Is Davina McCall’s workout realistic for women aged 50+? 

If ever there was a poster girl for thriving in midlife it would be Davina McCall.

In this week’s issue of HELLO!, the menopause activist revealed that she is getting back to her fitness regime following her operation to remove a benign brain tumour last November.

Known for HIIT workouts, Davina revealed she has a new secret to keeping happy and healthy during her Second Act – and given her killer body, we sat up and listened.

During an exclusive chat with Davina at a lunch to announce her new role as ambassador of supplement Ancient + Brave, the Masked Singer star divulged her favourite ways to train over the age of 50 – and why we all should be doing it.

Forget gentle yoga or a nice bit of tai chi, Davina says if we want to protect our bones into old age, we need to get on board with plyometrics. 

What is plyometrics?

“Plyometrics is when you leap in the air, try and find your balance and then run backwards and do it again,” Davina told us, leaping in the air to demonstrate.

“You might think that later in life you want to do low impact on your joints, but actually a bit of jumping and pounding the pavements is really good for you,” Davina muses. “The landing and the shock of jumping or running is good for your bone density,” she explains.

Davina’s supplement routine

Like many women in midlife, Davina noticed that no matter how much she stretched and looked after her body, she was suffering from more aches, pains and injuries than she had ever had before, and to combat this she began taking a collagen supplement from Ancient + Brave – and it transformed everything. 

“I have been banging on about this stuff for years and now it is part of my job, it’s brilliant,” she says.

“When I hit my fifties I kept getting repetitive Achilles injuries. I trained for the Great North Run and pulled my calf. Then when I was 54, I fell down some steps in the woods and tore my ligaments.

“I thought maybe I needed to stretch out more, but I knew it was an inside job. I was recommended the Ancient + Brave collagen from one of my trainers at SPN gym where I used to go in Tunbridge Wells. Pretty quickly it helped. I’ve continued using it throughout my recovery from brain surgery and have just started going back to the gym and so far I have had no injuries.”

Here Davina shares her top tips with HELLO! for exercising in your 50s and beyond – even if you have never worked out before.

1. Walking

“Walk with purpose a couple of times a day. I started gently when I was coming back to fitness after my operation. I like the feeling that exercise gives me.”

2. Plyometrics

“Jumping, or a bit of pounding the pavements is all plyometric exercise and is really good for you. Yoga is great, but if you are healthy and your joints are ok, you should be jumping and the shock of the landing is good for your bone density.”

3. Weight training

“I recommend strength training for sure. I started doing more weight training in my second act.

“I started out with two or three kgs and now I am doing four of five kgs sometimes. I try and lift – or I do a farmer’s walk where you walk carrying heavy weights.

“You should build up to heavier weights – and not be adverse to lifting weights to failure. Yes, they are heavy weights and you are supposed to be doing 10 reps but if you can only get to four, that’s good for you.

“Try and get to six reps and if you can’t get there, then decide you will the next day. It is about trying to improve in small increments on your weights over time.”

4. Take supplements

“It’s really important to say that supplements should go alongside a healthy diet, not instead of.  Wellbeing is about doing everything in your power to live a healthier life.

“I found collagen from Ancient + Brave really helped my joints and muscles and have taken that for years. The thing with supplements is you need to make it part of your daily routine, otherwise you don’t get the benefits from it – you need to be consistent.”