Heather Smith, Author at Fitbiz Training

Getting The Best Out Of Corrective Exercise

2.04.2025

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Despite writing workout programs to help clients with niggles, pains and injuries every day, I continue to find myself surprised and excited to see how profound the effects of corrective exercise can be.

I’ve got a few examples of things I’ve found especially exciting over the last few months:

Two separate early stage workout plans have provided a pretty much immediate resolution to two clients chronic back pain. Another program has radically improved nerve pain which has been going on for years. A much more gradual approach has seen a client almost back to full function after an […]

Do You Breathe Through Your Mouth?

19.03.2025

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Fitness, Health

Perhaps this is a bit of a weird topic.

Who knew how you breathed was so important!

The way you breathe overall is linked to your posture and core engagement.

But whether you breathe through your mouth or nose has far reaching impacts on your body and health as a whole!

If you’re breathing through your mouth most, or all, of the time then it’s really worth trying to change that.

Mouth breathing is simply not optimal for your body. Of course, you can get air in quickly through your mouth, but it just doesn’t support your […]

Should You Supplement Creatine?

5.03.2025

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Health, Nutrition

I hear creatine is gaining popularity as a supplement, so I thought it would be handy to write about it so you can make an informed decision as to whether it’s something which might benefit you.

Creatine has been around for a very long time, it’s one of the most well researched and effective supplements for improving exercise performance and has long been taken by people who want this.

Now, it’s gaining popularity as a supplement for everyone because of its potential non-exercise based benefits.

The benefits of creatine are vast, but there is less research […]

Semaglutide & Osteopenia

26.02.2025

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Health, Weight Loss

I thought we’d pick back up on the semaglutide topic, as there’s been a bit of negative press about it being linked with osteopenia.

Obviously, I’m not here to suggest that everyone should be taking a GLP-1 inhibitor, but I also don’t think it’s a bad thing for the right person, with the right support.

ANY diet which involves an extended period of a very low calorie intake, particularly if the protein intake is also low, will lead to nutrient deficiencies.

When you add a lack of strength exercise to the mix, your body […]

Are You Losing Body Fat? How Do You Know?

19.02.2025

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Health, Weight Loss

When you lose weight, it’s possible to lose the wrong kind of weight.

If we send the appropriate signals to our body, we can instruct our body to pare down our muscle mass in order to result in weight loss.

It might look great on the scales, but the chances of maintaining this kind of weight loss for the long term are pretty slim.

It’s also possible to send appropriate signals to our body to promote weight from body fat, while maintaining our muscle mass. This approach is superior for many, many reasons!

But, how do you know […]

Aching After Starting a New Workout?

10.02.2025

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Fitness, Mindset

Are you feeling achey after starting a new exercise routine – or even just doing something different to usual?

It’s probably something called DOMS.

It usually comes on about 12-24 hours after your workout or activity.

It can be really quite painful and alarming if you’re not expecting it, but it usually starts to reduce on the second day and will gradually decrease over the following three days.

I think there might some individual variation to the chances of you experiencing muscle ache. I’ve worked with clients who get DOMS super easily, and clients who never seem […]

Focus on Your Actions

22.01.2025

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Health, Mindset, Weight Loss

Sticking with the theme of finding better ways to measure your success than analysing yourself in the mirror or standing on the scales, here’s another idea:

Focus on your actions, rather than the outcomes.

Of course, we’re usually looking for an outcome from the effort we put in to our health and fitness.

But ultimately, we cannot absolutely control what the outcome will be.

We know that by getting fitter, improving our mobility and eating more healthily, we’re going to head in the right direction – in fact, I’d argue that it would be impossible not to […]

Track These Areas Instead of Relying on the Scales

17.01.2025

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Mindset, Weight Loss

Following on from my last email about the shortcomings of using only the scales and mirror to gauge your progress towards your goals.

I have some better, simple, ideas for what you should assess in order to see how you’re doing. These areas should consistently improve as you go along – and they should stay around for the long term too.

This makes them really effective, encouraging and accurate at showing you how you’re doing. If one area isn’t improving, or starts heading backwards, then it’s a sign that you need to adapt you plan to get […]

Don’t Rely On The Scales To Gauge Your Progress

9.01.2025

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Health, Weight Loss

Happy New Year!

Have you read my latest post on the Facebook group? It’s about approaching your health and fitness goals in an approachable way – come along and take a look.

As you move towards your fitness goals this year, you’re going to want to assess how you’re doing – and I have some ideas which I think will be better than relying on just the scales and the mirror.

For today, let’s look at why the scales and mirror aren’t the best ways to gauge your progress, and next week I will explain the better […]

Diet & Exercise At Christmas

11.12.2024

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Health, Mindset

Discussing how to approach your diet and exercise routine over Christmas is a conversation I’m having a lot with clients at the minute.

It feels like quite a big topic, perhaps because I don’t think there’s really a right answer to how you “should” approach things.

How do you feel about your diet and exercise routine over the next few weeks?

Are you looking forward to a break? Perhaps you’re resigned to a break?

Perhaps you’re worried that the inevitability of all the tasty, extra calories and the ease with which you could avoid exercise […]