Rachel Brookes-Bent

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Rachel Brookes-Bent

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Rach Louise | PT and Online Coach
💪 I help busy women transform their body image & prevent burnout
so that they finally have the confidence to wear the dress that has been sitting in their wardrobe or online shopping cart for years

07/08/2026

Before I list them, don’t try them all at once

Pick one or two, maybe three and see which combination of cues helps you feel more stable, confident and powerful when you’re bench pressing

* these work for pretty much all horizontal press variations btw (whether it’s barbell, smith machine, DB, even machine pressing) except push-up type situations

1. PUSH the floor away (leg drive)

2. PULL on the way down (don’t just let the bar / DBs lower themselves)

3. SQUEEZE the bar / handles (strong grip quite often leads to more stability overall)

4. Don’t crush the butterfly 🦋 (imagine you’ve got something between your spine and the bench - if you crush it, you’ve very likely let your back go and lost tension which won’t help the next rep)

5. PATIENCE in your unrack (let the load settle and make sure your position is solid BEFORE you start lowering the first rep)

Happy pressing 💪🏻

05/08/2026

*to clarify, the daughter is hypothetical but I would like one some day 😂

Overhead pressing is amazing for so many reasons, but I’ve stopped a lot of my upper body training because I just don’t want the stimulus

Which is strange for me to admit as someone who has maintained a narrative online of encouraging women to feel confident taking up space no matter what for so long

Building muscle is relatively difficult - it takes hard work, fuel, and time - so most people don’t really need to worry about building excess muscle without a huge amount of effort

but I was blessed (or cursed, depending on how you look at it) with what I think was an unusual genetic ability to build upper body muscle mass fairly easily

Combine that with powerlifting + pole training, plus gaining over 20kg in the process of recovering from my ED, and my back, shoulders and arms grew pretty significantly

As long as I can still pole, I don’t really want more upper body mass

so I’m rethinking how I approach keeping my upper body conditioned for what I want it to be able to do

and it’s given me a lot more compassion for the women who come to me saying they want to get strong but are scared of getting “bulky”

But what I will not do is put my body into another calorie deficit, and shrink the parts of me that make me ME

I believe there’s a balance between learning to celebrate and love a body that might not match what we’re bombarded with online,

but also accepting and exploring personal aesthetic preferences because they form part of how we express who we are as people

02/08/2026

I had to make a dramatic reappearance didn’t I?

A normal post wouldn’t have cut it, so here’s a compilation of my pole and powerlifting competitions from last year reminding me that our bodies are pretty cool and can do a lot

But that aiming for 100% in multiple things at once takes its toll

So here’s to re-aligning with what matters,
reminding myself that more is not always more,
and helping others do the same with their health & fitness so that they can get back to living their own lives on their own terms

(As opposed to those pushed on us by marketing and celebrity / influencer culture)

I like strong and stretchy,
and while I may not ever be the best at either,
I can be pretty good at both and have so much more fun that way than otherwise 😊

Credits to:coach for the coaching and choreo that went into this beautiful routine 💃
for giving me a gorgeous stage to dance on 🎭
for the last minute costume fix 👙
for coaching me towards a pretty cool winning total 💪🏻whelan for reminding me of what I’m worth ❤️

29/03/2026

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been on and off Instagram trying to make this space work

Launching and relaunching ideas
Posting a lot, then not at all
Trying to share thoughtfully, and still feeling lost and overwhelmed in the sea of the algorithm

I don’t want to keep creating from that place,

and I don’t want to ‘just learn not to let it get to me’ when I see damaging stuff being normalised online

B.Balanced is also becoming more focused

More rooted in embodiment-first strength, physical resilience, and the kind of work that helps people build greater self-trust, capacity, and clarity under pressure.

More centred on coaching, workshops, and experiences with real depth and value.

Less shaped by generic wellness advice, constant visibility, or the pressure to produce content simply to stay ‘consistent’

A big part of this decision is practical, but it’s philosophical too…

I care so much about the quality of connection I’m building this brand around.

I don’t think more content always means more value
I don’t think more visibility always means more connection
And I don’t want to keep giving my attention to a space unless I have the time, energy, and resources to create in a way that feels genuinely worth sharing

So for now, I’m stepping back from Instagram as an active platform

Not because the work is shrinking, but because I want to stay close to what sits at the centre of my brand

This page will stay here as a signpost, but the main home of the work is now:

Website — for the clearest picture of B.Balanced
Newsletter — for deeper reflections, updates, and invitations
LinkedIn — for the more professional side of the work, including talks, workshops, and partnerships

Everything is linked in my bio

And if I come back here more actively later on, I want it to be with the capacity to make what I share truly valuable.

Thank you for being here 💜

Address

London

Website

http://www.rachlouisebb.com/

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