. It is crucial to build your stamina and strength in this way, so be patient. One of the biggest rewards of running is how quickly your cardiovascular strength improves. Soon you will be comfortably running your entire route. Be warned, though: It takes much longer to build biomechanical strength.

The best thing about trail running for those of us who are exercise-shy is that it is anything but boring. You cannot get obsessed with your time, speed or performance because you will be too busy making sure you do not trip over a twig and too distracted by the fabulous views and the occasional glimpse of wildlife. If you feel you have become disconnected from nature, there is no better way to get back in shape and back in touch with the important things in life.

Swimming

This must be the world’s most popular sport, so imagine my shock when, after 30 years of swimming, I got into a pool with an instructor who showed me how most of us have got it all wrong. Far from paddling up and down the pool, toning our muscles, releasing tension from our joints and exercising our pumping hearts, too many of us are unwittingly doing more harm than good.

After three lengths, one of each stroke (breaststroke, backstroke and front crawl), Julie Smith, a British swimming teacher and former Olympic backstroker, gave me the bad news: My breaststroke was a dated 1960s version, I was swimming the backstroke the way it was taught in the 1950s (I was not even born then), and my freestyle front crawl was prehistoric.

The good news, if your swimming, like mine, has become somewhat dated is that adults are quick to learn how to alter their strokes. With the front crawl, for example, the biggest change for anyone who learned to swim as a child in the 1960s is that overkicking is now frowned upon. The gentle kicks that are encouraged instead are both easier and energy-saving.

Learning the front crawl, I was taught to stretch forward with each arm as far as I could, brushing past the ear. Now you are taught to rotate the arm from the shoulder only, keeping the elbow bent and entering the water thumb-first.

The most significant change with the backstroke is that the shoulders now lift out of the water as they rotate to raise the arm, and the whole body rolls towards the opposite side with each armlift. This feels peculiar, but is not as ungainly as it might at first seem. Again, overkicking is out and the legs are used only for balance.

Of all the strokes, however, it is the breaststroke that has changed the most. Instead of keeping the arms close to the surface and reaching forward in a long, wide stretch, the hands scoop downwards and the shoulders and chest come out of the water. With this stroke, 60% of the power comes from the arms and 40% from the new whip leg kick, designed to get the most out of a powerful thrust of the legs. It is much narrower than the old-fashioned wide scissor kick that so many of us learned, and so feels completely different.

It may be annoying to discover your strokes are all wrong, but learning how to do them properly is rewarding because the newer versions are faster and more efficient. Only 2% of swimmers actually get any aerobic benefit from their swim – most do not even swim the 20 minutes that is required to get healthy because they become breathless – so it is worth learning the new strokes if they mean you can swim for longer.

The best new approach to swimming I have discovered is one that combines these powerful strokes with the Alexander Technique (see page 265), which teaches you how to improve your body awareness in the water.

Ironically, although it removes the emphasis on speed and getting to the end of each lane, this new technique increases efficiency in the water to such an extent that not only do your style and fitness improve, but so does your swimming time.

As well as highlighting the bad habits that slow you down in the water, applying the principles of the Alexander Technique also shows you the mistakes that can lead to serious longer-term health problems. The single biggest fault with all strokes is that of pulling the head back in the water and tensing up the muscles in the neck and shoulder. This triggers a chain reaction down through the whole body and can cause dizziness, headaches, strained chest muscles and even sciatica, where a nerve becomes trapped.

The impact of this gradual but persistent damage is actually worsened by the arms pulling against these tensed-up muscles. Pulling the head back causes the legs to sink, so not only is your swimming less efficient, you are also causing a kind of self-inflicted whiplash.

With the breaststroke, especially my 1960s version, the wide kicking of the legs can be detrimental to both the lower back and the cartilage around the knees, which, if the swimmer persists, can wear away, causing a condition known as ‘breaststroke knee’.

The other problem that holds most swimmers back is breathing. Many swimmers hyperventilate, albeit unwittingly, by taking in too much air in a large gulp and then breathing out too little. The right way to breathe is to keep the face in the water, turn the head sideways and open the mouth to allow air in. Under the water, breathe out all the time. If you find this difficult, try humming aloud.

When we do get it right, water is, of course, the perfect weight-bearing medium for either getting back in shape or staying toned. The buoyancy, which reduces your body weight by 90%, protects you from injury, making this a great exercise option for anyone who has spent the last decade sitting on the couch or slumped over a keyboard. It is very soothing for stiff, arthritic joints and is the ideal form of exercise for pregnant women and anyone who is obese and who would otherwise be prone to injury.

Water aerobics are very popular and effective. More fun than exercising with your two feet on dry land, you will learn how to push against the weight of the water to walk on the spot and tone your legs and thighs, and how staying afloat and then exercising your arms and legs can burn off unwanted fat.

Swimming also charges the body’s internal plumbing – the lymphatic drainage system – which has no pumps to drive it around but which relies on movement to flush out waste debris and toxins. It does not like aggressive forms of exercise but responds best to gentle, rhythmic movement. Stagnant lymph is at the root of many health problems, especially skin complaints, so if you want a good complexion, swimming is the sport for you.

Try not to develop just one stroke, because they all have different body toning benefits. The breaststroke, for example, tones the upper part of the body and the inner legs, but will exacerbate back problems. The crawl is a good aerobic exercise and will get the heart pumping, but if you are after serious levels of fitness you will need to practise the more demanding butterfly stroke. The backstroke releases stiff shoulder joints and is probably the gentlest way to get from one end of the pool to the other.

At the end of your swim, tone your bottom with a series of leg squats before you jump out of the pool. Hold on to the side, bend your knees and turn them outwards, and then drop down, rather like an inelegant ballet dancer. Hold the squat for as long as feels comfortable for you, and repeat until your legs grow tired. The body has its own innate wisdom and the more you trust this, the more you will benefit from your chosen form of exercise.

Yoga

I could write pages and pages on the shapeshifting benefits of yoga. If you are serious about toning up, sweating a little and finding your Moola Bhanda (the muscles which keep a tummy tucked in) then turn to Hands-On, page 255, and read about astanga yoga, which helped Madonna regain her fantastic figure after childbirth. Astanga, though, is not for everyone and even the less dynamic forms of yoga will help trim tummies, tone waists, lift bottoms and increase your overall flexibility. Having seen yoga being taught badly in various gyms and church halls up and down the land, I thought it was an exercise cop-out – but I was wrong. With the right teacher you are going to make friends with muscles you thought you had left somewhere in your more active teens.

Whichever type of yoga you favour, it will work on as deep a level as you choose. Force is never used, but you will learn how to control the breath to help tight muscles release, to stretch your body that little bit further and to master twists and leg raises which will help banish fat from around your waist. More importantly, what yoga will show you is that being happy with your shape is not about being fatter or thinner. It is about being strong, healthy and confident with the shape you are.

A lot of the postures (or asanas) take their names from animals to give you a clue as to what they are all about. The Cat, for example, is practised in Pilates too and gives the spine a wonderful stretch. It also works the abdominal muscles and lifts the bottom. The Cobra revitalises abdominal muscles which may have become lazy and stimulates both the liver and pancreas so your appetite improves. It also heats up the body to help get rid of toxins. The Camel tones the entire pelvic region and so is great for women, and the simple leg raises, which are perfect for beginners, strengthen the stomach muscles and break down surplus fat.

To get started, I recommend you find a good teacher in your area and take a few private classes. This means when you do join an established class you can really benefit from the postures and will not spend half the class worrying about the strange Sanskrit names of everyday positions which everyone else already knows. Yoga classes are excellent for overcoming inhibitions – nobody looks that good hanging upside down – and for helping you to feel comfortable with, and proud of, your body.

Tai Chi and the Magic Wand

Millions of Chinese men and women cannot be wrong. There is nothing more Zen-like than the site of a crowd of city dwellers, old and young, gathering under the spring blossom in a municipal park to practise their early morning Tai Chi exercises. A gentle, non-violent form of exercise that originated in Chinese martial arts and a Chinese philosophical system called Taoism, it consists of 108 complex and slow-motion movements that bring about mental, physical and spiritual harmony.

As with other disciplines, there are less well-known forms of Tai Chi. One of my favourites is the Chinese wand workout. It puts the emphasis on having fun as you learn to rebalance your mind and your body, so you end up feeling even more relaxed. The wand is a 4-foot bamboo cane, but if the budget cannot stretch to that, you can use an old broom handle. All the exercises you then perform are designed to make you healthier. As well as encouraging greater flexibility, they will lower blood pressure, promote good digestion and help drain the lymphatic system, which clears toxins from the body and which, as we have learned, responds best to gentle movements.

To improve digestion, for example, stand with the feet hip-width apart and hold the wand at the back of your neck. Bend forward slowly, releasing from the hips, as if moving into a bow. Keep the legs straight and avoid hunching the back. Hold this bow for a few seconds and move back into your starting position. (If you have done any yoga, a lot of these moves will come easily to you.)

All this bending and twisting with a stick in your hands is not as bonkers as it sounds. Canes or wands were used in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a diagnostic tool to pinpoint imbalances in the body, and can still be helpful in detecting underlying postural and muscular problems which, if left uncorrected, may lead to more trouble in the long term.

Whichever form of Tai Chi you decide to investigate, remember it is not demanding enough to give you an athletic level of fitness and will not increase cardiovascular performance, but it is the perfect shapeshifting exercise since it will make you feel – and look – taller, slimmer and more poised.