Look fab, FEEL GREAT!

AGE-PROOF your body & brain!

With some easy daily tweaks you can slow down the clock and feel instantly better

Sadly it’s a fact of life that as we get older we lose muscle mass, our bones can weaken and cognitive function can decline. But the good news is that with some small, easy-to-implement changes, you can stop the clock and keep your body and brain younger for longer.

James Davis is a personal trainer, hormone specialist, psychologist and coach. Claire Davis is a life coach, personal trainer, hormone specialist and stress management consultant. Together they co-founded The Midlife Mentors (Midlifementors.com) offering coaching and evidence-based science to help clients reclaim their body, mind and life.

Keep your bones strong

Women in particular need to look after their bones as they age. “Bone density decreases with age and women are particularly at risk as the hormone oestrogen plays a role in maintaining bone density, and typically oestrogen levels are lower after themenopause,” says Claire.

The good news is that strength training, using weights or body weight exercises, is what you need to do to improve your bone density.

“Again, resistance training, working every muscle group twice a week, will really help,” adds Claire.

Maintain muscle

We know that we lose muscle mass as we age – as much as 3-8 per cent, per decade after the age of 30, and even higher after the age of 60. “We need to put muscles under stress to force them to grow. That means resistance training at least twice a week,” explains James.

“You can do body weight exercises like squats and press-ups (leaning against a wall if needed), or we sometimes get our clients using water bottles as weights to begin with. Just anything that gives you resistance. The key here is progression; you need to either change the weight or the repetitions as you progress to keep building and maintaining muscle.” James says you can find lots of free workouts on YouTube, including theirs at Themidlifementors.com/workouts.

Engage your brain

Cognitive function can decline with age so James says it’s important we engage our brains regularly. “As we age we can lose neural pathways, but one way we can maintain them is by keeping our minds active,” he explains. “Be curious, do things like puzzles, learn new skills like playing an instrument or painting. There is a lot out there now about learning new languages and how that can help brain health. We all know we should move our bodies, but we need to be exercising our brain too.”

Find a community

Joining a local community group or regularly socialising w