The Wisdom of Dr Dawn Harper on Fitness Day

I was working on a project recently that involved going to meet centenarians all around the UK and in Italy to listen to their life stories. But these weren’t just any old centenarians. They were active healthy people who were living life to the full - no sitting in a nursing home waiting for God for them. They were still out and about and enjoying life into their second century. Their stories and backgrounds were interesting and diverse. Some had lived in industrial Britain, some in rural Italy, and some had experienced very privileged and wealthy upbringings. For others, their childhoods had been shaped by extreme poverty. There was everything in between. But perhaps what was more striking than the differences were the similarities these people shared.

Right at the top of the list was exercise. They were pre motor car children and had grown up walking (or, if they were lucky, cycling) everywhere. No Fitbits or pedometers for them. They couldn’t get past mid-morning without doing ten thousand steps, and they had continued to move as they entered adulthood.

Sadly, in modern day Britain, we have every need to get our hands on any gadget we can to encourage us to make sure we reach that 10,000 step a day target. Life has become sedentary. We have machines and technology to do manual tasks for us and it is all too easy to live our lives behind a wheel or in front of a screen. Town dwellers don’t even need to leave their homes to get a takeaway! The sad truth is that 80% of British adults don’t achieve the recommended 30 minutes of exercise 5 times a week.

So where are we going wrong? We have more gyms and fitness centres than ever before, but the problem is too few of use them and many of those of us who do don’t use them often enough. And I will put my hand up here. I have joined several gyms over the years and gone religiously in January, fairly consistently in February, occasionally in March and then fallen in to the category of ghost client who continues to pay her membership according to the contract but is never seen.

That all changed for me when I was run over in a car chase in 2002. I shattered my left knee, which required surgery and several months in various braces. When I finally was out of plaster and ready to rehab, my left knee was painfully stiff and I spent literally hours in a physio gym trying to flex it enough to do one full revolution on a static bike. When I finally achieved that goal, I decided I needed to do something over and above my physio sessions to build the strength in my withered leg. I found my bicycle with two flat tyres, collecting cobwebs and bird poo at the back of the shed. A bit of a spruce up and I set off around the village. I could only achieve short distances at first but gradually built up until I was happily doing 20-mile loops whenever I could. I loved it. I looked forward to going out and I learned a lesson - deep down, I hate the gym! I now regularly spend two or three hours at a weekend out on the country lanes on my bike, but ten minutes in a gym on a static bike and I am clock watching. I wish I had learned that lesson years earlier. It would have been better for me and my wallet!

Soon after I started cycling regularly, I was asked to cycle from London to Paris in support of one of the charities I work with. I couldn’t refuse, so I set about training and I learned my second lesson - the fear of failing the challenge meant that even when I thought I had no time or the weather was foul, I still made myself get out on that bike and put in the miles.

Lesson number three came when I persuaded friends and colleagues to join me on the challenge and, therefore, the training. If you exercise as part of a group, on your very weak days there will always be one of the group with the motivation you need to get you out there!

So why am I telling you this? Today is Fitness Day. My healthy happy centenarian friends are living proof of the benefits of exercise and it doesn’t matter what form that exercise takes. If you are struggling to incorporate exercise in to your life, take some time today to think about what motivates you and what you enjoy. Exercise shouldn’t be a chore, it should be something you enjoy and that you can incorporate into your weekly lives. If you can tick those boxes, chances are you will still be doing it three months and three years from now and putting many more on your life expectancy.