Karl Henry is a familiar sight walking around the fields close to his home near Clonakilty, Co Cork.
But last summer he wasn’t able to make it up a flight of stairs after being struck down by a viral bug and pneumonia, which resulted in a hospital stay for close to a week. Like lots of people starting a fitness journey in January, he was back to square one and had to start all over again.
“It gave me an appreciation for people who come in and they are starting from scratch or recovering from something [like an illness]. I’ve been there now, and it was challenging.
“It challenges every part of you because you’re physically not able and you tire really quickly. From a mental health perspective, all the big goals I had for the summer were suddenly gone, and I couldn’t exercise for about six weeks.
“I couldn’t walk up the hill in the driveway here but as I got fitter, I could walk up the hill, and then a little bit further, and a little bit further, and out to the fields. It was a way of tracking my progress; I could watch it and see it, but it was frightening at the same time. ‘Levelling’ is probably the word [to describe the time].
Benefits of walking
Karl clearly looks for the positives even in adversity, calling that difficult period a “learning curve”. He’s now three months into a six-month recovery programme and rates himself at about 70% better.
What the experience has done is let people know he’s walked in their shoes. It has also strengthened his message about Opportunities to Move, (OTMs), and the importance of building walking into your day wherever the chance to do so presents itself. It’s a striking and pertinent message for farmers and rural dwellers at the beginning of 2025.
“I build OTMs into my day as much as possible, so I walk around the fields we have here five or six times a day. It’s just something I do in between meetings with clients or whenever I have five minutes.
“If I travel, I park further away, and I’ll walk in around the city or walk back to the train. I just make it part of my day as much as possible. I’ve a cargo bike for the kids when I do the school run, and I do that unless the weather is really bad.
Karl Henry enjoying a walk along the Joe Walsh Greenway in Clonakilty, Co Cork.
\ Donal O' Leary
“I just take the opportunities to move when they present themselves, and we encourage people to look at that. We are all presented with the opportunities – some take them and some don’t.
"We are asking people to take them; therefore, it doesn’t become another thing you have to do or another burden,” he advises.
Karl, who is one of the country’s best-known personal trainers for the last 25 years, says that rather than looking for innovation in exercise, walking brings it back to basics, and it really works.
“I don’t call it a job. I love it. I love helping people get fit, get strong, live better and age better, which is my real passion. For 25 years I’ve recommended walking.
"It’s the ultimate elixir for mental and physical health – it ticks all the boxes.
“We moved to Clonakilty three years ago, and the more I commute [to Dublin for work], the more I watch people being more and more sedentary. When I get off the train, I walk wherever I have to go.
“Where do you park when you go to do the food shop? Do you park beside the supermarket, or do you park a car space away and get a little bit of extra movement? Do you use stairs instead of the lift? All those OTMs add up, and walking underlies all of that.”
From a healthy ageing perspective, it is one of the best tools for people of all ages, Karl insists, and in his new book, The Walking Effect, he offers some science, motivation, as well as the importance of setting goals and measuring progress. He also recommends walks around the country for all fitness levels.
“Many people rediscovered the walks close to us during Covid, and then we lost them again. We’re trying to get people to rediscover them [through the book].”
Speaking about his own favourite walks, the Dublin native says he loves the Wicklow Mountains because it is where his passion started. “It’s Djouce and Maulin. We also do a lot of corporate work with hillwalking, so the big four, the four tallest – Carrauntoohil, Slieve Donard in the Mournes, Mweelrea in Mayo and then Lugnaquilla in Wicklow.
Personal trainer Karl Henry pictured on one of his favourite walks close to his home in Clonakilty. \ Donal O' Leary
“Locally, I love Castlefreke Long Strand; it’s got everything. You’re green zoning with nature. You’re blue zoning with the sea. You have the sea air, which we know has a load of health benefits. You have the sand dunes, which are great for the legs, and then you have The Fish Basket, possibly the loveliest coffee shop in the world afterwards.
“We go there a lot and all year round. The wilder, the better. You pause the stress of the day, and you go out and process it and get a bit of movement done. Because it’s so close to us, it’s probably my favourite.”
Asked how he approaches the start of the year, Karl, who also presents the popular weekly Real Health podcast, says he uses Christmas as a time of reflection and then plans ahead.
“Off the back of that reflection, I say next year I’d like to do x, y and z. Looking at how that may happen and ensuring you have the bandwidth to do it because life is really busy. I have to keep that in mind in terms of choosing what I want to work towards."
What Karl is concerned with for 2026 is helping people make long-term changes rather than a short-term fix. He insists it’s about helping people to age better, live longer and stay out of hospital or the GP by using exercise.
But how do weight loss drugs like Ozempic fit into that idea? He maintains that they are a “great addition to the health and wellbeing space for those who need them. The important thing is that you hit the criteria for it, which is over a particular BMI with one serious health issue,” he cautions. “However, the challenging part is that it is almost the new Atkins [diet]. People who are looking to lose a stone are going on these drugs.
“What they don’t understand is that once they stop taking that medication, the weight they have lost and more is going to return because it is very difficult to maintain weight loss without taking the drug.”
The second challenge is what he calls “frailty”. If you only take it and don’t do exercise you’ll “lose muscle mass”, so you’ll be “lighter but weaker” and more prone to falls as you age.
Traditionally, January for Karl involved a slot on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation. Despite the criticism the show received in some quarters, he is immensely proud of the platform it provided for health and fitness over its 17-year run.
On the prospect of more TV, Karl is hopeful he’ll be back on our screens next year, but for the time being he is staying mum on what that will be.
The Walking Effect by Karl Henry is published by Gill, €19.99.
The Walking Effect by Karl Henry.
Karl Henry is a familiar sight walking around the fields close to his home near Clonakilty, Co Cork.
But last summer he wasn’t able to make it up a flight of stairs after being struck down by a viral bug and pneumonia, which resulted in a hospital stay for close to a week. Like lots of people starting a fitness journey in January, he was back to square one and had to start all over again.
“It gave me an appreciation for people who come in and they are starting from scratch or recovering from something [like an illness]. I’ve been there now, and it was challenging.
“It challenges every part of you because you’re physically not able and you tire really quickly. From a mental health perspective, all the big goals I had for the summer were suddenly gone, and I couldn’t exercise for about six weeks.
“I couldn’t walk up the hill in the driveway here but as I got fitter, I could walk up the hill, and then a little bit further, and a little bit further, and out to the fields. It was a way of tracking my progress; I could watch it and see it, but it was frightening at the same time. ‘Levelling’ is probably the word [to describe the time].
Benefits of walking
Karl clearly looks for the positives even in adversity, calling that difficult period a “learning curve”. He’s now three months into a six-month recovery programme and rates himself at about 70% better.
What the experience has done is let people know he’s walked in their shoes. It has also strengthened his message about Opportunities to Move, (OTMs), and the importance of building walking into your day wherever the chance to do so presents itself. It’s a striking and pertinent message for farmers and rural dwellers at the beginning of 2025.
“I build OTMs into my day as much as possible, so I walk around the fields we have here five or six times a day. It’s just something I do in between meetings with clients or whenever I have five minutes.
“If I travel, I park further away, and I’ll walk in around the city or walk back to the train. I just make it part of my day as much as possible. I’ve a cargo bike for the kids when I do the school run, and I do that unless the weather is really bad.
Karl Henry enjoying a walk along the Joe Walsh Greenway in Clonakilty, Co Cork.
\ Donal O' Leary
“I just take the opportunities to move when they present themselves, and we encourage people to look at that. We are all presented with the opportunities – some take them and some don’t.
"We are asking people to take them; therefore, it doesn’t become another thing you have to do or another burden,” he advises.
Karl, who is one of the country’s best-known personal trainers for the last 25 years, says that rather than looking for innovation in exercise, walking brings it back to basics, and it really works.
“I don’t call it a job. I love it. I love helping people get fit, get strong, live better and age better, which is my real passion. For 25 years I’ve recommended walking.
"It’s the ultimate elixir for mental and physical health – it ticks all the boxes.
“We moved to Clonakilty three years ago, and the more I commute [to Dublin for work], the more I watch people being more and more sedentary. When I get off the train, I walk wherever I have to go.
“Where do you park when you go to do the food shop? Do you park beside the supermarket, or do you park a car space away and get a little bit of extra movement? Do you use stairs instead of the lift? All those OTMs add up, and walking underlies all of that.”
From a healthy ageing perspective, it is one of the best tools for people of all ages, Karl insists, and in his new book, The Walking Effect, he offers some science, motivation, as well as the importance of setting goals and measuring progress. He also recommends walks around the country for all fitness levels.
“Many people rediscovered the walks close to us during Covid, and then we lost them again. We’re trying to get people to rediscover them [through the book].”
Speaking about his own favourite walks, the Dublin native says he loves the Wicklow Mountains because it is where his passion started. “It’s Djouce and Maulin. We also do a lot of corporate work with hillwalking, so the big four, the four tallest – Carrauntoohil, Slieve Donard in the Mournes, Mweelrea in Mayo and then Lugnaquilla in Wicklow.
Personal trainer Karl Henry pictured on one of his favourite walks close to his home in Clonakilty. \ Donal O' Leary
“Locally, I love Castlefreke Long Strand; it’s got everything. You’re green zoning with nature. You’re blue zoning with the sea. You have the sea air, which we know has a load of health benefits. You have the sand dunes, which are great for the legs, and then you have The Fish Basket, possibly the loveliest coffee shop in the world afterwards.
“We go there a lot and all year round. The wilder, the better. You pause the stress of the day, and you go out and process it and get a bit of movement done. Because it’s so close to us, it’s probably my favourite.”
Asked how he approaches the start of the year, Karl, who also presents the popular weekly Real Health podcast, says he uses Christmas as a time of reflection and then plans ahead.
“Off the back of that reflection, I say next year I’d like to do x, y and z. Looking at how that may happen and ensuring you have the bandwidth to do it because life is really busy. I have to keep that in mind in terms of choosing what I want to work towards."
What Karl is concerned with for 2026 is helping people make long-term changes rather than a short-term fix. He insists it’s about helping people to age better, live longer and stay out of hospital or the GP by using exercise.
But how do weight loss drugs like Ozempic fit into that idea? He maintains that they are a “great addition to the health and wellbeing space for those who need them. The important thing is that you hit the criteria for it, which is over a particular BMI with one serious health issue,” he cautions. “However, the challenging part is that it is almost the new Atkins [diet]. People who are looking to lose a stone are going on these drugs.
“What they don’t understand is that once they stop taking that medication, the weight they have lost and more is going to return because it is very difficult to maintain weight loss without taking the drug.”
The second challenge is what he calls “frailty”. If you only take it and don’t do exercise you’ll “lose muscle mass”, so you’ll be “lighter but weaker” and more prone to falls as you age.
Traditionally, January for Karl involved a slot on RTÉ’s Operation Transformation. Despite the criticism the show received in some quarters, he is immensely proud of the platform it provided for health and fitness over its 17-year run.
On the prospect of more TV, Karl is hopeful he’ll be back on our screens next year, but for the time being he is staying mum on what that will be.
The Walking Effect by Karl Henry is published by Gill, €19.99.
The Walking Effect by Karl Henry.
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