Personal Best Therapy

23/07/2025

Well done Lionesses! 👏⚽️

21/07/2025

Exercise isn't just good for your physical health, it's great for your mental health too 🧠

This study showed the biggest improvements in cognitive health came from mind-body exercises. This includes things like yoga, tai chi and Pilates.

In my Pilates classes I talk a lot about mind to muscle connections, and we work on co-ordination and balance exercises every week.

If you'd like to know more about how Pilates can help your cognitive health, please get in touch.

19/07/2025

Love this! ⬇️🤩

Always keep pushing, ladies!

15/07/2025

People often ask me about osteoarthritis. Can I help? And will exercise (particularly running) make it worse, or even cause it to begin with. So here are some of your questions answered.

❓️Does running cause arthritis in the knees and hips?
📢 I need to shout this one really loudly! Running, nor any other type of exercise, DOES NOT cause osteoarthritis.

Osteoarthritis is an inflammatory condition which affects the joints throughout the body. It is a degenerative condition, where bone loss occurs over time. The more inflammation in the joint, the more the bone will wear away.

Several factors trigger and increase the risk of developing osteoarthritis. These include
🟠 Aging
🟢 Joint injury
🔵 Obesity
🟣 Genetics
🟡 Chronic inflammation

Exercise is not considered to be a trigger. In fact, studies show that resistance training, plyometric exercise and high impact training can all help to reduce the effects of osteoarthritis.
https://ow.ly/iC8O50Wla1F

❓️ Can massage and soft tissue work help with osteoarthritis?
📢 Yes, absolutely. The benefits of massage and soft tissue work, like I do at Personal Best Therapy, are numerous in aiding osteoarthritis.

🟠 Pain relief - massage causes the body to release endorphins, the body's own natural painkillers.
🟢 Reduction of inflammation - Massage reduces chronic and local inflammation, boosting the efficacy of the lymphatic system. The less inflammation in the joints, the less bone loss, and the slower the degeneration of the joint.
🔵 Increased mobility - Soft tissue work around joints increases ranges of movement, making it easier to exercise and get further relief.
🟣 Overall wellbeing - A good massage will make you feel great, and add to your sense of overall wellbeing. This reduction in stress, leads to a reduction in stress on the body and the joints. The nervous system is a powerful influencer of inflammation throughout the body. A calm and happy nervous system will actively work to reduce inflammation.

❓️ What can I do at home to reduce the effects of osteoarthritis?
📢 There are several things you can do at home to decrease the effects of osteoarthritis.

🟠 Try to eat a healthy diet, with lots of variety and plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. A diet full of fried food, sugar and ultraprocessed foods will increase inflammation in the joints.
🟢 Lose weight if necessary - obesity puts extra strain on the joints, increasing pain and leading to more joint wear and tear.
🔵 Use massage guns, heat, gentle mobility and self massage to keep muscles and joints supple and movable.
🟣 Do resistance training - lifting weights is good for muscle and bone density, which is vital, particularly as you age.

If you'd like to know more about how I can help reduce the effects of osteoarthritis please drop me a message, or book a consultation today.

11/07/2025

Exciting news from Plymouth Raiders HQ 🏀

You may have seen earlier this year, the announcement that Raiders a merging with Plymouth Patriots.

They are adding to their team roster, supporting a Women's league team and an under 21s developmental side, as well as their men's team, which will be competing in Division 2 this year, due to a change in league structure.

So here are the teams to watch out for this year, it's going to be an exciting year for Raiders, and I can't wait to be part of their success!

02/07/2025

One of the best things I have ever done for myself is to switch from trying to control my weight to trying to control my health.

I used to be a little overweight (by my own personal standards), and my answer to that was to try fad diet after fad diet. Yes, they would work in the short term, but as soon as I stopped dieting I'd find myself binging on all the carbs or snacks I'd missed out on for the last few months, and the weight would slowly creep back up until I'd be forced to start over.

This endless cycle of yoyo dieting is miserable! It's depressing and frustrating, and I found my self esteem just rotting away.

When I began to learn more about the human body, finally the understanding dawned on me, that managing my weight didn't need to be so painful. I started thinking that maybe my health and happiness was more important than how skinny I was.

Over the last 10 years of being a practising sports therapist, every day I've learnt more about health, our hormones and metabolism, the role of exercise, particularly resistance training, and how the jigsaw pieces all fit together.

Now I prioritise eating for health... and guess what?

I've finally got the body composition I've always wanted. I know I'll NEVER need to go on a restrictive diet again in my life.

It's funny how eating for health has made me not care about my weight anymore, but my body has found its natural ideal state and settled there. Within weeks of changing my eating habits the excess fat just melted away.

The thing that made the most difference was giving up alcohol. Now, I'm not going to wax lyrical about how we all need to give up drinking. It was my choice and something I did for both my physical and mental health. But I was surprised at the result, what a difference it made to my weight and my mental health, and in the 2 years since I stopped drinking there isn't a single time I've regretted my decision.

Of course, everyone is at a different stage and it's a personal decision, and a commitment to change your habits. But if you're ready to have that conversation. If you're ready to begin prioritising your health and to see what it can do for you, your body and your mind... I'm ready to have that conversation with you.

Start eating for health and longevity. Start exercising for health and longevity. Start living your Personal Best Life today.

02/07/2025

Huge congratulations to Gary, who just competed for GB in the World Multi Sport Championships 2025 - Aquathlon. He finished
17th out of 45 in his age group. Pretty impressive!

The competition was held in beautiful Pontevedra. I'm sure the heat didn't make things any easier.

Well done Gary, keep smashing it! 👏 ⭐️💪

29/06/2025

This is a very interesting read, and something which I talk to my female clients about A LOT!

I Definitely agree with the writer, that there is becoming a tendency to over-medicalise menopause (despite the controversy he mentions if you read the article), and that HRT isn't necessarily the magic cure it promises to be for ALL women.

Of course, I'm not saying it isn't useful or effective for many. But HRT should always be utilised alongside other health and lifestyle improvements.

These begin with exercise, specifically for strength, improvements in diet, stress reduction and prioritising good sleep.

If you'd like to chat more about how Personal Best Therapy can help you, particularly with muscle or joints pain in Menopause, getting into exercises or making diet and lifestyle changes, please get in touch today.

Start living YOUR Personal Best life!

NEW POST, about unrealistic expectations of menopause hormone therapy, and much more realistic expectations of exercise. 4-min read.

"Menopause and Pain, Hormones and Exercise: A Beginning"
https://www.painscience.com/blog/menopause-and-pain-hormones-and-exercise--a-beginning.html

TL;DR: Menopause care needs less hormone hype and more deadlifts.

A little more context:

Dr. Louise Tulloh in an editorial about menopause for a new exercise-focused issue of the British Journal of Sports Medicine:

“Despite a renaissance in menopause awareness, the over-medicalisation of women’s midlife health threatens to eclipse foundational interventions like physical activity.”

And, she warns, women are trapped between the devil of over-medicalization and the deep blue sea of misinformation spewing from “influencers” online.

What does this mean for women with chronic pain?

It means …they should probably lift more weights. 🙂

Now go read the whole thing:
https://www.painscience.com/blog/menopause-and-pain-hormones-and-exercise--a-beginning.html

ABOUT THE PHOTO

The photo is of friend-of-the-salamander Elaine Robertson, in her garage gym in Beith, Scotland, where she’s been lifting for about a decade. Her husband runs a strength and fitness coaching business, Strength For Health, and he got her into the sport after she finally overcame the objections many women have, like the “wildly-overstated risk of becoming bulky.”

But now she can “blithely carry fully-laden suitcases up flights of stairs” and, much more importantly, “lift my 82 year-old, frail, osteoporotic mum after a fall from which she was unable to get up. A key driver for my strength training is avoiding following her into frailty.”

~ Paul Ingraham, PainScience.com publisher

25/06/2025

Do you and your partner have different sleeping preferences when it comes to the temperature in the bedroom?

I am forever opening the window, and then 5 minutes later my partner closes it again... not to mention the duvet wars!

This piece of kit from Pulsio is an absolute game changer.

Ladies struggling with night sweats and hot flushes will be particularly keen I'm sure.

Visit www.pulsio.co.uk/personalbestsportstherapy and use discount code PERSONALBESTSPORTSTHERAPY to get 10% discount on any product.

Try for 30 Nights Risk Free

25/06/2025

🚨 Important League Announcement -

Basketball England have announced a significant league wide restructure.

For the 25-26 Season, Raiders will therefore compete in the new National Basketball League - Division 2.

We're expecting further news as the UK basketball landscape faces a Summer of unprecedented change, so stay tuned for further information in the weeks ahead as we receive them!

11/06/2025

Good Health doesn't need to be rocket science.

It doesn't need to be all or nothing thinking either.

I believe there are 4 elements to good health.

⭐️ Nutrition - Good food is the basis for a healthy body and brain. You can't run a Ferrari on sawdust and expect it run well! Eating with your health in mind will give your body the building blocks it needs to thrive.

⭐️ Exercise - Being active promotes physical and mental health. It ensures our body functions well, creates a positive space and happy hormones, and it can help boost our immunity and reduce chronic pain.

⭐️ Sleep - When we sleep our body repairs and our brains process. Good sleep is vital for our wellbeing.

⭐️ Mental Health - Looking after our mental health is paramount to the body functioning well. Reducing stress on the mind drives stress reduction on the body, and vice versa.

When we are taking care of each of these elements of ourselves, our body and mind has the tools and the energy to thrive.

Nobody's day is perfect all of the time. Life often gets in the way of us achieving 100% of all of these things constantly. But by striving to be just a little better at each of them we begin to move towards a more balanced state of wellbeing.

Here at Personal Best Therapy, I am moving towards creating programs to help support my clients in being a little bit better in all of these elements. Exercising without chronic pain, being nourished and enriched by the foods they eat, reducing stress on the body, and subsequently, on the mind, and helping them relax so they can get a good night's sleep.

If you feel like you want to improve your life in any of these areas, please get in touch to see how I can help.

Begin living your Personal Best life!