Platform Health and Fitness

That’s a wrap on our first internship programme 🤝

It’s been a delight having Edinburgh College graduates .fitness_acc and Aarun Bennett with us, building their in-person coaching experience and learning the standards and principles we instil at Platform to give our clients the best possible experience 🫡

A fantastic duo to keep an eye on, and it’s great to see the next generation of coaches coming through strong 🔥

All the best for what’s next, guys! 🤝

How easy it is to start your journey!!

• Enquire to a platform page on social media or our website!

• Arrange your NSI to collect specific needs and wants

• coach assigned and Assessment session to check on mobility and level of fitness and strength

• program made tailored to your needs and wants and target specific short medium and long term goals

• begin your intro sessions (8-12, 1-1 sessions)

• move onto semis privates and smash your goals 💪

When an exercise gets challenging, it is very natural to want to move as quickly as possible just to get the set out the road 😅

​But letting a weight drop quickly and bouncing it back up takes the effort away from your muscles that are supposed to be working and relies on momentum instead. It also puts unnecessary stress on your joints.

​The speed at which you move a weight is called your lifting tempo, and finding the right rhythm makes a massive difference to your results.

​A great rule of thumb for beginners is to break the movement into two distinct parts:

​1. Control the lowering phase: Lower the weight under control over two to three seconds. This phase keeps your muscles working against gravity for longer, which builds stability and protects your joints as you're not bouncing it all over the place with no control.

​2. Move with intent on the way up: When it comes to the concentric phase (the hard bit 🤣), you don't want to move in slow motion. Moving with intent allows you to recruit the working muscles more effectively and stops you from gassing out after 3 reps...

​Slowing down the descent does not mean the whole movement needs to be sluggish. It is all about control on the way down, followed by a strong, purposeful drive on the way up (or the reverse for pulling movements like rows).

​Next time you are on the gym floor, focus on counting to 2-3 on the lowering/eccentric phase, then drive the weight up with confidence. You will instantly feel the difference in control!

Sport, the gym , fitness classes they may not be able to solve every problem you face , but they can give you something incredibly important.
A place where you are in control.
A place when you can focus on YOURSELF.
A place where there is a plan, another training session, another goal to work towards, another class to show up for.
A place where progress is measurable, even when it feels like it isn’t moving forward.
And sometimes that feeling of control is exactly what you need. 🕹️🔋

On August 22nd, Matt took on a 100-mile challenge in memory of his father-in-law, Allan.

Allan was a keen runner and cycling enthusiast, so Matt took it upon himself to raise money for Macmillan Cancer in the most fitting way possible, in a cycle-run-cycle from Edinburgh to Dundee, where Allan lived.

Not many can say they have performed the distance of 3.8 marathons in one day before, but this absolute legend can.

The link to donate is still live if you wish to donate and celebrate this incredible feat, performed by an incredible man, for an incredible cause.

Link is in our stories - or DM and and we will send it over 👏

Another month, another full PB board… so we had to start again. 💪

This has become a regular monthly occurrence at Platform, and it’s the best kind of problem to have. It’s great to see how much our members are improving every month.

Let’s see how quickly this months can fill up again 👊

Have you ever picked up a weight that felt fine last week, only to find it feels surprisingly heavy today?

​It is very easy to assume that progress in the gym is a straight line, and that every single session should feel easier than the one before it. But unfortunately, that's not how this works 😅

​How strong you feel on any given day is influenced by things happening outside the gym, such as how well you slept, your stress levels, and what you have eaten that day.

​Having a day where a session feels harder than expected does not mean you have lost strength or taken a step backward. It simply means your body is dealing with a little extra fatigue.

​Anyone can train when they feel good, but consistent long-term effort matters far more than any single session. On days when energy is low, showing up and doing what you can is still a win 💪