The more you do something the easier it becomes, and that’s certainly the case with exercise. Every time you repeat an activity your body is improving it’s ability to handle that stress. This means you burn fewer calories and build less muscle with every workout. If you want to keep making progress you need to keep introducing new activity.  



The first factor influencing how often you need to make a change is how frequently you do a particular exercise activity. If you’re doing your weights program three times per week you’ll need it updated more often than if you’re doing it once per week plus two classes. It’s the number of times you do the program, not the number of weeks you do it for.       


Factor number two is your level of fitness. If you’re new to exercise it will take your body more time to adapt. Your muscles will need longer to get used to the load and your brain will need time to learn the new movement patterns. The fitter you are the more you need to challenge yourself to make continued progress.  

Factor number three is your general health. If your body is in a stressed state then you may not be equipped to adapt to higher loads, you’ll end up in an overtrained state going backwards not forwards. A stressed state could mean a personal crisis, a large load at work, recovering from an illness or experiencing sleep difficulties. If all is not well then you’re better off keeping a familiar program than trying to tackle something new. 

Factor number four determining how often to change an exercise regime is the degree of the change.  Putting up the weights on your gym program is a much gentler change than adding a class you’ve never done to your fitness regime.

Factor five is your exercise temperament. Everyone is different. If you are a creature of habit there’s no point in pressuring yourself to adapt to constant changes. You’ll just get frustrated that you never seem to master the exercises. Equally, if you’re somebody who enjoys variety you will get bored quickly if you don’t change it up a lot.  

In many ways program design is as much an art as a science. The right balance of predictability and unpredictability will give you a program that is enjoyable as well as effective.   

Menopause is a transition to mark the end of the reproductive period.  It usually occurs between the ages of 42 and 58 and lasts for around 4 to 6 years. But it can begin at any age, last for an unpredictable time and bring with it a variety of challenging symptoms.

Menopause can cause weight gain due to the drop in estrogen. Adequate levels of estrogen support appetite regulation and enable the body to use insulin properly, meaning you can shed fat in an orderly manner.  This means that when estrogen levels drop you’re driven to eat more, and what you do eat is more likely to convert to fat, particularly around your middle.  This is the most dangerous place to store fat so it’s important to approach menopause with a willingness to make positive health changes.

Exercise is an important tool in the toolbox to counteract some of the health challenges that menopause can pose. Cardiovascular exercise is important beyond just burning calories.  Declining estrogen increases the risk of heart attack so regular cardiovascular exercise to strengthen your heart becomes critical. Resistance training is also really helpful through menopause. Muscle mass is the key to metabolic rate, and it naturally declines with age which causes the sneaky kilo creep. But resistance training does more than just support weight management.  Estrogen is needed to help lay down bone, so during the menopause period you become more vulnerable to osteoporosis.  Resistance training strengthens bones and builds muscle around joints to offer extra support. Flexibility is also compromised by the menopause process.  Decreased estrogen causes a loss of cartilage around joints, creating a sense of muscle stiffness.  Reduced range of motion makes daily life more challenging and places you vulnerable to injury.  Regular gentle stretching is important to protect functionality and independence.

Menopause creates many difficult symptoms, most can be partially relieved by exercise.  Regular movement helps foster all the foundation habits that contribute to weight management but get compromised by the menopause process.  Appropriate exercise can help with sleep, stress management, appetite and cognitive function.

Transitions are never easy and unpleasant ones are particularly difficult.  The right mix of appropriate exercise can be a helpful tool in the toolbox to minimise the disruption and maximize long term health and vitality.

There are many great benefits of being flexible, both for fitness performance and everyday life.   However there is a lot of confusion about whether and how to stretch.  Stretching fell out of favour about 15 years ago when studies found that stretching prior to sport can reduce performance by up to 20 percent. A lot of people still avoid stretching entirely because of uncertainty about best practice.


It’s important to understand the difference between static and dynamic stretching and the role of timing. Static stretching involves placing a muscle in it’s most lengthened position and holding for at least 30 seconds. Dynamic stretching involves stretching movements performed at a gradual speed. It is now generally agreed that prolonged static stretching before explosive exercise can be counterproductive because the loosening of muscles can temporarily weaken them. It’s a grey area whether there is a place for short-duration static stretching prior to some exercise activities.

What we do know for sure is that flexibility is important, and it can be safely achieved with dynamic stretching prior to exercise and static stretching post-exercise and in general.  Recommendations vary but you should definitely be stretching at least a couple of times a week. Stretching should be preceded by a full warmup.  Warming up prepares the body for physical activity – it prevents a rapid increase in blood pressure, improves blood flow to the heart, increases muscle temperature and makes muscles more pliable.  Stretch in a smooth movement, without bouncing. Bouncing as you stretch can cause injury to your muscle. Hold each stretch for about 30 seconds.  In problem areas you may need to hold for around 60 seconds. Breathe normally as you stretch. Expect to feel tension and discomfort but not pain.   

As a PT I find it quite difficult to convince non-stretchers to start stretching.   Many people regard stretching as time-consuming, boring and a waste of time.   Often they need an intervention like an injury to get motivated!  But once you commit to working on your flexibility you’ll see the benefits for your fitness regime and your everyday life.

When planning out a fitness regime most people don’t give much thought to flexibility. It’s the often-neglected component of the fitness mix. Building cardiovascular endurance and muscle strength is exciting, especially when it’s accompanied by weight loss. Building flexibility is less exciting, and it doesn’t directly relate to shifting kilos on the scales so most people don’t prioritise it.


But being flexible is a key building block for a healthy body. Fitness and strength start out as a great partnership. The fitter you are the harder you can push yourself with your strength, and the stronger you are the harder you can push yourself with your cardiovascular fitness.  It’s an empowering upwards spiral.  However, the harder you work the tighter you become as the tendons around the muscles stiffen.   This reduces your range of motion and increases the risk of injury as soon as you go past that range of motion.   Another way flexibility helps reduce the risk of injury is by improving balance and co-ordination.   Freedom of movement around a joint gives you the ability to adapt to unstable surfaces and new movement patterns.   

Being flexible is important beyond fitness and injury prevention. Having a good range of motion is a great asset in daily life. If you have the ability to be in many different positions you can sleep more restfully and travel more comfortably. You can avoid muscle strains and tweaks from everyday tasks involving lifting, reaching and bending. A desk job that places you in a fixed position for most of the day can create short, tight postural muscles. Working on your flexibility can reverse this posture and reduce the risk of back and neck pain.   

Having a limber body does so much more than improving fitness performance and reducing the risk of injury.   It makes everyday life more comfortable and contributes to general health, confidence and wellbeing.   Check out my post on how to safely stretch for success.  

Fitness is an important component of health.    But too much exercise can be a negative stress on the body.    If you’ve checked out my article on the five ways of identifying overtraining it’s time to address the five ways of managing it.

Number one is to build rest days into your exercise schedule, particularly if you’re already training in a weakened state. Rest means different things for different people but most recreational exercisers need at least one full day of rest from exercise each week.   If you’re super-fit then rest might mean low intensity cardio, light stretching, strengthening or core work.   

Number two is to plan a variety of exercise types and intensities. A PT can help you create an optimal schedule for your fitness level and lifestyle. Keep an eye on little niggles and don’t hesitate to go to the physio for some pre-hab – tackle a small problem before it grows up!                                            

Number three is to take a close look at your diet.   Are you appropriately fueled for the amount of exercise you’re doing?    The most important nutrient for muscle recovery is protein, check out my article on how much and how to get it.     Staying well hydrated both in and out of the gym is another way to optimize exercise performance and recovery.   

Number four is sleep.    Sleep is the time when the body recovers and repairs the tiny microscopic tears in the muscle fibers created from strength-training. Sleep longer, waken stronger! Sleep helps you towards your weight loss goals in other ways too.   It helps regulate your appetite hormones, speeds up metabolic rate and gives you the mental energy to resist the urge to overeat.                       

Number five is stress management. If cortisol levels are already raised due to factors outside of the gym then exercise can compound the negative effects, slowing down metabolic rate and encouraging the body to hold tight to fat.  Some people overtrain in response to stress.   They find themselves obsessed with exercise and afraid to rest.  When you feel like you’re going backwards it’s easy to think that the answer is to push yourself harder, even when it’s clear it isn’t working.    There are definitely worse outlets for stress than exercise, but if you’re somebody who uses it compulsively then make sure you maintain the support structure around your body and mind.  

Exercise programming is often more of an art than a science. The right mix will move you towards your goals while keeping you on an upward spiral of health and vitality.

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is the new black of fitness training. It has received a lot of media coverage in the last few years for being a quick fitness fix for anyone wanting maximum results in minimum time. It’s basically short, intense bouts of exercise broken up with short periods of rest. HIIT makes it possible to torch far more calories than steady state cardio because you can push your heart rate over 85% again and again. The HIIT effect means you can get up to nine times the fat loss of regular cardio training and you can continue to burn calories for hours after your workout. It also amplifies benefits of cardiovascular exercise for metabolic and heart health.  

But HIIT isn’t a one-size-fits-all-fast-track-to-fitness for everyone. The key research demonstrating the benefits has focused on “healthy, active adults” – people without medical conditions or injuries who are involved in up to five hours of fitness per week. HIIT is for people who already exercise consistently and want to move up to the next level. It’s designed as a twice or thrice per week substitute for regular cardio, not as a replacement for an entire regime. HIIT is a powerful tool but it’s a very specific one and not the only one available to you.  

Intensity in exercise exists on a continuum and there are many ways to gradually tweak it upwards. Trying a different sort of exercise will likely increase the intensity of your session. For example, if you’re used to your weights program you could make it more intense by interspersing a two minute row every couple of exercises. This will burn more calories due to both the time spent on the rower and your heightened heart rate throughout the whole session. Your challenge need not be a short cardio blast, it just needs to be something new such as a different group fitness class. It’s important to change up your workouts for your body to create new adaptations, but the type and gradient of the changes is up to you.

Too  much intensity too soon can be counter-productive for weight loss. It can motivate you to pre-eat to perform in the session and over-eat afterwards to compensate for feeling shattered.  It’s difficult to gain physical condition from high intensity training if you are under stress and not getting adequate sleep.  If you come to intense exercise from a stressed state you are more likely to get injured or sick and it will take you longer to recover. I see many overweight gym members working at high intensity, having to rehab complex injuries, and never actually changing shape. Check out my article on overtraining if you think this might be you.

Exercise is there to enhance your health and move you towards your goals. Overdoing it on the intensity can give you the opposite result. A sensible, gradual approach to increasing workload will give you the best value for the time you put in, and the most enjoyment too.

Regular exercise is an important part of your health and wellness but it’s possible to have too much of a good thing!  Physical exercise damages muscle fibres.   Rest allows them to recover and reconstruct in stronger formations.   So physical gains actually occur outside of the gym.    “Overtraining” is the fancy way of saying “too much exercise”.  It’s an imbalance between work and recovery.   There are five dead giveaways that you’re doing too much.   

Number one is a drop in performance.   You have less strength, endurance and co-ordination.   Physical tasks you could handle effortlessly become difficult.  Even though you’re hitting the gym each day, you’ll feel progressively weaker, slower, and more lethargic.   

Number two is a drop in results.   When hormones are normal you’ll find that losing fat and gaining muscle is basically a matter of healthy diet and healthy activity.   This no longer holds true when you are overtraining because your hormones get out of whack.  Testosterone plunges and cortisol rises.  This slows down metabolic rate and increases insulin resistance, leading to your body holding tight to fat.     You’re also more likely to have strong carbohydrate cravings because your body is seeking quick energy.   To make matters worse, you’re more likely to succumb to the cravings because you’re exhausted.   Besides, you’re burning it all off with your exercise, right?   Probably wrong!

Number three is an increase in injuries.   As you train in an increasingly weakened state you’ll find yourself aggravating old injuries, creating new ones and find odds aches and pains that just won’t go away.    It could be poor form, it could be muscle overuse, it could be muscle tightness.   It’s probably a combination of all of them and it means your body is not a very comfortable place to be.   

Number four is an increase in illnesses.    If you’re exercising in a healthy manner you will develop a stronger immune system and will find you don’t get sick too often.   However if you’re overtraining you’ll suddenly find yourself vulnerable to every lurgy floating about.

Number five is a drop in morale.  That’s hardly surprising when your performance is going down, your weight is going up and you’re struggling with injuries and illnesses.  You feel drained and sluggish both in and out of the gym.    Exercise no longer elevates your mood, it makes you feel worse.   You start to lose motivation to exercise at all.  

The better you get at listening to your body the more successful you will be in meeting your goals.     The good news is that overtraining can be managed or prevented with some very simple strategies, check out my article to find out how.    

Aging affects everyone differently but it seems to be a lot kinder to those who keep their health and independence.   Staying fit doesn't guarantee you'll always be well but it improves the odds and enhances quality of life.   

A healthy heart is a great place to start.  The heart becomes less efficient as it ages, meaning a decline in energy and endurance.    Regular physical activity can help maintain a healthy weight, lower blood pressure and reduce stiffening of the arteries.   

Throughout adulthood you lose some of the mineral content in your bones, meaning they shrink in size and density, becoming more susceptible to fracture.  By age 80 it's common to have lost as much 5 cm in height due to the compression of joints, spinal bone and spinal discs. Strength training can help rebuild bones and reduce the risk of osteoporosis.

Strength and flexibility in muscles also decreases with age.  This can make it more challenging to perform everyday activities that require lifting, pushing or pulling.  When you are young you take these skills for granted but as you age they are not a given.   Reduction in lean muscle mass can also cause difficulty with co-ordination and balance.

With these changes in the nature of bones and muscles it’s no surprise that around 1 in 3 New Zealanders over 65 suffer a fall each year.  Falls can cause a range of injuries. The seriousness of the fall and the recovery period largely depend on your fitness and health.  Many people who fall develop a fear of falling again which causes them to limit their activities. This leads to reduced confidence and loss of fitness which then increase the risk of falling.   

The body works on the “use it or lose it” principle - mobility and functionality are keys to independence and important to protect.  This principle applies to the brain as well, check out my article on how exercise helps with cognitive function. Regular exercise also supports healthy sleep patterns.  Circadian rhythms change as you age, often causing a reduction in quality and quantity of sleep.  Expending physical energy is a great way to promote better sleep, and that helps with brain function and quality of life too.  

The gym is a fun, safe environment for exercise. A gym program can be adapted for any physical limitations or health concerns and it’s great to exercise in a safe, supervised environment close to water and amenities. Every new interest is an opportunity to stimulate the brain and interact with people of different ages and lifestyles.  

Clearly age need not be a barrier to fitness and vitality.    A lifelong investment in health and fitness pays great dividends in quality of life.     

My clients are healthy active people and seem to inherently know when the time is right to stop exercise prior to birth and when the time is right to re-start afterwards. If you had an active pregnancy and an uncomplicated natural birth you might get LMC clearance to exercise as soon as a week or two after the birth.  Most women require a longer period for their body and energy levels to recover, check out my article on how to recover appropriately from your pregnancy.  

Initial exercise should be gentle with the aim of gradually increasing endurance. Pregnancy places mechanical stress on the body so the rebuild may require some rehabilitation. Common post-pregnancy ailments are sacroiliac joint pain, pubic symphsis, lower back pain and abdominal splitting. I regularly liaise with my clients’ physiotherapists to help them rehabilitate back to full functionality.

Once you’re fully operational the top priority is to regain some lean muscle mass. The body recovers from most aspects of pregnancy naturally - the uterus contracts to close to its former size in about six weeks and the body’s ligaments return slowly to their former length and elasticity. Unfortunately, muscle tissue doesn’t respond in the same way, so it is necessary to introduce weight training to return your muscles to their former length, strength and functional capability.  

This change in muscle mass explains why the body feels so different after having a baby. Most of my clients who have exercised through the pregnancy find that the number on the scales returns to normal within a month or two but body composition is quite different. It’s partly hormonal, it’s partly from being relatively sedentary for the best part of a year and it’s partly from being at an age where lean muscle mass is starting to decline anyway. Whatever it is, it’s common to lose “weight” but still feel like a marshmallow. I certainly did both times!

Getting into some resistance training is the best way to resurrect your pre-baby body and of course it has the added benefit of increasing your metabolic rate, making weight management even simpler. Once you’ve addressed lean muscle mass you’ll find that any exercise which raises the heart rate will burn calories and support weight loss.  It’s important to choose the type of exercise you enjoy. Caring for a baby is all-consuming and the little time out you get should be spent as enjoyably as possible.

If you did the groundwork in pregnancy and prior then the rest will follow. With time and patience there is no reason why your post baby body can’t be just as good, if not better, than before.

As a PT I’m often asked whether machines or free weights are best for building lean muscle mass.

Both have their pros and cons.  Machines force an idealized posture, making them a good choice for people new to exercise. They can be a great tool for rehabilitation because they’re pre-set using only the muscle and angle the machine allows. However machines do not allow a full range of motion or encourage the body to stabilise for itself. Free weights such as dumbells and barbells require the body to move in a more natural fashion and activate stabilisers as well as main muscle groups.

In recent times a third option has emerged for building lean muscle mass. “Functional Fitness” is the new black of exercise, using a variety of tools and toys to create complex movements that mimic everyday life. Functional exercises tend to be multi-joint, multi-muscle, multi-plane activities using upper and lower body simultaneously. These exercises emphasise core control and build strength in stabliser muscles as well as target muscles. Functional fitness tools include weight bags, TRX, VipR, kettle bell, swiss ball and bosu ball.

Like free weights, functional exercises can support the body’s ability to stabilise and balance when performed correctly. A strong functional body is more versatile and less prone to injury.  But ironically, many people pursuing functional fitness end up injured and ultimately less functional than when they began. The more freedom a type of exercise gives, and the higher the intensity it’s performed at the more important it is to have correct technique.   

The best type of exercise for an individual client will depend on their physical condition and their goals.  Many exercisers just want to lose 5 or 10kgs in the most efficient way possible. Each individual needs to make the choice of how functional they need to be and what level of risk is acceptable to achieve it. Some people enjoy complex high intensity exercises, some like lots of toys, some like a lot of traditional free weights and some are most comfortable on machines. Most people like a mix over time.

Any type of exercise can burn calories and build lean muscle mass as long as the program is well constructed and regularly changed around. The key to a program’s effectiveness is adherence and the key to adherence is enjoyment. Focus on what you like to do and the results will follow.