Strong by Stella

Strong by Stella Personal trainer based in Cowes, Isle of Wight.

23/07/2026

Something I’ve never understood: why does a short on time workout suddenly need to be frantic? A sweaty HIIT session that leaves you gasping on the kitchen floor?

I want to offer something different.

My small group PT members have side project this summer. It’s the summer of two hard sets.
That’s it. Two exercises, back to back, performed twice through. Whatever weight you’ve got at home. Enough reps to actually hit fatigue.

Fatigue is when you look like you might s**t yourself. Or everything in your brain that day just... evaporates. Nothing left to think about. That’s fatigue. And it’s the biggest deal in productive strength training.

The idea that short on time = go fast? I couldn’t disagree more. This is where quality matters. Yes, something is better than nothing. But slowing down and focusing on quality makes your sessions productive not urgent.

The version of you I’m training doesn’t need another quickie. She needs quality. She needs two sets and the willingness to actually mean it.

Because let’s face it — burpees are for peasants.

Comment SETS and I’ll send you the full guide — three workouts, minimal kit

13/07/2026

“Distant relationship. Off energy. Carrying other people’s stuff.
Usually the same problem wearing different clothes: something you haven’t taken ownership of.
Thinking out loud today.”

22/06/2026

You know yap starters? These are the movement version. Exercises that get your body talking back with the volume turned up ⬆️

🎯 Foam roller hamstring bridge — your hamstrings can’t hide ever again

🔥 Split stance co-contraction with reaches — your bum will feel hotter than a BBQ

🎪 Bear overcoming iso — lats and core louder than a festival tent

Your body has a lot to say. You just need the right opener.

If you’d like the full versions of me coaching these exercises, comment YAPPERS and I’ll DM you the YouTube links

If I were going to share 3 things women actually need from their training — it wouldn’t be more legs, bums and tums. It ...
19/06/2026

If I were going to share 3 things women actually need from their training — it wouldn’t be more legs, bums and tums. It would be these:

⚡️ECCENTRIC LOADING⚡️
The lowering phase of every movement. The bit most people skip.
Watch someone do a step-down and you’ll see it immediately — they drop to the floor and bounce straight back up. That’s not control. That’s avoiding the hardest part.
Eccentric strength is where women lack control the most. And it matters because your body relies on it constantly outside the gym — at higher speeds, in dynamic movement, you can’t find control with a conscious squeeze. Your body has to be able to do it on autopilot.
You can clench your way through a lot. But goalkeeper duties for your grandchildren requires you to respond like a ninja.

⚡️CONNECTIVE TISSUE HEALTH⚡️
Lots of women don’t get the same exposure to dynamic movement that men do — their connective tissues don’t get the same priority as muscle burn.
Hormonal changes also mean women pick up random tendon issues as they get older. A knee that wasn’t a problem last year. A shoulder that just... appeared.
Keeping tendons stiff and springy counters that. It keeps you quick and agile for beach cricket — and everything else that requires your body to actually respond.

⚡️ROTATION⚡️
The most underused mobility tool in most people’s training. And the biggest cheat code for whole body mobility.
Rotation through your ribcage and spine makes your Sunday run club easier. It influences pressure management — which means your pelvic floor gets to be strong and dynamic rather than just... held. And it counters the stiffness that accumulates from daily life, giving your body actual range to move in beyond the forward-and-back plane most programmes live in.

Most training programmes are built around what looks good. Mine are built around a body that is ready for moments you didn’t expect.

Legs stronger than ever on the ski slope. Strong enough that hill sprints could be on the cards

14/06/2026

I could deadlift decent weight. But I wasn’t using my hips as much as I could have been — and loading my back more than I needed to.

This is me deadlifting in 2016. It’s not a technical disaster. But if a client showed me this I’d make changes. I pull the bar from the ground with my upper back — classic t**s up strategy. No pain. No red flags. My only measure of success was getting the bar off the floor.
I thought more load meant proficiency. I never questioned it.

When I started training differently I realised I hadn’t been loading as effectively as I could. Single leg training was gold here as it gave me nowhere to hide. I also needed to learn how to properly tension my abs.

Relying on the whole body sensation of heavy wasn’t giving me the complete picture. Going broader and prioritising movements with more feedback gave me context for how exercises should actually feel.

That was the switch from training to movement literacy.

If you’re going through the motions right now — do you actually feel what you want working? Or are you relying on “I can go heavy so it must be fine?”

12/06/2026

I co-owned a CF gym for 7 and I’ll always be grateful for how it pushed me out of aesthetics and into performance. I loved the variety — one day deadlifts and handstand push ups, the next box jumps, toes to bar and KB swings. I loved training hard.
I paired it with yoga to keep my mobility in check.

The mistake I made was not spotting that CrossFit and yoga were putting me in the same position on repeat — pushing my body forwards in space. Thrusters, clean & jerks, handstand push ups, downward dogs, sun salutations, toes to bar. All forwards.

When I picked up multiple niggles — tendons getting overloaded, constant training plateaus because something always needed rehab — I got blindsided by mobility programmes promising to bulletproof me. Courses, books, a 60 hour yoga for sport qualification. Same old flare ups. Shoulders, elbows, feet, low back.

It wasn’t until 2021 when I started learning about biomechanics, that I realised my body was just a victim of being shoved forwards constantly. All the mobility work wasn’t paying off because I was staying in the same pattern.

My training was making me stronger and fitter. But my movement needed to go bigger and broader — not just forwards in space.
That’s when my body started to feel good again. Like it belonged to me.

If your training’s not hitting the same — it’s usually not a strength problem. It’s a movement variety problem

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Cowes

Opening Hours

Tuesday 7am - 2pm
Wednesday 7am - 2pm
Thursday 7am - 2pm
Friday 7am - 3pm
Saturday 7am - 12pm

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+447725667678

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