Russell Kane opens up about maximising his health and feeling ‘vital’ and ‘young’

Virgin Radio

28 Jun 2024, 13:27

Comedy star Russell Kane joins the latest Spooning podcast with Mark Wogan, during which speaks about how you can improve your “healthspan”. 

He also chats about the cost of isolating yourself and his love of spice, while the son of the late Sir Terry Wogan and owner of Homeslice Pizza sees if he can change his mind on desserts.

On the subject of ageing and health, the stand-up says: “‘Healthspan’ is a word that people don't use yet properly. People use ‘lifespan’ because they're so hung up on how long we could live. What is the point of living to 100 if it's frail or infirm or not happy? 

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“So, it's more about my life I want to live, maximising the percentage of years I'm allocated. Anyone can get unlucky, anyone can get hit by a car, cancer, anything could happen. So you just want the years that you get, the percentage of them to feel vital and to feel young, whatever that means.” 

He continues: “It's just simply not inevitable. Otherwise, all human beings would finish their life like that. So yes, there's bad luck, yes, you can be born with all these conditions. I'm not dismissing any of that. I'm just saying you can maximise your health. The free ones are the best.”

Elaborating, the funnyman tells Mark: “Diet and exercise, the ones no one ever wants to talk about… sleep and stress; harder to manage when you're busy or you're a parent or you're economically challenged, but you really should look at your sleep. 

“Six-and-a-half hours actually unconscious is the minimum you want to be getting, normally, which means eight hours in the sack to get six-and-a-half hours unconscious, and stress management can't change the crap that's happening to you, but you can practise your response to the crap.”

Russell, who recently launched supplement JOLT with his wife Lindsey, adds: “Manage those, then, by all means, evidence-based supplementation on top will supercharge whatever you're doing.”

Speaking more about paying attention to his healthspan, he tells Mark: I've been doing this for 10 or 15 years out of economic necessity. I have a stand-up act which is like Lee Evans on steroids. And I noticed I was getting to 30, 35, starting to get tired in the middle of the set, not attractive to an audience! 

Saying, “I was gonna have to change my act,” he adds: “You don't want to be doing an echo version of yourself at half-pace.” 

Watch the full chat between Mark and Russell here:

Russell also Chris Evans Breakfast Show with webuyanycar for a wide-ranging chat this week. Read what he had to say about why he won’t be appearing on Strictly anytime soon, and about why he doesn’t want to break America.

Read Mark Wogan told Chris Evans Breakfast about why he blindfolds guests on his Spooning podcast here. 

Previous Spooning guests include Claudia Winkleman, Helen Skelton, Gaby Roslin, Beverley Knight, Jimmy Carr, Jason Fox, Alfie Boe, the Appleton sisters, The Hairy Bikers, James Martin, Joe Wicks, Eddie Izzard and Virgin Radio’s own Ryan Tubridy.

Spooning is out wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes are released every Thursday. Watch along via @virginradiouk on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Tiktok.