It’s mid-afternoon and I’m slogging my way through a scary backlog of emails in my home office. Suddenly, the alarm bleeps on my phone. Stepping away from the desk, I drop down to crank out a set of 30 push-ups followed by 20 deep squats before returning to my chair.

All week, I’ve been following this protocol on the hour, every hour throughout my working day. That’s because I’ve been told these fairly painless, two-minute interludes could help me live longer and even stop my middle-aged body turning into blancmange.