I tried Helen Mirren’s 12-minute-a-day workout and this is what happened

Dame Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, who has spoken about following the Canadian Air Force workout Credit: Reuters

I hope I look as good as Helen Mirren does when I get to her age, I really do.  The 73-year-old, currently starring as the Russian monarch Catherine The Great on Sky Atlantic, can even still touch her toes with her hands fully flat on the floor, as she demonstrated on Good Morning Britain last year. And, well, we've all seen that red bikini picture. 

So, reluctantly, I agreed to commit to the 12-minute daily workout that she's spoken about glowingly in the past. 

The plan was designed to improve the fitness of recruits for the Royal Canadian Air Force, and can be carried out in even the smallest of spaces, with no warm up or equipment required. Prince Philip and Prince Charles are also fans, and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are said to have started doing the regime too.

Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren Credit: Jason Fraser

It’s less of a weight loss regime than a tool to help you rediscover the joy of movement after becoming sedentary in that way you do when you work in an office, or never quite manage to get to the gym. Created by Dr. Bill Orban in the 1950s, it involves basic exercises suitable for any fitness level so the best thing about it (besides the fact it takes up roughly the same amount of time as it takes to empty the dishwasher) is that it works for anyone at any age, anywhere, at any time. 

“It is the exercise I have done off and on my whole life,” Mirren has said in the past. “It just very gently gets you fit. Two weeks of doing it and you think: ‘Yeah, I could go to the gym now.’”

Mirren has been doing it since the 1960s, so by my reckoning, if I start now, aged 27, I may look as good in a bikini as she does in 40 or so years time.

Before beginning my two-week stint, I had been living an increasingly sedentary lifestyle, hunched over my computer and cooped up on the Tube – not dissimilar, I suppose, to an Air Force pilot confined to a cockpit.

But still, I scoffed at first. Arm circles? Too easy. Lateral bends? Sure. A plank? No problem. Jogging on the spot? Hopping on one leg? Simple.

Royal Canadian Air Force Workout
The Telegraph's Madeleine Howell tried out the XBX workout plan for two weeks, and has kept it up periodically since Credit: Geoff Pugh

But to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d been dreading the onslaught of January, all those smug fitness fanatics with their selfies and New Year resolutions, harping on about Dry January. But doing just 12 minutes a day for two weeks has made me feel fitter than ever. 

Mirren admits that she hasn’t maintained a fitness regime consistently throughout her life (good news for us mere mortals), but says she always kicks off a renewed bout of good health with this.

“If I decide, it’s time Helen, you’ve got to start again – I always start with the Air Force exercises. It absolutely works,” she told Kate Garraway in an interview. “Do it five times a week for two weeks and you’ll feel the difference.”

On its own, the 12 minutes doesn’t give me quite enough of an endorphin boost – but now that it’s in my repertoire I’ve enjoyed incorporating it into other activities: as a warm-up or as an extra to do when I get home after going for a jog. And I prefer doing it to music, rather than in silence, but it can be done either way.

I prefer doing 12 minutes in the morning ready for the day ahead, but I’ve occasionally managed to rouse myself from the sofa to do it in front of the TV after work.  I get bored easily, so I’ve added variations over time: using two legs instead of one for the leg raising exercise, and then introducing a small dumbbell between my feet.

Even a little exercise makes me feel better than absolutely none, a habit I'd slipped into before the new year. And the sense of achievement at completing such a seemingly small feat plays tricks on the lazy voice in my head, the one that can't be bothered and feels like it has a mountain to climb.

After all, if I can be proactive enough to do 12-minutes a day, what’s to stop me from doing more? It worked wonders for my confidence and my lifelong foe, “gymhibition” – that irrational, unhelpful fear of looking stupid while working out.

As Helen Mirren said herself: “It has nothing to do with clothing or makeup. Just put your shoulders back and chin up, and face the world with pride.”

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