Menopause is a natural phase in a woman’s life, but it often comes with unwanted changes, particularly when it comes to weight. One of the most common concerns is the accumulation of stubborn tummy fat. Hormonal changes during menopause can make it more challenging to maintain a healthy weight, but with the right approach, you can effectively shift that unwanted fat. In this post, we’ll explore the impact of hormonal changes during menopause and suggest exercises that can help you reclaim your body.

There are roughly 13 million people who are currently peri or menopausal in the UK. This roughly works out to be a third of the entire UK female population.

Running is a fantastic form of exercise, it helps to boost your cardiovascular fitness, improves your strength and maintain your weight.

There can be a worry that you’ll pick up injuries when you run, but if you plan your training carefully and have a balance between running and strength exercises you can progress well.

Times have changed recently and the idea of training to be skinny is no longer the ‘in’ look. Fortunately this mind-set has enabled training to focus on lifting weights and getting strong, without the worry of people thinking you’re too muscular.

If you don’t have a fitness watch you need to work out what your maximum heart rate is manually. This will give you a good guide as to which zones you need to be working in to get the most benefit from your training.

Do you want to get a Personal Best at Parkrun?

Yes the title comes from one of my all time favourite movies Top Gun, but speed is also important for runners too. 

Once you’re able to run a set distance, most people’s next goal is to run it faster.

As you run longer or your body gets fatigued you’ll find your running form may start to falter which can lead to poor running mechanics and injuries.

The 5 areas to focus on are:

When do you choose to exercise?

In recent years periods have become less of a taboo subject as media coverage has started to increase with top athletes talking about their periods and more research being done into the physical and mental effects on periods, hormones and exercise.

What is HR Training?

With this type of training you can forget about the pace your running at, but instead focus on what your heart rate is doing.

Depending on the type of run you’re doing will affect the heart rate zone your wanting to run in.

Heart rate training is very personal as we all have different resting heart rates and therefore different maximum heart rates. So you’ll find a beginner or a retuning to running runner will have a different maximum heart rate to somebody who is an experienced runner.  

Don’t Let Your Asthma Stop You

I was diagnosed with asthma as a teenager. I was so active and playing sports daily, I couldn’t understand why I was getting out of breath so easily and struggling to recover compared to the rest of my team mates.

Now the weather is starting to get warmer the importance of staying hydrated when your exercising is paramount.

Serious side effects can happen if you become dehydrated. They can range from:

Having a bad back can be so debilitating. It can stop you getting a good night sleep and have the knock on effect of getting you down and irritated.

When it stops you doing your normal everything things you know it’s time to do something about it.

What does sportsmanship mean to you?

Sportsmanship is “an understanding of and commitment to fair play, ethical behaviour and integrity, and general goodwill toward an opponent. It is an affirmation that an athlete is disciplined enough to have perspective, maintain poise and do what is best for his or her teammates”

We've talked in the past about ankle strength and stability, but this exercise is a fun way to see how your balance can improve.

Whenever we need to move, our body needs to balance. This can be made harder if your ankles are unstable.

A Personal Best and 5 minutes shaved off Robin Hood Half-Marathon

“The day of the Robin Hood half-marathon went better than I imagined! I felt strong, stuck to the plan, and didn’t stop running once! In past years I would have had a walking break after 8/9 miles, but this time I just kept going and going and got myself a PB! Shaving 5 mins off my previous best. All the hard work with Gemma certainly paid off and I can’t thank her enough for her continued support in helping me achieve my goal!” – Kishan Rabheru.

Shoulder pain can be a really big problem and very frustrating when it comes to exercise.

You might not realise it, but like many injuries when they happen you suddenly notice how much you use that area.

Do you ever suffer from lower back pain?

Your sacroiliac joint is a joint where your ilium and sacrum meet at the top of you pelvis and lower spine.

When dysfunction happens it is usually coupled with an element of pain in the lower back and hips.

You’d think by the time we get to our 30’s and 40’s that we’d have this old exercise thing down. We’d have figured out what to do at the gym and know the kinds of sports we enjoy.

I know life can be hectic, and finding time to fit in simple exercises can be hard. 

In business you probably already know how important it is to take a day out and work on strategy every quarter - working ON your business rather than IN it. It helps you get to your goals much faster and with a clearer route.

Makes sense, right?

So, here’s an interesting question.

As as all know, life is set to challenge us. Last week was no exception for me, so I've set a more realistic fitness challenge for you all this week. 

The plank challenge. 

Summer is my favourite season; I don’t know about you. But I’m embracing the winter, after the last year – the hats, woolly jumpers, and of course my birthday. But I’m not looking forward to the cold - the rain - and the dark mornings.

Have you been as engrossed in the Olympics as me this week?

I love watching them; it’s a great chance to see so many sports that aren’t normally in the spotlight. My favourites so far have been the BMX, Skateboarding and of course Tom Daley Diving. I can’t believe Beth Shriever had to crowdfund her own journey to the Olympics and all that hard work and determination paid off when she won Gold.

Your feet are the start of the movement chain in your body. Any issues you are likely to have in your feet, especially your arches collapsing in (over pronating), will in turn lead to other problems elsewhere.  For example knees dropping in (valgus position), or hip drops and rotations. If you link this to exercise it will give you problems when you squat. 

I have spoken in the past about aiming to run three times a week and then you other sessions can then be based on resistnace work, stretching and active recovery. 

What is it?

The Turkish Get Up is an amazing whole body exercise. It challenges every muscle in your body and gets you thinking about how your body moves during the exercise.

You’ll only ever make improvements in your training if you strategically progress it at points during your programming.

We can all be guilty of only doing exercises we like doing, especially when planning our own training or finding generic exercises on YouTube which anybody can do.

The most frustrating and devastating day I had almost 15 years ago was being told I’d never play football again by a consultant.

I’d gone through the process of having an MRI done after having months of physio from my reoccurring back injury.

I thought I’d beaten the agonising pain in my back and legs, but as soon as I started playing and working again the same feelings cropped up again.

Now that races are starting to make a slow reappearance in the calendar, training is starting to feel like it has a purpose again, other than stress relief.

This time last year me and one of my clients Cheryl, were in full training mode for the Obstacle Race World Championships, that were being held at Nuclear Races. 

It seems like a lifetime ago now, especially as this years races have been cancelled. 

We’re half way through the year now and it got me thinking about why I train and exercise and what I’m training for now.

Previously all of my training was building towards races and focusing on different obstacles that would appear on a course.

Any level of runner should be looking to incorporate cross training into their weekly sessions.

With the current government guidelines and only exercising from your front door this might mean the routes your run have changed or the distances your doing have altered to take into account  the current climate.

Doing any type of exercise is going to help build your physical fitness. Most people often forget the benefit exercise and training can have on you mentally too.

Exercise and training releases endorphins in your body which stimulate your brain, often know has the happy chemicals, which is why you feel better once you’ve trained.

It might be hard dragging yourself to the gym or going out for a run when the weather isn’t too appealing but you always feel happy and when you’ve finished.

Running helps you mentally in other ways too.

Its' important to perform running drills if you're wanting to become a more efficient runner. By doing them you'll find your improve your running speed. 

Running drills help to improve the communication between your brain and your legs, strengthen your muscles and joints, improve your coordination, agility, balance and proprioception. 

I’m going to go through what rotator cuff injuries are and how that can then lead to shoulder pain and shoulder problems.

You might think that shoulder work as a runner might be lower down on your priority. You might be thinking your legs need a bit more strength work putting into them, but your shoulders are just as important, particularly when it comes to obstacle races. It is a given that your shoulders and your upper body strength is going to be needed, particularly if you're thinking about pull-ups and monkey bars and any rig work that you might be doing, but link it back into your running form. You're going to be using the arm movement through your normal natural swing. So the positioning that you're going to be in is really important.

I'm going to go through what IT band syndrome is, you might know it as your iliotibial band, it can be shortened to IT band, ITB syndrome, ITBS. It’s a common over use injury that leads to a thickening of the connective tissue that runs from your hip to your knee. And as that thickens, that causes the tightness, tensions and inflammation within that area, which then leads to the pain in your knee. Your IT band helps to stabilize your knee joint, it stops that rotational movement happening. When it gets weakened, that's when it becomes painful.

We're going to look a little bit today about what is runner's knee. Commonly, this is when you're getting pain at the front of your knee when you're running.

Orthotics are inserts you put in your shoes and they’re designed to support your foot. They can change the way your foot performs, specifically looking at the degree of pronation. There are a variety of orthotics on the market ranging from custom made to the generic off the shelf type.

I always like to praise my clients for the accomplishments they achieve, no matter how big or small they are.

A number of my clients this year have wanted to take on new challenges and for them in meant upping the distances they were running to include marathons and ultra-marathons and events.

I’m sure most of you in the Obstacle Racing scene will have over the last few weeks been hearing non stop about the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships.

If you haven’t and wonder what it is all about, it’s an amazing event where countries from all over the world come together to celebrate and test themselves amongst some of the great OCR athletes out there.

What is Runners Knee?

It can be your worst fear as a runner getting injured and not being able to train or race. Often getting knee, shin or foot pain you can it put to the back of your mind and hope that it’ll go away. But unfortunately that is never the case. In most circumstances if you ignore the problem it is only going to get worse. 

I've been all go this week with work and this weekend was a family party so it gave me a chance to properly sit back and relax and look back on this last year. 

Time has flown by and to think that I've been in the studio for 1 year has been amazing. Lots of clients have stepped through the doors all set on challenging themselves with the events they have planned and want to build their fitness for. For some its just been to get focused again and needing that friendly and supportive environment to exercise in. 

This year has seen me become more focused with my training and to do that I booked my place at the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships. Training has been going well, I've hit a few stumbling blocks along the way, one little niggle I have at the moment is with my shoulder and neck, which is stopping me from training quite as hard as I want to.

I'm going to go over why you might want a personal trainer and what's involved in a personal training session, in case you've ever wondered.

Obstacle Course Racing (OCR) is a great way to challenge your fitness whether you’re looking to take part in your first OCR or are a seasoned racer.

At our Personal Training Studio in West Bridgford, Nottingham we have many clients who want to improve their strength and fitness and take part in our OCR Training Programme.

Some of you may have seen my training videos and making the most of training outside and using the boys swing frame in the garden to practise my pull ups and grip strength work.

I’m sure loads of you think this is crazy training in this weather, but for me it marks the start of my next goal.

How Long Can You Hold A Dead Hang?

A dead hang is a straightforward exercise that simply involves hanging from an overhead bar for as long as possible. It’s a great way to develop grip strength and can help you master pull ups.

It's Gemma here From Fundamental Sports and Fitness. In this video, we're just going to go over and cover what running pace is. I know that it can be quite a confusing topic, so it's really thinking about the time it takes you to cover a specific distance, whether that's 5K through to a marathon. Your pace will vary differently depending on what distance you're running. If your 5K pace is going to be a lot quicker, than your marathon pace because of the distance that you're going to be covering.

As many of you know my Auntie and Uncle were running the London Marathon this year for Children with Cancer UK. They had set themselves a mammoth challenge of raising £8k for them, this was smashed on the day the total had already exceeded £11k which is amazing.

They had put in all the training and hard work building up to The London Marathon and sometimes the plan going a little off track as everyday life, work and families often decided to throw a spanner in the works but come to think of it, whose plan ever goes 100% successfully.  

Have you ever thought that you need to change your training and always put it off?

You either feel you haven’t got the time or you’re happy to keep going as you are?

I know the feeling, to keep going in the usual routine can feel comfortable and you know what is coming.

However sometimes something happens that forces you to have to make a change. Whether that’s the feeling of burning out with work or at home, or the little niggle that you’ve been putting off that you think will ‘go away’ on its own becomes a more persistent injury.  This then forces you to re-evaluate what you need to do.

This is a great challenge to take you into the new year and a good exercise to look at the explosive power in your legs. 

Over the last few years lots of gyms and got more plyobox's available for you to use.

Depending on how kind they are will mean they either have the softer foam boxes or the hard wooden box more metal step, which are likely to leave you with some nice cuts or bruises is you misjudge the height you're jumping.

It has been a long process and many of you have been involved with the development of the studio, from the early ideas in a note book to the realisation during the summer that I could get my own premises in West Bridgford for a Personal Training Studio.

Now we've up up and running for over a month and the feedback I've had has been amazing.

This is a great question and one that loads of clients ask. 

Its like the holy grail of training, everybody wants to know how long you can Plank for. 

As a runner your hip flexors are one of the common muscle groups that becomes tighter and can cause a number of problems if left untreated. 

Not sure what or where your hip flexors are?

They are the group of muscles that help to bend forwards at the hips and raise your leg you your waist. 

They include these muscles in your body

• Iliopsoas
• rectus femoris
• tensor fasciae latae
• sartorius

Your hip flexors don't just get tight from running, if you have a desk based job or do a lot of driving this can also be a problem as your hip is in a flexed position and this can lead to the muscle getting shorter before you have exercised and put any tension through it. 

Lots of you know the my story of why I became a PT after seriously injuring my back and being told I would never play football again by a consultant.

Fortunately for me, my Physio at the time was amazing and helped me to see a silver lining to it all and we changed the way I trained and found different sports for me to do, gradually building up the strength in by back and whole body.

This is the approach I take with a lot of my clients.

This weekend saw me take on my first Spartan Race. Despite the very hot weather which pretty much meant any type of running or jogging was out of the question, I loved it. 

What a busy couple of weeks. last week I took sometime away to spend with my family. We took Monty to Peppa Pig World and went into the New Forest for some exploring. It was great to recharge the batteries and see the excitement on his face as he met Peppa and George and trying out new activities.

We always have extremes of weather in the UK and coping with running in the heat can be a challenge.

This winter was freezing and for everybody that knows me, will be fully aware I wrap up warm and have a million layers on in the winter.

Compared to the Summer, when its shorts and t shirt weather and being outside for as much as possible.

It's been a busy few weeks with all of us at Fundamental Sports and Fitness.

With the weather finally getting nicer it's heading into busy race season. Clients  are racing most weekends now, the weekend just gone saw Cheryl take on her first OCR of the year at Reaper. She's worked hard over the winter in our Blast Programme to make sure her shoulder has recovered and her injuries from last year are well and truly behind her.

How's your training gone this week, I can't believe we're 3 months into the year and race season is nearly upon us.

Last week you'll have seen me post on my Facebook page about the success Glenn has had on our group training and how he is managing his osteoarthritis and using training to his advantage. If you haven't already seen his story go and check it out.

As today is pancake day and tomorrow is valentines day and you all know I love a good challenge so here it is for you.

12 people this weekend came to my SOLD OUT workshop, and left with exercises they could take into their training to get the fitter and stronger. Most of them had come of the back of being injured or were worried they were going to get injured as they increased their training over the next few months as they build up to the bigger distances.

This week, I have a challenge for you and it'll keep you busy over the Christmas break.

Have you ever wanted to improve your upper body strength?

Some of you may have heard about how I got into coaching, many think its because I love sport and competing, which yes that is a big reason.

Lots of my clients come to me wanting and knowing they need to strengthen their core.

You might have seen some of my videos last week about me starting training and having a Biomechanics assessment completed by Tiff at Ridefit Academy, if you want to find out more check out some of the videos I've done and if you're looking to be able to move better, drop me a message.

Who has seen the exciting news yesterday, when it was announced that the Obstacle Course Racing World Championships is going to be held in the UK for 2018!

This week I'm going to share with you how to increase your pace when you're running.

First off this week is a MASSIVE congratulations to everybody who took part in the Robin Hood Half and Marathon at the weekend. Seeing all of the pictures and hearing all about it is so inspirational and great to see so many people support and cheer along the course.

Do you ever get nervous or embarrassed at the start of a race?

Ever felt like you've been hit by a train after a race?

I took part in Mud7 at the weekend, what an amazing event and boy does my body know about it. I eyed up this race last year and had it on my radar as a goal to complete this year.

I'm sure most of you want to look and feel good when your racing and taking part in an event.

What’s one of your biggest fears when you’re out running?

This week I'm going to tell you a story, all about whether you perceive yourself as being strong or weak.

Over the weekend and epic bunch of ladies took part in The Suffering Race aiming to get LEGEND status.

Wow its been a scorcher the last few days.

There are many pieces to the puzzle when it comes to running. You think you have it all sussed and making progress, then all of a sudden you’re halted in your tracks and struggling to see any progress.

If you are a runner, you have possibly trained almost all the muscles you need to achieve speed, power, and endurance while running. However, do you know that your butt also plays a very important role in your movement? Yes, it's not only there for aesthetic purposes! Before we talk about the function of the glutes, it is only prudent to know their basic structure.

This is often a hot topic in the OCR world and like anything there are pros and cons for everything.

What Are Shin Splints And How Can You Treat It?

It's that time of the month where I set you guys a challenge to do.

What a weekend!

Knee Pain From Running

Interestingly enough, most people who complain about knee injury caused by running are not runners themselves. They usually make it seem that knee injuries are inevitable for runners and that runners are literally running their knees to the ground with every step. However, knee injuries are not inevitable, though they are common and can be easily corrected. Knee pain should not cause you to automatically quit running.

A few weeks a go I put a video out on Facebook. Did you get a chance to watch it?

How You Can Avoid Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis, also known as jogger's heel is a disorder that results in pain at the bottom of the foot and heel. It derives its names from the plantar fascia, which is the flat band of tissue (ligament) connecting your heel to your toes. When strained, this ligament becomes irritated, swollen and weak, resulting in sharp pain that is experienced in the onset of exercise, or movement after a  prolonged rest period.

Here's How To Avoid Cramps When Running And Exercising

If you have seen a runner stop dead in their tracks, taken completely by surprise by a jolt of pain, chances are that the cause is a muscle cramp. A cramp occurs when a muscle suddenly contracts violently and remains balled up in a tight knot that is very painful. The contraction is so strong that you will most likely feel sore at that point the next day. It happens to runners, swimmers, and cyclists mostly and most endurance athletes have experienced a cramp at least once during training.

Its a hot topic this week in the obstacle racing world.

Do you get lower back pain when you exercise?

Lower back pain is a common condition among both professional athletes and amateurs. It has been said that about 80 percent of adults have experienced back pain at some point in their lives. Many of these injuries come from overtraining, poor posture, inadequate conditioning or a combination of these. Most back pains are quick to heal though persistent strain can lead to more long-term conditions.

I have a challenge for you. I'm going to be getting my clients to take up the challenge too. Are you up for it?

This month I want to see how long you can hold a wall squat for. It's a super simple exercise to do as the only equipment you need is a flat piece of wall or a door.

Mobility Work: How Does It Help Performance?

Have you ever struggled to fit in training with work or trying to justify going to the gym and training along with other expenses.

If you are a runner, you have probably asked yourself what else you could possibly do to enhance your running. Also, if you are stuck in the house and you do not have access to a treadmill, you may be one very unhappy runner. Well, you should supplement running with strengthening and conditioning exercises. These have several benefits such as:

Have you seen the videos on my Facebook page from yesterday?

If you've caught my live videos over the last week on Facebook, many of you'll already know I had a frustrating week.

Strength Training Basics

Strength training, in a nutshell, is the use of resistance to build strength. This is done through muscular contraction which also builds anaerobic endurance and the size of skeletal muscles.

For me this weekend has been lovely, I've been able to spend loads of time with my family.

What Is Hypertrophy Training?

Hypertrophy training, also referred to as Hypertrophy-Specific Training (HST) is a method of strength training designed to induce the fastest rate of muscle growth (hypertrophy) without the use of anabolic steroids or reducing the efficacy of your muscles over an extended time period. Believe it or not, methods of inducing hypertrophy were discovered and tested in a laboratory. Principles obtained from the tests were then organized into a weight training routine aimed at inducing hypertrophy.

You see this type of clothing all the time in the gym and at races.

What is Endurance training?

When I think about endurance training, what immediately pops into my mind is an elastic band. Imagine a child playing with a colourful elastic band, stretching it then releasing it several times. If you have a child, you know that this can happen for hours at a time and if the elastic band is one of good quality, it will not break.

How many of you have tried the TRX Plank challenge? If you've kept an eye on our Facebook Page you'll have noticed the guys working with me have been up to the challenge this week. Topping the leaderboard at the moment is Trudi with a massive 1min32sec, she's that determined to beat her own score she is going to be joining us on the 6 Week Blast Programme.

Last week I told you all about Cheryl and how she took on her fear of heights at The Obstacle Gym walking across the high beam.

How was your weekend, how many of you were at Tough Guy?

The pictures and videos look good, hearing about people getting stuck in the car park at the end not so good.

One of my clients Cheryl, has been taking part in the 6 Week Blast Programme was there at the weekend, I'm looking forward to seeing her tonight in the session and hearing all about it as well as her showing off her medal to everybody.

As most of you know at the weekend I held another Pull Up workshop.

From the moment launched the new date it was fully booked that morning!

These ladies were quick to act and they were amazing.

We are now a couple of weeks into 2017 and I’m sure many of you have set New Year’s resolutions and are on track with them. It is great to look at client’s updates on Facebook of their workouts and comparing the miles they are racking up on their Fitbits and various other trackers. You are all smashing your virtual runs.

This is one question that I'm getting asked loads at the moment by my clients.

This week I have a challenge for you.

I have recovered from my race and the the bruises have finally gone down, my legs no longer look like they have been kicked.

I love the fact we are finally getting some sunny days to get out and about, it makes my mornings so much easier to get up, does anybody else find that?

Although the 4 weather systems I experienced on Saturday made me question is summer nearly here. We went to Sherwood Pines for a walk, plus gives me a chances to look at the people on GoApe and the Segways.

I'm sure you will have all heard about your 'core' by now and how important it is to keep it strong in everyday life and the vital role in plays within exercise.

The thing to remember your core isn't just about your abs and having a six pack.

For his latest film Deadpool, Ryan Reynolds completed intense training with his Personal Training Bobby Storm, even if he has commented it is only a fraction of what Hugh Jackman has to do for Wolverine.

Reynolds transformed his body for his role in Blade Trinity, piling on the muscle and reducing his body fat percentage, this background meant he knew the hard work he would have to put in to create the character Deadpool. He focused a lot on functional fitness, using equipment like the TRX, BOSU bands to work his core muscles. This was incorporated with kickboxing to add in the martial arts and strengthening and stretching with yoga.

At the moment I am trying out new experiences and different ways to exercise. I have always been into adventure and although I love playing football and team sports, I like doing things that will challenge myself. I think this is why I like surfing and skiing.

There are lots of different options for you to choose from and the market is currently flooded with lots of choices for you enticing you to buy their drinks to give you lots of energy, stop you aching and build muscle. I am going to help you decide if you need any of them when you exercise, for this blog I am going to focus on recovery drinks and protein shakes.

As the cold weather is setting in, what to wear in the winter months for training can be a difficult decision.

Its only 5 weeks until Christmas, for many of you that can mean your competitive games are well under way and you are looking forward to seeing the mid season stats, but it can also mean that the weather is affecting your training and games and you are lacking consistency in your fitness.