Doctors' Notes: Exercise
What's Up Docs?
BBC
4.4 • 659 Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris and Xand continue their conversation about exercise with Dr Jo Blodgett, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health at University College in London. She’s a life-course epidemiologist whose work focuses on how movement across the whole 24-hour day shapes population health.
They talk to Jo about her own sporting background as a semi-professional national league footballer, the impact of the menstrual cycle on sporting performance and the best way to approach exercise as we age, particularly for women approaching or experiencing the menopause.
If you’d like to share your thoughts on this or any other topic covered on the podcast, you email us at whatsupdocs@bbc.co.uk or Whatsapp on 08000 665 123.
Presenters: Drs Chris and Xand van Tulleken Guest: Dr Jo Blodgett Researcher: Samara Linton Producer: Faye Lyons White Social Media Producer: Leon Gower Executive Producer: Rami Tzabar Editor: Jo Rowntree Tech Lead: Reuben Huxtable Digital Lead: Richard Berry Composer: Phoebe McFarlane Sound Design: Melvin Rickarby
At the BBC: Assistant Commissioner: Greg Smith Commissioning Editor: Rhian Roberts
A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 4.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommashranganathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, |
| 0:27.9 | it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, |
| 0:33.4 | listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.6 | Hello, welcome to Doctor's Notes with me, Dr Chris. |
| 0:42.5 | And me, Dr. Zand van Tulligan. |
| 0:44.9 | And this is a bit of bonus extra content. |
| 0:47.8 | We dive deeper into the topic we've just been discussing in our BBC Radio 4 podcast, What's Up Docs. |
| 0:54.4 | We've just finished the most amazing interview with Dr Joe Blodgett, who is a senior |
| 0:59.8 | research fellow at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health at University College London. |
| 1:04.8 | And we talked about lots of things in the main episode. |
| 1:08.4 | I loved the idea that you are an active couch potato, that there are a great |
| 1:12.7 | many people who are sort of fit in the sense they go to the gym, but they then spend the rest |
| 1:17.0 | of the week lounging around, and it's that being sedentary is also harmful. But Joe then also |
| 1:23.1 | reframe this idea of 24-hour movement. Rather than thinking of exercise as a sort of sacred thing |
| 1:30.0 | you go and do separately to the rest of your life, we all should be thinking about our movement |
| 1:34.7 | over a 24-hour period in totality. And I thought that was incredibly useful. I think it was a very |
| 1:39.9 | helpful episode for everybody, whether you are an exerciser or not, I think there was loads of |
| 1:45.0 | wisdom in there. In doctor's notes, we're going to dig more into exercise in specific situations. |
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