Left in excrement for 20 hours: The elderly patients neglected by NHS

Elderly patients have been left languishing in their own excrement and puddles of urine for hours on end in NHS hospitals, a major charity has said.

Corridor care is a “crisis in plain sight” in A&Es across the country, charity Age UK warned ministers, as it described “truly shocking” incidents of poor care of elderly people waiting days on end for attention.

In a report, published on Friday, Age UK revealed “heartbreaking” incidents of poor care, including a woman dying from a heart attack after being left to wait; a patient who was “lost” after being put on a disused corridor; and a man left hooked up to an IV drip in a chair for 20 hours, who soiled himself because he was unable to get to the toilet.

People told the charity about “puddles of urine” on the floor as immobile patients are unable to go to the toilet, and patients are being forced to use bedpans in corridors.

Another person said their 86-year-old family member was “stuck in a disused corridor for 36 hours” while “staff kept saying he hasn’t been admitted by the ambulance crew”. A 79-year-old woman from south London told the charity: “The corridors were lined with patients on trolleys, hooked up to drips, some moaning in pain. It reminded me of war films, with queues of stretchers and people suffering.”

Age UK warned that many patients are unwilling to go to A&E, even if they are in a life-threatening situation, because of their past experiences.

It called on the government to “urgently” tackle corridor care as it warned that older people are disproportionately affected.

Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK, said: “What’s happening to some very ill older people when they come to A&E is a crisis hiding in plain sight which the government must face up to and take immediate action to resolve.

“No one should have to spend their final days in a hospital corridor where it’s impossible for the staff to provide good, compassionate care, and it’s truly shocking that this is what is happening to some very old people in some hospitals, today and every day.

“And as we head into winter, we fear that an already very difficult situation in and around some A&Es will get even worse.”

The report comes after The Independent revealed warnings from top medics over a potential “armageddon” facing the NHS this winter, with rising Covid and flu cases alongside staffing cuts.

Health minister Karin Smyth said in response to the Age UK findings: “The stories in this report are heartbreaking. No one should receive care in a corridor – it’s unacceptable, undignified, and we are determined to end it.

“To tackle a problem, you’ve got to be honest about it. For the first time, the NHS will measure and publish the number of patients waiting in corridors. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.”

She said the government is investing £450m to build same-day urgent and emergency care centres, buying 500 new ambulances, and building 40 new mental health crisis centres. She also urged families to get vaccinated.

Katherine, a retired NHS nurse from Norfolk, told The Independent how she was left “in floods of tears” after being forced to sit in a chair for hours in pain as she waited in A&E.

Two years ago, Katherine, now 77, underwent surgery for colorectal cancer. Since then, she has faced repeated trips to A&E, often arriving by ambulance due to the severity of her symptoms.

On one occasion, Katherine was admitted to hospital after attending A&E over heart problems, where she was placed on a trolley in the corridor for several hours directly outside the only toilet serving the entire A&E department.

The former nurse described the situation as “an absolute nightmare”, with the smell, the noise of people constantly passing, and staff using a nearby changing area.

During this time, Katherine says she was not offered any food or drink and, eventually, after getting the all clear, was left disoriented trying to find her way out of the hospital on her own.

In another distressing experience, Katherine attended A&E with bowel problems and was left to sit in a chair for hours. She said the lack of privacy and proper facilities left her “in floods of tears”.

“I can feel that things are going to happen, and I’m sitting right next to other people, which is very unpleasant, as you can imagine,” she said.

The former nurse said her A&E experiences have left her frightened of hospital admission after seeing older people sitting on the floor, and on one occasion, a woman bleeding heavily in the waiting room with no one to attend to her.

“Years ago, when you went to the hospital, you felt safe. Now you don’t, you feel absolutely frightened,” she said.

“It was just like a third world country. The basic nursing skills that I remember being taught and would employ seem to have gone out the window. Now it’s all about ticking boxes,” she said, adding that patients are now treated as “figures on a conveyor belt” rather than as human beings.

According to the latest figures for England, some 75 per cent of patients were seen within four hours in A&E in September.

The number of people waiting more than 12 hours in A&E departments in England from a decision to admit to actually being admitted – widely recognised as “corridor care” – stood at 44,765 in September, up from 35,909 in August.

Professor Nicola Ranger, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Corridor care is a moral stain on our health service, and this report is yet more evidence of its devastating consequences. No elderly or vulnerable person should be forced to endure these conditions. It is unsafe, undignified, and unacceptable.

“Overstretched and understaffed nursing teams work hard every day to deliver the best care, but they face an impossible task. You simply cannot provide good quality care when patients are lining corridors or are pushed into any other available space.”

Man, 70, dies and multiple people injured in Doncaster helicopter crash

A 70-year-old man has died after a helicopter crashed into a field in Bentley, Doncaster, on Thursday morning.

Police attended the scene of the crash near Doncaster just after 10am. The helicopter, a Robinson R44 Raven II, came down shortly after taking off.

South Yorkshire Police said the man who died suffered serious injuries in the crash and was pronounced dead at the scene. His family are aware and are being supported by police.

The pilot, a 41-year-old man, received minor injuries, as did a 58-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy, police said.

Detective Chief Inspector Gary Magnay, Silver Commander, said: “Our thoughts are with the family and loved ones of the man who sadly died in this tragic incident.”

Emergency services were called to Ings Lane, Bentley, at 10.15am, and were in attendance alongside police and an air accident investigation team.

The helicopter was a private flight that took off from Gamston airport near Retford shortly before it crashed.

An eyewitness who lives near the site of the crash told Yorkshire Live: “It’s just missed our house! We live on the very end house of the street next to the train tracks.

“I spoke to a few of my neighbours. I don’t think anyone actually saw it come down, but at first we all thought it was a train crash because we saw all of the emergency services firing past.”

DCI Magnay said: “We and our emergency services colleagues remain at the scene, and we have launched a full joint investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident in parallel with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch [AAIB].

“As part of our investigation, we’d ask for anyone with information to get in touch. If you were in the area at the time and saw the events unfold, please contact us. We are particularly keen to hear from those with footage of the helicopter leading up to the crash.”

A cordon has been set up around the crash site, and police are urging people to stay away from the area and to use other routes where possible.

An AAIB spokesperson said: “The AAIB has been made aware of an accident near Doncaster and has deployed a team to commence an investigation.”

In pictures taken at the scene, the helicopter is seen to be on its side in a field, with debris scattered around.

The Robinson R44 Raven II is a four-seater light aircraft. Retford Gamston airport said the helicopter was based at the airport and was operated by an onsite tenant.

A South Yorkshire Police spokesperson said: “Ings Lane is closed while we respond to this incident. Please avoid the area and plan an alternative route where possible. Further updates will be provided when they are available.”

The three-wheeled car plan that may be Reform’s most idiotic idea yet

Lee Anderson is a Reform UK MP and loudmouth who has made a reputation for himself by saying daft and offensive things. Only yesterday, he was trumpeting the fact that he’d spent a previous job at the Citizens Advice Bureau “gaming the benefits system” – just the sort of upright character you’d hope to represent the country.

But his latest – proposing that people with disabilities be leased special little “invalid carriages” as they once were in distant, less enlightened times – is a doozy. Did he really say that? Yes. Here’s the quote about the much-maligned Motability Scheme: “It’s an absolute scandal. I remember, back in the day, if you were on disability and you wanted a car from the state, it was a blue three-wheeler. Anybody remember those? What’s wrong with that? Let’s go back to that.”

For the record, Lee, here is why “bringing back” the NHS invalid carriage is a stupid idea. First, the original “Invacar”, short for “invalid carriage”, was primarily designed for ex-servicemen and women who’d been injured in the Second World War. They had one seat, were tiny, and were not suitable for the wider range of disabilities that we see today.

They were unsafe in a crash, and couldn’t be used for a long journey. They were limiting and stigmatising. They had three wheels, for tax reasons, and weren’t that stable in their handling. They were very small and couldn’t even be put on the road today as cars because they’d need to be larger, more substantial and more sophisticated to contain all the crumple zones, side bars and driver aids to prevent accidents (and risk of further disability).

And, presumably, as we also demand these days, four seats, a boot and motorised wheelchair access. They would thus be expensive to make in such small volumes for the UK market alone; no manufacturer would spend the money on tooling up for them, and they wouldn’t be suitable for everyone with a disability in any case.

The only vehicle that comes close to the old Invacar today is the Citroen Ami. This is a two-seater plastic tub with an electric motor, a top speed of 30mph and a range of about 40 miles on a single charge. It doesn’t cost much to run or buy, but it is so limited in its abilities that it’s not allowed to be marketed as a “car” but as a “quadricycle”, and it is, of course, impossible to adapt for people with every disability, including wheelchair users.

I can’t see it making sense for the government to buy lots of those and lease them to people for whom they are useless. Far better to have a properly assessed allowance that can be used flexibly for bus fares, taxis, to help run your own car or put towards renting one from the Motability lease scheme (which can use its financial muscle to get deals).

It should be no great surprise that Lee Anderson should come up with such a bad plan. His nickname, “30p Lee”, derives from his assertion that a healthy meal could be prepared for a tiny cost. He meant that the cost of living crisis was a myth. Which it wasn’t, and isn’t.

He was also suspended from the Conservatives by Rishi Sunak for claiming that Sadiq Khan, mayor of London, was controlled by “Islamists”, a phrase which is commonly taken to mean terrorists, an even more absurd idea. Anderson refused to apologise, and out he went, ending up in Nigel Farage’s gang. Now this paragon of compassion, the Mother Theresa of Ashfield, seems to have been made Reform UK’s spokesperson on social security (presumably Sarah Pochin got community relations).

Anyway, he’s unhappy that people with extreme disabilities can use their relatively modest mobility allowance to put towards the cost of leasing a smart modern vehicle – cars, yes, but also scooters, power chairs and wheelchair accessible vehicles (WAVs). Customers are not, contrary to the myths, ever “given” their vehicle; they only rent it, and the leasing deal may well mean some heavy additional payments of their own. You cannot, in any case, get a BMW or Mercedes limousine, a Bentley Continental or a Maserati GranTurismo on the Motability scheme. You can get one of the smaller BMW or Mercedes cars, but they’re not the expensive ones. They just have a “premium” badge. Peugeots, Toyotas and Vauxhalls are also popular.

Like Lee, I remember the Invacar, a common enough sight in the 1970s, well. It always seemed to me a strange three-wheeled contraption (and not to be confused with the much more capable Reliant models). It stopped production in 1976 when the then Labour government decided it was completely out of date, and a flexible allowance was a better idea. The Invacar is effectively banned now, but if you catch one at a classic car show or in a transport museum, you’ll always see it painted in the standard turquoise blue, ironically reminiscent of the official Reform UK colours.

I doubt Lee would be seen dead in one, though: up there at the helm of his BMW X5 SUV, subsidised by the taxpayer-funded parliamentary mileage allowance of 45p per mile, motoring is just fine for him. He’s looking down on the people with disabilities in every sense..

Why top tennis players are demanding more prize money from grand slams

The top-ranked American men’s tennis players, Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton, have joined Jannik Sinner in calling for more prize money from the four grand slam tournaments and criticising the lack of progress in discussions on player welfare.

Leading players from the men’s and women’s top 10 sent proposals to the grand slams in August, outlining a series of reforms following meetings at Roland Garros and Wimbledon over the summer. The players were not satisfied with the response to the letter, and a request for further meetings at the US Open was refused, with the matter of an ongoing legal case, filed separately by the Professional Tennis Players Association, cited as why talks could not be held.

The players are demanding a greater share of the revenues generated by the four grand slam tournaments at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open, arguing that the ratio of between 13 and 15 per cent is too low and should be closer to the 22 per cent received at events on the ATP and WTA Tour with equal prize money, such as Indian Wells and the Italian Open. Players are also asking the grand slams to start contributing to a player welfare fund, supporting pensions, healthcare and maternity leave, and for more consultation with tournaments around matters such as scheduling.

The proposals were initially raised in a first letter in March and Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff were among the players to meet with the grand slams at Roland Garros. However, the delay in talks since August has led to players voicing their frustration in public. Sinner told The Guardian on Tuesday that the lack of response from the grand slams was “disappointing”, with men’s No 4 Fritz and No 6 Shelton outlining to The Independent their support for the proposals and the “united” front the players have now turned to. More top stars are expected to speak out before the end of the season.

“I signed both letters because this is the first time ATP and WTA players have come together like this, and we need to stay united on issues that affect every professional player,” Shelton said. “We sent clear proposals to the grand slams in the summer, but they have not responded positively. I’m not sure why, because I think the proposals we submitted were very fair and realistic.

“When you look at prize money as a percentage of revenue, tennis players are at the bottom compared to other major sports. The NBA, NFL, and other leagues share around 50 per cent of revenue with players, while at the grand slams we’re talking about averages in the low teens. The biggest combined ATP and WTA events are over 20 per cent.

“I hope people realise that this isn’t about more money for those of us in the top 10. It’s about players having a voice, the slams contributing to pensions and healthcare, and increasing the prize money so all players get a fair share of the success of the tournaments.”

This season’s US Open offered the largest purse in grand slam history, with prize money rising by 21 per cent to £63.8m. Carlos Alcaraz and Sabalenka won around £3.8m each for lifting the men’s and women’s singles titles. Wimbledon’s total prize money increased by seven per cent, to £53.5m, with a record £3m for the singles champions, while the £66,000 for first-round losers saw a 10 per cent increase on the previous year. Wimbledon’s total prize money has doubled over the last decade, amid wider investment in improving facilities and services for players.

The players argue, however, that they should still receive a greater share. In 2024, Wimbledon’s prize fund of £50m was 12.3 per cent of the tournament’s total revenue of £406.5m, although the Championships also invests significant sums into supporting the wider grass-court season in the UK. The top stars also they want overall prize money to increase at all grand slam events in order to support lower-ranked players, who often rely on early round prize money at the biggest tournaments to cover their travel and expenses on tour throughout the season.

Additionally, there is a desire for the grand slams to start making annual contributions to player welfare funds. The ATP and WTA contribute $80m (£60m) annually to benefits covering pensions, maternity pay and health care, but the grand slams do not. Players also want more consultation on decisions affecting them, such as in-tournament scheduling and rule changes. The expansion of the Australian Open, Roland Garros and US Open to 15-day events is among the issues highlighted.

It comes amid ongoing concerns with the tennis calendar, which the grand slams are attempting to address as they push for a streamlined circuit of premium events in their own conversations with the ATP and WTA. Reducing player burnout due to the growing length and number of tournaments, a major talking point in recent weeks, and introducing a longer off-season to aid recovery are seen as priorities in those discussions. The players believe both conversations, regarding a greater share of grand slam revenues and future reforms of the tennis calendar, can progress simultaneously.

“Firstly, this isn’t just about prize money,” Fritz told The Independent. “It’s about players being consulted on the decisions which affect them and also how player welfare benefits – like pensions and healthcare – are funded.

“On the issue of prize money, I get it. Those of us who signed the letters are very well paid. But it’s not about top 10 players. I know as well as anyone how difficult it can be for those players because no one turns pro and goes straight into the top 10.

“Like a lot of sports, tennis – and the slams in particular – has seen huge revenue growth since we came out of lockdown. All we are asking is that prize money as a share of revenue at the slams is in line with what it is at the biggest ATP and WTA events.

“The issues around scheduling are well documented and just as important, but separate. I just hope we can get some progress with the slams because our proposals are very fair and doable.”

All four grand slam tournaments were contacted for comment and a spokesperson for the All England Club, which operates Wimbledon, said: “Our position continues to be that we are always open to having constructive discussions to achieve the best possible outcome for the future success of our sport and for the benefit of our players and fans. We have been in regular dialogue with the players and their representatives to hear their feedback and these conversations will continue.”

The Professional Tennis Players Association, an organisation set up by Novak Djokovic in 2021, filed a lawsuit against the tours in March, citing “anti-competitive practices” and a “blatant disregard for player welfare”. Djokovic, though, was not listed as one of the current players in the lawsuit, and the 24-time grand slam champion was also missing from the co-signatures of the letter sent to the grand slams in August.

The prison drugs crisis has reached ‘endemic’ levels, MPs warn

Safety in prisons is being “critically undermined” by a drugs crisis which has reached “endemic levels”, MPs have warned, as drone sightings soar by 1,140 per cent.

The cross-party justice committee has called for urgent action after finding almost four in 10 inmates admit it’s easy to get drugs, with many prisons having a “menu” of illicit substances on offer.

A major report published by the committee on Friday warned of the “unacceptable” human cost of the crisis, with 136 drug-related deaths in jails in England and Wales between December 2022 and 2024.

MPs heard that inmates in debt were being forced to test new drugs, sometimes for the entertainment of other prisoners, while staff becoming desensitised to daily suffering was a sign of a “failed system”.

The report found 11 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women said they had developed a problem with drugs, alcohol or non-prescription medication since arriving in prison.

The committee called for the Ministry of Justice to ramp up drug testing, including speeding up plans to introduce waste-water surveillance systems, and invest in electronic drone countermeasures known as “Sky Fence” systems.

It comes as Ministry of Justice figures show drone sightings in prisons have soared more than ten-fold in the past five years.

A total of 1,712 drones were spotted in the year to March 2025 – almost five sightings per day – up from just 138 in the same period to March 2021.

MPs fear drones pose an “extremely serious threat” to prison safety amid fears they could be used to deliver weapons, and potentially guns and explosives, as well as drugs and mobile phones. They also heard evidence about drones that could lift a “moderate-sized person”.

Despite the rising threat of drones, the committee found other traditional ways of getting drugs into prison via visits or throwovers were more common.

The committee called for the prison service to toughen up its vetting procedures for staff to bring them in line with other law enforcement agencies like the police.

Chair of the committee Andy Slaughter said: “The committee’s findings during this inquiry were sobering: put simply the drugs crisis across the prison system has reached ‘endemic’ levels, fostering a ‘dangerous culture of acceptance that must be broken’.

“Fuelled by inflated profits, the supply of drugs by organised criminal gangs into prisons is a constant pressure.

“This is compounded by failure to address and reduce the underlying demand for drugs and combat the alarming rise in the use of sophisticated drone technology.”

The government announced a £900,000 cash boost in July to tackle drones bringing drugs and weapons into prisons, on top of £40m already used to boost security such as by reinforcing windows and putting up netting.

Meanwhile, MPs heard that once a prisoner is exposed to the “menu of drugs” available in jails, the pressure of the established culture made it “exceptionally difficult to resist drug use”.

They also found drugs selling for up to 100 times their street value in the prison market, which is dominated by organised crime groups.

Strong synthetic opioids such as Nitazenes were highlighted as a “volatile threat”. The dangerous drugs, which can be hundreds of times more potent than morphine, have already been linked to 750 fatalities in the UK between 1 June 2023 and 28 August 2025 – including four at HMP Parc, in Wales, in 2024.

Mr Slaughter said: “Highly potent New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) are driving increases in violence, debt, and fatal overdoses, with the current testing regime failing to keep pace.”

It is also feared the new substances pose a wider danger to prison staff at risk of unwittingly inhaling drugs after four officers at one prison became ill.

MPs said that keeping prisoners locked up in their cells for 22 hours a day is driving them to use drugs to escape from boredom and they called on ministers to expand access to education, work programmes and other activities to curb the demand.

Mr Slaughter added: “Without urgent reform and investment that tackles the profitable supply networks, the discrepancies in treatment provision and purposeful activity, plus the poor physical condition of the estate, prisons will remain unstable, unsafe and incapable of gaining control over the drugs crisis.”

Former government drugs tsar Mike Trace, now CEO of the Forward Trust, urged ministers to “recognise the scale of the challenge and accept the justice committee’s recommendation to take decisive action to turn things around”.

Are you cruise curious? Today’s voyages are rewriting the rulebooks

In today’s travel market cruising reigns supreme. All across the world, savvy travellers have woken up to the fact that the old cliches no longer apply and upscale imaginative cruising is fast emerging as one of the key travel trends of the decade, rivalling land-based holidays in almost every respect.

On today’s ships, families are booking cabins  in their droves, drawn to the often incredible offerings for children from pre-schoolers through to teens; young couples are taking advantage of the increasingly sophisticated onboard cultural offerings, and there are even hipster cruises enticing the young with tattoo parlours, vinyl stores and craft beers.

For an in-depth look at this new era of cruising watch  World of Cruising TV, the third series of which airs this September and October  across Freeview, Virgin and Sky on channels including; ITV Quiz, True Crime and 5Star. As well as running competitions with cruise holidays as prizes and showcasing great itineraries and exclusive TV offers, the show sees host Dean Wilson talk to top travel experts of the sofa, including the Independent’s own Simon Calder, who offers his usual array of fascinating insights.  Mitchelin-starred chef and sommelier Marc Fosh appears in the kitchen, cooking up dishes guests can expect to discover onboard,  to show viewers how cruise dining now rivals the world’s best restaurants.

Because, make no mistake about it, there truly has been a food revolution at sea. On today’s most progressive lines, you’ll find Michelin-starred chef-curated menus and specialty restaurants offering high-end regional cuisine. Take, for example, Norwegian operator Havila Voyages, whose onboard fine-dining restaurant Hildring, sources incredible ingredients from local producers all over Norway – lamb from Dovrefjell and king crab from Varanger – to create its signature tasting menu. Other operators offer incredible variety, like Marella Cruises, which on its Marella Discovery has an astonishing range of specialist outlets from a surf & turf steakhouse to a sushi bars well as a brand-new gastropub called Picadilly’s, which offers British classics with a twist.

In terms of itineraries , there’s also been a sea change in quality. Contemporary cruise operators have seen the value in specialisation with operators like Riviera Travel offering trips like their The Blue Danube River Cruise, which features a guided tour of Dürnstein and a visit to Benedictine Melk Abbey.

Across the different operators there is a huge range of options with feelgood shows and Broadway hits on some lines, floating EDM music festivals on others. But these days, there are also subtler, more cultured options. Atlas Ocean Voyages operates three expedition-style yachts, all of which host fewer than 200 guests guaranteeing an intimate atmosphere. As you travel from one fascinating destination to another on their ships, you can attend enriching lectures on the sites you’re visiting delivered by experts in their field from museum curators to Fellows of the Geological Society of London.

The ships themselves are constantly evolving. In our side bar, we look at two of the standout launches of 2025 – Princess Cruises’ Star Princess and Virgin Voyages’ Brilliant Lady – both of which offer incredible levels of onboard luxury on proper bucket list itineraries.

Across the operators, options range from long lazy sails through the sun-kissed Caribbean and European river cruises rich in history, to thrilling adventures on the edge of the Arctic Circle. The only question now is: where will you go?

For a deeper dive into the cruise revolution and why you should make your next adventure a cruise adventure, don’t miss the new series of World of Cruising TV, featuring Marella Cruises, Virgin Voyages, Princess Cruises, Riviera Travel, Atlas Ocean Voyages and Havila Voyages. VisitWorld of Cruising TVto find where to watch series three. Offers ends 31 October2025.

Kremlin responds to Trump’s nuclear comment after Russian submarine test

Moscow has said that if the US resume nuclear weapons testing it will do so too, sparking fears of a renewed arms race.

The remarks by a Kremlin official on Thursday came after Donald Trump said he had ordered the US military to resume testing “immediately”.

Trump made the announcement after Vladimir Putin announced a successful test of a Poseidon nuclear-powered submarine torpedo which experts have warned is capable of causing a “radioactive tsunami”. The Russian president said the test of the weapon had been a “great success”, in a move that came days after Trump described Moscow’s test of a nuclear missile as a mistake.

There are few confirmed details about the Poseidon in the public domain but experts say it is capable of triggering radioactive ocean swells to render coastal cities uninhabitable, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Putin last week held a nuclear launch drill and on Sunday announced that Russia has successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, a nuclear-capable weapon Moscow says can pierce any defence shield.

The big mistake people make when walking 10,000 steps per day

Walking 10,000 steps a day is no bad thing, but it isn’t the health and fitness panacea it’s often made out to be either.

The body doesn’t have an in-built pedometer which releases untold benefits when you hit five figures for the day. Instead, this daily target is simply a way to encourage you to move more – that’s where the true magic lies.

Walking’s appeal lies largely in its accessibility; it’s low impact, most people can do it and you don’t need any specialist equipment. Researchers from University of Sydney (Australia) and Universidad Europea (Spain) analysed data from 33,560 adults aged 40–79 who generally walked less than 8,000 steps a day. They found those who walked in uninterrupted stretches of 10–15 minutes or more had significantly lower risks of cardiovascular events (heart attack or stroke) and death compared with those whose walks were mostly under 5 minutes.

The study suggests it’s not just how many steps you take, but how you take them (duration of each walk) that matters. In a world where time is a hot commodity, being able to squeeze some more movement into your day this way is an appealing prospect. But having walking as your only source of exercise can leave holes in your health and fitness.

For this reason, walking 5,000 steps while doing a few weekly strength training sessions or Pilates classes will likely deliver a more robust body than trekking 10K steps per day. Likewise, a keen cyclist might walk a relatively small amount, but still have a healthier heart and lungs than someone who is a slave to their step count.

Below is expert advice to help you design a more well-rounded, yet still time-efficient, weekly exercise plan to benefit as many areas of your health as possible.

Read more: A personal trainer set out to learn everything he could about fat loss – this was his most important finding

Walking is the most accessible movement option, and something most of us have to do in our day-to-day life anyway. As such, it should represent most of your weekly movement – the base of the pyramid, if you will.

Accumulating a decent volume of daily walking can offer impressive benefits, from improved heart health and mobility to weight management and a more robust body. Larger volumes of walking have also been linked to reduced incidences of lower back pain – leading spine expert Dr Stuart McGill previously described walking as “a non-negotiable activity for spine health”.

But how much should you be walking?

As you probably know by now, the 10,000 steps per day goal comes from a marketing pain for a pedometer in Japan called the Manpo Kei – roughly translated as the “10,000 steps metre”. This is a nice, round number, but lacks scientific rationale.

Walking 10,000 steps per day also represents a 90-minute commitment – time many people struggle to spare. The good news is that, “if we focus on the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, most of the benefits are seen at around 7,000 steps per day”, according to 2023 research from the University of Granada. Separate studies have also associated much lower walking totals with significant health benefits.

Case in point: Recent research published by the European Society of Cardiology found that, compared to a daily step count of 2,300 steps, every extra 1,000 steps was linked to “a 22 per cent reduction in heart failure, 9 per cent reduction in risk of heart attack and 24 per cent reduction in risk of stroke”.

The University of Granada study goes on to add that “the more steps you take, the better, and there is no excessive number of steps that has been proven to be harmful to health”. But many people are pressed for time, and after a point there will be diminishing returns. For these reasons, a goal of 7,000, rising to 9,000, “is a sensible health goal for most people”.

Alternatively, if you struggle to hit this figure, just check your current average daily step count on your phone and aim to increase it by 10 per cent each week until you reach 7,000. Or you could try using the methods below for a more efficient health boost through walking.

Read more: What you are getting wrong about high protein products – and the ones which are better than you think

If you don’t have time to walk several thousand steps each day, you can enjoy bonus health perks by improving the quality, not quantity, of your activity levels, according to research from the University of Sydney.

“We focussed on vigorous-intensity physical activity in our research programme because it is by far the most time-efficient form [of activity for achieving various health benefits],” says lead researcher Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis says.

“It is the ‘physiological language’ the body best understands – the extra effort acts as a signal for the body to make adaptations and improvements in, say, how the heart functions or how the body absorbs and transports oxygen to the muscles. For these beneficial health adaptations to happen, the body needs to be pushed regularly, even if it is for a short period of time under one minute.”

The study concluded that significant health benefits can be seen from five to 10 daily 60-second bouts of vigorous-intensity activity – recognisable by a faster breathing rate and an inability to say more than a few words without pausing for breath. This intensity was achieved through incidental daily activities such as climbing the stairs, carrying shopping, playing with your children and even vigorous gardening.

“This seems to be associated with between 30 and 50 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular conditions, cancer and mortality,” Professor Stamatakis adds.

There are several variables you can tweak to increase the intensity of walking; load, conditions and pace. You could add load to your walk by carrying a weighted backpack or rucking, climbing stairs or a steep hill, or increasing your pace to a fast walk or run. Vigorous-intensity activity will also look very different for different people depending on individual factors such as their fitness level, so it pays to play around and find what works for you.

Beyond this, if you can consciously up the pace during incidental daily walks, such as a pop to the shops or journey from your car to the office, you may also see increased health benefits, particularly if you currently lead a sedentary lifestyle.

“The research in this area suggests that most of the benefits [from walking] accumulate at a moderate or higher intensity,” explains Dr Elroy Aguiar, an associate professor of exercise science at The University of Alabama.

During moderate-intensity exercise, your breathing rate is raised, but you can still hold a conversation – this usually equates to a cadence of roughly 110 steps per minute.

Read more: From back pain to heart health – Experts reveal how to counter the negative effects of too much sitting down

Some people squeeze all of their daily movement into an hour of their day, then sit at a desk and lead a sedentary lifestyle for the remainder. Exercise in any form is to be encouraged – something is always better than nothing – but there are drawbacks to this approach.

“Interestingly, data supports the importance of low-intensity activity throughout the day,” says Emily Capodilupo, senior vice president of research, algorithms and data at wearable giant WHOOP. “A lot of that is believed to be mediated by the lymphatic pathway.”

The lymphatic system transports lymph fluid – a liquid that carries nutrients to, and clears harmful substances from, your cells and tissues – through the body. However, unlike blood, it doesn’t have an active pumping system like the heart, and instead relies on the contracting of nearby muscles to funnel it onward. This is triggered by our movements.

“It’s like the sewer system of your body,” Capodilupo explains. “If you don’t contract all of your muscles by moving, you don’t circulate this stuff and it stagnates. You quite literally get stagnating wastewater in the body.”

For this reason, she prescribes regular movement throughout the day – not just during dedicated exercise sessions.

This could mean using a standing desk or walking treadmill at work, performing a few bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges and press-ups every now and then to break up longer sedentary periods, doing a couple of stretches or keeping a kettlebell under your desk – ”At WHOOP HQ, swinging a kettlebell is totally normal, but in some office settings that might be considered eccentric”.

Alternatively, on the Andrew Huberman podcast, spine expert Dr Stuart McGill suggests office workers use an adjustable height desk and employ a formula of 20 minutes of sitting, 30 minutes of standing and 10 minutes of walking each hour.

The common denominator here is the importance of moving your entire body regularly, and avoiding staying in any one posture for a prolonged period of time. Aim to change posture and move at least once every hour, taking inspiration from the routines below.

Read more: Do these five things daily for 90 days to see a ‘profound difference’ in your health, fitness and energy levels

Exercising isn’t normal. Or rather, it didn’t used to be – it was unlikely your ancestors pencilled in a 10K or gym session around their physically-demanding livelihoods.

“There is no doubt that structured exercise is extremely powerful for preventing, managing and in some conditions reversing diseases, but it is an artificial behaviour,” Professor Stamatakis tells me. “It is an adaptation. Our civilisation, for the sake of convenience, speed and other associated reasons, has removed the need to be physically active in day to day life, and our bodies pay a price for that.”

Exercise is the remedy to this. Moving more, through walking, is a great place to start; walking faster on occasion is an excellent next step; but at some point our bodies need a more direct stimulus to trigger positive physiological changes.

This is because the body adheres to the SAID principle, which stands for specific adaptations to imposed demands. Simply: if fuelled and rested adequately, it adapts to become more efficient at the things we consistently ask it to do.

If you lift progressively heavier weights, you will become stronger; if you run further or faster each week, your heart and lungs will become more efficient at delivering fuel to the working muscles.

“Walking 10,000 steps a day is a good starting point, but ideally we want people to progress [from here] and start to engage in exercise beyond just walking, such as moving on to other forms of moderate-vigorous exercise that elevate your heart rate and oxygen consumption,” says Dr Aguiar.

Personal trainer and longevity specialist Ollie Thompson recommends trying to accumulate 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise – any cyclical activity that raises the heart rate – per week, as per World Health Organisation and NHS guidance.

Of this, 80 per cent can be performed at lower intensities – think walking and similar moderate-intensity activities. The remaining 20 per cent should challenge you with higher intensities.

“This combination builds both a wide aerobic base and a high aerobic peak – known as VO2 max – which is strongly associated with better health, longevity and reduced all-cause mortality,” Thompson says.

He recommends using interval training to achieve this – there are three sample sessions below which all take 30 minutes or less. They can be performed with walking, running, skipping, full-body exercises like burpees or on an exercise machine of your choice (such as an exercise bike or rowing machine) for a lower impact alternative.

Read more: Doctor of strength training shares a 40-minute weekly dumbbell workout plan for building strength and mobility

Walking will build strength in your legs and core if you are new to exercise. However, there will soon come a time where dedicated strength training is needed to see further fitness improvements – and there are plenty of them on the table.

Not only does strength training build strength and muscle, countering age-related losses in these areas, but it also increases tissue tolerance in your tendons, ligaments and bones, leaving you with healthier joints that are less susceptible to injury. Done correctly, it can have a significant positive impact on your physical capacity, mobility, coordination, stability, body composition and metabolic health too. In short, it can help you live life better.

“Muscle tissue is metabolically important in so many ways that I think are under appreciated,” says Capodilupo. “It’s one of the greatest predictors of your ability to live independently in older age. After the age of about 30, you lose one per cent of muscle mass every year unless you intervene to prevent that.

“Your muscle tissue can also absorb sugar, so every pound of muscle mass that you gain can buffer against more sugar,” she adds.

“[…] If we don’t have a lot of muscle mass, we’re forced to only use insulin [to regulate blood sugar] – that’s when you can get an over reliance on that part of the system. That fatigues over time, leading to insulin insensitivity and eventually metabolic dysfunction and type 2 diabetes.”

Strength training does not necessarily mean lifting weights. The phrase encompasses any activity where you are repeatedly contracting your muscles to overcome resistance, whether that’s using dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands or bodyweight exercises – your body doesn’t know the difference, it just understands the need to generate force.

For beginners in particular, two full-body workouts per week will deliver the benefits listed above, so long as you use appropriate weights. A full-body workout means working the muscles in your chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core – something you can do in 20 minutes with just four moves if you choose your exercises smartly.

“When you’re a novice, you can go into the gym and do a pushing exercise for your upper body, a pulling exercise for your upper body, something like a squat or lunge for the front of your legs, something like a deadlift for the back of your legs, and then you can walk out after four exercises having worked every major muscle group,” says seasoned strength and conditioning coach Danny Matranga.

“[…] If time is of the utmost importance and you want the most gains from the least number of trips to the gym, total body programmes are very effective.”

The other important fixture to factor into your strength training sessions is progression. The body follows the SAID principle, so to see continued results you need to ask it to do gradually more demanding tasks, in line with your increasing strength and fitness levels.

This might mean performing one more set of an exercise than you did the week before, one more repetition per set, or very gradually increasing the weight you are lifting from session to session. As long as your form is good and the set feels challenging, it will be effective.

If you want to introduce strength training into your routine, you can use the dumbbell workout and exercise demonstrations in the video above, or make your own dumbbell workout using the formula below.

Read more: From exercising for fat loss to building muscle in a calorie deficit – doctor of sport science corrects three fitness myths

“The body is always trying to help us and be more efficient in what we ask it to do,” says Ash Grossmann, a human movement expert and founder of The Training Stimulus.

“If we are sitting behind a computer for eight, 10, 12 or 14 hours per day in a flexed hip position, it thinks that holding that hip flexed is saving us energy and therefore doing us a favour. Tight hip flexors are actually an adaptive change to the way the muscles sit.”

In other words, the body operates on a rough “use it or lose it” basis. If we do an activity regularly, the body will adapt to make it easier for us; if we rarely do a movement, we might lose access to it.

“Varied movement is important,” Grossmann continues. “We want to maintain as many movement options as possible, so that means moving as many joints as possible in as many directions as possible. Doing things like side bends and rotations; they all contribute to a body that feels limber and loose.”

New positions, or those you might not have accessed for a while such as twisting and bending, should be reintroduced gradually – you would not squat 200kg on your first day in the gym, so don’t go straight into a demanding yoga or Pilates routine. However, including varied movements in your week where possible, whether through sport, strength training, yoga, Pilates or other practices, is a good way to maintain freedom of movement.

Read more: Everyone is talking about calisthenics – here’s a 4-week strength training plan (no gym membership required)

If you can stick to the recommendations above each week, chances are you will be fitter than most people. Even if you fall short of the daily step goal and simply move as and when the opportunity arises, the other activities will stand you in good stead while taking up roughly an hour of your week. As far as bang for your buck is concerned, I’d say that’s pretty good.

Read more: How to start weight training – with this simple formula for strength and longevity