Rosie Garthwaite - How to Avoid Being Killed in a War Zone

All of the following exercises can be done in the privacy of a small room – on the space of a towel in fact – preferably on a carpeted floor so that you don’t get a bruised bottom.

Unless stated otherwise, you should aim for about 10 repetitions of each exercise. Just be careful – if it hurts, stop.

Keep breathing slowly and evenly during each exercise, and try to exhale whenever you lift a leg or move your body away from the floor in any way. However, with lunges and press-ups you should exhale as you move towards the floor.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of keeping your back healthy when you spend days or weeks on end hunched over a computer or stuck in a tiny hotel room watching TV. However, being confined is no excuse for not exercising, as Monique Nagelkerke reminded me: ‘Watch the movie In the Name of the Father and pay close attention to what Daniel Day-Lewis does when locked up in a cell for years. He got a great six-pack. You can do that, but you will need to rearrange the furniture, though!’

Lie on the ground and raise one leg at right angles to the body. The aim is to keep your body still as you make circles with one leg, then the other. The size of the circle is determined by what you can do while keeping the rest of your body anchored to the ground. I can do only grapefruit-sized circles, but you can go as large as you like provided you aren’t rocking one way and another. Reverse the circles after 10 reps.

This is a great one to do in the morning while you are still warm from bed – a good soft stretch for your lower back. Lie on your back and keep your neck lifted, then bend one knee and pull it towards you, hugging it to your body. Leave the other leg suspended a few inches off the ground. Then switch sides. The body should be still, anchored and even as you move through the exercise. Start slowly holding the leg for a couple of seconds, but then fall to whatever your natural rhythm might be as long as your core is still held tight. It is a slow exercise, though – you are not aiming to build up a sweat.

A good stretch for highly strung hamstrings, this is the same as the single leg stretch but with two straight legs. Hold your leg just below the knee on your thigh as you look at your leg. Keep it straight and pull it close until it’s at a right angle to your body. Don’t hold on too tight. It is an exercise for your core, not your arms. Move in a natural rhythm, changing legs after 10 reps. But again, don’t aim to go fast. Your body should not wobble. This is the most effective way of doing the exercise.

Proceed even more slowly with this one. Support your head with the tips of your fingers. Slowly, slowly, keeping your lower torso anchored to the ground, raise your upper back and touch your right elbow to your left knee. The movement is a lifted twist, not a lift. Do the same with the left elbow and right knee. Follow the twisting movement with your eyes, first to the left, then to the right. The straight leg should be active – the muscles kept tight to keep you from rocking from one hip to another.

With legs tight together and as straight up in the air as possible, make slow, even circles, as though stirring a cocktail glass. Keep the torso still, circling only as far as you can without moving it. Aim to do beach ball-sized circles.

Lie on the floor with your stomach zipped up and your arms by your sides. With your head and shoulders raised slightly, raise your legs at right angles to your body, then lower them as far as you can without losing control of the core. Mine stay straight up in the air even though I have been doing this exercise for years. If it hurts like this, bend your legs.

Hold this position, breathing slowly, and start pumping your arms like a seal out of water. They should be moving about 20 cm up and down. Count to 50 while doing this, and if you are still feeling that your stomach muscles are properly engaged, go all the way to 100… hence the name of the exercise.

Gradually lowering your legs will make this exercise harder, but in the end it will make your muscles stronger. When lowering your legs, make sure your back doesn’t come away from the ground.

Sit with your legs apart, heels pushed out: they are your new anchor. With arms straight out to your sides, twist your body around to touch the right hand as near to your left toe as possible. Don’t bounce or push too far – go just as far as is comfortable. Now do the other side. Keep those stomach muscles strong and engaged.

This is the same as the rag doll, but without leaning down. You can actually feel air being forced out of your lungs as you twist around with a strong lower back and no movement in your anchored hips and legs.

This is as simple as it looks. The only important thing to remember is that your stomach needs to be lifted off the floor, supporting your lower back. If you let it drop, you will hurt your back. Stick to 10 reps for one leg, then move to the other. Relax your shoulders away from your ears.

Avoid this one if you have a bad back, wrists or knees. Otherwise, lie on your back with your knees up, hip-width apart. Lift your bum off the mat and support your hips with your arms, straight up and directly under each side. If this feels like you are pushing yourself up, stop immediately. If it feels comfortable, imagine you are being held up by a swing under your bum. That swing should be still as you lift first one leg, then the other. Again, go only as far as you can without moving that swing. Keep those stomach muscles strong.

Imagine you are a model lying on a car bonnet, casually leaning on your elbow: if you move your torso, you will fall off. Your top arm positioned out in front of you acts as a balance rather than a support. The torso remains still as you perform a series of kicks. Start small with your movements until you can go big without collapsing the top half of your body. Once you have the body sorted, try the following: