We weren’t disappointed. We were taken through a series of exercises by one of Escape Fitness’ master trainers focussing on myofascial release. The fascia is connective tissue surrounding muscles. If the fascia becomes irritated, though injury, poor biomechanics, overuse or inactivity, it becomes thickened and causes localised inflammation leading to pain and muscle tension which results in more inflammation and thus creating a viscious cycle.

Self myofascial release tecniques (SMRT) involve the use of direct pressure, in this case the Grid foam roller, to stretch, mobilise and release tension and trigger points in the myofascial tissue. The aim is to break the inflammation/tension cycle and restore muscles to normal function.

We used the Grid to combine myofascial release with exercises to work the core (see video for examples)

We have since bought a Grid for the studio and are already putting it to good use. After a long week I’m sat here craving a ‘rolling’ as I type! We highly recommend getting one of these to use as part of your weekly routine. They are an affordable way to ease tension, help with injury rehab or get a good workout all in the comfort of your own home. The cheapest we found are on Amazon, click on the image of the orange roller above to be redirected to their site.

We were approached a few weeks ago and asked if we could provide personal training for a client who lives in Switzerland. Before I got too excited at the prospect of a European trip every week, the client asked if we could do it remotely.

Sure, why not? After emails were exchanged back and forth we came up with a plan. After a virtual conversation where lifestyle, dietary and exerise habits were established we decided that we could provide the client with weekly food plans, exercise goals for the week, a weekly check-in to report progress and ongoing help and support for the ‘wobbles’ along the way (after all, we all get them!)

We have now decided to open this up and provide Remote Personal Training as an additional service. Perfect if you:

• Can’t commit to a weekly face-to-face training session
• Want a plan with flexibility to train in your own time
• Want a more affordable option than a face-to-face trainer
• Want the support of someone who is just an email away
• Need ongoing motivation
• Would like a personalised exercise plan delivered to your inbox each week
• Would like someone else to think about your meals and provide healthy, nutritious and affordable options, including recipes

For £20 a week we can be the ‘halfway house’ between an actual real life trainer (which we are by the way, we’ll just be there in spirit, not body) and going it alone.

You don’t need to be a member of a gym, we can devise plenty of activities for you to do in the great outdoors and we won’t ask you to do things you hate. The beauty of this scheme is that each week you report back using the diet and exercise sheets we provide and we can modify as we go along. No rules, no rigidity, just a flexible, personal plan.

For more information or to sign up, please email lydia@corestrengthstudios.co.uk and make a start now!

What is cortisol?

One of our primary stress hormones, cortisol, is responsible these reactions. One of it’s functions is to make energy readily available for us to ‘fight or flight’ in a given stressful situation. Heard the story of the lady who lifted a car to release her trapped child? True or not, it demonstrates what we’re designed to do in times of stress (well, perhaps not actually lift a car but you never know, right?)

It does this by releasing a burst of sugar (from fat and carbohydrate) from our stores, converting them to usable energy and mobilising into the bloodstream for fast uptake by our tissues should we need it. Thing is, as we sit in our car getting more and more agitated about how to explain to our boss why we’re late, we’re not actually using the energy. We’re primed and ready to go but nine times out of ten it doesn’t happen.

Meanwhile, our brain isn’t in touch with the reality of the situation (it still thinks we’ve been running from a lion) and increases our appetite to replace what we’ve ‘lost’. Problem is, we’ve not lost it. It instead gets taken up by the cells and more than likely stored as fat. Meanwhile, we’ve just munched our way through a bag of crisps which then sees more fat stored in our fat cells, along with the other guys from before.

The long-term problem

Now, imagine you’re suffering chronic stress. Your cortisol levels are elevated all the time. The cycle goes round and your appetite is continuously increased with your brain telling you to take in sugary, carb-heavy foods to replace lost energy. Remember how cortisol mobilises fat and raises blood sugar? The next chapter goes into greater detail on blood sugars and insulin but at it’s most basic level, insulin is a substance which regulates blood sugar. When we have too much sugar in our blood, it is released and transports excess sugar out of the blood and into the fat cells.

In time, the cortisol causes us to become more resistant to insulin, meaning we need to produce more insulin to balance the blood sugar thus increasing the fat we store. Sounds exhausting just thinking about it, yes?

Spare a thought for our body struggling to keep up. Whilst all this is going on, energy is diverted from normal maintenance and repair jobs, meaning our immune system suffers, our digestive system is surpressed, as are reproductive and growth functions. The consequence? Frequent illness, achy muscles and possible fertility problems to name a few.

To find out how to optimise your diet to reduce the effects of cortisol, plus how to build the other 4 pillars of health you can download the eBook now.

One such lecture was entitled ‘you’re eating loads but starving inside’ and included a wealth of informtion on how we need to build our health before our bodies can become efficient in fat-burning.

The information was way too much to go into one blog post so I’ve taken the theory behind the lecture, spent the last few weeks researching and have come up with the first of what I hope will be many eBooks.

Contents include:

The 5 pillars of health (stress, blood sugar, sleep, gut health and toxins) and how an imbalance in each can inhibit fat loss
All about micronutrients. Why we need them, where we find them and what happens if we don’t get them
Information on foods to eat for optimum health and where to find them
Recipe ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks

It’s on at an introductory price of £2.50 and can be downloaded (using PayPal) here

The plan is to publish many more eBooks so I hope you find this one useful and please feel free to leave any feedback you have.

Whether you’re a personal trainer, group exercise instructor, therapist or coach in Bristol, you body is your business, right? You’re trained to help your clients overcome injury and know that in many cases, some form of rest is on the cards when injury strikes but what happens if you yourself pick up an injury? Do you stop working? Cancel your clients?

Fitness professionals probably place more strain on the body than your average person. I don’t think I need to go into much detail on how beneficial sports massage is (but if you do want to know, see here), especially when you train hard or train frequently.

We are delighted to announce that we have just launched our Fitness Professionals Scheme, whereby as a qualified trainer, instructor or therapist you can get 20% off all treatments here at the studio. Furthermore, for every 4 clients you refer to us (either for sports massage or core strengthening), you will get a free 1 hour sports massage.

We have massage appoinments availble throughout the day and up to 7pm so can fit perfectly around your clients or classes.

Interested? It’s free to join, and once you’ve registered with us you’re eligible for the discount across our services. Please email me lydia@corestrengthstudios.co.uk for more information or to join the scheme. Prices are here (before discount) and we hope to see you very soon.