Strength For Health

04/06/2026

So what is Lipoedema? And how might you know if you have got it?

Here are some key points from the NHS:

Lipoedema is an abnormal build-up of fat that can make your bottom, thighs, lower legs and arms look out of proportion with the rest of the body but your hands and feet are not usually affected.

The affected skin feels soft and cool and may be dimpled with an "orange peel" texture.

You may also have pain, tenderness or heaviness in the affected limbs, and you may bruise easily.

Lipoedema is more common in women than men.

Find out about lipoedema, an abnormal build-up of fat in your legs and sometimes arms, including what the symptoms are, when to get medical help and what treatments are available.

04/06/2026

In my last post I said that it was Lipedema Month in the USA. Well, it turns out it is Lipoedema Month in the UK too. To find out more why not visit Lipoedema UK.

Lipoedema Awareness Month 2026 is here! 📣

To kick off the month, we're excited to be collaborating with the Royal Society of Medicine for a FREE online conference, Lipoedema in the Spotlight – What Clinicians and Patients Need to Know, this Thursday!

Join international experts and individuals with lived experience to explore:

✔️ Early recognition and diagnosis
✔️ Current treatment approaches
✔️ The Delphi Consensus-Based Position Paper
✔️ The latest NICE review update

Open to both patients and healthcare professionals!

🗓️ Thursday 4th June 2026
⏰ 2:30pm–6:30pm (BST)
🎟️ Free to attend
📺 Can't join live? Register anyway and you'll receive the recording afterwards.

Register here: 🔗 https://ow.ly/f7iF50YLjcZ

📣 Please share this post to help spread awareness, education and support!

Haddenhamhealthcare medi UK Ltd SIGVARIS GROUP Britain Essity https://ow.ly/rXj650Z4Bkp JOBST UK Daylong Direct

04/06/2026

Weight loss is not something I focus on much with my clients. I talk about it with some and offer as much support as I can but I direct my energies towards making them stronger. But reducing excess fat is definitely helpful to anyone looking to improve their health.

Anyone who has tried to lose weight will tell you that it is often very hard to achieve, even when you work hard at it. For some - maybe many - the reason that their fat is so stubborn and hard to lose has nothing to do with how much they eat or how hard they exercise. There may be an underlying - and often underdiagnosed - condition called Lipedema/Lipoedema playing a part as well. Until a few weeks ago I hadn't even heard of this condition so the chances are most of you won't have either.

In the USA, the Lipedema Foundation has declared that June is 'Lipedema Month' so I am going to share a few posts to help raise awareness of this condition.

It’s time to bring more awareness, more understanding, and more momentum to Lipedema. 💙

Lipedema Awareness Month is here, and throughout June, we’ll be sharing educational resources, research updates, expert perspectives, community stories, and opportunities to take action.

This month is about helping more people recognize the signs, access trusted information, and feel less alone in the process.

Explore everything happening this month here: bit.ly/49rYbFH

14/05/2026

14/05/2026

Rest & relaxation should be part of everybody's lives. But so too should active care of your body & mind. To live well you need to move well & eat well. Taking an hour or so, once a week, to improve your strength will be enormously beneficial, now & in the future.

I've had a coaching session open up on a Wednesday afternoon & I can squeeze in another shift worker throughout the week as well. I offer 1:1 or 1:2 strength coaching & as much advice about food, sleep & other aspects of health as you ask for.

Let me help you get strong & stay strong.

03/05/2026

27/04/2026

Maybe I should have called my business, 'Muscle for Health'... 🤔

15/04/2026

Strength training once a week produces remarkable results yet takes very little time and effort out of your life. I guess I must be doing something right as I have very low turnover amongst my clients but I have had a couple of spaces open up on Thursday (late morning and early afternoon). I can also squeeze in another shift worker or two who needs to be able to train on different days during the week. If you are interested in finding out more, please send me a message and we will sort out a time for you to come and meet me and see the gym.

15/04/2026

This graphic (and accompanying text) should make you stop and think. High cholesterol is just not that big a deal when it comes to heart disease. Certainly not compared to other things. Leaving aside smoking, all the issues in orange and red are essentially the same thing: insulin resistance and high insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) - IR/HI.

High blood pressure goes hand in hand with IR/HI which is the thing that makes you overweight and leads to developing type two diabetes (T2D). Taking a pill to bring your blood pressure down does not change your IR/HI. Taking another pill (or an injection) to bring your elevated blood sugar down does not change your IR/HI (injected insulin actually makes it worse). Taking a pill to bring your cholesterol down has been linked to increasing the likelihood of developing diabetes (and does nothing to reduce your IR/HI)!

The primary thing that drives IR/HI is eating carbohydrates (not just sweet sugars, but starches too). No medicine in the world can counter the effect of carbohydrates on your body. No amount of exercise will counter this effect in the long-term either (former Olympic rowing champions, life-long marathon runners and current Ironman triathletes have all developed T2D). The only thing that works is reducing carbohydrate consumption to a level that your body can handle and, for some of us, that means virtually none at all.

Taking medication to counteract too much carbohydrate food is like adding menthol to ci******es to make you breathe more easily while doing nothing to reduce your risk of developing lung disease.

The post I shared is American so it recommends certain blood tests that are harder to get in the UK. But there is a simple test we can all do at home: measure your waist and height. Ideally you want your waist measurement (taken around your bellybutton) to be less than half your height. If your waist is increasing over time your health is heading in the wrong direction. This measurement matters far more than your weight on the scales.

The human body is supposed to have stored fat. Being really lean is not particularly healthy. We should all be able to pinch an inch (because fat stored under the skin is not particularly unhealthy). But if you are gaining fat - especially if it is around your waistline - then that is an indication that you probably have elevated insulin. Insulin is the primary fat storage hormone and when insulin is high your body can't access stored fat so people end up overweight, lacking in energy and genuinely hungry.

Please stop worrying about cholesterol and focus on what really matters instead.

WHY IS YOUR DOCTOR OBSESSED WITH LDL?

Your doctor obsesses over your LDL cholesterol. Here's what JAMA Cardiology says actually predicts heart disease:

• Diabetes -> 10x risk
• Metabolic syndrome -> 6x risk
• Severe obesity -> 4.7x risk
• Smoking -> 4x
• Hypertension -> 4x

Now look at what your doctor is focused on:

• LDL cholesterol -> 1.4x
• Total cholesterol -> 1.0x

Read that again. Total cholesterol has essentially ZERO predictive power for heart disease in younger adults. (Dugani et al., JAMA Cardiology, 2021)

Metabolic factors have hazard ratios of 4–10x.

The lipid markers that drive $15 billion in statin prescriptions? 1.0–1.5x. They're treating the wrong thing. They've ALWAYS been treating the wrong thing.

Your doctor never tested your fasting insulin. Never calculated your Trig/HDL ratio. Never ordered a CAC score. But they sure as hell tested your LDL and wrote you a statin script. That's not medicine. That's marketing.

Ask your doctor for these tests at your next visit:

- Fasting insulin (not just glucose)
- HbA1c
- hsCRP (inflammation)
- Trig/HDL ratio
- ApoB
- HOMA-IR

Print this. Bring it. Demand the full picture.

The truth heals. Don't accept to be plugged on useless statins just because LDL and total cholesterol are high. Those are useless parameters which day nothing much about what is going on.

08/04/2026

It is not often that I get a chance to train with my favourite client/training partner/wife but we managed to do so at the weekend thanks to us being on holiday. Elaine is wearing a t-shirt designed by fellow fitness trainer, Elizabeth Davies, who runs a business called This Woman Lifts. It reads, ‘Training for my old lady body’. My mum, who will be 81 this week, wears one of these t-shirts in the gym too. I read Elizabeth’s new book last week and she has a great concept – that applies equally to men and women – that I want to share:

Every time you train your body to become fitter and stronger it is like making a deposit into your pension scheme.

I’ve got to be honest, there are times when I wish that fitness training – whether in the gym, on my bike or out on a run – wasn’t so hard and didn’t leave me aching and sore afterwards. But I have learned that the aches and pains that come alongside being unfit are so much worse than the feelings I get as a result of doing some hard physical work. And I have no problem reminding myself that any downsides associated with getting fitter now are likely to be paid back multiple times over sometime in my distant future.

Every pound I put into savings or my pension is a pound that I would love to be spending on stuff and experiences right now; I mean, think of the holidays! But if I don’t invest now for my retirement I won’t be able to afford any holidays at all when I am older. People with more money saved and invested get more freedom to choose what they get to do when they are no longer earning. And people who are stronger, fitter and healthier have more options when they get older too.

Building strength and muscle is saving for the future. In general, people with more muscle live longer and healthier lives. People who are stronger and fitter are able to do more things now and in the future. Any downsides of finding the time and energy to devote to training now become very worth it in years to come.

If you are interested in investing in your future today, then please get in touch and let Strength For Health help you.