Why Sussex is proving that movement and good diet - alongside a sense of purpose and community - are the real secrets to a long and healthy life

Like many other people of a similar age and build, my relationship with the world of gyms has been fickle at best.

I have joined one or two and either lost interest or convinced myself I simply didn’t have time.

I will happily take our little dog for a couple of hours’ walk in the woods – although she is not always as delighted to partake as I am in these countryside marches – but gyms have always seemed a little too clinical, competitive and disciplined in their approach.

I am, however, a huge advocate of the Goodwood Health Summits. From the very first, when they explained the importance of good gut health driven by diets rich in fibre, fermented foods, a little fasting, and nutritionally-dense ingredients grown and reared in vibrant, natural soils, I have been a convert.

That doesn’t stop me tucking into the occasional treacle tart with a big blob of clotted cream – my guilty secret of a little over an hour ago – but on the whole I have been brutal in eliminating ultra processed foods and carbs, refined sugars, and empty calories. Fizzy soft drinks have made way for iced tap water.

To all this, I am endeavouring to add the latest guidance on breathing. Deep, slow, steady breaths through the nose, best undertaken in the great outdoors.

But at a certain point in your life, good wholesome food will only take you so far. Exercise that pushes you more than a stroll can make a huge difference, alongside a real sense of purpose in life and a strong and supportive community around you.

All this is endorsed by the evidence from ‘blue zones’ around the world where people live remarkably long and healthy lives driven by lifestyle habits exactly like these.

So I accepted an invitation from Goodwood Health and Wellbeing to try their gym and associated facilities for a few weeks as their guest and write about it honestly.

Arriving for my induction I bumped into a familiar face.

Sally Austin spent 20 years at Spirit FM, latterly as Managing Director, before changing career five years ago and becoming a financial adviser, with her own business, Austin Wealth Management. Our media paths often crossed.

Pulling out a notebook while she was still signing in electronically I asked her why she was there and how she saw the benefits.

"I’ve been a member of the Goodwood Health Club for over five years and still use it three or four times a week. It’s a genuinely lovely place to exercise, with a great swimming pool, jacuzzi, sauna and steam room, as well as children’s swimming lessons, which my granddaughter enjoys each week!

"The new Technogym equipment has made the gym even better – you simply tap your card and each machine automatically adjusts the weights, seat position and settings for you, so it’s incredibly easy to get a really good workout whatever your level of fitness.

"The staff are always friendly and welcoming, parking is easy and there’s just a really nice atmosphere about the place. With a fairly busy working life, having somewhere like Goodwood that makes keeping fit so easy is a huge plus for me.”

All that proved to be true.

The staff are very welcoming (based on my observation of how they treat people who are not there to write about the experience). Craig Browne is the Club Manager and he walked and talked me through the new gym, the relaxation areas, and explained how everything worked. The place is spotless and the equipment is state of the art and pristine.

An electronic assessment of my physical starting point was pleasingly excellent. Even if I was, to put it politely, on the heavy side.

Then I chatted to personal trainer Olly Munt. I began by asking him why someone should come to a gym. Any gym – not just this one.

“Great question. So my whole life, I've been active, whether that's in the gym or playing sports, football, cricket, golf. I think life can be stressful – so come to the gym. It allows you to get rid of that stress, but activities help your mental and your physical state. And I think it personally just improves your everyday life, your well-being, and your quality of life.”

Too often, I said, stepping into a gym can feel like you’ve entered a competitive arena – everyone else seems so more active and proficient than you. But it’s not a competition is it?

Olly replied: “I'm so glad you said that. You do go into certain gyms and it does feel like a competition. You feel like you should be impressing everyone. Gyms like this [Goodwood] are perfect because it's a lot quieter in here. You can come in, you can crack on with your own work, and people aren't judging you at all. You just come in, you do your honest work, and you go home, and you will just see improvement over time.”

With personal experience behind my question, I said that some people say that they stopped going to gyms because they got bored.

"I think if you have got bored, you've got the wrong programme. With a proper gym programme, you shouldn't get bored, because you should be testing yourself, and you should be looking to improve yourself. You may just not have found the right type of trainer for you.”

Referencing the Health Summits, Olly agreed that going to the gym is only part of the story. “Yes, you can improve your body, and you can test your body in the gym, but strength and physical and visual appearance and performance is built in the kitchen, really, and how you look after yourself, whether that's dieting, recovery, using our saunas, our steam rooms, our swim pools. To get everything out of the gym, it's not just using the gym. It's using all of our facilities for recovery, using our restaurants, coffee, everything.”

Lots of experts say, when they're talking about people of 65 and older that building body strength, is really important. Did Olly agree with that?

"Yes, I am very much against the older generation, doing what I would call toning, so, high reps, low weights, where, in actual fact, you almost, as an older clientele, should be doing more strength training, building muscle, and building the strength in your joints to improve your quality of life, whether that's building your single leg strength, to catch you when you've tripped. Or that it's just making bending down and picking up easier.

“You should be coming to the gym just as much, if not more. You should be focussing on strength rather than toning, because toning leads you to train to fatigue and actually making that quality of life worse."

The equipment here not only makes life easier because it's geared to you, but it's quite precise, isn't it? So you don't do anything stupid.

"I am very much a functional trainer and I'm very much against machines. However, these machines are brilliant because you can, like you've seen, do the range of motion tests and re-tailor it to you, so you're pressing or you're pulling a load through a safe range of motion for you and your body and your joints.”

So someone reading this article might be concerned that they are a bit overweight and never do anything. But they're a bit nervous about coming to a gym. What would you say to reassure them about taking that first step?

"Well, in our gym, specifically, there's always a smiley face on the gym floor, waiting to help you if you need that help.”

There are a huge range of classes – everything from Power Yoga to Cardio Mayhem. I have yet to test any of them yet.

I will – and will report back.

I am convinced from the global work around Blue Zones but also from my experiences with groups across Sussex that good diet, movement and moderate strength building, combined with a sense of community and purpose can help so many people with their mental and their physical health.

But it has got to be fun, sustainable, enjoyable, non-judgmental – and affordable.

There are many different gyms each priced and equipped differently – and they all have different strengths.

Goodwood is understandably more expensive than most. My initial experience is that like the rest of the estate it sets the quality bar very high. Over the coming weeks I will see whether I continue to enjoy my visits – and if I feel better as a result! Will they weight in my hands truly prove a weight off my mind.