http://www.bestbodiestraining.com.au/

Bestbodies Training, Cheltenham (2025)

18/10/2025

On world menopause here’s a huge shout out to our huge sisterhood -

There’s sooooo many out there telling you to “do this” or “take this” to cure all the symptoms or “repair” your hormones. It’s overwhelming and a constant message that once again, as women, there is something wrong with us.

THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU!!!!!

What you are going through is a stage…..just like puberty or pregnancy you will get through it.

Everyone’s path through this is going to be different.

Take sh . Do sh . Or don’t. It’s your stage to navigate the best way possible for you.

Educate yourself from reputable sources to help you through.

Just know that there is light at the end of the tunnel and take it from me, it a good place to be.

There’s a freedom that allows you to travel lightly every day. Appreciating the small pleasures like that sunrise or that slow first morning coffee; time spent with grandchildren that you get to hand back 😉 and free from the need of approval and external validation.

Yes it’s tough going, but hold on, grit your teeth and keep pushing. If it’s one thing we all know……our sisterhood is made of the strongest stuff on this planet.

You’ve got this 💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

03/09/2025

This is my MyZone fitness tracker telling me that I’ve been consistent in my exercise over a period of 6 years. I have a love/hate relationship with it. It has it’s advantages but it also has it’s weaknesses that really p # me off and I’ll tell you why -

Firstly a few of it’s good points- creating accountability and consistency within your gym community. It is also a great way to monitor your workrate/effort during a session which is particularly useful if you are looking to reach specific parameters such as sprints, endurance, or lactate training.

What it doesn’t do is reward you for strength training, recovery or incidental low-medium intensity exercise which in my opinion are as important as going hard at cardio based workouts.

So with my upcoming few weeks of activity consisting of lots of low intensity activity and swimming (my tracker isn’t waterproof) I’m likely not to hit my monthly requirement as set by this tool.

I could obsess over it or I could let it go. I don’t believe anything should have that much power over you. Use it to your advantage by all means but don’t obsess about it.

Much love 💖

17/08/2025

Life will always present us with curve balls, be it mental, hormonal or physical unless you’re living under a rock (well even then you have the challenges of dealing with a heavy load 😉)

So the question I put to you is this - do you throw your hands up in the air and give up or do you stop reset and work out what you CAN do not wallow in what you CAN’T do?

Injuries will happen…..niggles will happen……energy levels will happen……hormones will wreak havoc……..

The challenge is to take a deep breath (or eleventy million if you need), feel all the feels and then keep going……..one step at a time.

Ask for help, get a good coach, try different things until you find what works for you. I promise you that you will feel better than throwing your hands in the air and giving up.

And when you overcome these challenges……what did you learn?

You are stronger than you thought 💖
You can always do something 💖
You have set an example to others 💖
You are resilient 💖

YOU ARE A WINNER 💖

31/07/2025

Listening to the noise around absolutely everything that’s out there around peri menopause and menopause in general can have you just like me in this picture: Hair standing on end, frazzled, confused, frustrated (allll the feels…) and quite frankly ready to knock someone’s lights out (and not caring who that person is 🫣)

I get it -

Do this, don’t do this
Take this, don’t take this
Have this (treatment), don’t have this

And the list goes on…….

So what IS the right answer…..

My advice for what it is worth as a 67 post menopausal woman -

Learnt to quieten the noise. Switch off all the social media hype trying to sell you stuff to make “better”.

No amount of “stuff” is going to fix what is a natural part of life and you don’t need fixing.

Thinking that you need fixing implies there is something wrong with you. Sure….things are happening to every system in your body and there is definitely ways to cope and deal with the effects of these changes. Some can help with the help of trained professionals who are qualified, not entrepreneurs who just want to pray on your emotional state at this point in time.

It’s easy for me to say this after years of listening to the noise and my only wish is to guide you into making good wholistic choices.

Years of turmoil has seen me walk out the other side of this sh feeling stronger both in body and mind and taking responsibility back for myself and how I want to show up for myself.

Please know that I am here for you always if you need me.

Much love 💖

03/06/2025

Our life is made up of the influences of the people we spend time with, the experiences we have, the environment we are exposed to be it our home, school, work, relationships etc and how we interpret these experiences big or small.

The following is a short summary with no judgement just healthy introspection and love -

Growing up my home environment was big around social connection, contribution to others. My parents were always socialising, having fun and my Dad worked HARD.

Along with the fun & social lifestyle came the normality of regular consumption of alcohol & ci******es. It’s safe to say that as this was my normal then I also headed down the same path influenced by my experiences.

Party girl, smoked & drank with the best of them until I decided to take control and change my story. You see I told myself this was normal. I told myself that this was how I should be. After all this is what I had seen as I grew up.

But underneath the fun party girl I was unhealthy, forty something and feeling much older than my years.

Recognising the influences of my life including well meaning friends who egged me on (again, no judgement) I also recognised that the story of who I was no longer served me and that ultimately I could change my story.

I harnessed my inner warrior and fast forward I succeeded in transforming my lifestyle and still managed to have fun 😉 just a little more healthily.

Life will forever present us with opportunities to rewrite our story; create a new chapter through stages of life. The real challenge is to recognise what no longer serves you and to know you have the power to harness your inner warrior and write that new exciting chapter.

Much love 💖

22/08/2024

🩷 On where my inspiration and information comes from part one -

Inspiration, gratitude, commitment, community, headspace……these are the things that keep me coming to my Gym,

After 13 years I still get excited about coming to here. Whether it’s a training session with my longtime coach .cunningham_ or training on my own, it’s my special place.

13 years has seen me through an enormous amount of personal and professional growth and through it all The Fit Shop has been my constant and helped guide me.

We all need time for connection and we all need time in our own headspace. The Fit Shop gives me both and for this I am grateful.

Education around health & exercise, life experience around navigating peri-post menopausal changes to physiology and how best to enhance our health & well being has been a huge part of more recent years. The Fit Shop is where I come to put the pieces together so I can best help you and yes my coach does shake his head at some of the more unconventional moves I do. 😂

This is where I come to lift heavy and move in other ways too. All part of the ageing well equation. But more on this in coming posts on my biggest influences/inspirations and why.

I am passionate about sharing quality, science based content. To that end I have put together a few free short presentations simplifying Menopause to share over Women’s Health Week starting next month.

💖 much love

15/08/2024

Time and time again I hear of our peri-post menopausal ladies pushing themselves to do more cardio because of their weight gain.

It’s that old mentality of exercise more eat less and whilst it’s not an exclusive mindset for peri-post menopausal women it is super important for this demographic to understand that when we reach this stage of our life it’s a matter of less is more and the same time, more is more.

Confused? Let me explain as simply as I can….

Hormonal changes in our peri-post menopausal years also change how our body reacts to the demands of cardio.

To gain the most adaptation for both health & body composition outcomes we need to ditch the 40-60 minute cardio/bootcamp/HIIT style sessions as these long sessions are simply putting too much stress on the body.

What your body will respond to is short sharp SIT (sprint interval training) where your going to do 100% efforts, fully recover over a couple of minutes and repeat for as many sets as you can maintain that 100% effort. I guarantee if you haven’t done this style of training before you’re gonna get maybe 2-4 efforts max and that’s ok. If you can’t maintain that 100% effort then it’s time to stop! Work at it until you can do 6-8 efforts.

So LESS time but MORE effort.

If you look at the pic above you will see 5 efforts but my session went for 33 minutes and that’s because at the end of my SIT I made sure to recover with some dynamic cool down movement bringing my body back from a sympathetic to parasympathetic state.

SIT training for a max time of 20 mins can induce epigenetic change within the skeletal muscle. It can increase lean muscle mass, decrease fat mass and of course increase aerobic fitness.

So if you’ve hit peri-post menopause and metabolic change is what your goal is then perhaps it’s time to reassess your cardio.

One final note -there is a place for HIIT too but that’s for another post 😉

14/07/2024

I’m not gonna lie; there are days (like today) when I’m just not feelin it. Not feeling like getting out of bed, not feeling in good in any way shape or form both physically or emotionally.

On these days (and on the good days too) my number one rule is just move. And there’s good reason for this.

Movement (any kind) will get your blood pumping the oxygen through your body and this will have you feeling better and in all probability the more you move the more you’ll feel like moving. Win,win.

I chose to show up at gym with the expressed intention to be kind to me by activating my system with some vibration work with a mini massage gun, roll out some sore muscles with the ball and roller, do some lengthening of the fascia with my light resistance band and do some mobility drills.

The result - I felt great physically and improved mentally so that my prep work gave me the impetus to do a short weight session. Lifting weights for me personally always gives me a hit of dopamine making me feel strong and capable.

I should mention that not every mobility/movement session leads to a full on weights or cardio session.

Sometimes all you need is the mobility/movement session to have you feeling uplifted and ready to tackle the demands of life

Much love 💖

08/07/2024

10 years ago whilst training to be a coach I refused to do box jumps. They actually terrified me then and they terrify me still.

10 years on and they are routinely programmed for me and they never get any easier. It’s a mental challenge for sure but power is one of the first physical abilities to decline as we age. So here I am still doing them challenging my limits not limiting my challenges.

Of course as with most things there are options such as broad jumps that still require us to use power and other activities such as ball slams, rope slams etc. so if box jumps are not for you then start with some broad jumps and progress as shown in the pic from a small (off the step onto a box) box jump and increase the height as you become more confident.

I watch in awe as people seem to do these with ease 😲 but I also acknowledge it’s always me vs me not me vs anyone else.

Keep at it my friends. All POWER to you! 💪🏼💖

28/05/2024

It’s been a 🔥fourteen years 😉

My initial thoughts, nah judgement 😏, around these pics was to be super critical. From fat to slim to well, somewhere in between.

If these were of someone else kindness and encouragement would be front and centre but nup, this is me judging me with harsh unkind eyes.

Fourteen years has seen some massive highs and some extreme lows but hey that’s life and life has the ability to change us body & soul. Why is it that we only judge the exterior and why do we treat our beautiful selves so harshly?

A lot has happened in 14 years, personal growth, five surgeries, menopause, Covid lockdowns, depression and shifting focus to valuing what’s important; health, happiness, time spent with family & friends, strength, fitness, mobility and most importantly-kindness.

Today’s message is to choose kindness both to others and especially to yourself.

Life is a gift to appreciate & enjoy 💝

24/04/2024

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old; Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. We will remember them.

Honouring the ultimate sacrifice of our ANZACs who died so that we might live our fortunate & free lives.

I consider myself blessed for the life I have been given and at this time my heart goes out to all who are affected by current and past conflicts.

Lest we forget ♥️

Bestbodies Training

18/10/2025

03/09/2025

17/08/2025

31/07/2025

03/06/2025

22/08/2024

15/08/2024

14/07/2024

08/07/2024

28/05/2024

24/04/2024

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