The Netmums Podcast - S17 Ep5: From chaos to calm: Finding balance in motherhood with Shakira Akabusi

Episode Date: October 7, 2025

In this episode of the Netmums podcast, hosts Wendy Golledge and Alison Perry discuss the often-overlooked issue of stress and its impact on parenting and self-care. Joined by fitness expert Shakira Akabusi, they explore the misconceptions surrounding postnatal bodies, the importance of pelvic floor health, and how movement can serve as medicine for mental well-being. Shakira shares her personal experiences with motherhood and mental health, offering valuable insights for parents navigating the challenges of raising children while maintaining their health. Tune in for practical tips on how to prioritise self-care and foster a healthy mindset! In this episode: The impact of stress on parenting Managing kids' emotions during a move Misconceptions about postnatal bodies Importance of pelvic floor health The role of movement in mental health Celebrity culture and body image Shakira's app and resources for parents This episode is proudly sponsored by Aldi UK.  Stay connected with Netmums for more parenting tips, community support, engaging content: Website: netmums.com / Instagram: @netmums  Proudly produced by Decibelle Creative / @decibelle_creative

You're listening to the NetMums podcast with me, Wendy Gullidge, and me, Alison Perry. Coming up on this week's show, stress is one of the most underrated poisons, you know, that we have in the world, and we just tend to not only ignore it, but we tend to like pile more of it on top and almost see that as a measure of success. The more stressed we are, the less time we have for self-care is kind of like, well, I'm doing really well, and it's just so the opposite. But before all of that, this episode of the NetMum's podcast is brought to you by Aldi Mamia. One of my favourite things about being a parent

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So to solve this, Aldi's award-winning nappies now have dedicated boy and girl pee zones. Peasones? Tell me more, Wendy. Well, did you know that girls tend to pee more in the middle of their nappy while boys usually pee more to the front? Aldi Mamir nappies now have uniquely designed pea zones to draw liquid across the entire core of the nappy to enhance absorption. Clever, huh? Oh my goodness, love that. I'm also a big fan of the leak lock pockets to help contain poo blowouts and the 360 degrees leakage protection.

And the nappies are really comfy and a flexible fit. They are plus they're dermatologically tested and suitable for newborns. Brilliant. They've thought of everything. Get your Aldi Mumia Nappies in store now. Hello, hello. Welcome to another episode of the NetMums podcast. How you doing, Alison? I'm doing all right, Wendy. So we're recording this, aren't we? end of July and the kids are about to break up or maybe they already have for some of us

but yeah, by the time that this goes out it will be September and things will have got back into a routine and a rhythm and quite frankly I'm jealous of future Alison and future Wendy because things will seem a bit easier then, won't they? It's such a weird time, isn't it? Because on the one hand I'm really looking forward to the summer with the kids and doing some fun stuff and on the other hand I'm thinking I can't do my day job

in a week when they're at school how am I going to do my day job in a week when they're not at school and it the maths doesn't work nobody gets unless you're a teacher and hats off to teachers you don't get enough holiday to make it work I don't know how are we going to do it at the I know let's um let's strap ourselves in for the summer well I think we'll be grand we'll be okay Well, let's ask our guest, because I'm guessing that she's also strapping in for the summer. I think she probably is. This week, we are joined by fitness expert, author and mum of four, Shakira Akabusi. She's the founder of Strong Like Mum, with a book of the same name and now an app and a YouTube channel. You might also have seen Shakira on Lorraine and this morning.

She's basically on a mission to help parents feel strong in both body and mind. Shakira, a warm welcome to the NetMum's podcast. Good morning. It's funny hearing your intro because you're like, she's on a mission to help people feel strong. And I'm like, oh, we've got the summer holidays coming up. What happens then? What happens then?

Oh, I know. I've got four and my eldest is 10. And I'm like, at what age does the babysitting stuff kick in? Because I'm like, can we use this yet? The 10-year-olds. This is it. This is it. I've got a 14-year-old.

And I'm thinking that maybe when she's 15, maybe I'll start using her to babysit. But it's just dependent on the child, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. Well, my daughter's 13, and the trouble is she's not very nice to her. Exactly. So even, she's perfectly capable of babysitting her, but I know she'd be really mean to her, so I can't leave her in charge. That's it.

The 10-year-old is the absolute wind-up merchant, so I'm just, I'm thinking, okay, now. I've got to wait for the second one. He, I think he's got the right temperament. So how are you? Because you moved house, didn't you recently? Is it still utter chaos or are you all settled in? No. It's, I mean, it's utter chaos. We've got utter chaos going on. So I don't know if people are listening to this or watching it. But yeah, complete chaos. We've got boxes absolutely everywhere. But yeah, it's good. I mean, we've got a lot more space in this house than we had before. So we can sort of like put all the boxes into, you know, the rooms that we didn't have before. So yeah, it's good. It's really exciting to be in. It feels like a big step. That's great. Now, you posted online about how tricky it was to manage your kids' emotions during the move. Yeah. How did you manage that? Have you got any tips? Yeah, it was really tricky. And we, I mean, I've got four children of really different ages.

So their needs are really different as well. You know, the 10-year-old. And then I've got seven. And then the twins who are five today, actually, were four at the time. And managing their different emotions. And then they had roller coasters. Half they were excited because they get their own. room here. So they're excited about having their own bedroom, but they were sad about leaving the street. And, you know, I think sometimes as adults, we can still feel it as well, but they really felt like the energy of the house we were in, almost like the house had feelings. And so my middle son in particular, he was like, but I love this house. I want this house to know that we love it and, you know, all of that. So in the end, I actually bought them some photo frames

and we went round the old house, the garden and everyone. We picked flowers or we even got little bits of the brick from the outside of the house and put them in the frame, all of that kind of thing. And then they each have their frame in their room. And I said to them, and I basically tried to explain it in the way that, look, with humans, we live in like small groups that we call families. You know, some insects live in colonies of hundreds or thousands. And I was like, houses, like the house pattern is that they have different families come in. They want that's how houses live. And, you know, I said to them, it's time. time for this house now to move on. It's given us so much. We've given it our energy and now it

needs new energy. That's what houses it. So a little bit, I guess, of a hippie explanation, but it worked with them. It worked and they were happier. So I really wanted to ask you about the pressure that mum's feel to bounce back. I hate the words bounce back after having a baby. What do you think is the biggest kind of misconception about postnatal bodies that you want to tell the mum's listening and the dad's listening and everyone about postnatal mums. Yes, okay, so the first thing, the thing that

really springs to mind first is that for some reason we seem to have like you know, shrunk down the value of the postpartum body to a number on a scale and I think that's when suddenly you feel the pressure and you know, it feels

really stressful and oh, I bounce back and I'm not back to what I was, all of that kind of stuff because for some reason that's the way we decide to value how healthy or fit or strong our body is. Whereas if you, I think because I'm in the world of women's health and I understand the detailed science of what the body does. I mean, I am absolutely in awe of the female body, you know, creating carrying birthing life, nurturing life afterwards, the way that it will heal after birth. It's so fascinating to me that I'm like the utter respect that we need for the female body and that that number on the scale

is so irrelevant when you look at it like that and if we can like if everybody it's that's not to say you can't have aesthetic goals you can but really we need to always have that foundation of respect for what our body has gone through and what it does and that is like the baseline thing that I would love to change is that we have this respect and awe for what the female body goes through that would kind of be number one and then I think in terms of bounce back again I'm much more interested in longevity health and that word longevity we're hearing more and more so that message is starting to get through but it's you know health and fitness that industry has suddenly become really hand in hand with like eight week ab blast or get your bikini body these kind of like

clickbait headlines of we can do this for you really quick and everything has to be quick and actually for longevity health it takes it takes a long time of like laying down foundations And I even find it tricky now. I'm five years postpartum. My twins are five today. And I posted the other day about a deadlift PB that I did in the gym. It's like the heaviest I've ever deadlifted. But I really wanted to be clear, like, this is five years in the making.

This is not five weeks or five months in the making. It's five years in the making. And I don't want that message to get lost because of what I'm now doing to the journey that has, you know, taken me five years. So you've had four babies now, including your twins, five years ago. today you were having twins. I mean, July 2020, having twins in lockdown, that's a whole other podcast, right? Yeah. What's your experience or recovery different after each baby or a set of babies? Absolutely. A hundred percent. So different. And I would say the first, the first pregnancy and birth, I think in terms of the actual logistics of the birth process was fairly

straightforward and I had positive experiences the whole time but you know the recovery was more straightforward and then with the second one I felt like it took me slightly longer and then the twins was a caesarian section and I even though I had worked with pre and postnatal women for years at that point the living that that postnatal recovery after a cesarian was a really eye-opening and I think I'd really underestimate it's intense isn't it and it is really an emotional and a physical level and I remember like I remember saying to my husband this is the first time ever I felt disconnected from my body and I said to him I feel like an alien in my own skin because I couldn't be all simple things like lifting my leg to put my pants on I couldn't do it and I was like

it just felt so strange to me not to be able to move in the way that I was used to so that that that was a long, longer recovery, I think. I think just talking about caesarians, it's partly that thing of, it's for many women, it's the first time you felt really weak in your own body, unable to kind of, I felt weak. And the one thing you don't want to feel

when you're also trying to look after a new human or in your case, two new humans, is weak. But you can't do anything to feel strong because you are recovering. Yeah. And it takes so long. Yeah, I think it does take longer. I think, again, sometimes it just comes down to perception or mindset.

Although initially in that postpartum period, I did. Like I said, I felt like, I mean, you used the word weak. It wasn't necessarily weak, but I felt really disconnected. And but what I think is so special about the postpartum period is that for many women, this is the first time that we've really paid attention to our core. So it actually gives us an opportunity to. lay down strong foundations. So many people don't think about their pelvic floor. And then once they've had a child, if they experience, I don't know, prolapse or diastasis recti or incontinence,

whatever it is that they're experiencing, they suddenly think, oh my gosh, I need to take care of my pelvic floor. And it actually gives us an amazing opportunity to build strength from the foundations up. So yes, you can feel, you know, whether you use the word weak or disconnected or it feels different or yes, all those things can be true. But it actually means we have this chance to put things right, right on the base level. The tricky stuff comes when you don't do that. And women don't do anything for their pelvic floor. And they're like, well, this is just the way that it is now.

I'm just going to wet myself when I go for a run. Well, and then 10 years down the line or five years down the line, that's when we might have back pain, knee pain, sciatica, you know, all these different types of things that can occur. So it is, I guess, about that mindset of really, like I said, respecting what the body's gone through. And giving women the tools to be able to rehabilitate that themselves, because I guess that's one of the biggest issues.

We don't have the resources or, you know, available for everybody to get that rehabilitation advice. So seeing you've started talking about pelvic floors, let's keep talking about pelvic floors. Why do you think we're still so awkward talking about that stuff, even though all of us at some point or another are dealing with it? I think a huge part of it is that for a long time, nobody has wanted. to commit to giving the advice because it is so different for each woman. So it is really difficult to give general advice because when you look at the pelvic floor,

for example, if people are like, oh, well, you know, I wet myself when I go for a run, on one hand, it could be, okay, well, your pelvic floor's weak. So what you need to do is kegel exercises or pelvic floor, strength exercise. But it could also be that it's actually nothing to do with your pelvic floor and it's to do with your posture and you're doing, you know, you're doing all the kegles and your pelvic floor is strong, but your posture is out of sync. Well, in that case, we need to do different exercises to rehabilitate the posture.

Or it could be that you've over-trained your pelvic floor and it's too strong. So, you know, it's difficult to give that general advice. But one of the positives of social media, especially if it is expert advice that you're following, because we all know there's difficult things in social media, but you can now provide sort of like consistent support, whether it's, you know, via an app or YouTube

or social media, whatever it is, where you can provide that expert advice and keep targeting different topics and hopefully you'll reach a few people that need the right thing. We also haven't had the research for a long time, you know, at the risk of just shouting a million statistics, women's health is so underfunded. And when you then trickle down to actually, you know, pre and postnatal research or perimenopause research, it's, you know, under 1% of sports science research goes into those areas of health. So it is a combination of not having had the advice, not having had the experts. One of the reasons I became a pre-impersonatal expert specialist is because I read an article that said only 5.5% of fitness industry professionals were qualified in pre-impostnatal. And I'm like, how? That's a huge failing on women from the fitness industry.

Why have we got all these people talking about, I don't know, you know, how to deadlift, whatever, but we're not actually helping women on that base level when many women will be pre or postnatal. So hopefully the tide is changing. There are some fantastic experts out there now and just keep giving them a platform to be able to share that information. I've seen you say before, Shakira, that stress and emotion can actually affect pelvic floor, you know, health.

Can you explain a little bit about that? Because that sounds really fascinating. Yeah, my gosh, stress is one of the most underrated poisons that we have in the world. the world and we just tend to not only ignore it, but we tend to like pile more of it on top and almost see that as a measure of success. The more stressed we are, the less time we have for self-care is kind of like, well, I'm doing really well. And it's just so the opposite. When it comes to stress on the pelvic floor, gosh, I could talk for ages.

Okay, the two, if I just pick two, for example, when it comes specifically to a cesarian section, so not so much the pelvic floor, but for a cesarian section, we now have research that's showing us that emotional stress can trigger scar tissue regrowth. So if you have had any abdominal surgery, cesarean, you know, whatever it is that you've had, it can trigger that scar tissue that is healing as the incision site begins to heal to spread and then it sticks to other internal organs and it combined things, it can reduce your mobility, all of that type of stuff. So huge for women who have had, or anyone who has had abdominal surgery or in fact, any surgery, shoulder surgery, knee surgery, whatever, emotional stress and its impact on scar tissue. So that's one way.

In terms of the pelvic floor, yeah. So when we're stressed, there's so many things that happen with our hormones, but even just from a physiological perspective. So if we are stressed and we clench our jaw or we're constantly, you know, playing with our hands or curling our hands into fists or curling our toes, this natural stress response, we clench and tighten the pelvic floor alongside that. The pelvic floor is actually connected right from our jaw down to the bottom of our feet. So all of that has an impact. And just when we're stressed, our natural human instinct is to tense up and hold everything in. And so if the pelvic floor is constantly impartial tension, it can't release. And if you can't release the pelvic floor, you can't activate the pelvic floor properly. So you end up with this sort of midway point where women can experience leaking. So if you're not, if you're noticing, not just leaking when running, if you notice, if you notice,

that you struggle to hold you. And so when you do need the loo, then you notice drip, drip, drip, drip, because that would indicate an overly or partially tight pelvic floor. If you have pain inserting a tampon, pain during intercourse, all of that, lower backache, that could indicate that you've got sort of this constant tension in the pelvic floor, which can be triggered by stress.

And that's just two small examples of, you know, something to talk about for a long time. So what's your take on the celebrities who, kind of are posting those flat tummy selfies a couple of weeks after they've given birth. Is it doing more harm than good? Yeah, I think that, well, I think it does. I also, I think it, I don't think it helps. I don't think it helps.

I think that so many things come into, so many things come into it. You know, gosh, there might be some women out there who can have a baby and two weeks later, you know, feel like their uterus has returned to normal, I don't know, you know, and they feel like they suddenly look great and they're posting it everywhere. God, I was still wearing adult napes after two weeks. I was as well. My sister's just had a baby actually

and she's four weeks postpartum. She's like, what is this? Why is it still going on? I'm like, yeah, it just does. But, you know, so yes, but I also, I don't want to villainise women for celebrate. You know, I also think we need to be there to celebrate women and great.

If you feel confident in doing that, then fantastic. But it's not the only message. I do also, I don't know if it's just the world that I surround myself in, but I think we're seeing more and more celebrities or people have influenced showing the realities because this is what people now want. So hopefully that's falling by the wayside a little bit and we're getting that message out there about, you know, the norm. But everyone's norm is different. So I think more important is probably whatever someone is posting, understanding that their journey is not to your journey. I have people message me a lot

saying, oh, how do I get to look like you? How do I get to do that? And I'm like, well, you just wouldn't. I won't look like you. You won't look like me. You know, different things. But everyone's going to be so different and have their own journey. So I wouldn't want to villainise everyone. But no, I don't think it helps. I think sharing the reality and the struggles. And look, if your struggle is not that, there'll be other struggles that they have. We all have, you know, different things going on it. In my first pregnancy where I had a pretty straightforward recovery, I had severe, severe mental health, postpartum anxiety, OCD that, you know, destroyed so many elements of my life at the time

and looking at me, people have been like oh, well, everything's fine because she's wearing a bikini five months later. It's just, you know. Yeah. So how has fitness supported your mental health especially in those early parenting years? Yeah, gosh, huge. So huge. And that's really why I love it so much because

still now, you know, we're talking about the summer holidays and how are we going to survive or, and moving my body is huge for me. In those early days I had postnatal anxiety during my first pregnancy actually and then after the birth of my first son and it was extreme. I won't talk too much about it but just as an example it would take me about four hours to get to bed each night because my OCD was tapping and counting so I had numbers in my head everything had to be like one two three for five one two three for five

five sets of five five five five five. It was like everything took me I left work and it would take me three and a half hours to get home from work. so not even to get home, three and a half hours to do a seven-minute walk to the tube station and then I had to go. It was so extreme. Oh God. Must be exhausting. It was exhausting. It was exhausting.

It was exhausting. But, and basically, very long story short, I ended up doing hypnotherapy. And I think if you have something like anxiety or high stress, the rate of the thoughts in your head is so frequent. It was all the time, you know, this constant talk of anxiety in my head. and I did a session of hypnotherapy and I found that it just slowed the rates of the thought enough that I could begin to try to distinguish between well which of these thoughts is my instinct

and which of my thoughts is anxiety because I felt like as a mum, so often they say to you, trust your instincts but if you've got anxiety, it's really difficult to tell if this is my instinct that's making me feel alert and worried or if it's anxiety. So that hypnotherapy allowed me

to slow it down enough to be able to tell the difference. And then exercise gave me the same thing. If I was really, really stressed, if I could go out for a 20-minute jog, I would just, it would, you know, the hormones, the positive hormones would kick in. And it would just allow me to change my perspective

ever so slightly to be able to distinguish, is this anxiety, is this instinct? And slowly but surely that process got easier. You know, it would take me a long time and now I can do it pretty quick. I'm delving back into my memory, Shakira, and I'm trying to think, did you, am I right in thinking that you really suffered during your pregnancies with your mental health? Was it, um, hyperemesis, Ramadan, or was it?

Oh, gosh, yeah, I was sorry, that as well. Sorry, I thought you were still speaking about anxiety. Yeah, oh, I felt so ill. Now, I never actually vomited. I just had this nausea. Like, it was, and I remember, I remember someone saying to my husband, well, maybe, she just shouldn't have children if she can't because I could not get out of bed I was I could not get out of bed and it happened every time so I had another child you know the second time I already had a child and then when I had the twins I had two children I could not get out of bed without my family and my friends my kids would not have got to school I don't know how they would have eaten anything I was in bed pretty much I'd crawl to the toilet it was just awful it was just awful I remember like plates piled hard next to my bedside table

of like any little thing that my husband thought I could eat and it would just get the dirty dish and I was like, I can't, I couldn't wash a dish, it was, it was absolutely awful. It was awful. Everything like that's a physical condition

but that must have had an impact on your mental health as well at the time. Yes, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I remember when we spoke, it was with your book, Alison, and we had a conversation. I remember saying to you, there was a time when I said to you,

I said to my husband. And I never, I was never suicidal and actually the reason I didn't get support on the NHS because they, I did go to see their perinatal mental health team and filled out a form and they said, well, because you have ticked here that you don't, you're not suicidal. You don't qualify for any more support on the NHS. But we can refer, yeah, but we can refer you to X, Y, Z. But I remember saying to my husband, it would be easier to jump out of the window than have to do what I'm doing. It would just be so much easier because it was that bad. It was that bad. It was that. bad um it was just it was just and it was it you get quite depressed because it's so isolating and time stretches on i mean my gosh the concept of like an hour would feel like 10 weeks it was just and i just remember thinking that i can't see the end in sight it was just just sickness forever but then it did get better you know i don't want to tariff it i was similarly ill and i remember measuring time in c bibi's episodes so i knew that and i still now if i hear the the theme tune to certain

CVs from kind of nine years ago, I still feel sick because it's kind of like hard word. So I would get through, okay, if I can get through Abney and Teal, then I know it. And then, okay, right, because time does bend and meld and you just have to

get through it in kind of 20 minute increments, don't you? I so remember that. Yeah, exactly. There's still things. I was watching the Great British Pottery Throwdown or something and it was just, I would always, like, play the episodes in the back just have talking

and now if I have to watch the grapefish pottery and I'm like no it's a no for me it's Abney and Teal and Nutrogena grapefruit face wash they're the two things

that I'll never be able to endure ever again oh Wendy just a reminder that this episode of the NetMams podcast is brought to you by Aldi Mamia

as well as award-winning nappies with P-Zones that enhance absorption we love Mamia wipes. Plastic free and gentle enough to use on your little one from birth. They make nappy changes so much easier. Head to your nearest Aldi store

to check out the entire Mammaia range. Now Shakira, you've spoken before about movement as medicine, how it's about so much more than exercise. What do you think that means in practice, especially for mums that are juggling kids in chaos? Yeah, well, I think firstly, you know, an emotional perspective or a mental health perspective as we just spoke about this you know on a very

real hormone level there are things that happen but also chemically like sometimes it's really different i think one of the parts of of really sort of sustaining exercise is is understanding your body a lot and i did go on a journey of like self-discovery i know it again it sounds like a hippie notion but sometimes when my body is tired it needs rest sometimes when I'm tired. I actually need movement. That movement creates energy in the body. So if you are tired with your children and, you know, sometimes getting up early and doing a bit of exercise actually gives me energy for the day. And there is a subtle difference. So, you know, I'm not saying never rest. Sometimes rest is the answer. But sometimes movement is the answer. And then, you know,

again, exercise helps us with not only our mental well-being, but it will help us with our immune system. It creates a really healthy immune system response. It will help us with our digestive process, you know, so it can help our digestion and our nutrition intake. There's just so many, I think nowadays, exercise has become extracurricular and nothing really in the system supports people exercising. Whether you are a working parent, you don't get lunch breaks or, you know, any more to go for a walk or anything. And we don't have, of course, we know the childcare system in this country needs some attention. So, It's like extracurricular, whereas actually, movement is a human instinct.

The human body was built to move. If you go back to original Homo sapiens, exercise wasn't something they did as a hobby. It was like they had to do it to survive. So our body wants to move. And when we deny our body an instinct, it has a stress response and it's unhealthy. So again, you know, creating that support network around you that encourages you to keep moving. And it doesn't have to be going. to the gym or doing a hit class or going for a 10 mile run or a cycle, there's so many ways

you could go dancing. You could, you know, just go for a walk, really great form of exercise for your joints, for your muscles, for your heart, you know, so it doesn't have to be one way of exercise, but it will seriously impact our health. And actually, I think, impact our children. One of the things I'm very grateful to my parents for is that I've always enjoyed. exercise. And that's why, you know, when I say it's not extracurricular, for me, I've always enjoyed it and it's just been a part of my day to day. And I know for so many people, that isn't the case. It is like, oh, I've got to do some exercise, you know? So it's being able to, um, yeah, to, to have it as part of your day and doing something that you enjoy. Um, now,

obviously, as you mentioned, you've followed in your famous dad's footsteps. Your mom is, is she a fitness trainer as well? Yeah. So my mom, my mom, my mom, my mom, she now does. So my mum was a personal trainer, almost like a physio, a bit more than a personal trainer. She would work with athletes or individuals. And now she specialises in 50 plus and she does GP referrals. So again, like a physio, if someone has a hip replacement or a knee replacement, then the GP would refer them to someone like my mum, who would then help them rehabilitate their injuries. So obviously, yeah, as you said, growing up with that range has really inspired you. Do you think that any of your kids will follow in your footsteps and their grandparents' footsteps? I don't know. All of my kids, again, they love being outside and being active, which to me, that's like mission accomplished.

They don't need to be an athlete or go into sports, you know, do whatever they love doing. But yeah, my middle son loves gymnastics. My eldest is obsessed with football. I am, sorry, I say don't push them into anything. I'm trying to push my daughter into jiu-jitsu because I do jiu-jitsu, which is new. And it's so much fun because it's so hard. I've never done anything like that before. So it's a real, real challenge. And I just think, oh, I'd really, she's five. And I'm like, if I could start you now, by the time you're 15, you can take on your brothers.

Give her a happy hand. Now, obviously, you've mentioned you've got four kids, you've got a business, and now you've got a new app. Tell us more about the app. Is it specifically for new mums, or can any of us download it and use it? yeah anyone oh gosh i think the thing with pre and postnatal is it sounds like you know that immediate postnatal period but i have worked with women who are 15 20 30 years postpartum but because they didn't do the work in that postpartum period we go back and we have to train from that point and the app also has peri and postmenopause specific workouts in it my mum features on the app so she does

some 50 plus stuff so there's a whole it's you know women's health across the board um i also am quite over the last five years became qualified in peri and postmenopause movement so that is all a part of the package there's also like a really interesting sort of cross now between because women are having children so much later we have women who are having children in their 40s mid to late 40s and we're seeing this like perimenopause hormone and postnatal hormone crossover which is really interesting so working with you know that specialist group so that's all on the app and the YouTube is will be an extension of that. So there will, there's going to be a ton of workouts on the YouTube platform, which is launching in September when I know this episode is coming out. So pre and postnatal,

you know, from deep course specific to building strength to peri and postmenopause, that will all be on the YouTube. And then on the app, we will have specific courses that you won't be able to get on YouTube. So I have a pelvic floor rehabilitation course. There'll be an introduction to weightlifting course. Strength, and all of that will be specific to the app. So finally, for anyone who's listening, who's feeling a bit stuck or a bit low, what's your kind of, what tiny step could they take today to help them feel better, mentally and physically? A big question, because it really, it really depends on where you are, you know, in the, in the journey. I think what I would say is that the answer is out that whatever there, whatever

it is that you're struggling with you know for example i met i met a woman who had an issue with her ever since she gave birth her toe was um like her baby toe became like stress separated out from and she couldn't figure out like what was the what was the connection but now we understand that our feet can be connected to the pelvic floor and all the way up to the jaw there's a whole chain of deep body tissue and that that you know um symptoms that she's experiencing can be placed anywhere along that line. So it could be, you know, a cesarean section. It could be pelvic floor issues, could be a lower back thing and it's her posture and

there's a nerve being compressed. There can be so many things. So, you know, before she was like, well, I just don't know what to do. There is an answer out there. It's about, you know, finding that expert information, keep asking for the answers. It can feel so overwhelming. And I think that one of the biggest shames at the moment is that women still have to fight for their answers.

we are not supported enough that people see you struggling or, you know, medical professionals see you struggling. They're like, we know what you need. You have to really push to be seen, push to be heard. Go back again. Go back again. Go back again. So should someone go to their GP as the first? So if someone is listening to this and thinking, oh, I wonder if, you know, I've got a lower back issue or I've got, you know, something that I think might be connected to my pelvic floor is going to the GP and asking for a referral, the person. The best first step? Oh, I'd love to say yes, but it depends on your GP. And so often, GPs don't will not know. You know, they are general practitioners. They don't really know. So it could be,

you might be better off going to a woman's health physio. If you can't afford it off the NHS, then the first step is the GP. And you might have to push and push and push to be referred. And it might take you four or five months, but they should be able to refer you then to a women's health physio. So it could be GP, could be women's health physio, could be someone like me who specialises in pre-imposed naples or perimenopause or pelvic floor dysfunction it could be like that if you are looking online for your advice which so many people do you just have to make sure that it's a credible source so make sure you're checking people's qualifications um you know don't just go to a celebrity who's had a baby that's not necessarily the answer um yeah so all of those

things i think i think in general no movement is worse than movement unless unless unless your GP has specifically said to you like bed rest you have got whatever you know medical condition that you really have to have sort of a strict thing movement will always be better than no movement so you can go for a walk is a great place to start just being up on your feet and walking is great you know doing some light body weight exercises to begin building strength that you know the power and again this message is starting to get out there which is good but the power of muscle mass, you cannot underestimate how important it is to your digestive system, your metabolism, you know, we now know that we used to have this myth that our metabolism slows

down after 35. The metabolism does not change. It stays relatively stable between 20 and 60. And actually, but what does change, because our muscle mass decreases and our muscle is what digest calories, that's not the technical term, but it, what metabolizes, you know, we burn more calories, the more lean muscle mass we have, that can impact your metabolism or your metabolic rate. So making sure that we're laying down that muscle mass, that's how we're going to have healthy bones. It's how we have more energy. It all happens in muscle mass. So really important, simple strength training. Again, for some reason, the fitness industry, we seem to think there are like people who are into fitness and people who aren't into fitness. And, you know, you have the gym,

you have the gym girls, and you have the girls who don't do the, and it's just so not it's just so not the case this is for everyone always and slowly taking those steps if you don't want to go to a gym you don't feel comfortable there you can do it at home you can do it you know with youtube as i said make sure it's a credible um place but you can do it on youtube it doesn't need to cost you anything you know so yeah i think just keep pushing for your answers don't settle for being in pain, being uncomfortable, you know, experiencing incontinence, you are worth more than that.

Well, I think that's all so interesting. And I can talk to you about this for Aura Shakira, but we will let you go and get on with your day. Thank you so much for joining us. It's been brilliant to chat to you. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Don't forget you can get in touch with us

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