3 Ways to Improve Your Balance

3 Ways to Improve Your Balance

Balance work becomes important as you get older in the context of falls prevention i.e. the better you are at balance work will reduce the likelihood of falling and breaking a bone. Bone health is one of the aspects of fitness that is potentially impacted by the...
3 Ways YouTube can help you Exercise

3 Ways YouTube can help you Exercise

YouTube has a phenomenal amount of free fitness and exercise videos that can help you on your fitness journey after the menopause. Here are 3 ways YouTube can help you improve your fitness: PlaylistsCreating playlists helps you easily organise and therefore find...
Why I Don’t set New Year Resolutions Anymore

Why I Don’t set New Year Resolutions Anymore

Why I don’t set new year resolutions anymore January is a time of possibilities.January is a big month in the fitness industry. Social Media and your mailbox is probably full of offers and possibilities. Online programmes on topics and areas that you had no idea were...
Is your self-care to-do list stressing you out?

Is your self-care to-do list stressing you out?

When I set myself a deadline for complete the paperwork for my Yoga Teacher Training. It was more work than I thought. Instead of extending the deadline, I worked harder, to the point where I stopped my regular self-care habits to fit it in. I’m sure you have done...
How the Elements can help how you Exercise

How the Elements can help how you Exercise

The idea of using the elements to fuel my workouts came from being post menopause and the loss of an internal rhythm of when to push and when to rest. I’m exploring how to exercise with a different kind of rhythm that comes from nature. How can the elements help how...
Exercise Guilt Post Menopause

Exercise Guilt Post Menopause

The menopause may have affected how you exercise. It is not linear process and may be a ‘normal’ rite of passage for a woman but that doesn’t mean it’s not been massively disruptive. If you are struggling to start exercising again after the menopause you may have been...
3 Ways to Improve Your Quad Stretch

3 Ways to Improve Your Quad Stretch

Your quads are the big group of muscles at the front of your legs and they can often get tight from sitting a lot. If your quads are tight, you may notice it around your knee joint which is one end of the muscle group. The other end is your hips so they are a good all...
Organising Your Online Workout Videos Journal

Organising Your Online Workout Videos Journal

Spend your time working out, not searching the web for the one video you want but can’t remember its name! Organising your online videos is a new thing  that has come out of the vast amount of fitness videos that are available to us online. When you are working...
Fitbit – Not Just For Counting Steps

Fitbit – Not Just For Counting Steps

You may think a Fitbit is just for counting your steps. It does a great job of that. The ‘reminders to move’ can make a big difference to help regularly nudge you off your desk. Conversely, I know that it’s also the reason that puts women off using it, as it feels...
3,650,000 Steps A Year

3,650,000 Steps A Year

You are probably quite familiar with the guideline to walk 10,000 steps a day. What isn’t quite as well known is that this adds up to 3,650,000 steps a year Last year I walked 3,135,749 steps. Which sounds a lot and it is, but it was also down on the last few years...
Why Set Exercising Deadlines Post Menopause

Why Set Exercising Deadlines Post Menopause

Deadlines are a great way of helping you figure out what your priorities are and how much time you have. Being curious about whether you take action or not will help you to work out out how to workout v5.0 Samantha Valand is a Pilates teacher, Yoga Instructor and...
Some Things Never Change and Some Things Do

Some Things Never Change and Some Things Do

I think we have all been through some changes in the last few years. Some things have changed for me and some things have stayed the same 💊 I saw the matrix 4 over the festive break and oh how I’ve missed big screen movies 🍿 🧘‍♀️I came across yin yoga on YouTube when...
Ubiquitous Push ups

Ubiquitous Push ups

Ubiquitous Push ups. Doesn’t seem to matter what type of exercise you do; push ups are there in some shape or form! Mastering you push ups will ripple into all sorts of areas in your fitness life. This video has 9 ways that push ups may appear and why they are one of...
Falling in Love With Exercise Again After The Menopause

Falling in Love With Exercise Again After The Menopause

Your relationship with exercising has changed throughout your menopause. Things you loved and found easy to do slowly became hard work and a chore. Now you are looking at exercise again with fresh eyes and a new start. You are ready to fall in love with exercise again...
Are You Planning To Get Older?

Are You Planning To Get Older?

We plan our retirement decades in advance by paying into a pension. Do you think about your physical health in the same way?Most of us do not which means it is not until we ‘need’ to; we start to think about exercise as a way of improving our wellbeing and to help us...
3 Multi-tasking Exercises That May Slow Your Progress

3 Multi-tasking Exercises That May Slow Your Progress

Familiarity with an exercise or a stretch may often result in you tuning out the cues your exercise instructor is giving you. Because “I know that already”When really, they are great exercises to help you practice noticing what feels different today. It can be...
Push up Fitness Test Over Fifty Fitness

Push up Fitness Test Over Fifty Fitness

One reason to work on improving your push-ups is that part of fitness testing. You can use industry guidelines for your age to measure the number of full push ups you can do in a minute This is a simple way to track your strength and fitness over fifty 40 -49 50...
My Favourite Books 2021

My Favourite Books 2021

This year I read  77 books.  Not as many as last year, but who’s counting! The vast majority I loved and have listed some of my favourite books below. I love reading about other peoples favourites, so I hope you enjoy mine! The Land Beyond the Sea by Sharon...
When you have a spare 5 minutes

When you have a spare 5 minutes

What do you do when you have a spare 5 minutes? These days most of us will just straight onto our phones and scroll thru social media to see what’s new! How does it make you feel? Harrased or calm? If you are time poor is that best use of your time? What else could...
3 Ways to Stretch Like a Pro

3 Ways to Stretch Like a Pro

Staying supple is an important aspect of exercising. Here are 3 ways to help you stretch like a pro, and get the most out of your time at the gym Timer One of the most common things I see in the gym, is that people don’t stretch for long enough. It’s usually 1,2, miss...
3 Ways to Improve Yogi Squat

3 Ways to Improve Yogi Squat

You can’t read about the yogi squat without reading what a great functional exercise it is, and how it should be a stable in your exercise list. This is all true, but it also an exercise which for many women requires prep work first. It is also an exercise which may...
Getting Your Steps in When You Work From Home

Getting Your Steps in When You Work From Home

Getting your steps in when you work from home, changes when the season changes. 10,000 steps is general guidance, but you may do more or less depending on your circumstances My walking priority after October is sunshine. I live in Scotland and we have short days over...
3 Ways to improve Savasana

3 Ways to improve Savasana

Savanna is the last pose in a yoga class and often described as the most difficult! This post has 3 ways to help improve Savasana. As with any exercise, it’s important to know why you are doing it. This is personal to you and hopefully more than ‘I was told too!’...
Too Young for Post-Menopause?

Too Young for Post-Menopause?

I was speaking to a lovely lady last week, and we started chatting about the menopause as you do. She thought I was too young to be post-menopause. Which sounds like a compliment, but I think we need to normalise the fact that the menopause is not about age or getting...
9 Reasons to Track Your Exercise Habits

9 Reasons to Track Your Exercise Habits

9 Reasons to Track Your exercise Habits When you are exercising in your fifties, it can feel like starting from at the beginning again. How you exercised before the menopause is not how you are exercising now Figuring out what you like and also what likes you!...