Body awareness has become a very popular word these days within the health and wellbeing industry.
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 Why do we try to escape our discomfort with a holiday break or spa retreat?
When it’s a short-term fix, we return home only to find all the usual daily discomforts, stresses and tensions have not changed – they are there still waiting to be dealt with. What I have found for myself is that we can access everything we need to support ourselves in life, in a single moment. We don’t need to go anywhere to connect to stillness as it is already naturally within us all. Why do we ‘need’ to retreat from life to have time for ourselves?  Today I had an early morning space when a client cancelled at the ‘gold’ time of 6.30am – 7.30am. ‘Gold’ time for a personal training business is early mornings before people go to work so for me to have a window for me at this hour of the day is very rare.
 Osteoporosis and osteopenia is something that I’m seeing almost every day within my client base. The clients with this diagnosis don’t necessarily fit into the typical picture of someone with this condition; they can be young, very active, seemingly taking care of themselves, eating good food, and have always eaten dairy etc. So why is this this disease on the increase in my client base?
Perhaps they come to me because they are drawn to the level of care, experience and understanding of the body that I have? Or is there a general rise of people being diagnosed? And if this is the case, what is really happening here? With the diagnosis, the general medical recommendations are to do more weight bearing exercise, this includes walking and resistance/weight training along with dietary advice. What you may not get told is that there are many physical aspects that are important to be considered while exercising to prevent serious injury and damage to the body. Choosing a program and trainer is something that is super important; that’s why It’s Time to Shine with Beverly Carter has been offering Osteo Strength and Awareness programs since 2016 that honour the physical aspect and so much more to support healing from within. The next program begins Wednesday the 28th of June, with times to suit both Europe/UK and Australian time zones.  Having been an elite athlete and fitness trainer for all my working life, if I had a dollar for every time I heard:
. . . I’d be rich. How many of you have experienced lunges or squats where the next 2 days you can’t sit on the toilet or walk down a flight of stairs without wincing in pain? Meanwhile saying to your self, “Oh but I must have been doing a good thing!” It's been an incredible year so far at It's Time to Shine and its not over yet...  Pelvic Floor Awareness ONLINE Workshop - Launched August 2016 A two part workshop to support a deeper relationship to this exquisite area of our bodies "Bev supported me to feel the subtlety and full beauty of what we hold as women, and the meaning of sacredness is slowly evolving for me as I realise that this is just the beginning." More information
Are you considering a new health and exercise program? Why not make a change to your life instead? 9/4/2016  There are many health and fitness programs being offered online, Personal Training studios, gym’s, magazines etc. All these options can be challenging and confusing when choosing an exercise program that suits your body’s wellbeing, body and what it needs.
Tag lines like ‘lose 10k’s on us’, ‘body transformation’, and ‘ideal body in 6 weeks’ are to engage and attract people to buy the product. Many programs offer the latest research and amazing results. The reality of these claims is generally short term, painful, extreme and unrealistic, which may not be sustainable in supporting long term health and wellbeing. Below are some suggestions that may help you make a considered choice of health and exercise program. For long term health and vitality, the program will ideally support, sustain and integrate simply into your lifestyle.  The question is ‘how long have you had your trainers?’ There are some people who will only buy one pair in their lifetime and others who have had their shoes for many years. In fact, there are very few people who change their trainers often enough, possibly due to the expense or the inconvenience of getting to the shoe shop.
Most people don’t realise that training shoes actually need replacing every 3 – 4 months, especially if you use them regularly eg. Runners, walkers, instructors, sports, group exercisers etc. (And this post isn't sponsored – unfortunately that's just a fact.) I hear many people when they buy their next pair of shoes are really shocked to feel just how ‘slack’ and ‘empty’ the old ones had become. What is it that allows us to keep wearing shoes that are providing no support to our incredible bodies? Why don’t we feel when it is truly time to get new shoes? Why do we put our bodies in disregard while exercising when we wouldn’t ever go on a date with old, sloppy shoes?  Most people would agree that stretching is good for you. And yes it can be wonderful for your body.
How many times have you stretched a part of your body so that your muscle is shaking and you are feeling tension and pain? Have you ever found that your shoulders and body feel contracted and tight trying to hold you in a certain position? This is how most people stretch. What they don’t realise is that this type of tension in stretching will bring muscle contraction and not muscle lengthening. So all the pulling and pushing that is done actually won’t improve flexibility. How lovely would it be to work with your body and it’s natural function to stretch? How would it be, to really stretch to appreciate, honour and feel gorgeous in your body? Here are some simple tips:  Australian Gladiators: The Team This is Part 2 in a series Bev has written about her time in Gladiators: read Part 1 here. When filming was over from Series 1, it was like the Gladiator bubble had burst and we all flew back to our homes. Personally, I felt a huge sense of relief that I had survived it. I walked away with a really bad shoulder injury as well as further bruising all over my body. I felt as though I had just emerged from a two month long fight. Despite my Gladiator events not being the most physical ones, I still had to deal with more body contact then I ever had before in my entire sporting life. From dragging girls the same size as me off the 5m high rings (often they would land on top of me at the end of the fall), to trying to be a human speed bump for Gauntlet, to sprinting and tackling girls to the floor so hard that I could hear their breath leave their bodies as they hit the floor, the physical stress was constant. And let’s not even go into the Pyramid . . . each step of the pyramid was nearly half the height of my body; running up this huge structure after hurling an opponent from its side left my body in a pain it hadn’t ever experienced. It was an aching pain that went deep into the bones and it was a different tiredness than my body had ever felt.  Battle Wounds: This kind of bruising was a constant during my years on Gladiators. Sometimes the bruises were contact related, sometimes they were from over-training/internal stress on my body I knew that in the two month period before filming started again I had to recover, heal and condition my body to be able to endure more of the same for Series 2. My shoulder was badly injured, I struggled to lift my arm and because I had experienced shoulder injuries before, I knew the time frame was tight to get it healed enough to compete for the next series. The biggest anxiety was that the producers might find out about my injury. I was so insecure in my role that I felt if they knew they would replace me in a flash or remove me from certain games in the next series. In hindsight, this was not even a rational thought as I am one in a million and what I brought to Gladiators was totally unique from anyone else, but I didn’t have the wisdom and love that I now have in my body. So I embarked on getting my shoulder fixed, paying for all the medical bills myself. I knew who to go to and what was needed . . . yet time was tight. I also had to maintain my training and preparation for the next series so that I could try to avoid similar injuries.  Promo shots, Season 2 Then there was another pressure – my body image . . . Every time a new series started there would be those few excruciating days where you had to get used to being near naked in a costume smaller than your bathing suit, while everyone else walked around fully clothed.
Even though after that few days it would start to feel strangely normal, I always found myself working hard during our filming breaks to be assured that I had done everything I could to make wearing this costume easier. Also, we all had to maintain our Gladiator’s bodies; they had to stay the same as the day we were hired. In our contracts it was stipulated that we could lose our jobs if our bodies changed in any way – weight gain, weight loss, hair colour, etc. The ironic thing was that it was ok for the producers to change things . . . One of the weirdest things was when I walked into our wardrobe room to find I had padding in my costume. Without any of the producers talking to me about it, there was a noticeable addition to my outfit. During season 2, I suddenly became ‘Blade in a D cup’. Obviously someone felt this was needed and everyone noticed. It felt degrading, especially as I had never had an issue with the size of my breasts. |
AuthorBev is a Sydney based coach and trainer who shares simple ways for people to bring true wellbeing to their lives and let themselves shine. Archives
January 2019
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