http://cathystrongmanstudios.com/

Cathy Strongman Studios, Stavanger (2026)

12/11/2023

Down at the farm today ❤️

19/06/2023

As promised I’ve made some videos for all of you who want to keep training this summer. These can be found on my YouTube channel. Just go to YouTube and search CathyStrongman :) Any problems just send me a message. There are videos for pre-natal, post-natal and general practice and I’ll add a few more throughout the summer. Remember, there are also thousands of great videos at and …. and CONSISTENCY IS KEY!

Wishing you all a wonderful, wonderful summer and see you back in the studio in August.

31/10/2022

Do you ever stand on one leg? Better still, do you ever stand on one leg with your eyes closed? Next time you’re cleaning your teeth or waiting in a line give it a go because balance is a key pillar of health that we all can and should work on.

Balance is essential for not only standing, but walking and running in an efficient (and therefore less injury inducing) way. We go from one leg to the other and balance inbetween. Again and again and again.

Furthermore, there’s an increasing number of studies linking good balance with both longevity and quality of life.

Why? Good balance requires an immense amount of coordination between your eyes, ears and the muscles that keep you up right. As different parts of the brain are required to fire up at the same time this may strengthen neural pathways. It has also been shown to improve the same part of the brain that deals with memory and spatial cognition.

Balance also requires nerves throughout the body to send your brain proprioceptive signals based on your surroundings. (Proprioception - your bodies ability to understand it’s place in space - is a tenant of pilates). Subsequently a lack of balance can be a sign of nerve damage through say injury, stroke or chronic illness such as diabetes. So monitoring your balance may result in earlier diagnosis and treatment of certain ailments.

Furthermore, lack of balance often results in people becoming less physically active robbing them of so many health benefits such as muscle mass, cardiovascular health, a sense of being part of a community and contact with nature. It can also lead to an increased risk of injury with over 90% of hip fractures, for example, being the result of a fall.

So how do we know if our balance is good? Check out the table above published in the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy. It provides average goals for balancing on one leg with your eyes open and shut depending on s*x and age. Give it a go … see if your at least hitting average. And if not … start incorporating simple balance exercises into your day. It’s quick, easy and free ☺️

22/09/2022

A singing child is a happy child … someone told me this once and it actually makes some scientific sense.

Our Vagus nerve, innovates our larynx or voice box. So when we sing or hum this stimulates our vagus nerve and improves our vagal tone.

Good vagal tone means a healthy vagus nerve, which is an essential component of our parasympathetic nervous system and is therefore key to our ability to recover from stress.

The vagus nerve is a beast of a topic as it innovates so many parts of our body, but simply put a high vagal tone (or a well functioning vagus nerve) is not only associated with our ability to relax and recover but it also promotes strong social connections (it makes us more empathetic), positive emotions (less anxiety, aggression and depression) and better physical health (it has a big impact on our digestive function, hormone production and heart ). If you want to read more check out Stanley Rosenberg’s book on the Vagus Nerve.

Today I decided to write this post as the girls and I belted out some Beebs in the car 🤦‍♀️🤣 It felt good. Sing with the kids, sing to yourself, sing some karaoke with friends. Life is just a little bit more fun and a little bit less stressful when some tunes are involved ☺️

❤️

24/08/2022

Can weight gain during the perimenopause be seen as a positive thing? And if so should we be a little bit kinder to ourselves and accept that our body might benefit from a couple of extra pounds?

In modern day culture weight gain is too often seen negatively, as a sign of weakness and of disregard for one’s health. That thin is always best is such a powerful cultural message that I remember my gran, just short of her 97th birthday, nibbling on Riveta and eating just one of her Kit Kat sticks!

There can be no doubt that excessive weight gain during the peri- and post menopause period does have negative health implications including a more rapid decline in s*x hormones in the last years of peri-menopause (sometimes making it harder to conceive in your late 40s), increased risk of heart disease and placing a greater strain on the organs and joints BUT fat does have benefits too.

Fat is an essential lubricant in the body. I’ve seen it in Anatomy Trains dissections. The really thin with no subcutaneous fat (under the skin) have more adhesions between the skin and the fascia profunda underneath. There’s less glide. More sticking points. Less movement potential. And this is felt in the body as lack of mobility, stiffness, sometimes pain.

Also the Perimenopause sees a shift in the type of estrogen we produce from estradiol which is much more potent and which is produced mainly in the ovaries (and to a lesser extent in the fat cells) to Estrone which is produced by the adrenal glands (the HPA) and again by fat cells. So there’s an argument, I first heard from Dr Jessica Drummond, that perhaps a little extra weight (1-3 lbs) depending on the women might actually result in higher estrogen production both during Perimenopause and post menopause. This could lead to an easier transition with less severe symptoms as well as boosting health in later years as estrone levels are a little higher.

Really interesting and definitely not a well researched area, but perhaps your body has a plan behind its shifting form. To age with grace and a little bit more love for oneself - how nice would that be :)

15/07/2022

The wonderfully succinct opening lines of my latest read, In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.

Eat food - yes really. Food that your great grandmother would recognize or that only has ingredients you a) understand b) can pronounce c) total less than 5 d) don’t include high fructose corn syrup.

Not too much. Americans have added 300 calories to their daily diet since 1980.

Eat plants. Make them the main event of your meal taking up at least half of your plate.

These are just a few of the many nuggets of info and advice in this book, written not by a nutritionalist but by a journalist who has meticulously researched around the subject and backs up his arguments both with facts and figures but also common sense. There’s no fads. No false promises. No overly complicated rules. But instead suggestions that encompass not only what and how we eat but also address our broader relationship with food as a cultural and social phenomenon.

Seeing as I’m spending the next 3 days at Port Aventura theme park 🥴 it’s interesting trying to implicate his suggestions … we had to vacate the buffet dinner in just an hour last night and I literally saw people running back to the dessert table when time was nearly out 😩 and I’m pretty sure my great grandmother wouldn’t recognize the mini packs of margarine, cracker breads, Ice lollies …. 🤦‍♀️ Thank goodness he suggests a glass of wine with dinner 😉

30/06/2022

Got my running shoes back on today and listened to a wonderful presentation by Brian Stafford about how through nature we can rediscover our connection to earth. This poem made me stop in my tracks. Rewind. Listen again.

The Silence of the Stars

When Laurens van der Post one night
In the Kalahari Desert told the Bushmen
He couldn't hear the stars
Singing, they didn't believe him. They looked at him,
half-smiling. They examined his face
To see whether he was joking
Or deceiving them. Then two of those small men
Who plant nothing, who have almost
Nothing to hunt, who live
On almost nothing, and with no one
But themselves, led him away
From the crackling thorn-scrub fire
And stood with him under the night sky
And listened. One of them whispered,
Do you not hear them now?
And van der Post listened, not wanting
To disbelieve, but had to answer,
No. They walked him slowly
Like a sick man to the small dim
Circle of firelight and told him
They were terribly sorry,
And he felt even sorrier
For himself and blamed his ancestors
For their strange loss of hearing,
Which was his loss now. On some clear night
When nearby houses have turned off their visions,
When the traffic dwindles, when through streets
Are between sirens and the jets overhead
Are between crossings, when the wind
Is hanging fire in the fir trees,
And the long-eared owl in the neighboring grove
Between calls is regarding his own darkness,
I look at the stars again as I first did
To school myself in the names of constellations
And remember my first sense of their terrible distance,
I can still hear what I thought
At the edge of silence where the inside jokes
Of my heartbeat, my arterial traffic,
The C above high C of my inner ear, myself
Tunelessly humming, but now I know what they are:
My fair share of the music of the spheres
And clusters of ripening stars,
Of the songs from the throats of the old gods
Still tending ever tone-deaf creatures
Through their exiles in the desert.

David Wagoner

26/06/2022

I’ve been in France for 2 weeks … looking after the kids and admittedly doing very little exercise … and drinking wine … and eating amazing bread and cheese … and sleeping like a hog … and bizarrely I have dropped the last few kg of baby weight … I’ve done f*ck all and I feel great!

There’s a lesson in here somewhere … my life at home is pretty frantic … there’s a lot of rushing, a lot of grabbing snacks at strange times. Lots of pilates teaching, then kid taxi-Ing and late night cardio or pilates sessions.

These two weeks have been calm. I’ve eaten all my meals with the family. Hardly anything is processed. I’m at the home in which I grew up. It fills me with memories and peace. Life is slow. I feel recalibrated. I feel a bit more balanced. My shoulders have gravitated away from my ears.

I’m reminded that health is so so much more that nutrition and exercise! And I’m more convinced than ever that one of the major keys to good health and happiness is managing stress … and having a laugh and being with friends and family and relaxing … and eating comte with fig jam 😉

13/05/2022

Most of us associate lack of VITAMIN D with poor bone help but growing evidence suggests that it may also have a role in regulating the sleep -wake cycle.

According to research published in Current Pharmaceutical Design in 2020 there’s more than one link between vitamin D and sleep.

- vitamin D receptors can be found in several areas of the brain involved in sleep regulation.

- vitamin D is involved in the production of melatonin, the hormone involved in regulation of our circadian rhythms and sleep.

- lack of vitamin D can also affect sleep indirectly through its association with symptoms such as restless leg syndrome, osteoporosis as well as inflamed and sore joints.

As an interesting aside in these times of Covid, lack of VD has also been linked to respiratory issues.

How much do we need? The daily recommendation for adults is 600 IU and sun exposure seems to be the most efficient source with one study finding that 30 minutes of midday sun in Oslo provided anything between 10,000 and 20,000 IU! But foods including oily fish and egg yolks are also good sources as is cod liver oil or vitamin D gummies!

Sleep is ESSENTIAL to staying healthy while we carry our children, recover from childbirth and traverse the peri and post menopausal periods. So take a pause in the sun this weekend .. or even better bbq a piece of salmon while also absorbing some rays 😊

07/05/2022

I love the fact, highlighted by James Nestor in his book ‘Breath, The New Science of a Lost Art’, that societies from Taoist, Christian, Buddhist to African, Hawaiian Native American and Japanese all developed prayer and meditation techniques that require the same breathing pattern.

Why? research by Patricia Gerbarg and Richard Brown in New York showed that this pattern resulted in more blood flow to the brain and allowed the heart, circulation and nervous system to co-ordinate at peak efficiency. It also stimulated the parasympathetic nervous system, which in turn can help reduce anxiety, depression and promote healing.

I find this so fascinating … it conjures up images of church goers in the years before widespread literacy and modern medicine leaving church feeling calm and restored, sometimes even healed. Or ancient Buddhists monks and Native American tribes instinctively using their breath to find a meditative state.

It also makes the breathing in the Pilates 100s make more sense … focusing on the breath to help circulate blood around the body, to get your body in a state of peak efficiency at the start of the series (honestly, if you’re huffing and puffing through it at the moment start with the legs resting on the foot bar, the arms still and just focus on a long consistent inhale and exhale. Then you can build from this base)

The greatest thing is that you can practice this breathing technique anywhere, anytime and just 5-10 minutes a day has been shown to have real benefits. So sitting in the car, before you fall asleep or indeed when you’re praying or meditating … 5.5 seconds in and 5.5 seconds out preferably through the nose. Try it!

28/04/2022

Beetroot - a quick and easy way to boost both your physical and cognitive health!

Why? Partly because they’re full of antioxidants that help reduce inflammation. This reduction in inflammation is important during the menopause because estrogen, which is the bodies natural anti-inflammatory, decreases at this time.

But beetroots are also very rich in nitrates which when consumed are turned into nitric oxide by our bodies. Nitric oxide causes our blood vessels to widen, which results in more blood flow and more oxygen to our tissues. This in turn reduces blood pressure, a cause of heart problems especially in menopausal women, and can increase muscle efficiency and therefore physical performance.

Beetroot also seems to improve cognitive health, keeping our brains younger, most probably because of this increased blood flow to the brain.

How much do you need? Ideally 2/3 medium sized beetroots a day either grated, roasted or baked (as opposed to boiled), or juiced. Norwegian buddies can buy beetroot juice in Helgø Meny :) Beetroot tops throw a powerful health punch too. If you’re using them to enhance physical performance consume 2/3 hours before you work out.

Any side effects - absolutely zero asides from a shock the first time you go for a p*e! Here are some I dug up at the farm last summer on a plate made by my wonderfully talented friend

22/04/2022

Today is the 52nd Earth Day - a day created to remind us and motivate us to protect our planet. I’m a true believer in changing things at grass roots level as well as recognizing that as well as individuals changing their habits we need bold, coordinates and sustained initiatives from business and governments.

So … here’s one thing we can do - PERIOD PANTS!

Yes, the world of periods has moved on from bulky pads and plastic applicators. Mooncups, which I have to admit dismissing as too weird, too hippyish, too hands on when they first launched in 2002 saw a 98% rise in sales between 2014 and 2019. They even sell an alternative brand, Lunette, in MONKI.

I discovered period pants when talking to a friend who’s daughter had just got her first period. Apparently they’re all the rage amongst teens! They’re safer too as there’s no fear of infection or Toxic Shock Syndrome. How do they work? They have a super absorbent, odor eliminating gusset that can be removed, washed and used over and over again. That’s the earth saving bit. No waste, which is a real problem. According to an article in Glamour magazine the average woman will use over 11,000 disposable, single-use menstrual products in her reproductive lifetime! Yikes.

So, having read the reviews I ordered some period pants and sleep shorts (you can get any style you want from frilly to fancy or fun) from although there were many great alternatives. It’s a bit more of a faff in some ways but they’re comfy, last all day and like many green lifestyle tweaks, they save money as well as waste.

So … something to consider this Earth Day .. a simple way to help protect the planet from the bottom up 😉

Cathy Strongman Studios

12/11/2023

19/06/2023

31/10/2022

22/09/2022

24/08/2022

15/07/2022

30/06/2022

26/06/2022

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