Core Connections Women's Wellness & Fitness

12/03/2025

❤️Relaxing your pelvic floor is just as important as strengthening it.

Your pelvic floor is a muscle and in order for it to serve us it needs to be able to tighten and relax at the correct times. If you think about your biceps - if we bent our arm and held it at 90 degrees all day our muscles would be feeling very sore. Our arm needs to be able to bend and straighten to work optimally. We certainly don't want our pelvic floor to be switched on all the time either.

Find a space with somewhere to lie down and a couple of cushions. Then join me for a few moments of calm and I'll show you how to deeply relax your pelvic floor.

Jo x

This is "Pelvic floor relaxation" by Jo Samiotis on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

28/02/2025

💪OUTDOOR STRENGTH AND FITNESS CLASS 10.15 MONDAYS @ BUCKINGHAM PARK IN SHOREHAM💪
⭐️Do you want to exercise but want to move a little bit more slowly and carefully without a burpee or star jump in sight?⭐️Do you want to exercise to improve your fitness, bone strength, muscle strength, core strength, pelvic floor strength and mental fitness ?⭐️Yes! Then I have the perfect solution for you⭐️Join me at my Outdoor Fitness Class where we focus on strength and chat!⭐️Mondays 10.15am Buckingham Park - Shoreham⭐️
⭐️Do you want to regain or improve your fitness?
⭐️Do you want to regain or improve the strength in your core and body?
⭐️Do you want to strengthen your pelvic floor?
⭐️Do you want to avoid exercises like star jumps and burpees?
⭐️Does your body need to move a little more slowly so that you focus more carefully on the technique of each exercise to avoid aggravating old injuries or gaining new ones?

I'd love for you to join me at Buckingham Park. We'll be using bodyweight, boxing, vipr's, dumbells, medicine balls, Trx, resistance bands and more to steadily strengthen your body and core. We will learn how to protect your pelvic floor when you move. We will use strength work to keep our bones strong, prevent muscle loss and of course work our heart and lungs. There will also be alternatives to make things easier or harder so you work to your own fitness ability and energy levels on that particular day.

Booking is essential and you need to complete a health questionnaire before coming along.

You're in safe hands with me. I specialise in training postnatal mums all the way through the post menopausal super women and I'd love to help you too.

If you'd like to join me or If you'd like more information I'll be very happy to help, just comment below, email [email protected] or hit whatsapp.

I look forward to meeting you soon.
Jo x

www.core-connections.co.uk

11/02/2025

Activating your pelvic floor is not just a case of imagining you're stopping yourself mid wee (don't ever actually do this by the way!). It goes much deeper than that. Follow along with me and see if you can feel the connection more deeply.

1 in 3 female bodies have some form of pelvic floor dysfunction but with the right help it can be massively improved for the majority of women. Pelvic floor strength and pelvic floor relaxation is key in improving and maintaining pelvic floor health. It's never too late to start even if you've had problems for years.

Ideally we should all have a regular check up with a womens health physiotherapist to check our pelvic floor health. This is particularly important if, after trying the tips suggested in this video, you find it difficult to feel or connect with your pelvic floor, or you feel any bulging or pressure.

Don't put off getting help.

11/01/2025

This image shows exactly where I'm coming from this year. We can't make changes when we feel overwhelmed so let's create calm first. Xx

08/01/2025

When was the last time you were still? When was the last time you were bored?

It's so difficult to just sit and take note of our surroundings without doing something else like picking up your phone, or eating or drinking at the same time.

We seem to struggle with not being busy and have forgotten the art of stillness.

So I have a challenge for you.. sometime today just sit or lie down and take a look around your room as if you've never seen it before. Really look at the things you've collected and decorated your home with as if through the eyes of a stranger.

Jo x

08/01/2025

01/01/2025

Happy New Year to you all!

I hope you’ve all had an amazing Christmas and are ready to embrace a new year.

Rather than charge headlong into numerous resolutions why not embark on a week or two of calm to reflect on your life and what changes you’d like to make. The conversations I have had again and again with so many of the lovely people I work with throughout the year but particularly during December were mirrored time after time. We are generally all trying to fit in much too much on behalf of others leaving no time to nourish ourselves, move or do anything that filled our bucket up. The constant feeling of overwhelm, fatigue and stress seems to touch us all so adding even more mental load with trying to embark on new years resolution changes is just too much.

We can’t think clearly or make any changes when our mind and body is in fight or flight so let’s spend a week or two stimulating our parasympathetic nervous system, our rest and digest system.

Take a step back to see what things in your life help and which hinder? What things can you delegate to others and what things do you want to do more of? What things do you enjoy and dislike?

When we are in a state of calm we can then reflect on the changes that will help us, you may find that all you need to do is continue to find more calm.

We cannot avoid stress and there is no point waiting for a time when we have less stress to start doing the things that help our body regulate that stress. The time to start practicing is now.

So take a moment to think about the things that overwhelm you, make you sad, make you angry, make you anxious or scared, that make you feel bad about yourself or your life. Think also about the things you enjoy, that make you laugh and feel good about yourself and your life.

Personally, my first step to calm is to practice avoiding the BBC news. I never used to look at the news at all because it made me feel scared about the world we live in with no control to change it. When covid hit I started looking and ever since it’s almost the first thing I go to every time I pick up my phone. Over the last few weeks I’ve made a conscious effort not to do this, I’ve not been perfect but I’m maybe looking every few days now rather than 5 or more times a day.

Start checking in with how your body and mind feel and make a note of it. I’ll then start posting tips and gentle tasks for you and in return feel free to share any insights or things you find are helping you.

Jo x

09/10/2024

💪Do sore, stiff, aching muscles and joints or old injuries put you off exercising?

🙂You don't need to stop aching before you start moving - there is always something that you can do. Lack of movement throughout your whole body can actually make things worse making you seize up even more.

🌳At my outdoor exercise class we work to build strength in our muscles and bones. We work to build movement into our body and we work around any old injuries or joint and muscle soreness.

🙂I don’t need to tell you that as we get older our body starts to stiffen up with joints and muscles starting to ache when they didn’t before. This can be from injury, it can be age, lifestyle catching up with us or those lovely fluctuating hormones of perimenopause or a mixture of it all!

🙂Every single member knows they can turn up to class with a new ache or pain and that I can adapt things as they go so that they can still exercise and join in. Some days we all turn up and everyone (including me) needs one movement or another changing.

🥰We are very pelvic floor aware and work to breathe to protect and strengthen our pelvic floor while we move.

❤️If this sounds like a place you'd belong we'd love you to join us at Buckingham Park in Shoreham on Mondays 10.15am

If you'd like more information about how to join hit Whatsapp and let me help.
Jo x

13/05/2024

Did you know 40% of people with depression appear happy ( I know this for a fact!) so next time you ask someone how they are, REALLY ask them. xx

09/05/2024

DOES A WEAK PELVIC FLOOR PUT YOU OFF EXERCISING? Using your breath in the right way when you move will actually strengthen your pelvic floor. Watch the video to find out how.

⭐️ Your pelvic floor is a muscle and needs to be used correctly to make it stronger
⭐️ Your pelvic floor is an integral part of your core so if your pelvic floor is weak you will often have lower back weakness and pain too
⭐️ Pelvic floor dyfunction is common (at least 1 in 3 of us have it in some way) but it's not normal. We shouldn't just put up with symptoms as in most cases there can be great improvement with the correct guidance
⭐️ Using your breath on the correct way when moving and lifting with strengthen and protect your pelvic floor. Holding your breath when moving and lifting puts pressure on your pelvic floor
⭐️ If you leak when you move then stick to the low impact version until your pelvic floor is stronger
⭐️ If you do have pelvic floor dysfuction it really is the best idea to visit a women's health physiotherapist to find out how well your pelvic floor is working for you
⭐️ My small group strength classes are all pelvic floor aware. We get stronger while we chat and we'd love to have you along
⭐️Mondays 12.15pm @ Buckingham Park in Shoreham (Booking essential)

Need more information about any of the above? Hit whatsapp and send me a message. I'll be very happy to help.
Jo x

02/05/2024

Boost Mood and metabolism, strengthen muscles and bones - Join me on Zoom on Tuesdays 1pm and Fridays 12.30pm - 30 minute workouts - pelvic floor aware - Access to workout video library to use in your own time - Monthly membership cancel anytime

This video is a full length taster of what goes on in class.

💪💪💪Strength Workout NUMBER 1! - Join me for a basic 30 (ish) minute strength workout. This is the first of a progressive series of workouts so that over the weeks your body gets stronger and fitter.

Your body gets used to doing the same thing so in order to get stronger and fitter you need to either increase the weights, move faster, make the movements bigger or make the movements more complex so listen to your body and if it's feeling too easy change it a little.

You'll need a resistance band and some dumbells. Listen to your body and stop if you feel any pain or discomfort. Even if you've been training with me for a while it's always good to go back to basics and check on technique. Listen to my cues on when to breath as these are important to get your core working at the right point to protect your back and pelvic floor. Keep things low impact if your pelvic floor isn't happy with impact.

We completed 4 blocks of exercise for 30 seconds on each and 3 rounds.
1. Goblet squat (use a chair to squat onto if you haven't done them before as it helps put your knees and body in the right place.
2. Bent over row to stand
1. Reverse lunge (use a chair or wall for support if you feel wobbly)
2. Lying press (or wall press if you don't want to lie down)
3. Squat pick up to bicep (or squat pick up to press overhead)
4. Resistance band archer pull
5. Bicep curl to knee raise balance
6. Lateral steps or hops (make sure you listen to your pelvic floor)
Ideally you will do this workout at least 3 times before moving to the progressed version.
Enjoy!
Jo x

15/03/2024

I have got a few questions for you...
1. Have you completed as much actual exercise as you had originally planned to this week?
2. Go to your settings on your phone and take a look at the digital wellbeing heading. How much time you've spent on your phone this week. Has it shocked you?
3. How many times have you thought or said that you just can't fit in your exercise this week. That you just haven't had the time.
4. Looking at your answer to number 3 is it really true that you couldn't fit in a 30 minute walk everyday and 2-3 x 20 minute strength sessions?

I'll leave that thought with you!

Jo x

Whilst on my walk today I decided to listen to a podcast. I found this one https://drchatterjee.com/why-your-brain-wants-you-to-be-anxious-lazy-fat-and-what-you-can-do-about-it-with-dr-anders-hansen/ It gives some brilliabt information about why exercise is so good for the brain but also why we are like we are (although I really dont like the term fat used in the title). It also has a very thought inspiring conversation about mobile usage and the brain hence the reason for my post. I wholeheartedly recommend a listen xx

I think it’s fair to say that human beings have got it pretty good. Compared to most of our evolutionary history we have never been richer, safer, or lived longer lives. Yet, despite that, more of us are struggling with our health than ever before. What’s going on? This is the question that my g...