http://www.functional-medicine.assiociates/

Pete Williams_FMA, London, London (2026)

03/01/2026

Welcome to 2026. So here’s a one minute exercise snack. First start by just rubbing your hands together in a circle, but by doing that, you’re pushing your hands strongly together so that you strongly feel a contraction across the front of your shoulders and your chest. Your key is to keep hold of that contraction all the way through. and M you just start pitter pattering those feet, really working those feet quickly. You’re going to feel a lot of tension through your upper body and lower body and you’ve got to work this for a minute. Ultimately, that’s what we’re trying to do. For many of you, 20 seconds is going to be more than enough. And of course, with every exercise I do, there is always a disclaimer there is a risk that you take with any exercise. So, this exercise can be done any time, anywhere, you don’t need any special kit and you can be doing this several times a day for one minute Give it a go. Let me know. Let’s see where we go.

26/12/2025

Christmas, it’s that perfect opportunity to get your olds and take them through a bit of fall reduction. What I’ve tried to do here is demonstrate how lifting your knee up with your hip flexes. The difference really between a fit 56 year old and a 86 year old with two dodgy knees. And again, what you’ just seen is the difference with regards to how the brain is communicating with the legs to lift them up. So it’s a perfect exercise to teach your olders, to do any time of the day that they can do it, any time they want. But it’s all that question of driving up hard, doing it quickly, because the speed, the way the brain communicates with the legs, is the key to fall reduction.
I made mum do this twice with sets of 8 each side.

22/12/2025

Jumping off the bottom step and landing with both legs at the same time is a really great exercise for loading both the knees and hips and loading those bones. Really good for oap and osteoporotic prevention. But important, a way that we can, what we call ecentrically load the legs, which is super important for prevention, the capacity when you fall forward is really determined on the sort of if you like the breaking strength and the breaking capacity of your brain to be able to communicate with those muscle groups, to be able to act in the most appropriate way. So, a couple of tips, of course, you must see whether you are capable, number one, of jumping after the stairs. But number two, when you do jump off the stairs, I want you to land with both feet at the same time, sit back over the legs on landing and try to not make your legs move inwards towards the midline. A big mistake that most people do. So again, jump off and try and land your legs without moving your knees inwards. Now, another mistake that people make is that when they jump, when they land, the upper body immediately jumps forward, you need to try and stop that at the same time. So these are the key tips for you being able to successfully be able to jump off the bottom stairs and land in the appropriate way. Now, really depending on sort of fitness levels, etc., you don’t need to do too many of these. I like to do maybe on a day six repetitions. I might do that twice over, so 12 jumps. through the day. But that would be it because again, it’s quite an explosive moment movement. It loads the joints heavily and it also taxes the brain to be able to put the brakes on. But, jumping off the stairss occasionally is an incredibly good, easy to do as far as most people have houses, that have stairs. So you’ve got an easy piece of kit. Okay, give it a go.

12/12/2025

These are two sequences that really develop their quadrices, their muscles at their fronts of the thigh, just above the knee, and in particular, one, it’s on the medial side that we call the VMO. So super important with regards to the way we walk and reduction of fall. So it’s always something that we can be doing and you can be doing these on the floor. So the first part that I’m showing you is simply, can you get your heel off the floor? And the way to think about this is contract hard through the front of the legs. You want the knee to fully lock, but also maybe pushed down on the car a little bit, so you’re trying to lift that. Do not go any further in this unless you until you become comfortable with maybe three or four sets of 15 repetitions on either side. And if you cannot do that at all, then just put a little bit of a lift or a little bit of a padding underneath your knee to make it slightly easier. Second, when you’ve mastered that, then we’re getting you to fully lock the leg out and keep the heel off the floor, fully lock that leg out, and then lift up and straight whilst keeping your chest up. Again, we get a strong contraction isometric contraction through the front of the thighs, but then we’ve got to get the hip flexes working as well. And you’re going to get a little bit of abdominal work on this as well. So again, lifting that leg up super straight for even six repetitions comes quite difficult. So give it a go, let me know, ask me questions, and I can maybe put some answers to this one.

11/12/2025

Digestive help over Christmas
🎄 Overeating and drinking over Christmas can leave you feeling bloated, heavy and uncomfortable. Taking a little digestive support before and during meals can help soften that “post‑feast blast.”
Digestive enzyme supplements may help your body break down proteins, fats and carbohydrates more efficiently — which could mean less gas, less bloating and less fullness when meals are big or rich. Some studies show enzyme supplementation can reduce post‑meal symptoms like fullness, bloating and nausea.
Digestive bitters — whether traditional herbs like gentian, dandelion, artichoke, or a ready‑made formula — can also give digestion a gentle nudge. They stimulate taste receptors on the tongue, which signals the stomach and pancreas to release acid, bile and enzymes — priming the digestive system before food arrives.
If you try a bitters blend or enzyme formula before a big holiday meal, it might help you avoid that “food coma,” reduce bloating and feel lighter.

Reference:
PubMed: PMID 10489912
Disclaimer: Digestive Enzymes containing HCL should be used with caution if there is a prior history of or current peptic or duodenal ulcer. If discomfort occurs discontinue use. Taking supplements is at the users risk.

08/12/2025

Training, it’s always about consistency. It’s not about thinking you’re gonna break world records every time you go to gym or every time you go out for a run that’s just not how it happens. The key is making sure that however you feel, good or bad, you get out and do something. There’s something releases these magic molecules, the myokines, the exacines, and they are the gold dust for keeping you fit and healthy. So, when you get up sometimes or even most of the times, and I’d say this is me, you’re not going to have that world record session, but you need to get up consistency is key to longevity.

03/12/2025

The sp’ squat with the isometric cold. Again, you can do this with or without weight, depending on fitness levels and strength levels. You decide. And I think what you want to be starting with is a baseline of 20 seconds on the hold on each leg and then repeat three times over. So, in a sense, you’ve got six holds. It’ll take you less than five minutes to do. But, of course, this is where we bring the exercise snack in. This is what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to grab those five minutes out of the day where we can do some s significant work on ourselves. And so this position in particular is going to work the legs and the bum and the back, and in particularly the lower back on the opposite side of where you’re potentially holding a dumbbell. You’re going to get a very strong contraction there. And really, is this is just a question of making sure that your weight, particularly on your front leg, is as far back as possible on the heel and you’re trying to maintain as an upright as position as possible with your upper body. Okay, sure you’re going to lean over, you want to try and stay upright as possible. And then give it a go. Again, isometrics, really important from a point who have a contraction pattern. These exercises help to best get the most out of blood pressure reduction from exercise. And it’s just another key exercise that you can add in your toolbox that helps you on those days when you don’t think you’ve got enough time to exercise. This sequence is done in less than five minutes, so let’s get to it.

28/11/2025

Hit flexes and quadriceps can be one of those muscle groups that need motor tens with regards to shortening and needing to be stretched out over time. Main reason is because we spent so much time sitting, particularly the hip flexes will shorten over time. This is a really good standing stretch where we are bringing the heel back, but most importantly, we are tilting the pelvis down and round and upwards. And by doing that and switching on the abdominal wall and holding that, you’ll get a very significant stretch. Take your time, decide where your position is. You don’t want painful stretching, but you want to feel as though you’re in a really progressive stretch. Then, if you need to and can, you can tilt your toes back towards your shins, which is going to increase the stretch on that. It’s a really good stretch to use. I do this literally every day. I like taking about 20 seconds to complete the stretch. I don’t want any pain and I will do that at least two times either side.

26/11/2025

The capacity to hop on one leg to actually take off the floor and land in control is a real snapshot to where you are from a point of view of future proofing your risk of falls. So it’s one of the things I’m very keen to work on when we have patients when we’re working with them in the gym. And so, again, it really depends on how fit and how old you are as a question of where do you start. So for many of the people that we’re looking at, they’re just not fit enough or strong enough to start jumping on one leg. And to be fair, it’s probably dangerous if we try. So one of the things that we try to do is unload that position by allowing them to push against the table or a tableletop or even sometimes the top of a chair, just so that they’re upper body can take a lot of the load off both the lower leg and the Achilles tendon, because we want to load the Achilles tendon, but we don’t want to give it too much if you’re unaccustomed to doing this. And this is the way that we can start training the nervous system to talk to the lower legs. This is where we can put quite a bit of force through the Achilles tendon, but we can be safe with it. And this is the key is that you’ve got to start with a safe place and then you build up from the. Again, I like to work maybe laterally jumping laterally on this, so we’re hopping side to side on one leg, anywhere from 10 to 20 reps. These are going to happen quite quickly. You want to be quite explosive with it. And of course, you’re controlling the amount of force that’s going through that Achilles tendon purely by how much force you’re applying to the tabletop. And so give this a go. It’s a really wonderful way of warming you in over time, getting your lower legs and your Achilles tendons used to that sort of load and it really is helpful exercise to reduce your risk of falls. #

24/11/2025

Tiptoe lunges are a really excellent exercise that you can put into your toolbox as an exercise that’s going to help you not only to build strength through the legs and the hips and in particularly the calves, it’s also an excellent exercise for reducing your risk of falls. And the reason is, is because as you step forward, there is a lot of explosive force that goes into how you ground react when you step forward. It also is going to challenge you on a balance perspective. So again, alternating the legs, controlling the distance and controlling the load as you hit the floor, not just through your legs and hips, but also through your trunk is an important part of this exercise. Depending on fitness, depending on age, you might just want to start with a six inch step forward. That might be all you need. But of course, you’re building up to more and more length in your lunge, but also sometimes more and more for as you both hit the floor, control the action and then spring back. again, a really great exercise for reducing your risk of falls, but not just that. It’s just a great exercise for building strength, coordination, proprioception not just through the legs and hips, but through the trunk and through the calves. And a great exercise to reduce your fall risk.
Try 3 sets of alternating legs for 10-12 reps. (5-6 each side)

20/11/2025

Nitric Oxide
A gas that you might not have heard of but it’s definitely one that you should know about. It’s particularly good for heart health and as you might know, anything that is good for the heart is good for the brain. So this little molecule lasts for about 1-4 seconds and has a very significant effect on vascular health. I talk about this in my latest podcast episode with one of the world’s foremost experts on nitric oxide, Dr Nathan Bryant. Click on the podcast link in the bio to listen to this fascinating and informative episode.

18/11/2025

This is slamming squats, a really great exercise again for reducing your risk of falls. Key things. Again, make sure that you’ve got a nonslip floor, make sure that your chair or your sofa is not going to slip back, that will keep you safe. Really, what you do is you lift your legs up and then you drive into the floor, and you almost want to make that sound as you contact the floor. And you need to think about pushing the floor away. Make sure that your knees are lined up with your toes and that your knees don’t drift in when you drive up. You’re also going to feel your glutes and you’re also going to feel your tummy. And you want to work this quickly. So you want to make a noise that hits the floor and drive up and drive down. I like to do three sets, eight to ten repetitions. You don’t really need too much rest in between, and that will be another exercise that you can add to your toolbox that is going to help you reduce your risk of falls.

Pete Williams_FMA

03/01/2026

26/12/2025

22/12/2025

12/12/2025

11/12/2025

08/12/2025

03/12/2025

28/11/2025

26/11/2025

24/11/2025

20/11/2025

18/11/2025

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