MATT ROBERTS: Three steps to a perfect balancing act 

Q: With age, balance becomes less reliable, so could you suggest a suitable exercise to improve balance for an 83-year-old woman?

A: There are three really good exercises that you should do regularly in order to engage the stabilising muscles around the hips, knees and lower back.

These muscles will add strength to your body and allow it to respond to any movement that might put you in danger of falling.

In order to improve your balance, exercises should be practiced to engage the stabilising muscles around the hips, knees and lower back (stock image)

1: Side steps: This is really simple, but it is also something that’s often overlooked as we only focus on moving forwards in our day. Starting in a standing position, take a wide step to your right and then bring the left foot to meet it in a standing position again. Do five to ten sideways steps, and you can add a small amount of knee bend into this movement if your strength and mobility are reasonable. Go in one direction, then return, and repeat until you have done about 15 to 20 in each direction. Then rest and repeat the process twice, so you have done three ‘sets’ in total.

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2: Knee raises: Stand facing a wall with your arms outstretched and palms on the wall. Lift one knee, bending at the hip and the knee, until your knee reaches about hip height. Return the foot down and repeat with the other leg. Each raise should take two to three seconds. Aim for 20 raises before resting and then repeating two or three times. This really engages the hip flexors and supporting muscles around the hip joint, as well as using the abdomen.

3: Heel to toe walking: Walk in a line, placing one foot directly in front of the other as you do so, so that your heel touches the front of your toes. Do 20 to 30 steps and then rest and repeat four or five times. It’s a simple movement that encourages use of the key muscles that help your balance.

Try to do these exercises four or five times every week and you will start to feel stronger and more stable.

Q: I am a former fitness instructor, now 75 years old. I was always very fit until I had a pacemaker fitted two years ago due to atrial fibrillation. I am also on medication for high blood pressure and an underactive thyroid, as well as beta blockers. While I am not really very overweight (5ft and 9st 11lb), I want to lose some, and get back into a regular fitness regime but cannot find much information for training with pacemakers. What can I do, apart from brisk walks which I find very boring?

A good way to loose weight when wearing a pacemaker can be interval training (stock image)

A: I would recommend interval training, using the Perceived Rate of Exertion scale, which is simply a 1-10 scale in which 1 is at complete rest and 10 is exhaustion. Think of working for 20 to 60 seconds at a raised level (between 8 and 10) and then resting for 40 to 90 seconds to recover (down to an easy level of 5 to 10).

These changes of exertion will raise your metabolism and help to keep you lean and stay conditioned. Exercising with a pacemaker and medication is about good management, not about exercise cessation. If you want to mix things up a little, try a circuit that uses a pattern of:

1: 40 seconds’ moderate to high-intensity cardio.

2: Leg exercise – 20 to 30 reps (squats or lunges).

3: Arm exercise – 15 to 20 reps (shoulder press, half press-ups).

4: Core exercise.

Do this cardio circuit for seven to eight circuits and it will work your body without being a rigid, cardio-style workout.

Keep aiming to exercise four days each week in these ways and you can always add in the ‘boring’ power walking as well if you want to.

Nike’s right on ‘too thin’ Bella

The new face of Nike, supermodel Bella Hadid, has been criticised (or at least Nike have for choosing her) for being too thin for an athletics brand, and not an appropriate role model. I’m torn on this.

The new face of Nike, supermodel Bella Hadid, has been criticised for being too thin for an athletics brand

Bella, right, is a great-looking woman and a fabulous model. She says she struggles to keep weight on, and this is true for some models without it being an eating disorder. Would I have chosen her personally? I would probably have focused on someone who looks a bit more athletic.

But should Nike have chosen her? Yes, she looks fabulous, and since most buyers of Nike products don’t even work out, it’s no good criticising a girl who does.

The chair of the College of GPs, Helen Stokes, has said that the goal of ‘five a day’ of fresh fruit or veg is unachievable due to convenience and cost. This is just not true.

Buying vegetables is actually incredibly inexpensive, much cheaper than pretty much all junk food. It’s completely defeatist to say it can’t be done; it simply allows excuses to be made.

Supermarkets have done a great job in making these things cheap, so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

The danger in Ed’s dad bod 

Former MP Ed Balls, seems to be the unlikely heart-throb in Strictly this year

Being ‘buff’ – a word my teenage daughter might use – isn’t most men’s aspiration. And if the whole ‘dad bod’ trend is anything to go by, many women seem to quite like men who sport more of a keg than a six-pack.

The increasingly portly film star and serial model-dater Leonardo DiCaprio is a poster boy for the figure while, this side of the Atlantic, former MP Ed Balls, seems to be the unlikely heart-throb in Strictly this year.

I see the appeal. Ed (who actually seems to have slimmed a bit) and Leo are having fun and letting it all hang out.

As a father myself, I’d like to fly the flag for not bursting my top trouser button after a big meal. But then, it’s my job to be fit, you probably think.

However recent research shows that being even two stone overweight doubles the risk of cancer in men.

Don’t worry about gaining a little as you age – most people do that. But recognise the changes and act sensibly on them before you go into the danger zone. 

It has been established that the average teenager consumes a bathtub’s worth of fizzy drinks per year – a whopping 234 cans.

When you break it down, less than one can per day may sound all right, but that belittles the negative effects that these drinks have on young bodies.

Consuming high amounts of sugar has been linked to diabetes, obesity and rotting teeth.

The answers are simple. Tax sugary drinks. Water down the sugar content allowed in fizzy drinks. Remove vending machines selling these in schools.

And keep reinforcing the message wherever possible, because some parents clearly still aren’t getting this.