Building strength is about helping your body cope better with everyday demands – sitting, standing, lifting, carrying, pushing and pulling. And you can do a lot for your health with very little equipment, space or time. You do not need gym membership, heavy weights or complicated routines. In fact, some of the most effective strength work uses simple movements you already do in daily life.

Key Movements to Support Your Health

• Push movements – using your arms and upper body to push something away
• Pull movements – drawing something towards you, important for posture
• Standing / squat movements – getting up and down
• Hinge movements – bending at the hips to lift safely
• Core stability – supporting and controlling movement
• Leg strength & balance – how we walk, climb stairs and move confidently
• Carrying & holding – real-life strength for everyday loads

Push movements help build strength in your chest, shoulders, arms and core. They’re useful for everyday tasks like pushing doors, getting up from the floor, or supporting your bodyweight.

A push-up doesn’t have to be done on the floor to be effective. Try this:

• Stand facing a wall
• Place your hands on the wall at chest height
• Bend your elbows to bring your chest towards the wall
• Push back to standing

That’s a push-up. If you want a little more challenge, you can move to a kitchen counter, chair or the floor – but every version counts. The goal isn’t to make this hard, it’s to practise the movement and build strength over time.

You don’t need a high number of repetitions for this to be worthwhile. A good starting point is 6 to 10 controlled repetitions, take a break and then repeat.

🚀 NUMAN Kickstart Challenge: New year, fresh start. Get moving, build momentum, and kick off January feeling strong (future you will be very grateful).

🥕 Move More with HelloFresh: Add a little extra movement to your days and get rewarded for it. Simple, satisfying, and very on-brand for January wins 🥦.

❄️ Beat the Cold January Challenge: Cold outside? No problem. Wrap up, get moving, and beat the winter blues one activity at a time.

⌚ Apple Watch: Quit Quitting: Consistency is the name of the game. If you complete the challenge, you’ll earn an Apple Watch badge. And just for being a Strava user, you’ll get up to 3 months of Apple Fitness+ for free to keep you motivated. 💪.

Ouch, I fear this amazing human puts a few of us in the shade. Meet Celia Duff, aka Badass Gran, who is a double world HYROX champion at aged 70! A well-earned alias, that's for sure.

If you've not heard of HYROX, it's a fitness trend that involves competing around 8km of running and eight functional workout stations, including rowing, sandbag lunges and sled pull. So, pretty hardcore 💪 Celia started competing aged 68, encouraged by her HYROX-keen daughter, and says it's changed her life. "I'm fitter and stronger than ever" she told Women's Health. "I walk taller both physically and mentally... I’m proud to show that ordinary people can do extraordinary things..."

Did you know that only around 6% of people meet the full activity guidelines for adults with most people coming up short on the the amount of strength training we should be doing? We should be doing strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups at least twice a week.

Let's all try to be a Badass Gran/Pa/Mother/Father/Daughter/Son!