10 Today

10 Today is an exercise programme from Sport England and Demos designed for older people, to protect against poor health and disease, and improve mental health and maintain independence.

Our volunteer 'over 60s' exercise reviewer has been hard at work again and feels he has struck gold with the BBC 10 Today series of 10 minute exercises. These are available in video format on the BBC website or as audio downloads from BBC Sounds. 

Over to our reviewer:

This section concentrates on "Keep Fit",and should appeal to those who were do doing Age UK North Tyneside's seated and gentle exercise classes before lockdown, and also a follow up to my first review "Oomph Lockdown Exercise for over 60's".If you have not experienced this,it is short and worth looking at as a starter.
There are literally hundreds of videos to view on You Tube, but many are too quick or long and drawn out.By far the most enjoyable I have found,easy to follow and participate in is 'BBC 10 Today'. Ten stands for ten short sessions all lasting ten minutes, and in addition eachh carries the same useful two minute "health warning", which many others do not.

It helps when the guide,Terry,is in his Seventies and acknowledges his own limitations. He is always accompanied by two people,one standing and the other seated. It is easy to view,and was filmed in a living room rather than a gym. Some of the seat based exercises I recognised from my previous review of "Oomph - lockdown exercises for over 60s". I did all ten sessions spread throughout two days for the purpose of review and suffered no pulled muscles or injuries!

As an alternative there is one short seat based video covering much of the same ground as "TEN" and "Oomph",called"Seated Exercises for Older Adults" (not exactly stimulating,though, with only one person on camera);

Joe Wicks. I had not heard of him before LOCKDOWN and confess he is not my cup of tea. The programme for seniors will only appeal to a super fit generation intent on joining the S.A.S.and I for one would find it impossible to start let alone complete! Complete is the wrong word as I got a sense of compete "Countdown" style, or further back "Beat the Clock" in black and white days of "Sunday Night at the London Palladium"! I leave you to judge for yourself on our Joe Wicks' Workouts for Seniors page.

Others which are more detailed eg" Make Movement your Mission " which on first glance the Tutor states is "a marathon, not a sprint" with 90 (!) filmed sessions commencing in March. Bonus with this one, however, is being able to do live sessions daily on Facebook, which might help some people. Probably too long to expect average person to do all, but more there to help tutors, assessors, relatives etc. to point in right direction.

(Make Movement Your Mission is a Facebook group set up by Later Life Training to help older adults stay active at home. Every day between 23rd March and 23rd April, there will be three live exercise classes day (8am, 12pm and 4pm). Search 'Make Movement Your Mission' on Facebook and then apply to become a member of the group.)