This week I chat to Caroline Kopp, a master Pilates trainer and health coach, about her personal story of overcoming chronic fatigue and pain through Pilates.
Pilates literally changed Caroline’s life as it allowed her to move in a way that maintained and and even increased her energy levels without the burnout associated with high-intensity workouts. It also helped her to become pain free.
In this episode, Caroline shares how pilates is a sustainable approach to health that can support you through the various changes your body goes through, particularly during midlife and menopause.
For many, midlife can bring a decline in energy levels and conventional wisdom might suggest that rest is the best medicine for fatigue, but Caroline challenges that notion. Instead, a consistent practice of low-intensity movements, such as those found in Pilates, can be incredibly beneficial.
I loved this episode and I hope you do too!
To find out more about Just Breathe and to join the Just Breathe community go to: https://www.pollywarren.com/justbreathe
To book a FREE 15 minute discovery call with me go to: https://calendly.com/pollywarrencoaching/15min
To join my FB group go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepositiveperimenopauseclub
Email me at: info@pollywarren.com
https://www.pollywarren.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/
This week I chat to Caroline Kopp, a master Pilates trainer and health coach, about her personal story of overcoming chronic fatigue and pain through Pilates.
Pilates literally changed Caroline’s life as it allowed her to move in a way that maintained and and even increased her energy levels without the burnout associated with high-intensity workouts. It also helped her to become pain free.
In this episode, Caroline shares how pilates is a sustainable approach to health that can support you through the various changes your body goes through, particularly during midlife and menopause.
For many, midlife can bring a decline in energy levels and conventional wisdom might suggest that rest is the best medicine for fatigue, but Caroline challenges that notion. Instead, a consistent practice of low-intensity movements, such as those found in Pilates, can be incredibly beneficial.
I loved this episode and I hope you do too!
To find out more about Just Breathe and to join the Just Breathe community go to: https://www.pollywarren.com/justbreathe
To book a FREE 15 minute discovery call with me go to: https://calendly.com/pollywarrencoaching/15min
To join my FB group go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thepositiveperimenopauseclub
Email me at: info@pollywarren.com
https://www.pollywarren.com/
https://www.instagram.com/pollywarrencoaching/
Are you like me, riding the roller coaster of midlife and menopause and eager to get back to living your best life? Are you tired of low energy, a short temper and endless self-doubt? Well, it's time to stress less and shine more. It's time to ditch the worry, reclaim your mojo and unleash your inner brilliance. It's never too late to transform, and you're certainly not too old and, in my opinion, midlife and menopause provide the perfect opportunity to do just that. Join me each week for inspiring stories and expert insights on topics covering all things midlife, menopause and personal development. So when you're ready, let the beautiful menomorphosis begin. Hello, hello, and welcome back to Metamorphosis. How are you? I hope all is good. What have I been up to?
Speaker 1:Well, last weekend I went on an amazing retreat which was given to me for my 50th birthday by some really good friends who know me very well, because it was just so brilliant. It was a retreat with a sort of a difference. It was relaxing in the sense that you were told what to do, you were given amazing food to eat, it was in the most beautiful setting in Dorset, but it also included an element of fitness and exercise. So there was some stuff in the gym. What I really loved about it was that the guy who ran it, richie Norton, with his girlfriend Tamara who actually unfortunately had a bad accident so she wasn't in action but he really is into using the breath for high performance as well as for relaxation. So he used to be an ex-professional rugby player and has discovered since he retired from rugby how absolutely fundamental the breath is for mental health but also for performance, and that part of it was just so brilliant for me because it's an area I've been exploring. But this was right. Putting it into practice and things like, for example, doing all exercise just breathing through the nose, how to warm up really efficiently and effectively with some breath holds, which was honestly quite amazing, gets your heartbeat up, but actually you're not putting your body under immense pressure, and then you kind of are straight into the into the exercise.
Speaker 1:So we did that. We did multiple cold plunges, saunas. We did this pool training which I wasn't so fond of but it was definitely out of my comfort zone, um which was kind of again using the breath underwater, doing various sort of drills underwater, using weights and things like that. And the best part of it was I brought along with me Giles and he was really reluctant. He's not, really hasn't done really I don't think he's ever done a retreat in his life so he was. He had these preconceptions of what it was going to be like and actually every preconception he had was wrong and he actually really loved it. He was particularly nervous about the cold plunging because he really suffers with Raynard so his hands get really very painfully cold. But actually what we've learned is that that contrast therapy between hot and cold, going between hot and cold, so sauna to ice bath can really help with circulation and actually might be just what he needs. So yes, we've come back home going, we need a sauna and an ice bath in the garden. But yeah, we'll keep, we'll keep dreaming of that for now. Okay, let's get on to this week's episode, which is one I really, really enjoyed this week.
Speaker 1:I speak to Caroline Kopp, who is a master Pilates trainer and a health coach. Caroline's interest in health really developed at a very young age when, sadly, she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue and ME, which meant that she was exhausted a lot of the time and suffering from pain a lot of the time. It was only really in her 20s when she discovered Pilates that life began to change for the better. So in this episode, caroline really talks to us about how Pilates gave her a form of exercise that both challenged her, because that's what she wanted she wanted to continue to stay strong and to move her body, but it also supported her at the same time and, finally, she was in no pain for the first time in 10 years. She says it's the balance approach of Pilates which meant that she was able to reduce her fatigue, which she was feeling a lot of the time, and also still build strength, and within 12 months Caroline was running long distances again, she was moving regularly, lifting weights and enjoying life, all with no fatigue or pain.
Speaker 1:So this week I really dive into all of this with Caroline, because now she's dedicated to helping other women, particularly during midlife menopause, to remain strong and healthy, but in a very sustainable long-term way, which is the important thing here. We've got to get out of the mindset of doing things for a short term just to get into the swimsuit or just to go get into that dress for the wedding. Health and wellness and movement really works when it is just part of what we do, and that is why we need to really think about how we get it into our lives. It's not necessary about going for an hour at a time to the gym. If we can get it into shorter, smaller segments, then often that is a much more sustainable way. So, as I said, I really enjoyed this chat.
Speaker 1:So, without further ado, please welcome the absolutely lovely Caroline Kopp. Caroline, it's a real pleasure to have you here on Men and Morphuses today. So thank you so much for joining me. Thanks for having me. It's really lovely to meet you. It's always nice to know about someone and where they've come from before we start chatting, and it'd be really great if you could just introduce a little bit about who you are and what you do today, and then we'll dive into perhaps how you've come to do what you do today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sure, yeah. So I'm Caroline, as Caroline Kopp, I'm a Pilates teacher, and health coach is my kind of day job, if you like, and I've been doing that for just over 20 years and I work with women in menopause and beyond actually. So any age from about 40 upwards tends to be the women that I work with and we we kind of work on um issues or or conditions or symptoms that are affecting you physically, so things like joint pain, um, core strength, pelvic floor and that kind of thing. But my background cut is is um has always been in health, but I've I came to it because this was kind of thing, but my background has always been in health, but I came to it because this was kind of a problem for me as well, and I came to it when I was in my late teens, early twenties.
Speaker 2:That's how I discovered Pilates and it was off the back of struggling with chronic fatigue and ME and I'd been struggling with that for a long time since I was about 15 or 16. I had a kind of strep infection, like a glandular fever type thing, um, in my late teens and that just led to chronic fatigue and ME and the symptoms of that are, as you'd imagine extreme fatigue, extreme low energy, um, joint pain, difficulty moving, um, and and I I still now. Actually, I think it's fairly undiagnosed. There aren't that many strategies, not that many people able to help you. So the challenge to find a way back from that when I was in my you know, at this point early 20s, was a bit of a steep learning curve and I had to do a lot of research.
Speaker 2:The thing in the end, the final thing that really kind of turned it around for me, was finding Pilates and it was just such a game changer in terms of the energy that it gave me. I was able to feel kind of strong without feeling fatigued. It never made me feel really exhausted like other exercise did and it was just. It was like the gateway to kind of starting to feel better. I wasn't a sporty kid, I wasn't, you know, particularly energetic as a child like it was, so it wasn't like um, finding physical fitness was a sort of obvious answer for me. So it came. It came slowly and the turnaround has been quite impactful and Pilates has continued to be obviously a big part of my life now and, and obviously now I teach it and have done for a long time.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing that. It's interesting, isn't it, that it was Pilates which was the thing which has helped you and can I just say so, today are you still suffering with.
Speaker 2:On and off. So I think there's a there's always a bit of a hangover from things like like that. So I have I have to be very careful and conservative with my energy. I have some pretty um robust strategies around conserving that and prioritizing it and it. It comes very naturally to me now and I think this is what I sometimes forget that actually for me it's very normal. I put these processes in and they're just part of my daily life, um. But for other people they're not normal and for many people issues with energy come in later life, come in midlife and and and. So it can require a real turnaround of lifestyle, a real change of lifestyle which is new.
Speaker 2:You know, for me, I 20. I was adaptable. You know I could roll with it to a certain extent. When you're in your later years and you have a family and people relying on you and a job and a home and all of these other jobs to do, prioritising your own energy just isn't always possible. It falls right to the bottom of the list. So, yes, I do still struggle with it, but for me it's quite an easy thing to stay on top of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and has there been any? I mean, have any doctors? Have they kind of come up with a reason why you were suffering with chronic fatigue? You know what causes.
Speaker 2:Is there any?
Speaker 1:reason they haven't quite got. No one's got to the root cause.
Speaker 2:They've never quite got there and as far as I'm aware, they still haven't quite got. No one's got to the the root cause. They've never quite got there and as far as I'm aware, they still haven't really got there. Very often it comes off the back of something else. So for me it was glandular fever. I know these days it can be long. Covid can be a kickstart um, um menopause, so so it's often, often linked to sort of hormonal changes or or a big change or something, something happening. So it can. I've I've worked with women who have had um things like fibromyalgia, um ME and you. Often it's come off the back of something else happening. So maybe there's been a um a life, a life change, a bereavement, a divorce, menopause, a whole big hormonal shift. It usually comes off the back. As far as I'm aware, and in my experience it's come off the back of something else yeah, it sounds like it's kind of almost like there's something lurking and actually it's.
Speaker 1:There's a there's a trigger which actually brings it, brings it on, and yeah, I mean menopause, as we know, can be a great big trigger for a load of different load of different things. So I'm really curious. You mentioned that. Okay, conserving your energy is really super important and I think this is such a brilliant subject to be talking about because, as we know, as you said, you know particularly midlife women are just being pulled in every single direction. We're really great at doing everything for everybody else, but when it comes to our own needs, needs often they get shoved right down to the bottom of the pile. I'd love to hear so. Pilates, we're going to talk about that, but what are some of the other processes which you have in place which help you to conserve that energy?
Speaker 2:okay, yeah, so there are. There are a few and, like I say, often they're they're processes that I don't even really realize I'm doing. There are some really simple things that I've always prioritized Bedtime and wake time. Those two things are kind of non-negotiable for me. I'm not a night owl. I never stay up late. If I do, I really need to plan for that and I need to know what my process the next day is going to be to kind of make myself feel better. So a late night for me can feel like a hangover. So it has all of the same impacts. It can make me want to eat rubbish food and it can make me want to kind of curl up in a ball. It can make me a bit irritable.
Speaker 2:So really, for me, prioritizing a bedtime is absolutely important and also awake time. I find if I sleep too long or lie in too long or don't have consistency around that, again it can have the same impact. It can make me feel worse. So a decent, a decent sleep and really prioritizing that to make sure that it's it's quality sleep. So for women that are listening that already feel like they're sleeping quite well, I would say always optimize it and try and think of other ways to make your sleep a little bit better. I'm sure you've covered this loads on your podcast already, but you know things like your screen time, your caffeine, those kinds of things. I never have caffeine after midday.
Speaker 2:I also do some other simple things that to me are very simple, like moving my body every day, and I don't think that comes naturally to most people and it probably wouldn't have come naturally to me had I not needed to do it. But because I did it when I was younger and I felt the impact of it, it's just become a complete non-negotiable in my life. So I tend to not have, or not maybe even need, rest days. I find that the idea of having a day off of movement makes it something that's a kind of question in my head am I going to and am I not going to?
Speaker 2:And actually I find that just being really consistent about doing something every day, whether that's going to my mat, going outside for a walk, you know, doing something with the kids, you know, whatever it may be, but just just really prioritizing movement. Because, because for me the biggest energy drainer is not moving. Actually moving gives me energy and I don't know why I can't explain the science behind it, but I just know that it does, and actually the less I move, the more fatigued I feel. So I think those are probably the two main ones. There's lots around food and limiting sugar and processed foods and those kind of things that really help, but I would say sleep and movement are my two biggest kind of non-negotiables and I can get a bit panicky about them if I can't do them yeah, I mean when you go to.
Speaker 1:When you say go to bed early, what does that mean for you?
Speaker 2:well, for me it means kind of 10, 10 o'clock. Usually when I was, when I was in my teens, it meant kind of 8, 30, um, yeah, I disappear upstairs to pack my bag for school and I just wouldn't come down again. It was so it was at that age. It was a good kind of. I was needing kind of 11, 12 hours just to get my school the next day. So in those days much earlier, um, and if I feel like I really need it, I I will take myself to bed early. I'm definitely not someone that struggles to get to bed, but yeah, lights out. Kind of 10, half half, 10 maybe maybe I'm so the same.
Speaker 1:I love going. I'm always in bed by 10. I mean generally lights out. By 10 I mean I, we, we tend to go to our upstairs, to our bedroom at nine and I kind of read for a bit and yeah, I mean I just, and yeah, I'm right, you're so right. If it is a late night it does feel like a hangover.
Speaker 2:I don't need a drop of alcohol these days.
Speaker 1:It feels the same and in terms of movement, I also I'm exactly the same as you. I move my body every day, whatever that is, and I think it's so important to remember that movement does not have to be full on sprints as fast as you can, sweating as much as you can, type exercise. It can be gentle movement as well. And I'm really interested in this, caroline, because when I was in the midst of perimenopause I didn't really know when that I was perimenopause at the time, but one of probably the first signs which I didn't realize was terrible, terrible back issues, joint issues, sciatica. It was all going on and I it was. It was really boring. I went and saw specialists and doctors and they couldn't. They kind of were like oh yes, you're what's basically a spine? Yes, there is a bit of something going on there. And actually I was even offered a back operation at one point.
Speaker 1:Luckily, I chose not to take the back operation because I kind of just thought do you know what? I'm sure I don't really need it. And that was the moment where I really decided that do you know what I'm going to do? Take control of this myself. And that is when I thought, right, every morning I am going to just stretch my because of my body, because I would get out of bed every day feeling like about 510 that I was just aching and in pain. So I would do a series of little stretches which I kind of have. I still do this day. And this was about nearly 10 years ago now, a long time ago and it was the tonic, it was the solution, and I have just ever since then moved my body every day. So I'm so interested with this because that was just. That was sort of an intuitive thing which I just did and it works, moving my body.
Speaker 2:So I'm really interested to hear your story with that as well and with the managing the pain yeah, I think that I think what you said is interesting about it being intuitive, and I think it is intuitive for most people and I think the thing that stops most people is just either not knowing what to do or not having the time, and you know not just not feeling able to prioritize it, and when you don't know what to do, finding time for it becomes even harder. Um, you're absolutely right. Joint pain, um, muscle weakness, muscle aching, that kind of physical pain can be a huge perimenopause symptom and often it can be something that's come as a result of something in previous years. So it could be, for example, a knee injury that you had when you were in your 30s that just kind of niggled away and then in your 40s and 50s it becomes completely unbearable. So it could just be that something's getting worse and that's just a result of changing muscle mass, changing bone health, and it can make an old, existing injury feel suddenly, suddenly really, really important to address. Or it can be new stuff. It can be things creeping in, like you said, like the back pain, the joint pain, this kind of tightness, feeling stiff. Someone said to me this morning I just have felt like I've needed to just move. I've really just felt like I needed to stretch my body, and that's the feeling that I think women get. And again, there's plenty of reasons why that happens.
Speaker 2:In menopause, muscle mass is a big one. That feeling of kind of tension in the body can be linked to stress. It can be linked to fatigue. There's lots of musculoskeletal reasons why this happens, but essentially the movement is the lotion you know. So when we get that kind of tightness and pain, in previous years what people might have found was the solution is just, you know, a couple of weeks of stretching and then that issue might disappear. And what you'll find in menopause is that that might help. That will help initially, but then, if you stop doing it, it will come back. So it's about keeping up that consistency around stretching, but also it's about balancing stretching now with strengthening.
Speaker 2:So once we're, once we're kind of over 40, stretching isn't just, it's just not going to cut it anymore. It's going to be a lovely respite and absolutely we need to be doing it for that kind of mobility and balance, but we also need to be strengthening for all of those reasons that we've just said. The muscle mass is decreasing by around about a percent every year and if you look at that over a 20 year period, that's really substantial in terms of your balance and your control and your you know your ability to be independent in later life. So muscle mass is really important and Bone health is going to be really important. So strengthening, building muscle, building bone, that's going to be really important for now, for pain control, but also again for later life, for independence and fun and staying out of hospital and avoiding fractures and things like that.
Speaker 2:So stretching and strengthening together are two of the kind of key elements of Pilates and it's why Pilates, I think, is so impactful for women over 40. And it's why you're saying you know, you say your instinct is to stretch absolutely and move your body. We need to be lubricating our joints, we've got to be moving regularly, we've got to be providing blood flow to the joints, to the muscles, to the tendons, the ligaments, getting everything kind of lubricated and really movement is the way to do that. So your instincts were absolutely right, your intuition is right and if only we could all have that kind of instinct and be kind of empowered to follow our instincts in that way, because I think that would have massive impacts for lots of women.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. When we talk about strengthening so you have done so would you say that you do most of your strengthening, as well as your stretching, through pilates? Do you do any other sort of strengthening, because obviously there's so much out there at the moment, um so much talk about resistance training, strength training. Do you do any of that, or do you get it all through pilates and do you feel that pilates gives you enough?
Speaker 2:yes, um, both. So I do both. I do resistance training and I do pilates, and what I would say to anyone listening is um? So I had a lady come to me a couple of weeks ago and she has been diagnosed. She's 50 I think she was 52 diagnosed with osteoporosis, needed to figure out how to get on top of this strength training thing that she's hearing about now. Her issue was that she was, she was experienced, she'd been diagnosed with osteoporosis, but her symptoms were, um, extreme pain in her lower back and pelvis, hip pain. She was struggling with her neck and shoulders, she was struggling with all sorts of other pain, and it just so happened that she'd been diagnosed with osteoporosis. So we know that she has the pain and we know that she has osteoporosis. But it's not enough to just then start lifting weights. That's probably not going to be enough of a solution for her. So for her she needed to go right back and start at the beginning, and this is where I would say the two work really nicely together.
Speaker 2:Starting at the beginning means for a woman, looking at all of those core functions, so your pelvic floor, your abdominals, your transverse abdominals, your obliques, stabilizing and creating a structure around the central part of your body and by doing that you're going to help your posture, you're going to alleviate some pain immediately because you're going to have much more support, much more stability, um, and you're going to be able to find more range in your joints because you're going to have that central kind of control that's essentially your core. That's your core exactly. So that goes everywhere, from your diaphragm right down to your pelvic floor and all of the muscles in between. So by starting with the core you then create, you're strengthening already, because you're doing that easily with body weight. You don't need any equipment for that, but you're already strengthening, which means that when you then start to add in other weights and heavier weights or do bigger body weight exercise both completely valid for strengthening and when you then move on to those, you're going to be really safe. So you're going to be starting from a place of real control, real stability, so that you can actually start to strengthen the other muscles.
Speaker 2:What I find so often is that people go from zero to lifting quite heavy weights and they get injured or they exacerbate an injury they've already had.
Speaker 2:And I often find people come to me and they say that they're just relieved to have found an exercise that isn't going to create more pain and I think with my, with my background, everything I do is about kind of what's the what's the process around making this as safe as possible and to give it the most longevity. So you want to find something that you can do forever. If that means you never pick up a weight, that's. That's probably going to be okay, because with Pilates you do a lot of body, so we'll strengthen not only the big muscles but also the little, tiny muscles that provide all of the support. So you can absolutely gain muscle from doing Pilates alone. But if you are feeling like, or have been diagnosed with, osteoporosis or something like that, you probably do need a little bit more, and that might mean just adding in some really small hand weights. To add that extra bit of resistance, or going for slightly bigger weights either, is great, but start at the core, take it.
Speaker 1:Take a little bit longer, be a bit more careful, go a bit more slowly and you'll have a longer lasting outcome it makes so much sense because actually, if you haven't got that strong core, you can just lift, you know, bend over, pick up something slightly heavy and really do yourself some damage because you're not picking up correctly, you're not supporting yourself Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Most of the time people come to me and say they've done their back in or, you know, thrown their back out. These are all the phrases I hear. Usually it's something innocuous like picking up a cushion or turning, or, you know, it's very rarely a heavy weight that does it. It's something innocuous like picking up a cushion or turning, or, you know, it's very rarely a heavy weight that does it. It's usually something really small. So that means that it's not the muscle, the extreme big muscles, that are the problem, it's the smaller ones.
Speaker 1:So we need to get that support in place first can we just talk about breathing here as well for a second, because obviously I, um, because, um, I have now trained in functional breath work most more recently, and I have learned that actually how we breathe also really affects our core and our stability and if we are not breathing correctly using our diaphragm, actually again it's going to put everything well. It's just going to mean everything's a little bit weaker. So I'm is that something which you, you kind of bring?
Speaker 2:attention to. Yeah, we really I work on that a lot with people. Again, it's this. It's something that I bring in a little bit later usually. Usually when someone comes to a Pilates class or starts it for the first time, they will. Their immediate comment almost every time is I oh, I was holding my breath, or I didn't know what to do with the breath, or I didn't know how to breathe and oh, I, you know. And I always say to women when you're starting from from there, start with the choreography first. So learn the movement, learn the stability, figure out how to move independent body parts or stabilize certain bits, and do that bit first and then bring in the breath work.
Speaker 2:And the breath work in Pilates is one of the fundamental principles. There's six principles of Pilates and breath work is one of them. So it's really important and it does as absolutely as you say. It gives you access to other muscles. So to give you an example, to strengthen a pelvic floor is almost impossible to do without engaging the breath, because as you get the diaphragm moving, the pelvic floor moves with it. They're like the top and the bottom of a can, you know. So one moves, the other moves.
Speaker 2:So if you, if you are solid in your diaphragm, your pelvic floor is going to be gripping as well. So, in the same way that as you exhale, you can strengthen your diaphragm, your pelvic floor is going to be gripping as well. So, in the same way that as you exhale, you can strengthen your pelvic floor. You also, if you're struggling with things like stress, incontinence, for example, you might, or lower back pain or hip pain, you might also need to learn to release your pelvic floor, and that can come through the inhale. So, yeah, breath work's really important. And just to again, for anyone listening, this can all feel like quite a lot. You know it can think well, how the hell am I going to work on my core and then learn to?
Speaker 1:lift weights.
Speaker 2:And the answer is just start. Don't be overwhelmed by this process. Think of this as a lot. This isn't a kind of pre-summer. Let's do a 12-week quick fix. This is a a. This is going to keep you strong and capable and having fun with your family and doing all your holidays and, you know, being independent forever. Pilates is something you can do until your dying day, so it will always be relevant. Start slowly and just start to build it in and make it part of your life and make it fun. You know short sessions, quick sessions. It doesn't have to be a, like we've said already, it doesn't have to be an hour um on the mat. It can just be sort of built into your life really slowly.
Speaker 1:So generally how often? Because I've done, I've done kind of courses of Pilates and I, yeah, I mean I think I probably bring it in to what I do, but I don't do it as a kind of structured thing. But I'm actually quite kind of inspired now I think I'm going to in terms of how often you would recommend someone to come and, you know, learn the techniques and to get going. How often would you recommend someone come along?
Speaker 2:so, um, a really good example of this was covid. So pre pre-COVID, I did you know in real life in the flesh classes and one-to-ones and what have you? Over COVID, I started more of an online, as everyone did more of an online community, and what I found was, after COVID, the women that had been doing the online community, when we all came back into a group together in real life, the people that had been doing the online stuff were a million miles away from the people that hadn't been, and these were women that had all new Pilates. They'd all done it before, but because they'd stopped for 12 months, the difference in capability was huge.
Speaker 2:Now in my community we just do do it. We base it really on 20 minute sessions, but we work to a calendar, so we try and incorporate 20 minute sessions at least three times a week and with that it makes it really doable, really, um, fast, easy to fit in. But with Pilates, the great thing about Pilates is you get a lot of bang for your buck. You know you're working. If you're having to concentrate on, you know holding your pelvic floor, you're not only are you concentrating really hard, you're not able to think about much else. You'll be working so many other stabilizing muscles at the same time that you get a lot out of a 20 minute session.
Speaker 1:And you have to really concentrate when you're doing it, because you're working teeny tiny muscles or bigger muscles and actually it's like, oh my gosh, I never knew that was going to be quite so tricky, because it doesn't look like it's going to be hard. No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:It doesn't, and I think I find that sometimes I send people a video and I say you know, try this at home. And I think they probably sit on their sofa and watch it and think, oh no, not gonna bother with that. But then if you actually get to your mat and do it, the simplest of exercises are absolutely full body. Full body exercises, um. So yeah, the. The answer is as as often as you can, really and truly, two or three times a week for short sessions, is is is great and, like I say, the difference between doing that and not doing that, when, when, in reality, when we came together, was was huge in terms of control and how people are feeling and you know, body pain it was. It was a massive difference between the women that had and women.
Speaker 1:And also I think I'm just thinking for myself as well of you know, I do quite a lot of weights and I do run, but I know I don't do enough for my pelvic floor, which I know is something which I really need to be doing more of. And Pilates, naturally, you're, you are, it's, it's incorporated quite into most of what you do, isn't it?
Speaker 2:yeah, and partly what we've just said by the breathing. Once you get to to um, you know, get good at the breathing, it's, it happens, naturally, yes that's what I'm banking on, which is lovely, actually, because you don't have to sit around doing your key goals and remembering to do them when you're brushing, because nobody actually ever does that if you can incorporate it into some sort of movement.
Speaker 2:but you know, if you're someone like you who runs and lifts weights, you know, once a week, a week a Pilates session would be, would be plenty because you're probably like you say, you're building it into other elements.
Speaker 2:You know, if you're lifting weights and you're doing resistance training, you need good control. You know you need good balance, you've got to have good control, you've got to be have good body awareness. So you're building in those elements into the weight training anyway. So, once a week or or two shorter sessions a week would would be absolutely, absolutely plenty for you and for pelvic floor. From a pelvic floor perspective, you don't need to be doing a huge amount of it because we all of the everything we do is surat is using the muscles that surround the pelvis, so the pelvic floor gets a really strong workout pretty much every session I so many of my friends do Pilates and it really is something which I hear more and more about and I love the fact that it's a gentle, it's more of a gentle exercise, although it can be killer, but it's actually not it's.
Speaker 1:It's very different to using those you. It's just different, isn't it, to kind of putting all your force and might into lifting a weight or going for a run or or you know that high intensity type of exercise which is so almost on a day where you, after you've done a run.
Speaker 2:Actually, it would be a really great thing to incorporate, yeah oh, definitely, you can use Pilates as a kind of cool down if you wanted to, um, but also, like you say, the the surprise of pilates, I think, is in the is in its intensity. You know that. It that it looks fairly straightforward, but actually the the detail involved means that it becomes very intense, because if you're having to control your shoulder movement with your oblique muscles, you know, though, just being able to figure out how that works, how to get those two things to coordinate, means that you end up using your whole body, so it can become fairly intense and certainly challenging, and the great thing about it is that you can. You can do as much or as little as you want. There's adaptations, and a decent teacher will be able to show you 20 different variations of one single move that mean that it's appropriate.
Speaker 1:Great and in terms of menopause and people suffering with menopause. So what I'm hearing is that this is Pilates, particularly is a really helpful thing if you are experiencing joint pain or you are yeah, you're feeling really exhausted. Actually, it's really something to look into if you're really not feeling like you can face anything else. Actually, I was going to ask do you do reformer Pilates or go on your mat?
Speaker 2:yeah, I do both. So I do both, both, but my favorite is mat. Definitely, reformer is great and I came to reformers when I was younger and that that was um, it's, it's really fun, um. So reformer is great, um, but for a consistent program I would always veer towards mat because I think, again, the thing with reformer is that, um, it's a barrier to entry.
Speaker 2:So it's finding a class, affording a class, and they're never cheap. They're usually small groups, so fitting into a class, you know, there's all sorts of things that can stop you doing it. If you're just looking for a reformer, in my opinion mat work is harder because it's just you and your mat. But if you are for example, I'm working with a lady at the moment who's really struggling with her posture and being able to stand up, so she struggles with too much on the mat she really benefits from having the support of the reformer and having the spring support um. But if you're, if you're reasonably fit and reasonably well, um, you know, on a very generic basis I would say, I would say start with mat and if you love it, find reformer, but go into it.
Speaker 1:That way around I would and people who come and do Pilates who do suffer from, for example, chronic pain or fibromyalgia. How have they benefited? What improvements have there been?
Speaker 2:last week was telling me how she'd come to me for her knee pain and she's, and she'd never even told me that she was struggling with stress incontinence, but she says that that has now disappeared. Um, as just, as a consequence. So for me, I went with a knee injury when I was um in my 20s as I because I wasn't very well I was trying to run, thinking that would give me energy and and it just gave me a knee injury. Um, so I went for that. But I ended up with so much more like improved posture, you know, releasing all that tension and tightness in the body, just feeling confident, feeling good about yourself.
Speaker 2:But also for women in menopause, the thing that people tell me all the time, the big win is stress. It's amazing what an hour or 20 minutes or five minutes on your mat to yourself, what that can do for your stress and your anxiety and your overwhelm, because really on your mat there's not any time to think about anything else. So you can start a class, do the class and really only think of you and everything else zones out. So there's all of your obvious examples. Like you know, people want to, you know, tone up or improve their core strength or reduce their bloating. You know it helps with blood flow and lengthening and stretching muscles, so you stand taller and you lift taller and then you feel better, more confident in your body, in your clothes. Um, but the for me, I think the thing that keeps people doing it is actually just that it becomes a time for them, time for themselves, and they're kind of locking out everything else yeah, and also, I imagine, because you are releasing tension and tightness from the body.
Speaker 1:You know so much of our tension is and stress is stored within the body, so if you are allowing that to be released, that also is going to have a huge effect.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely you know you can. You can anyone that has a kind of frozen shoulder or a knee pain or lower backache. You know these things are are incredibly stressful and they make you feel tense, they stop you sleeping, you know they. They have huge kind of knock-on impact. So, yeah, being able to mobilize your hip and being able to lie on your side again, or, you know, mobilizing your shoulder or freeing up your shoulder and getting that tension out from your neck, you know these things have, yeah, huge kind of lifestyle impacts in terms of how energetic you feel and, yeah, how free you feel and I think it has.
Speaker 1:There has to be some sort of mindset shift, because I think the common thought process is, if I've got a stiff neck or a sore knee or a frozen shoulder, actually I need to just stay still and not overdo it and not move my body and just, you know, really look after myself. And actually it's completely the opposite. I well, as we talked about before, you know, when you've got that pain, actually you've just got to keep moving. You've just got to keep moving, even, you know, because it really does help. And I think that's what people got to really understand don't sit still, because it really doesn't help. You've got to keep moving your body.
Speaker 1:And I, unfortunately, I see, still see people who are, you know, friends and people I know who, oh, I haven't exercised for ages because I've got this injury or I've got this kind of, you know, stiffness and it's actually like actually, just how maybe you can't exercise or move in the way that you have been, because that's really intense. Actually, just do something a bit more gentle, just do what you can do yeah, yeah, that's the.
Speaker 2:That's the answer, isn't? It is just not expecting every bit of movement to be a workout. It doesn't always need to be a workout. It can just be a stretch or a walk, or down on your mat and doing a few cat cows or you know, it could just be something as small as that. But there was some. There's some evidence around women in menopause and what happens to us and how we stop moving. You know, we we gradually less and less mobile, we do less, we see less people, we go out less, so we stop. We stop that kind of um low intensity, natural, regular movement, and that's often where some of the problems come in and that is often the problem with people as they get older.
Speaker 1:You know that's, you know, people just sit in chairs and they don't move, and actually it's the people who ate who are more mobile, who move their bodies, and they are the ones aging well, and it's a society, though I think it's like oh well, you're old, you sit down, don't do anything, and it's completely the opposite, absolutely, and in fact there's.
Speaker 2:One of my missions is to kind of create this generation of women in menopause that are going to be that next generation of of older ladies and elderly ladies who are going to be still doing all seen the the opposite of that. We've all seen a family member or a parent who is you know. One example I heard the other day which was one of my clients she's she comes because her mum, by the age of 65, was using a tens machine every morning to be able to get out of bed. You know, we've all seen those examples. So I think if we can just get on top of it now and it's and remember that there is never a point where that's too late you know, yesterday would have been better, but today is great. So let's just start.
Speaker 2:Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, however restricted you feel, there's always something that you can be doing. And those little steps for me that was always the game changer the smaller steps. Start small. Don't think of the end game, because there isn't one. You know, we're always. We're just. We're just kind of living our lives. We just need to be as mobile as possible.
Speaker 1:Don't ever think that this is a you know, just for my holiday or just for yeah there is no end game, so just start small and just keep going yeah, and, and finding, finding time to fit it into your routine, make it work for you, find someone you like, and uh, yeah, it's got to just be part of what you do. And this is this is it, isn't it? It's like oh yes, I'm not just going to do it just because I need to look good in my swimsuit, because I'm going on holiday. That's absolutely doesn't work. That's not what you should be doing at all doesn't work.
Speaker 2:it fails every time. In fact, someone told me the other day that the chance of succeeding on something like that, on like a 12-week challenge or you know, they're all great as a kind of you know to change your lifestyle, but if you're doing it just for a holiday or just for a wedding or there's something like a 97% failure rate afterwards and then you think, well, you wouldn't get on a plane if it said right, there's a 97% chance that this is going to crash. But we all do it over and over. So I think, absolutely, start on a 12-week plan, start on a 10-week plan. Start that's great, but the aim is to keep going forever rather than just until that end date. Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:If anybody listening to this is thinking right, okay, I really need, well, I would really like to try Pilates. If I haven't, if they haven't tried Pilates or they do do Pilates and they'd like to find out more about you, how can they get going? Where should they come to?
Speaker 2:Well, probably the easiest place is my website, which is mindbodymeno all one word. Mindbodymenocouk, or you can find me on instagram, is the easiest place and it's caroline cop at caroline cop all one word, okay fantastic.
Speaker 1:And just to leave the listeners with one thing if they're going to remember just one thing from this conversation, because obviously we've talked about lots of different things what would you say that one thing?
Speaker 2:I would say the one thing for me and and the clients that I work with is is just start start somewhere, start small and build it up, because it's amazing the impact that five minutes can have. Amazing, you know it. Really it can change how you stand, how you move, how you feel, how you think, what energy you have. So start something and, again, like we've said, don't have an end goal in mind. Just move, because it's going to make you feel amazing and start there Amazing.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much, caroline. It's been so lovely to meet you, lovely to chat, and really informative as well and really inspiring, because you know if someone who suffered suffers with ME and chronic fatigue, and you know, look at you, now you're you, you look great and you're inspiring and teaching so many others as well. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. It's been lovely to be here, thanks my pleasure.
Speaker 1:I hope you enjoyed this episode and here are your key takeaways. Number one movement is crucial for maintaining mobility and overall health, especially as we get older, and Pilates is a brilliant form of exercise which provides a gentle yet effective way to keep the body moving. It combines stretching exercises with strengthening, which helps to improve your muscle health, improve your posture and also can really help to release tension. Number two Pilates also offers numerous benefits to help alleviate pain, and that could be joint pain experienced in menopause, but also other chronic conditions such as ME or fibromyalgia. Number three if you are at the beginning or near the beginning of your strength maintaining and building journey, consider Pilates, because it does build your core stability and control, and it gives you a real strong foundation, which means it makes it safe to progress to heavier weights or more intense workouts and helps really prevent injuries. Number four it's time to view fitness and well-being, to maintain strength, mobility and independence as you age. And number five consistency is key. Even short sessions of 20 minutes done two to three times a week can bring significant benefits. That is all for this week.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening, particularly if you're still here right to the very end. I really do appreciate you. If you enjoyed this episode, please do head over to wherever you listen to your podcasts and hit that like and subscribe button and leave a review if you have enjoyed it. I'd be so, so grateful. It really does help this podcast. Remember do something this week for you which makes you feel good, which feels good in your body. It's all about making that a priority, because you won't regret it. Have a fantastic week and I really look forward to speaking to you next time. Take care, Lots of love, Bye.