Weekly Wrap up. Week 32.2024. Dedication's what you need!

'If you want to be the best, if you want to beat the rest, dedication's what you need'.

I remember Roy Castle singing those words at the end of every episode of The Record Breakers. I loved that program. Some jaw dropping, some defying the realms of possibilities and some just plain bonkers.

This last week, Basketball fans have highlighted comments from Australian Jack McVeigh. Famous for posting motivational quotes, this time he was the focus of criticism after he appeared to take a public swipe via Twitter against his wife. While she posted that he was so talented, he strongly objected and said "It's not talent, it's dedication." While possibly not tactful, I do get his point.

As I (like many of you) continue to watch every second I can of the Olympics, we only see the final performance. We don't get to see the 7 days a week early alarms, the training no matter what the weather, the missing out on family and friends' celebrations, the blood, sweat and tears. We sort of know about that but we don't really think about the boring, every single day, repetitive training that leads to the world stage. The many sacrifices and relentless work. As Usain Bolt said, "I trained for 4 years to run 9 seconds".

The training is so time consuming and that is what causes most lesser mortals to give up. In my own humble experiences of running and walking marathons and a few other bits and bobs, it was the training that took up so much time. Factoring in the actual physical training but also recovery and rest and then being tired and not feeling up to going out to see friends. I cannot even begin to imagine what it must be like to live like that, month after month. Be it sport, music, ballet.... the commitment to train and practise, no matter what.

I have read many, many sporting autobiographies and I am always fascinated by the behind the scenes stories. How they train, the fuelling and nutrition, the kit, managing injury and physical and emotional exhaustion and so on. So many are also holding down full time jobs or are students.

Helen Glover talked about how for her first Olympics training she would go to bed every afternoon for 2 hours sleep between training sessions but with small children that was just not an option for subsequent training. I have read Paula Radcliffe and Roger Federer also talk about the need for 10 hours sleep a night on top of afternoon naps- how do you do that if you are still holding down a job, doing a degree or so on?

These athletes are training 2 and maybe 3 times A DAY. Is it any wonder that so many fall by the wayside because they cannot sustain that pace and why we are now hearing more from world class athletes about the impact on their mental well being.

I read Matthew Pincent's autobiography years ago, about training for the Olympics while doing a degree. Getting up for rowing training often in the dark before going to lectures and then again rowing or in the gym in the evenings, missing weddings of best friends and family and nights in the pub with mates, in order to get that cherished Gold medal. He spoke about being pushed in training so that when they finished the time trial or whatever, falling off the indoor rowing machines and being physically sick. Frequently. Can you imagine pushing yourself to that state? I saw a post on social media about a prima ballerina who looked so absolutely perfect, immaculate and beautiful on stage. Then she shows you her bruised legs when she takes her tights off, her battered, taped and misshapen feet, the surgical tape across her shoulders under her leotard. That is the reality.

Andy Murray talked about the reality of being on the tour and away from home for over 40 weeks a year. Every year of his career. That is quite an extreme way of life.

I do find it fascinating however, to learn the different ways athletes, in particular, fine tune their performance. Michael Phelps trained 800m Butterfly once a week without goggles for the preparation of a goggles failure and in the 2008 Olympics, when his goggles did indeed fill with water, thanks to his training, he continued on his way to a new medal and a new world record despite no vision. Watchign the marathon open water swimming, the commentator was explaining how most of the competitors will train with blacked out goggles so that they learn to swim in dead straight lines for when vision is so limited.

During lockdown and with limited resources, Scott Lincoln, the nine times shot put British champion was seen pushing a truck up and down his street, over and over to keep up his strength and moving sideways into music, I read that in order to fully prepare her fitness for her global Era's tour, Taylor Swift sang through her entire set of songs while running on a treadmill daily.

Simone Biles trains for 32 hours a week with one day off. Dedication - that extra 1% that only a few possess. How many things in our life do we fob ourselves off by saying "Oh I could never do that" and yet, if we practised over and over daily... what on earth could we achieve! I'm not saying we give 32 hours a week or twice a day, but imagine if you committed to "that thing" and practised several times a week - but then you would need to really love "that thing" and really want the result too.

I copy a post here that I saw this week that I feel really sums it up- "Nothing derails people's fitness goals like their need for instant gratification. Our lifestyles and technology have us so conditioned that we want everything NOW - and our bodies do not work that way. Our phones do. Amazon Prime does. But our bodies? not so much. Our physiology does not care how quickly we want things. It works on it's own schedule but if we stay consistent (and patient) there is almost nothing our bodies cannot do" - Danny Matranga.

Mind you, it can also go very wrong. A hundred years ago, back in my very early days of show jumping, the international rider Caroline Bradley was local to our yard and was well known for her unbelievable drive. I saw myself as she regularly arrived at events in one lorry followed by a groom in a second. She competed all day on 10 horses or so and it was not unusual for her to drive back home, arriving late in the evening, to step out of one lorry, climb straight into another already prepped and ready and drive off across country for the next day's event. She tragically died of a heart attack at 37 years old while at the top of her game, paying the ultimate price. So determined to succeed and giving 100% every day and that is just not possible. A massive and tragic loss for someone so determined to be the best.

If you want to talk determination and what the body can acheive and never giving up and dedication then PLEASE do yourself a favour and watch NYAD (available on Netflix). One of the most inspiring true stories I have seen in a very long time not least because this isn't some twenty something athlete. Also note that to take part in this role, a 64 year old Annette Benning trained for a whole YEAR with an Olympic swimmer and her body certainly shows it. By the time of filming, she was conditioned sufficiently to swim up to 6 hours at a time! Again... if you want something enough.....

Slightly more light hearted but rather staggering - Did you read the post this week about GB athlete Jacob Fincham - Dukes who had to ask his boss for time off work - he says his boss asked why and he said "err - I need to take part in the long jump at the Olympics" and having made the final, says he needs to be back at work on Friday (today!)

HOW ON EARTH do you live like that? How do you come back down after that?!

I think us mere mortals tend to want the easy and quick option. Taking a pill rather than doing the rehab? I love the stories in the papers that scream out "I PROVED MY DOCTORS AND THE EXPERTS WRONG".... and while a recovery is of course absolutely wonderful, how many times can it be linked to a life overhaul such as changing diet, cutting out the toxic processed food and alcohol, losing weight, committing to the rehabilitation and so on. If we all actually DID what we were advised for improving that dodgy knee or malfunctioning shoulder, how much better would we be but often do we not do a few days, get bored and sort of rely on hoping things will get better. Over the years, I have often prescribed specific exercises and stretches to help with issues and I just love it when someone says "You know that exercise you advised I do? It actually worked!" - really? well, how about that!!

I always find it fascinating that as a generalisation, we prefer to pay someone else to knead and pull and push us better than to do our own rehab daily to prevent the need for that visit in the first place.

I shared on social media, a post from Novak Djokovic who in answer to a question about how athletes manage stress, talked about the importance of proper breath and being present. Simone Biles talks about her daily meditation and after well publicised mental health problems, Adam Peaty has become deeply religious. Dear Andrea Spendolini Sirieix became so emotional in her interview after her finals but she is just 19 years old. I could not believe that one of the "women" skateboarders is 11. ELEVEN! That just doesn't feel right to me.

Listen, if someone had stuck a microphone under my nose when I crawled over the finish line at last year's Moonwalk, I would have just sobbed probably. I most certainly would not have been able to give an interview! I was too busy looking for a cup of tea and some chocolate.

What about all the thousands of other athletes who are training and competing but just didn't make the team. You have to be so mentally strong to accept that and get up in the morning and keep pushing for the next challenge.

I wonder. I am not for a single moment taking away from these athletes incredible abilities but I do honestly think that it is the endless daily grind that sets them apart. Let's face it - I have been trying my best to keep us motivated and ticking over for a 6 week holiday season!! I have even offered exercise snacks of 10 mins and we all know that sense of "Ill start on Monday/after Christmas/next week/when the kids are back at school"... maybe that is why we are here and not in Paris!!

For me, that is what is so fascinating. The phycology and the mental stamina that sets them apart and enables them to just keep going.

Got to be honest though - just watching that race walking makes my hips hurt and I still don't get the BMX or the skateboarding! Bring in netball I say!

I find it so interesting, the different shapes and sizes of the athletes. Doesn't it go to show that with training, how we can change and fine tune our bodies? I mean, all the divers are a similar shape, the cyclists are so alike and so on. You can almost guess at some of the disciplines by the physiques of the participants. Give or take, it shows that if you train enough, you can really adapt your physical shape. (Not so sure about the teeeeeny, weeeeeeny little pants though... I think no matter what my shape was, I would be Bridget Jones pants all the way - got to say it's quite brave to run the 400m final in little more than dental floss)

I am a lifelong sports addict so this summer has been an absolute joy for me with the Euros, Wimbledon and now the Olympics but I always want to learn more. I have so enjoyed the commentary - how fabulous were the combo of Becky, Mark and Clare on the swimming? I really enjoy learning about the different sports and disciplines. I have also learned a few other things though, such as apparently a 51 year old man can be taken seriously while competing against children on a skateboard, and having a large penis can spoil your pole vault success. Who knew?

Of course it isn't just sport though. I remember the story about legendary violinist Isaac Stern. A keen fan accosted him after a concert and gushed "Oh my goodness, I would give my whole LIFE to be able to play like that".. "Madam" he spat out "That is exactly what I did"....

Going back to The Record Breakers though - My parents always used to throw a party around Christmas time and one year, my sister, my best friend and I stayed up all night making mince pies. For some reason I forget, my parents were friends with one of the McWhirter twins (the experts on every subject on The Record Breakers) and we were determined to make a record breaking amount of mince pies as he was coming. He was terribly kind but said that we had not achieved a record. To this day, I feel that was a little unfair as he didn't even count them. I do know it was many years before I could look at a mince pie again and I seem to remember bags of them in the freezer for ever.

Clearly we did not have the necessary dedication.

I did take part in a world record breaking synchronised swimming event 2 years ago in the sea baths in Penzance. It was a fund raiser for people of Ukraine. I can tell you 2 things about this. There is absolutley nothing fun about getting back into the water multiple times in a wet swimsuit for all the rehearsals and synchronised swimming is unbelivably hard! Never again will I undersestimate the strength of those immaculatley turned out swimmers. Did you SEE the USA team. doing the Moonwalk to Michael Jakson's Smooth Criminal?

Incidentally, my late bother Adrian Nicholas did however, make the Guinness book of World Records for sky diving but that is another story.

A little thought -

The information on the front of the food packaging is designed to sell the product.

The information on the back is designed to tell you the truth.

The unhealthiest people read the front of the packaging first.

The healthiest people read the back of the packet first.

And finally -

We don't stop moving because we grow old. We grow old because we stop moving.

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes. That includes yourself.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

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Be your own world champion!

By juliet • May 14, 2026

Last weekend was a recognition of some huge achievements. On Friday I, like millions, watched the BBC concert to celebrate Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday. What an incredible man who has done so much for our planet and all it’s inhabitants. I found it hugely moving and reminisced about all the years his familiar voice boomed out of our TV screen as my own children grew up watching his documentaries. Of course me being me, I was instantly drawn to how many times he stood up… sat down… stood back up… I also later saw video footage of him arriving in the car outside The Royal Albert Hall and alighting from it totally unaided and just like during the concert, standing up and siting down with control and balance. My goodness me, if ever there was a lesson right there to never just let your brain turn to mush! While some are in such a rush to retire, he is a superb example of how beneficial it is to have a passion, to keep your mind and body active, to find something you love and to commit to it. Wasn’t it great to see that little clip of him, days away from celebrating 100 years, still working, recording the new Blue Planet! Despite his global fame and unparalleled success, he remains still so humble, so gentle and respectful. We could all benefit from being a bit more David. Onto Badminton Horse trials and to see the remarkable Ros Canter (as people have cracked the Romeo jokes to me all my life, how she must cope, I can’t imagine) winning Badminton and going on to to make history with Lordships Graffalo as the first same rider /horse partnership to win Badminton together 3 times. Not only that but she had a baby just 12 weeks ago!! To be so composed and deliver such stimulating interviews before she had even taken her riding hat off with her baby coo’ing on her hip and young daughter wrapped around her leg… what dedication to her sport. Keeping it real, she had to dash off just before her dressage test to express milk as her boobs were too big. Love it! Then the BAFTA’s on Sunday and while Adolescence predictably swept the boards, it was Martin Lewis’ speech on receiving a special award that moved me. He spoke of how he found out he had been nominated 42 years to the day after his mother had died when he was 12, and I quote “For six years, barring school, I barely left the house, and now I am picking up a BAFTA” He then spoke bravely and a little tearfully to tell whoever was watching that yes, you can turn your life around, you can fight your demons and find your way back (and being the brilliant human that he is, he finished his speech on the primetime platform he had, to bash the chancellor over student fees). How brave and what a strong message. Another big character devoting himself to sharing his passion and educating others. Earlier last week, Rachel Entrekin made history by beating both men and women to win the Cocodona ultra marathon in Arizona. "What is that" you might well ask! Well, recognised as one of the world’s toughest ultras, it is 253 miles long including numerous elevations and desert. She tells of surviving on mashed potatoes (easy to swallow, don’t waste energy on chewing) and 19 minutes’ sleep over 56 hours. What an unbelievable achievement - to keep pushing when everything in your body is screaming at you to stop. The power of the mind over the body. However, was it not put into perspective if, like me, you happened to watch The Antiques Roadshow, presenting on Sunday at Bletchley park, based around artefacts and memories from WW2. What exceptional men and women who performed acts of unimaginable courage and selflessness. Their stories deserve to be heard over and over again. Simple, everyday folk who found themselves in uniform, fighting for their country. Can we even begin to imagine? We can’t all break world records or win awards. We can’t all expect stratospheric careers and global success. However, we can all change our lives and impact those around us, in even the smallest ways. I think if we look back and reflect on experiences we have survived, we can ALL think of challenges and situations we thought we could never get through, times that seemed never ending, pain that seemed too much to bear. Yet here we are. We are all warriors. We are all world champions in our own lives. It can be easy to overlook our achievements but helpful to reflect sometimes in order to see how brilliant we all are. Maybe you had the courage to leave a job or friendship or even a marriage that made you unhappy. Maybe you finally took up that activity or started that project you had always put off as you were scared of failing. Maybe you just finally learned to say no sometimes. All big wins in their own right and all worthy of celebrating, even quietly and privately. I was determined to clear and organise the chaos that is my garage. Stored furniture, xmas decs I don’t want any more: you know how it is. As a bit of a control freak, this disorganised clutter was constantly chipping away at my OCD brain. RIGHT! A couple of Fridays ago, I marched over, opened the door, looked at the enormous job in front of me, shut the door and went back to the house, totally overwhelmed. Instead I lay on the sofa, stuck on my audio book and gave myself the afternoon off with a note to self - it's Friday. You need to stop! Fast forward to last weekend and having got a few other ducks in a row, I opened that door again and worked my way through, selling some things on eBay, doing a tip run, stacking and sorting. I was SO ridiculously pleased with myself. Will it benefit anyone or make any difference in the world? No, of course not but I had achieved something that showed me how important it is to listen to myself. I recognised that on the other Friday, choosing to postpone it was the right thing to do rather than seeing it as a cop out and that giving myself space and time to come back to it was the better option. Just a little win, but a win nonetheless. I didn't win Badminton or get a lifetime achievement award, but I know how many of you will feel my joy! It is a tough old world out there and to steal a well used quote “comparison is the thief of joy”. If you find yourself “falling short”, perhaps take a moment to consider who you are measuring yourself against - is it a fair and reasonable comparison? Are you taking into account what you have already ticked off and achieved in your day. My goodness! this is something I have had to work SO hard at; am I falling short? Could I have done more? and learning to say to myself “what you did today was enough’. I find the following a really useful tool - if you find yourself tutting over what you haven’t done or getting upset over not matching up where you think you fall short, take a moment to focus on what today, you HAVE done. It may not be ground breaking but acknowledge, recognise and reward yourself for what you HAVE achieved, even if you just got dressed and faced the world. Sometimes, that is enough. A brilliant piece of advice I was given was this - talk to yourself the same way you would talk to your best friend. If they are having a wobble, a moment of insecurity or self doubt you would instantly jump in to lift them up, point out their strengths and successes, show them what they have done well so why not to yourself? Learn to be your own best friend. No-one wants to revisit that terrible experience or that dreadful pain or that life changing loss but sometimes it is useful to reflect on that time and remember how strong you were, how you DID get through it, how you ARE still here and that is part of what makes you amazing. Jay Shetty says in his book Think like a monk, “Be the person you would want to be in a relationship with”. Maybe that means pulling your socks up. Maybe that means recognising how wonderful you are! I'll leave that with you. Wrapping up, this week I received an email following last week's blog from a friend and fellow teacher who I worked with a few years ago and I share - "Hi Juliet!. A good article about Pilates and running......I have now run over 50,000 miles and recently put in a 31 minute 5k at age 80. I hold my Club's record for running (& finishing before the cut-off) their annual 10 mile cross country championship 54 years apart (1969 & 2023). My brother has replacement hips and my sister replacement knees - neither run nor do Pilates....." I think we are all warriors deep down. We just sometimes need to remind ourselves! If you are still unsure about joining us online and would like to see more of what we get up to, here is a link to a 30 min pure mat mixed ability class. Have a look and always come back to me with your comments and questions. For just £45 a month , you can access 7 live classes (in a typical week) plus access to a huge library plus me on the end of the phone or FaceTime to discuss any areas where you may want more support plus the invitation to request specific classes plus social events and get togethers.

So, you ran the London Marathon.... what next?

By juliet • May 7, 2026

In the words of Holly Willoughby, "first of all, "how are YOU?".

The Zanzibar Yoga Festival

By juliet • April 28, 2026

Members news. Week upcoming : Bank Holiday Monday - class running as usual and this coming Wednesday, 2 x 30 min classes. Details in library. As I am away a few days here and there in May/June, I will continue to put in extra classes now and then to keep everyone topped up. It's all about give and take! Following on from requests this week, upcoming we have a Roll over/Control Balance workshop (Thursday 8am), Back care (Thursday 9am) and Body Conditioning, sculpt and tone style (Wed 8am). All updates will always be in your live calendar. We welcome 4 new members this week and can't wait to see you on the screen! We can now add Portugal to our community! That means that currently, we are beaming into the UK from Cornwall to Yorkshire, Spain, Italy, Greece, France, Germany and now Portugal! We are so much more than Pilates and our community continues to support in so many ways. While a couple of our treasured members are going through some hefty challenges, I am so pleased that you use our online connection as a form of support and to use the friendship of your fellow members. Don't forget you can log in 15 mins early for a natter before class and on Thursdays, I will leave the meeting open after we finish the 9.45am class for anyone to stay on and have a chat. Grab a coffee and log back in even if you weren't in the class. If you would like to join our "Friends of JP's" what's app group , let me know - we are slowly growing and it is a friendly place for a chat and check in, (and a grumble about how tough the class was!). Have a lovely weekend, Jx

Sitting in Southampton airport and other stuff

By juliet • April 9, 2026

I want to keep it as on point and brief as I can and here are some cold, hard facts. Doing SOMETHING is a lot better than doing NOTHING! Whatever equipment you use and program you follow is far less important than the fact that you show up. Regularly and consistently. Only 30% of adults meet the resistance training guidelines and this drops to as low 10% for older adults. What is required? Training all major muscle groups at least once a week Aiming for 2 - 3 sets per exercises Using a weight that is getting challenging by the end of the set Moving through full range of movement. Now, why this is good news is that this can be acheived in whatever form of exercise takes your fancy and over here on our Pilates mat, we tick a lot of those boxes. Going into the 100 and wishing for the end, sitting tall in your Spine Twist and pushing for JUST ONE MORE rep is meeting this! We go through full range of movement, we use bodyweight as well as small equipment, so even if you are not lifting weights, you are doing your bit. (N.b. provided this is min. 3 times a week and you are pushing yourself to max ability in each of those sessions in one way or another and bringing in bands, small weights etc for additional resistance) WHAT COUNTS BODYWEIGHT EXERCISES AT HOME BANDS, BALLS, BODY WEIGHT, LOOPS A QUICK EXPRESS SET WHEN YOU GET BACK FROM YOUR RUN/WALKING THE DOG 15 MINS IN THE KITCHEN - YOU DON'T NEED TO COMPLICATE IT IT DOESNT NEED TO BE FANCY, STRUCTURED OR ELABORATE. IT JUST NEEDS TO HAPPEN Generally ALL types of resistance training work, as long as they are performed with high efforts which means that you get to a point where you are almost at failure. In other words, choose what you enjoy as you are more likely to stick to it and work harder at ut. CONSISTENCY IS KEY and the BEST exercise programme to do is the one you enjoy and will be more likely to stick at! MEMBERS. We have multiple classes involving strength and resistance every week. NON MEMBERS - I am just putting dates together for another 4 week strength program. Please email me if you are interested. More details to follow (I am delighted to be starting a 4 week strength training session with my local running club so I really am doing my best to share the love! )

Why runners need to lift weights

By juliet • April 8, 2026

Let's start with Improves balance and coordination Improves bone density Boosts metabolism and weight management Enhances mental health Helps with daily activity A few more?! Improves posture by strengthening your core and back muscles Reduces risk of injury by strengthening joints, ligaments, and tendons Helps regulate blood sugar levels and lowers risk of type 2 diabetes Improves sleep quality and helps you fall asleep faster Enhances athletic performance (speed, power, endurance) Slows down age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) The ACSM (American college of Sports Science) is the bible of the fitness world with regards to fitness and exercise prescription and has recently done a huge survey, publishing it’s findings in a new report which has got the fitness world very excited as it is the first survey of it’s kind since 2009.