APEX Strength Training Kilmarnock

21/04/2026

"I just want to love exercise like everyone else seems to. I can never find my thing."

We've been lucky enough to have a real influx of new clients at APEX the last six months (hence the social media radio silence for the most part 🥵).

There has been a few conversations amongst clients old and new that we really wanted to post about and the first one is about finding a way of training you genuinely enjoy.

For most folks it can feel like enjoying exercise is totally out of reach. Especially if you've had bad experiences with it (like you've been pushed too hard or been lead to believe if you're not absolutely decked after a workout then its not been good enough) or if you're just totally convinced that you're not cut out for it then it can feel impossible to imagine actually liking exercise.

We LOVE to prove this wrong. It happens every single time we get a newbie in and we never get tired of it. And what is always cool to hear is our veteran clients are always first on hand to tell our newbies that they will feel strong, capable and at home in APEX in no time.

This can turn around decades of someone trying but falling away from exercising and turn it into someone who realises that they are absolutely cut out for it and they can genuinely look forward to it.

We are lucky enough to not have a big client turn-over. We only take on a few new clients at a time and we retain our APEXers for years (some of which are into more than double figures of years 👀).

They stick around not just because they love the training and the resulting increase in strength & fitness... but they also love the environment, the support, the community and most certainly the "not having to actually think about anything" part that Personal Training can provide.

It's been a real whirlwind start to 2026 for us but in the best way and there has just been so many golden moments between our clients old and new that reinforce how grateful we are to be in a job that can genuinely impact the lives of the people who trust us with their health.

Exciting things to come in the rest of 2026... ☺️

Team APEX Kilmarnock 💪

27/03/2026

Movement and Nutrition Through Menopause.
Excited to be doing a workshop at the lovely Catherine's Feeling Fabulous Salon ☺️
Friday 24th April 6pm.
Details in Catherine's posts below 🤩

🌸 MOVEMENT & NUTRITION THROUGH MENOPAUSE SEMINAR

🗓️ Friday 24th April 2026
⏰ 6.30pm
📍Feeling Fabulous, Kilmarnock
🎟️ £15 per person

📩 contact Catherine to book your spot
email: [email protected]
text: 07540164365

We are holding an event with AKA the amazing Pamala Picken who specialises in woman’s health 💁🏽‍♀️🫶🏾

Pamala has years of experience in the fitness industry and has great knowledge and passion when it comes woman’s health and menopause related challenges we all face at some point in life.

This is a topic that comes up again and again within the salon and I feel very passionate about bringing you someone who will keep it real , genuinely cares and will give you the most relevant, safe information you need to get through or continue to move through this time which may feel lonely or challenging.

We have limited spaces available

If this feels like the correct fit for you at this time or you want to be more prepared for what’s ahead we can’t wait to welcome you to our safe space, where there is no judgment and you want to navigate your way through this phase of life feeling supported, heard and seen by other woman 🫶🏾✨

Please feel free to reach out if you have any queries

Remember how fu***ng FABULOUS you are ♥️♥️

16/03/2026

As a small, family-run Ayrshire business ourselves, we’re always keen to support other local businesses wherever we can.

Through January and February we ran a challenge for some of our clients - APEX 50 Days of Fitness.

The idea was simple.
Stick to one chosen habit for 50 days straight, check in with fellow challengers in the group chat and just support each other along the way.

Last week we announced our winner (congratulations David 🎉) who took home the £50 prize.

But, we also wanted to give every challenger who took part a little gift because committing to 50 days of something new deserves to be celebrated.

Each challenger received a voucher from a local business we know and love.
Supporting our clients while also supporting other small local businesses felt like the perfect way to do it.

☕ Titch Coffee House
🌿 Flourish Holistics
💆‍♀️ Feeling Fabulous Beauty
☕ Espresso Kart
🍝 Cafe Da Vinci
💆‍♂️ The Wright Pain Management








Well done to all of our APEXers who took part and watch this space for the next one 👀💪

06/03/2026

Happy birthday to us!

Today we turn 7 years old, and we are not quite sure where the time has gone (though a few more wrinkles would confirm that those years have absolutely passed).

When we first had the opportunity to open APEX together we were excited and petrified in equal measure. We were a husband and wife fresh off of their honeymoon with bucket loads of passion and a big idea.

Having working in commercial gyms as Personal Trainers for years beforehand we just knew we wanted a space to call our own...

A space for clients to come in and be looked after entirely.

A space for people to join a community and be supported in ways that are barely seen in our industry.

A space for us to continue to offer the highest quality Personal Training but also an environment that feels like a second home to our clients.

With decades of experience under our belt we are just as passionate if not more as the years pass by.

We've had so many people walk through our doors over the years. We've got clients who have been with us for as long as APEX has been open and even before. We've got people who never thought they would ever fall in love with exercise.

We've got such a fantastic, supportive, friendly community and we are incredibly grateful that we get to show up to a job that we love with people that we love every single day.

Bring on our 8th year.

Thank you to everyone who's played a part in our journey these last seven years, it's been some ride!

APEX Strength Training Kilmarnock's 💪

03/03/2026

Last night we organised another cracking workshop for our APEX Clients and it went down a storm.

"Burnout: How to recognise it and what to do about it".

Fiona (hosting it) is a long term APEX client, a GP and is now branching into life coaching too.
In the workshop she went through defining burnout, how to manage it, how to prevent it as well a some great chat around juggling general work, family and life stresses.

Some really brilliant nuggets of information and tactics on how to manage something we all feel from time to time.

We aim to run a few of these workshops a year on a whole host of topics that our clients want to learn more about (check out our previous posts to see the other workshops we've hosted).
Getting experts in their field in front of our clients to chat to them, share knowledge and share experiences is something we are really proud to do and is just a wee perk of being an APEXer.

Next one is all about..... Nutrition.
Keep your eyes peeled 👀

APEX Strength Training Kilmarnock 💪

02/03/2026

Running a small, family business means that even the smallest interaction, positive review or kind words go so, so far.

We've always wanted to be the place that takes people from "the gym isn't really my thing" to feeling genuinely healthy, strong, fit and capable no matter what their starting point is.

We've got people who have started strength training in their 40s, 50s, 60s and even 70s who have NEVER exercised before in their life.
Every single one of those clients has fallen in love with it.

We've been doing this for a long time and we are obsessed with what we do (and not to blow our own trumpets, we are pretty good at it too).
So, for us this really means the world 😊🌎

APEX Strength Training Kilmarnock.

11/02/2026

Another way of challenging our APEXers is a category of exercise we call "combination exercises" but we also know them as "linked system" exercises.

This is when you combine two exercises and do them as one - there's a few examples in this video showing a good place to start.

The Reverse Lunge Cable Row or Supported Single Leg Deadlift Row.

Why would you want to put yourselves through this?

Firstly it's a great change of pace to traditional exercises, especially if you've already ticked your traditional strength & hypertrophy boxes in the session beforehand (or in a separate session entirely).

These linked system exercises feel very different. You have to think more and due to many more muscles being worked at one time they feel more athletic, like you're acquiring a skill versus the normal feeling of strain/burn you can get from resistance training.

More importantly they improve the often overlooked yet super important components of health - co-ordination, balance, and motor control.

We all probably know by now the risk of falling as we age increases.
At least 25% of adults over 65 will experience a fall annually - it's the leading cause of injuries at this stage in life.

This is primarily down to two things - loss of lower limb strength & loss of balance/coordination. However, if you're doing some strength training, you're improving motor control and coordination then you're way less likely to fall over.
On top of this, if/when you do fall you are way more likely to catch yourself or recover.

There's an abundance of research to support this, many of the studies showing that tailored coordination exercises can reduce risk of falling by 40% - this is huge!

Combine improved coordination with improved strength and you're literally bulletproofing yourself for life!

APEX Strength Training Kilmarnock 💪

05/02/2026

Amazing what some daily check-ins and a supportive community can achieve!

Today marks the halfway point of our APEX 50 days of Fitness Challenge and we are flying 💪

We have 27 APEXers taking part and the rules are:

- Choose just ONE habit to tick off every single day for 50 days

- Check in every day in the group chat with even the silliest of proof (spy some dodgy feet 👀😂)

Thats it! So simple it seems silly, right?

Some of our clients have committed to keeping a food diary every day, some have chosen to hit a daily step target, some have picked to do some daily mobility exercises, some have aimed to drink more water.... the list goes on.

Each habit is personal to each client, something that means something to THEM but the magic is in the check-ins (and actually the magic is also in the support from the rest of the APEXers too).

Amazing what a seemingly small action ticked off daily can achieve. Plus its really cool to see some magic happen when you build a community of people who genuinely support each other & rally round.

Not only have our clients been smashing this challenge but they've been sharing recipes, pushing each other on, offering words of kindness to someone when the day hasn't gone to plan or just providing a bit of nonsense chat and carry on.

That's what APEX is about 😉

Bring on the next half of the challenge, 25 days to go 💪

29/01/2026

Just a little post from one of our APEX Coaches and The Ayrshire Nutritionist Pamala about a journey that started a long, long time ago 🤓

Sometimes its useful for people to know that we've walked the walk as coaches and trainers too.
It gives us a unique edge when it comes to understanding the struggles some people face when it comes health and fitness so hopefully if you make it through the post there are one or two nuggets that resonate.

🙏☺️

Every January I think about the girl on the left even though its been a long time since that photo.
She started every year trying to shrink, it would get to this time in January & the wheels would come off in spectacular fashion.

The latest fad diet would become tiresome - she was analysing every calorie, scrutinising every centimetre of her body & she just felt lost.

Fast forward 17 years & here we are. A successful Personal Trainer, Nutritionist & obsessed with helping others find their way too.

Whilst I can look back & feel grateful for her journey because its lead me to where I am today (a career I absolutely love, 13 years & counting of coaching people towards the healthiest version of themselves plus a freedom in her life & body she would never have dreamed of) if I could go back there are some things I'd tell her :

- You cannot stop the judgement of other people but you can certainly stop being so judgemental of yourself. That cycle, that critical voice & that 'cloak' of motivating yourself by berating yourself is NOT producing a positive outcome. You won't believe it until you try it but the change will happen when you start showing yourself some compassion (and you'll realise that happy people don't tear other people's body down anyway - that energy is not yours to carry)

- That compassion will pave the way for decisions based on taking care of yourself, nourishing yourself and prioritising yourself. You think the answer lies in another diet but the answer lies SO far away from another diet.

- Stop thinking about what to have less of. Stop thinking about newer, smarter, more savage ways to restrict yourself. Start thinking about what you can have more of. Not just when it comes to food but in life too.

- Start strength training. It will CATEGORICALLY change your life. It'll be the very thing that leads you to find your place in the world. It'll lead you to your people, it'll lead you to your passions in life, it'll lead you to your confidence, it'll lead you to knowing you belong & you'll help others feel like they belong too.

- You won't make lasting progress until you believe you deserve it. Thats the tough bit, but you'll get there.

P.s - you'll be lucky enough to find someone who actually listens to you, doesn't put you on a treadmill or tell you to stop eating carbs. You'll fall in love, marry him and start an empire 🤭. That empire will grow with the aim of listening to others who are maybe struggling like you are too.

Just letting people know I've walked the walk... and whilst everyones path is different this might help someone to realise they're not alone in the fad diet cycle.

There is a way to break out of it and feeling strong, fit and healthy belongs to EVERYONE.

🤓

26/01/2026

Its the work we do NOW that can affect our longevity in the future - and by now that doesn't mean if you’re over 30 its too late.
'Right now' can be in your 40s, 50s, 60s 70s and beyond!

We've got clients in APEX Strength Training Kilmarnock in their 70s who have had remarkable improvements in bone density since beginning resistance training just once/twice a week. When I say remarkable I mean they've had a fall or a trip and its NOT resulted in a fracture or break. We've had a confirmed case of reversal of osteopenia too.

It is NEVER too late to start making a difference. None of us want falls, fractures, poor balance or help to get up off of a chair as we age.

Lift weights 💪

🦴 Exercise & Bone Health in Women: What Actually Works

Based on multiple recent meta-analyses and NMAs in postmenopausal women

Bone loss after menopause is real—but exercise does help. The strongest evidence across multiple large meta-analyses

https://doi.org/10.1186/s13018-025-05890-1
doi: 10.3390/healthcare10061129
https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2025.1633913
doi: 10.1007/s00223-020-00744-w
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-94510-3
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bone.2020.115697

shows a few clear themes:

• Resistance training matters most. Lifting weights consistently helps maintain and modestly improve bone density at the spine and hip.
• Intensity matters. Higher-effort resistance training produces larger benefits for spine bone density than lower-effort exercise.
• Mixing things works well. Programs that combine resistance training with weight-bearing or impact activities tend to outperform single-mode exercise.
• Walking alone isn’t enough. It’s good for health, but by itself, it has little effect on bone density.
• Low-impact “mind–body” exercise helps stability. Activities like Tai Chi may slow bone loss at the spine and reduce fall risk, even if bone gains are modest.
• No single “best” exercise. Bones respond to load, variety, and consistency, not gimmicks.

For women, especially after menopause, progressive resistance training—ideally combined with some weight-bearing or impact work—is the most reliable way to support bone health.

Don’t chase the #1 exercise.
Prioritize progressive resistance training, add impact if appropriate, and focus on long-term adherence.

👉 Translation: bones respond to load. Progressive resistance training is the backbone (literally) of bone health.

Exercise also reduces fall risk, which may matter more for fracture prevention than small changes in bone density alone.

🦴 Lift with intent. Progress safely. Stay consistent.

P.S. Bone loves whole foods, fruits and vegetables, calcium, vitamin D and protein! 😉
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5227978/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S216183132200388X

18/01/2026

The number one thing to be eating this year if you want to "tone up" 💪👀