Susie Black Fitness

Susie Black Fitness From 5 minute fixes to long term solutions. Find your way to fitness and Enjoy Good Health!

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Personal Trainer

Lifestyle Analysis Consultations
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Weight Management
Fitness Programme Development
Individual & Group Based Fitness Sessions

Physical Activity Programmes Tailor-made for Rehabilitation & Medical Conditions

21/08/2025

OOOOF! Slightly harder here. By pre-stretching the tummy muscles while you lean back over the ball, you're adding greater intensity into the rolling up movement which activates more muscle fibres along the front line of your tum.

susieblackpilates.co.uk

20/08/2025

Your heel is resting on the ball to help you quiet the thighs during this rotation. You'll find your tummy has to work harder to twist and you can focus on the muscles around the spine creating the movement.

susieblackpilates.co.uk

AcceptanceIs the acceptance of our current health situation better solution? Is it easier to live with a pain we can rel...
19/08/2025

Acceptance

Is the acceptance of our current health situation better solution? Is it easier to live with a pain we can rely on rather than yoyoing between the fixes?

I’m diving in with a little clutch of psychological buzzwords.

Locus of Control

“Locus of control refers to the degree to which an individual feels a sense of agency in regard to his or her life. Someone with an internal locus of control will believe that the things that happen to them are greatly influenced by their own abilities, actions, or mistakes. A person with an external locus of control will tend to feel that other forces—such as random chance, environmental factors, or the actions of others—are more responsible for the events that occur in the individual's life… The more that someone believes their actions determine their future, the more likely they are to engage in healthy behaviours, like eating well and exercising regularly.

Self-efficacy
. refers to one’s belief that they are able (or not able) to accomplish tasks and achieve their goals. “

So it seems that a strong internal locus of control plus a belief in your own self efficacy is desirable, especially when it comes to self-care. The more you assume you can influence your health, the easier you may find it to take action.

It’s not as if you can buy an internal locus of control on ebay, though. And although Lily the Pink had a medicinal compound to make you efficacious in every way, it had its consequences. Thankfully, that’s not the job for today. Instead, I’d like you to take 5 minutes now to consider where you are along the scales of internal to external loci of control and how strongly you believe in your ability to accomplish tasks.

Do it now.

“If we threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd take our problems back”

I can attest to the truth of this adage, even during 15 years of chronic back pain. Despite believing that I could minimise the pain and having confidence that I could adhere to programs I was consistently made aware from health professionals that this issue could not, until the disc squelched, be fixed. So here is the question for today…

Could we eventually drive ourselves crazy trying to throw that problem back on the pile for someone else? What are we prepared to accept in return? How many times should we embark on yet another course of therapy, exercises or treatments to no result? What is the psychological effect of learning about the next big fix; investing hope, money and time into it and ending up back where we started? At what cost is the change? At what point have we tried everything or exhausted ourselves looking?

Is the decision to take our own problems back easier than learning to live with something else or seeking the cure?

I’m not offering answers. What I want you to do is consider the sliding scale of any health issues or pain points that you have. Think of them within the context of what you believe your own locus of control and self-efficacy to be. Add in the efforts you have previously made to relieve or alter these circumstances. Are you happy with your current placement on these various spectrums? Should you throw your problem back on the pile and try another treatment or therapy? Will accepting the pain bring you less stress and more peace?

What will you do with this information? Will you find peace with your pain rather than rail against it? Will you seek a newly invented solution? Will you check that you applied yourself judiciously to previous efforts? Will you forgive yourself for not following through on previous attempted fixes and mentally clear the way for a new approach? Are you now more understanding of the degree of strength you can expect to call on to make a change?

Please share with us all in the comments section below

18/08/2025

OOOOF! Slightly harder here. By combining two leg moves you're increasing the balance challenge while drawing on greater degrees of tummy strength. Add in the coordination factor and it's an all round winner.

susieblackpilates.co.uk

17/08/2025

You're holding your hips steady on the squishy ball WITHOUT using your arms to stabilise on the floor. This challenges your balance and tummy strength while you play around with the leg position.

susieblackpilates.co.uk

Where are your blind spots?Since I began working as a Personal Trainer, the science has been all around the houses when ...
17/08/2025

Where are your blind spots?

Since I began working as a Personal Trainer, the science has been all around the houses when it comes to ageing adults. When I first began 20 years ago it was just assumed that people lost muscle and gained fat as they aged. Around 10 years ago we saw strong evidence that it was possible to maintain muscle mass with regular weight-bearing exercise. As PT’s we all got excited at the thought of helping clients remain trim and vivacious, however this still tended to tail off eventually with the muscle loss/fat gain stereotype always coming to the fore, regardless of whether the client maintained their weight. The same questions remained then. Why and when did this change happen? It turns out that while there has not been enough research completed on this subject, evidence points strongly to increased fat storage at the belly and within and around our organs changing our body composition over time and increasing our risk of many age-related conditions such as Cardiovascular Heart Disease and Diabetes.

All of which is to say, if you do what you’ve always done and weigh what you’ve always weighed you still won’t get what you’ve always got.

But if all the science boffins can’t crack the data, what are we supposed to do about it?

Well, as per both Douglas Adams’ Guide to the Galaxy and Dad’s Army (I’ve got to update my references!), ‘DON’T PANIC!’ This newsletter series isn’t handing out answers (42 – sorry) but it will go through a list of questions to help you work out whether your targeted efforts have become blinkered. We want to turn your blind spots into eureka moments.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

Drawing comparisons between clients is a no-no for me. Everyone has a different story to tell. Rather, I’d like you to think through your activity and maybe even diet history and consider a time where you truly felt you had it all working out. Picture what you did, why it felt successful and how it made you feel. Write it down if you’ve got a moment.

Now, if that time is right now, let out a WHOOP and a HOLLER, close the device you’re reading this on and go do something else! If it isn’t, make a mental note of the slippages that have occurred. Are they related to health, either physical or mental, family situation, work demands, available income or availability of services locally? Ascribe blame outside of yourself – go on! What change happened to you and what effect did it cause?

Okayyyyyyyyyy. We’re now bypassing that blame, we’re relinquishing the need to return to that magic time and we’re forgiving ourselves, our circumstances or anyone else who could be responsible for these changes. According to the research alluded to previously, we won’t be responsible for the fat/lean body mass change as we age either. It’s coming to us all.

Yesterday I asked you to look deep into your pain points and to reassess your standpoint on your own health risks. Today I want you to reassess where you’re targeting your health attention, especially with regards to any negative lifestyle changes that have occurred. Are you trying to get back to a situation which is no longer available or maybe, for whatever reason, just too far out of reach to bother trying?

Last summer, an MRI confirmed that I have arthritis in my left knee. I’d already stopped running a year previously because of the pain, now I was being told it wasn’t temporary. I confess that my cardiovascular fitness has dropped since my regular running days but there’s no reason why I can’t swim or use the cross trainer, bike or rowing machines to build it back up except that I’m still sulking because I want to run.

Take that list you wrote earlier, detailing how amazing you felt and why. Break the changes down into those blame points. Now consider whether those blame points are your blind spots. Can you target your efforts differently to achieve similar feelings of success? Yes, of course I want to know – share your thoughts!!!!!

16/08/2025

You're keeping your body steady while you tackle rolling the ball in a circle with your shin. This combines brain to body connection with torso strength. You'll also help open up the hard-working muscles around your hips but that's just an extra freebie!

susieblackpilates.co.uk

16/08/2025

You're keeping your body steady by resting the knee on the ball. This means that each chest-stretching arm opener works effectively to help you maintain an upright and pain-free posture.

susieblackpilates.co.uk

16/08/2025

I asked Grok to explain my job in terms A5 year old would understand. I'm pretty happy with the result!

As a Pilates instructor, I help people exercise in a fun and gentle way to make their bodies strong and flexible! Imagine teaching your friends how to stretch like a cat, balance like a flamingo, or move smoothly like a fish swimming. I show grown-ups special moves that help their muscles grow stronger, keep their tummies tight, and make their backs feel good. I make sure everyone moves safely and has fun, like playing a game where you follow my instructions. I also cheer them on, like a coach, so they feel proud of what their bodies can do. My job is like being a teacher for healthy, happy moving, helping people feel great and smile big!

Well, I'm smiling big now!

Optimism over ActionAre you looking on the bright side or burying your head in the sand?I’ll start with a personal refle...
15/08/2025

Optimism over Action

Are you looking on the bright side or burying your head in the sand?

I’ll start with a personal reflection. During my childhood, I pretty much had to have missing limb before I was offered analgesics. In my early twenties I was amazed at the pharmacological solutions my husband could apply to various ailments but still seemed to max out at the occasional askit powder myself, probably from habit.

When our kids were born, my best baby-mother-mate (shout out to Penny!) was similarly clued up on babies’ medicaments and ported a pocket pharmacy which I believe serviced my kids as often as hers. All of which is to say, I continued to assume over many years that if the blood wasn’t actually staining anything important then it was likely best to stay calm and carry on.

We all have a sliding scale of precipitative action towards overlooking symptoms through to neglecting basic needs when it comes to our health which, in my case, was obviously set during a childhood of falling from trees, pogo sticks and cliffsides. As adults, it’s possible that beliefs from childhood guide our approach to self-care.

This NCBI analysis of UK General Practice data demonstrates that it isn’t gender related as many people assume, the conclusion of which report states, “Overall gender differences in consulting are most marked between the ages of 16 and 60 years; these differences are only partially accounted for by consultations for reproductive reasons. Differences in consultation rates between men and women were largely eradicated when comparing men and women in receipt of medication for similar underlying morbidities.”

If it’s not a gender issue then what else could impact this? More importantly, where is the happy medium and when did you last consider your attitude to health risk? Over-thinking about poor health cannot be a healthy approach. Ignoring warning signs is similarly risky. There is no imperative to instruct here. This newsletter is simply asking you to reassess your standpoint on your own health risks and review whether it’s serving your current needs. Personally, I like a rule. To me, opinions and anecdotes are confusing, open to interpretation and mitigate the desired actual factual actions. Instead, here’s an example of the risk matrix used by most businesses to assess safety needs within industry. Essentially, what is the worst possible outcome? How likely is that to happen? What steps can be taken to lower the either the effect of the outcome or the risk of its occurrence?

Do you believe everything will be okay in spite of alarm bells? Do you wilfully ignore symptoms? Or do you focus on warning signals to a degree that creates undue anxiety? Are you unsure which point of the spectrum is the most healthful? Are your attitudes set at a time when your body was stronger and more resilient? Are these same attitudes influenced by a genetic predisposition to illness which has since been negated or minimised by modern medical advancements? I’d love to know if you’ve had any eureka moments while considering these questions. Please share.

Exercising through pain, why is this such a difficult balance? Hunkering down, freezing, saving ourselves, compensating ...
14/08/2025

Exercising through pain, why is this such a difficult balance?

Hunkering down, freezing, saving ourselves, compensating with altered movement patterns and resting are our natural responses to acute pain, by which I mean sudden sharp pains or wound sites. The aftermath of this usually includes a rewrite of the effects of these temporary solutions and often a realignment and strengthening of key areas to prevent further occurrence and while this is our focus for today, those needs didn’t arise overnight.

I often work with people prior to, and post, knee replacement surgery and they have the best examples of this quandary. NHS waiting times being what they are, most knees are crumbling along bone to bone by the time that surgeon’s scalpel gets to work. The ingenuous ways our bodies cope with the pain all eventually have to be dismantled and reconstructed. Breaking down the pain sites and their effect on future you is often not quite explained fully and I believe this leads to delays, unnecessary pain and a loss of confidence in movement. The fictitious timeline below is an amalgamation of many clients’ experiences:

1. Grinding/clicking/pain at knee
2. Diagnosis through x-ray, confirmation and fuller image through MRI
3. Interminable wait for surgery, leading to potential weight gain through pain-induced inactivity and/or comfort eating, compensatory movement patterns at hips, lower back and opposite knee joint spreading to further body regions, affected side weakening and paucity of sleep from pain which circles back to eating for energy boosts and resultant weight gain.
4. Surgery and rehabilitation exercise list to renew range of movement
5. Well, that’s it…

So even if you complete ALL the recommended post-surgery exercises, none of them are considering what happened during step 3 and this is, in my mind, the challenge of exercising to manage pain longer term. How do we prioritise the pain sites in view of the fuller gamut of bodily change? How does the pain manifest as we increase our activity or as we attempt to relearn better-aligned movement patterns? What has happened to our body in the interim? We’re not retraining the same body we had before step 1; it’s a whole new beast. Muscles can be stronger or weaker, tighter or unhelpfully lengthened. The whole body can be more corpulent and activity habits themselves altered.
I’m not offering solutions or instruction here. What I want is for any of you who have experienced chronic pain which has changed your cadence or lifestyle to mentally scan the body you’re currently occupying. What are the physical effects of these changes? There will be detailed and specific differences known only to you and which you may be tuning out because no health professionals ask you about them. Get deep, listen to your body. Now follow the thought through a little further. How does this new and different body make the changes required to manage pain through exercise? Are there other areas of concern in addition to the initial pain site? Have you also been resting and working to account for them or have they now become, in fact, the pain sites which discourage you from adhering to a program or creating a better habit?

I’ll finish this post with a simple illustration which is often presented to PTs. Many times I’ve met clients who have had 10-year breaks from exercise and come to me for a way back in. They report having previously run a few half marathons or played regular squash and want to get back to that level. Finding their base fitness is crucial to preventing injury because in their minds they should back to where they left off. The analogy is the same as the knee replacement timeline and our baseline fitness testing helps calibrate for that.

If you’ve given yourself permission to analyse your body’s needs more deeply after reading this then please share it below.

13/08/2025

Why you're being bombarded with gym offers right now (and why the new Blairgowrie Rec Centre just HAD to get those doors open)

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Enjoying Good Health

Personal Trainer and Pilates Instructor

I get Personal about Training!

I like to help people prioritize their goals because that's what drives positive change. My successful clients are people who simultaneously tackle age, lifestyle and health issues. Working together we break down the obstacles to better health and discover long term solutions.

Together, we'll Find Your Why, The Secret of Your Success.