Weekly Wrap up. Week 20. 2024

Hi everyone

Happy Mental Health Awareness week!

Whatever your personal mental state, I think it is an opportunity to look around us and if nothing else, learn more from the many articles and posts on this topic this week.

For my part, I embraced my own mantra of “one day? Or DAY ONE”…. I was only too aware that I was sliding into a fog of “can't be bothered and don’t want to/boo hoo, I’m tired” and had to really pull myself up by my bootstraps .

Thoroughly inspired by my running friends and having always enjoyed endurance events, (and no longer able to run), I dug my (loaned) bike out from under piles of stuff in the garage, dusted it off and hit the road. This is a whole new and terrifying territory for me, having barely sat on a road bike before as I have always been a casual “off roader”.

Needless to say, me being me, one shortish ride by myself was swiftly followed by a 20 miler yesterday with my (extremely fit, extremely road bike experienced) neighbour. I came home, lay on the sofa and could hardly move and the many tasks I had diarised for the afternoon were gone for a burton.

Anyway, I have booked my first (reasonably modest) road event and all I can say is.. “Watch this space”. Mind you - you all come on the journey with me, as the fitter and stronger I get, the harder the classes get (please see lots of laughing emojis here - cant work out how to add them on this program)!!!

So for me, it has been DAY ONE! (When do you think I can justify buying new kit?)

What’s been happening

On Wednesday I had the pleasure of going to the 90th birthday party of a dear friend who started out as one of my very first clients. Jacquie quickly became a friend and her daughter Vanessa subsequently one of my dearest friends to this day. Anyway -90! So you see - clearly it works. I was terribly impressed at how they had repurposed Jacquie’s dumbbells and were using them to hold the balloons down.

This week we beamed into homes in Madrid, Cyprus (was it Crete? Or was it both - sorry!) as well as our regular Kefalonia and France and had a guest from Virginia, USA.

We were back to lifting some hefty weight today (seriously, after my epic bike ride, I was struggling there a bit!!!) and I hope you enjoyed the power Pilates on Thursday which was classic and familiar exercises but with a bit of pace and punch. We worked on the rollers and I sneaked a couple of new moves in there and Clare’s Wednesday class was just fantastic. Hard but fantastic as always.

I do encourage you to try different classes. Clare and I will always accommodate different levels and take best care of you, offering alternatives where necessary.

What’s coming up.

We have a lovely group getting ready to head to the Isle of Wight. If you would like to join us on Thursday 30th, please let me know.

Next week, we will have some footwork and my huge apologies to Andy who asked me forever ago to record this. I am sorry and have been totally remiss. I am going to start recording a lot of classes again now that our newer members are more established and I can step away from the screen a bit but remember that you can always, always un mute and ask questions. Anyway - the library is in need of new content and Clare and I are ON IT!!

I have really enjoyed busy classes and as always, am so impressed by your commitment and hard work. (If you are reading this and haven’t been to a class for a few weeks, this doesn’t apply to you!!) Seriously though, we all KNOW that it is regular, consistent work that gets the results.

Thoughts for the weekend.

There have been a lot of quotes this week that have really appealed to me but here are just a couple -

WOMEN

After a lifetime of being told to eat less, do more cardio and starve ourselves to stay thin, women are … filling up their plates, picking up their weights and stepping into their power”

I just LOVE, LOVE that!

Finally…

Better to the be the oldest in the class lifting weights, than the youngest resident in the nursing home!

Well done everyone.

Have a great weekend x

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I know I need to lift weights but WHAT do I lift?

By juliet • September 3, 2026

As the schools go back and the weather takes a dramatic turn, there is no doubt that Autumn has invited herself along. If you need any more convincing, apparently Tesco has got Christmas foods on display. Bonkers! SUE SUE SUE - I'm sorry for those who thought I had finally lost the plot (and GREAT to see two of you laughing as much as me) as I managed to squeeze that into a class online yesterday. Still making me laugh out loud. If you havent yet seen Ann Droid on Iplayer, do yourself a favour and settle in. It has got to be one of the daftest, funniest things I have seen in a very long time, and having started to use Chat Gbt a lot more, it is uncannily accurate. I met one of our fabulous online friends for coffee this week and every time we drifted into more serious subjects, we just kept coming back to quoting lines from the series like a couple of daft kids. A great tonic if you need a bit of a lift. And so to weights... It can be really overwhelming. I saw a post recently online that said "I feel more peer pressure in my 50's to eat protein and lift weights than I ever did in my teens to take drugs"! You can't go too far without being bombarded with podcasts, documentaries, magazine articles and radio interviews all promoting the need for a healthier lifestyle and how to achieve it but it can seem too much and very confusing. We recognise that Pilates is excellent but on its own, is not enough. The ideal blend is to practise Pilates, lift weights and then also bring in your walking or running or cycling or tennis. A bit of everything really. We have already discussed the "WHY" element of lifting weights and if you are still unsure, scroll back a few weeks as I have written a few posts on this but there is no denying the many ways it helps us and I regularly get comments on where in your day to day lives you see the benefits. I LOVE this! However, we are still not sure about how heavy to go so let's try and break this down and make it easier to understand . “Heavy” is personal—it means a weight that challenges you, not a particular number on a dumbbell. As a beginner, start light enough to learn the movement and stay in control. If you’re aiming for 8–12 repetitions, the final few should feel noticeably harder, but you should still be able to complete them without swinging, rushing or changing your posture. Aim to finish feeling you could manage another two good repetitions if you had to. If you reach 12 and feel you could easily do several more, try the next small increase in weight. If you can’t reach eight without losing technique, choose something lighter. Different exercises will need different weights, so one pair of dumbbells won’t suit everything. Take time to find your starting point—there’s no rush to lift heavier, and muscle effort should never mean pushing through pain. When you are more experienced and feel more confident, you are aiming to really dig deep to finish the last couple of reps. Typically we use 8 - 12 as a guide. If you are swinging the weights about, rushing the movement or feel you could do more, you are not lifting heavy enough. If you can't maintain an appropriate posture, are holding your breath or using momentum to lift the weight, it is too heavy.

The Autumn Series and what is coming up

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Kayaks, clip boards and spinning for Prince Edward.

By juliet • July 30, 2026

As I go all things NF show for a week, I thought I would share some of the memories with you.

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Why slowing down can give us so much more.

By juliet • July 16, 2026

Slow down.... which is what I did on a fabulous day at Wimbledon!

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By juliet • July 9, 2026

WHAT a week it's been...

Route planning and going back to the fundamentals

By juliet • June 25, 2026

Firstly and most importantly, what a wonderful group we are! While several of you very sensibly chose not to travel on the hottest day ever recorded, and some of you are just too far and even overseas, we had a really great turnout for our first Summer Picnic on Wednesday. Ironically I had been searching for somewhere with shelter incase of rain - how could I have possibly known that we would need it for shade. We met in a beautiful venue, with a very welcomed sea breeze and had a great catch up over some amazing picnic offerings. It is always such a joy to bring us together and our social events are something that (as you know), I value enormously. While we continue to grow and reach ever further online, the funny thing is that we are so sociable and the more we meet up for things like this, the better connected we feel when we have a pre class chat online. The photos don't really do it justice and I apologise to those I haven't included but I chose not to use my phone too much and to just capture a few snaps of a really happy lunch. Thank you to those who came. It is always such a pleasure to see you.