How to increase your lifespan; 15 minutes of daily exercise

Today's news about lazy lifestyles and couch potatoes highlights the importance of how an active and healthy lifestyle is crucial for our longevity. The new report in The British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests a sedentary lifestyle is as bad for your health as smoking and obesity because of the dangers posed by inactivity and unhealthy eating.

Is your TV killing you? The research suggested that a couch potato lifestyle with six hours of TV a day cuts your lifespan by five years. However just 15 minutes of exercise a day can boost life expectancy by 3 years and cut death risk by 14%. The UK government's recent exercise advice is to have a more flexible approach, recommending we get 150 minutes of activity a week. This could be a couple of 10-minute bouts of exercise every day or 30-minute exercise sessions, five times a week, for example.

Physical activity and a healthy lifestyle offer huge benefits and these studies do not surprise us and support what we believe in. Once you start to do more exercise, you get a taste for it and we gradually start to up our daily routines. So if 90 minutes a week of exercise can add three years to your life, some brisk walking or cycling to work could be on the cards! Regular exercise will strengthen your muscles, reduce the risk of ill health and boost your immunity.

So what are you favourite 15-minute workouts to do? Get fitter quicker with our recommended 10 short workouts you can do anywhere:

1. Do some low-intensity cardio, such as brisk walking, marching in place or step-ups.
2. Cycle to the shops and attempt some hill climbs to get your legs to really work.
3. Find some floor space and do press ups, side planks or jumping jacks.
4. Ditch the lifts and escalators when you're out the house, and run up as many stairs as you can.
5. Practice yoga or Pilates, some quick simple poses can make all the difference.
6. Go for a run. A quick running session will get your heart rate up.
7. Try some lunges and squats to work your largest muscle group.
8. Increase your circulation and flexibility with some simple stretching.
9. Work your abs! An effective core exercise is the plank, which simply involves holding in a push-up position for one minute.
10. Build your strength - Use a set of weights and do bicep curls, overhead presses and other upper body exercises.

Talk to one of our Travel Specialists on 0203 397 8891 or contact us here to discuss tailor-making your perfect healthy holiday.

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How to increase your lifespan; 15 minutes of daily exercise