As an 80-year-old, I can testify that three years of daily step exercises, as advised by a physio, builds leg muscles, taking pressure off the knees while aiding cardiovascular health (Embrace the climb! How stairs can super-charge your fitness in seconds, 10 October). Will youths in cars, or on electric bikes and scooters, be able to walk upstairs, let alone run, when they’re my age?
Rowan Roenisch
Leicester
• One would have thought that Arnold Schwarzenegger would know his arse from his elbow, or his calf from his hamstrings. “Calves are basically the biceps of the legs,” he proclaims (Arnold Schwarzenegger’s seven big life lessons, 9 October). The biceps are the elbow flexors, and are equivalent to the “hamstrings” of the legs, which primarily flex the knee.
Noel Cameron
Emeritus professor of human biology, Loughborough University
• Re the surge in patients going to A&E for minor ailments (Report, 10 October), perhaps having a senior doctor at the front desk with the clinical knowledge and authority to send people away would limit the numbers actually accessing A&E services.
Michael Barlow
Manchester
• Comfrey fertiliser doesn’t have to smell – just don’t add water (Fall at your feet: five easy and affordable autumn gardening tasks, 6 October). Put the leaves in a bucket, weigh down with a brick, leave for three to four weeks, and you’ll have a rich comfrey liquid that hardly smells.
Sue Stephenson
Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire
• I was once told that for an activity to qualify as a sport (Letters, 10 October) the participant had to wear special shoes. So shooting, which can be done in brogues or wellingtons, is a pastime, not a sport.
Ian Maynard
Sheffield
• We too had regulation green school knickers for winter (Letters, 10 October), plus voluminous bloomers for summer. A letter to parents once stated: “Be sure your daughters are wearing their summer knickers this week as we have builders on scaffolding.”
Trish Durrant
Bristol
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