THERE is no mystery to improving health and fitness.

If you want to get in shape for summer, it's as simple as moving more and eating less.

That's the message from former Olympic athlete Brian Whittle, who has coached sports teams and has now devised a straightforward training schedule to tone up, whatever your fitness level.

Whittle, 51, won the gold medal in the 4 x 400 metres relay at both the 1986 European Athletics Championships and 1994 European Athletics Championships, as well as competing at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. It was when he was ran the third leg of the 1986 European Championships final in one shoe - and won - that he famously hit the headlines.

"I got into athletics through school sports. I used to do quite well at sprinting. I had an aptitude for sport. I was naturally quite quick, and I was fastest in my class. At secondary school I never really won the sprints, there were a couple of guys quicker than me," he remembers of growing up in Troon.

"I was good at the high jump and won the Scottish schools high jump, I was actually an international high jumper first. It wasn't until later on, probably in my late teens, that my strength grew into my body frame and I started to take leaps and bounds forward. I didn't win races through my teens. I wasn't one of those guys who rocked up and won everything. I had to work really hard at it."

The first major medal Whittle won was when he lost his shoe running in the 1986 European Championships 4 x 400 metres in Stuttgart. He was only put in the team 45 minutes before the race and despite team-mate Kriss Akabusi accidentally standing on Whittle's shoe, he ran on and smashed through the finish line.

Whittle competed in three Commonwealth Games as well as an Olympics, running at four different distances.

"I loved running for my country. I ran for Great Britain 45 times. To stand on the podium with the Scottish vest on was something a little bit special," says the Olympian who now lives in East Kilbride.

After retiring in 1996, Whittle went on to coach Kilmarnock Rugby Club, Kilmarnock Football Club, Ayr United Football Club as well as hockey and basketball teams and athletics competitors. He has also coached his two eldest daughters Carly, 29, who is an international netball player and district hockey player, and Rachel, 20, who when she was a runner won 14 national titles and medals at British level. Youngest daughter Emma, seven, is already a keen competitor at hockey, gymnastics and skating.

Now involved in digital media, he has just launched Demon Sport, a social media platform to develop grassroots and community sport.

"If people want to start looking to improve health and fitness it's a really simple thing, you've got to move about more and eat less. People look at exercise and then do fad diets when what we should actually be looking at is lifestyle," he says.

"It's about eating a healthy diet, it's not about crash or fad dieting, it's about creating a lifestyle that includes activity, good eating, good sleep patterns and the mental health. Creating a lifestyle that allows all of that activity, family time and time for you, that's fundamentally important."

Watch Brian's exercise videos here

Whittle advises adding variety to your exercise regime. He runs and cycles as well as training in the gym and sometimes joining classes.

"I have a rule that whatever activity I do, it is not allowed to take more than one hour a day. If I'm on my bike I will batter for an hour and I'm finished. If I'm in the gym I've got a little routine I like to do, when I finish that I'll start doing some other supplementary stuff but as soon as the clock says one hour I'm out," he says.

"For me time-wise running is the easiest: pull your kit on, you're straight out the front door, run, come back, have a quick shower, and it's done and dusted in 45 minutes."

He says variety is important if you want to maintain interest and admits that he sometimes drops into classes at his own gym.

"I sometimes go to boxercise, which kills me. It is the most brutal class I have ever done. I quite like it when I can walk into a class, switch off and somebody else tells me what exercise to do. You don't have to think about it," he says.

For someone in their 40s, for example, who hasn't exercised a lot in the past and is not at a base level of fitness, Whittle advises setting up a simple weekly routine, doing some kind of activity for an hour, four times a week. Depending on your level of fitness that could be as basic as going for a brisk walk.

He suggests moving on to do a couple of aerobic sessions and a couple of impact sessions. If the gym is your thing, go to a class or head outdoors and go cycling. That means half of the sessions should be aerobic type workout - a run or a combination of walking and jogging - and the rest an all-body workout.

Just remember before going out running to ensure take expert advice on wearing the correct footwear.

"It's about losing weight and toning up. You could lose all the weight you like and still look as if you are carrying excess weight because you're not toned. You can do that in four sessions a week," he says. "Six weeks, four days a week is 24 sessions. That will make a serious dent in your fitness level if you're coming from a very basic starting point."

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