Work With Me
Let’s get you back to moving the way you want to.
When women come in to see me they often say things like “I used to love running/netball/climbing but I just can’t do it any longer” or “I want to get back to running but I’ve got this back pain which starts again every time I run and I don’t know what to do”, occasionally I get the complaints about wobbly bits of bodies which weren’t there “before” but mainly we chat about function, about how we all just want to be able to move around without aches or pains and get on with our lives.
I get that, I remember spending at least 2 years after I had my 2nd child in 2012 feeling like an old lady, with neck pains, thumb tendonitis, a back niggle that wouldn’t go away, an abdominal separation that stuck around for longer than I had expected, thoroughly exhausted not just by my small baby but by my body feeling like hard work. I was trying to fit exercise back into my life but every time I thought I was in a rhythm something in our family life changed and I had to respond, dropping exercise down the priority list for a few weeks and then attempting to pick it back up. It can feel like you’re driving with the handbrake on.
Remember life pre-kids when if you set yourself a challenge you just had to up your movement/exercise sessions and get on with it, or if you want to get fit for something you just did it, all the flexibility of choice, limited restrictions on your time. Yes those days are well and truly over but I’ve found a way to make it work still. I found a way to commit to myself day in day out and love every moment. I called my home pilates training business “Love Movement” because that’s what I did and I help others to do - I fell in love with movement again.
I’m obsessed with how our bodies respond to movement. How the very nature of being active improves our physical and mental wellbeing. Movement can have such a positive impact and every day I help my clients, young and old, move their bodies to the best of their ability, whatever their level or need. Supporting them as they grow in strength, flexibility and confidence.
And with the programmes I’ve developed for Mother of All Movement, I want to encourage you do the same.
With 18 years of practice, a ton of personal experience behind me (and plenty more to come I’m sure), I have created a life full of unlimited movement. Movement that I know from my own personal experience makes a real difference, as I worked through the issues that were once holding me back.
There’s never a best time to start moving.
You’re never too young or too old.
You’re never too unfit or out of practice.
And whether you’re being held back by a pelvic floor dysfunction which means you can’t pick your child up without leaking, or you struggle to go longer than 30 minutes away from using the toilet, or if you want to run a marathon or even lift a PB weight in your training sessions, I can help you get your body working as it should.
Why work with me in my We Move Strong community?
You want greater support with your return to exercise - at any stage - after having kids.
Or perhaps you’d like to see me as a specialist post-natal corrective exercise personal trainer, but you’re not able to get to me in person.
Either way, if you’re ready for change, then you’re in the right place.
I’m going to teach you how to understand your body and what’s going on for you, how to have greater control and strength through the normal movements in your life and get you moving with confidence again.
Does this sound like you?
You started running but your knee/hip/back hurts and so you’ve had to stop.
You started circuits but your pelvic floor gave up on the skipping station.
Your kids want to play with you but getting up and down to the floor makes you feel 90 years old.
You know you’ve not done enough in recent years to get strong but you want to get back to feeling and moving well again.
You know that there’s more to life than Tena lady pads, creaky knees and sliding in older age.
You know this isn’t it.
Create Foundations then Build Up
I have 5 foundational principles which I start with for everyone, no matter what stage of life after kids or what level of strength or fitness. If we don’t go through and check these foundations are solid, we’ll be building up on shaky ground. After looking at the foundations and balancing out your specific weaknesses, we build up on solid footing to get stronger all over for life.
Breathing - pretty essential for life and inextricably linked to pelvic floor function and abdominal connection
Alignment - learn how to stack up
Co-ordination between lower abs, pelvic floor, and glutes - these guys are a great team but sometimes they just need a bit of encouragement to work well together
Glutes - not only for a nicely peachy look but essential to every movement in life
Shoulders - how your shoulders move affects your abdominal connection and also the transfer or power across your body whether you’re carrying a baby, working at your desk all day or working at doing a pull-up.
My main way of coaching is by getting my clients to understand why this particularly weakness or imbalance is causing a problem and then helping them to feel it in their bodies and recognise how to correct it. The most important thing then is that change happens through every day movements, not just the 1 hour you are consciously thinking of movement each week. Loading the dishwasher becomes a glutes exercise, driving the car becomes a shoulders exercise, walking the dog becomes an alignment exercise and so on.
I want to empower you to make the changes you need, not rely on me only.