Therapy by Carole

Therapy by Carole Therapeutic Massage Therapy
Remedial Massage Therapy
Sports Massage Therapy
Bone Health and Osteoporosis Training
Strength and Conditioning

Feeling tired or stressed? Training or working out hard? Have some aches and pains? Book yourself in for a massage and feel the benefits. Therapeutic massage is tailored to the individual needs of the client. As a massage therapist and someone who is interested in health and fitness I know how important massage is to your general well being and for those of you who exercise regularly, massage will

help your muscles recover quicker from hard training sessions. Book in and experience the benefits for yourself

Prices are:
45 minute appointment £50

12/08/2026

No gym. Just your kitchen.

This week: the triceps extension.

The back of the arm is where a lot of us lose strength first, and it is behind every push: a heavy door, a full trolley, a box going up onto a high shelf.

How to:
1. Hold the weight in both hands and raise it straight overhead
2. Bend at the elbows to lower it behind your head, elbows still and pointing up
3. Straighten your arms to press it back up, slow and controlled

Do 3 sets of 8, slow and controlled. You should feel the back of your upper arms working. Keep your elbows from flaring out to the sides and it lands in the right place.

Can't get comfortable overhead? Do it the way I show at the end. Rest one hand on the worktop, tuck the working elbow in at your side and straighten the arm back behind you, one arm at a time. Same muscle, no overhead position, and a tin of beans is plenty to start.

Any weight you can hold in both hands works. A full bottle, a heavy pan, whatever is on the worktop. Start light and build the weight gradually over time.

Save this for your next kitchen two minutes, and send it to someone who'd get on with it.

This is general movement, not medical advice. If you've been told you have low bone density, a recent injury, or you're unsure, check with your GP or physio before you start.

06/08/2026

If you have been told you have osteoporosis and are not sure what you can do safely now and how you can support your body, this could be for you.

We test it before we train it.

These are just some of the tests we do in clinic before you start. Grip strength on a hand dynamometer, then sit to stand and single-leg balance on Kinvent force plates. Real numbers, taken properly, so we know where you're starting from and what actually needs the work.

Then a few examples of the exercises that might follow. The hinge, YTUWI band raises, overhead press, deadlift, farmers carry.

What you end up doing is personalised to your test results and your relevant history.

Then we retest, and you get to watch your numbers move.

Osteoporosis testing and training in Edinburgh.

📍 Edinburgh

05/08/2026

No gym. Just your kitchen.

This week: the overhead press. This is the strength that puts a heavy pan on the top shelf without a second thought, and it keeps your shoulders strong and steady for everything else you lift over your head.

How to:
1. Hold the weight at shoulder height, elbows tucked, feet hip-width
2. Brace your middle and press straight up until your arms are long
3. Lower slowly back to your shoulders, ribs down the whole way

Do 3 sets of 8, steady on the way up and slow on the way down. Your shoulders and the backs of your arms do the work. If you feel it in your lower back you are arching, so brace a little harder and don't force the top of the lift.

Too hard? Press one arm at a time, or use something lighter.

Any weight you can hold at shoulder height works. A full bottle, a bag of tins (secured safely), whatever is on the worktop. Start light and build the weight gradually over time.

Save this for your next kitchen two minutes, and send it to someone who'd get on with it.

This is general movement, not medical advice. If you've been told you have low bone density, a recent injury, or you're unsure, check with your GP or physio before you start.

Strength training won't tighten your skin.I went looking, because it would have made a good post. There's one study. Six...
04/08/2026

Strength training won't tighten your skin.

I went looking, because it would have made a good post. There's one study. Sixteen weeks, 56 sedentary women in their forties and fifties, and a lab measure of skin elasticity on the cheek improved. It improved just as much in the group who cycled instead of lifting.

The bit everyone quotes, that lifting thickened the dermis, wasn't statistically significant. Nobody measured arms, bellies or loose skin. There was no non-exercising group to compare against.

Here's what's actually happening when your arms look different after a few months of lifting. The skin is much the same. The muscle underneath isn't. It takes up more room and holds more shape at rest, so the outline reads firmer.

Worth training for. Just not your skin.

Save this if you've been sold the other version.

Reference in the comments.

This is what my working day actually looks like when I'm not in clinic.Floor, laptop, needy collie. Joey wouldn't settle...
30/07/2026

This is what my working day actually looks like when I'm not in clinic.

Floor, laptop, needy collie. Joey wouldn't settle under the table so I gave in and relocated the office down beside him. Izzy kept a sleeping guard at the door.

I'm updating the website, which is one of those jobs that swallows an afternoon whole without you noticing.

Clients ask me all the time what the correct sitting position is. Honest answer: there isn't one. There's no perfect posture, only prolonged posture. Your tissues don't mind the shape nearly as much as they mind the stillness.

Look at the first two photos. Same floor, same laptop, five minutes apart, and I've shifted my whole position without thinking about it. That's not fidgeting. That's the thing that keeps you comfortable.

Which is why I don't sit anywhere for long. Twenty minutes, half an hour, and I'm up.

Then out into the garden to play for a while before heading back to do more work.

If your back aches at your desk, don't buy a new chair first. Try moving more often and see what's left.

29/07/2026

No gym. Just your kitchen.

This week: the loaded hinge.

If you've been told you have osteoporosis, this is the one to get right. You can't avoid picking things up off the floor, so the way you do it matters.

How to:
1. Hold the weight in front of your thighs, feet hip-width, knees soft and keep the weight close to your body.
2. Push your hips back and let it slide down your legs, back flat, weight close in
3. Squeeze your backside to stand tall again. The hips drive it, not the lower back

Do 2 sets of 8, slow on the way down. Take your time over them and that's your minute. You should feel a stretch and then work down the back of your legs, never a pinch in your spine. Hips go back, not down, and if that is hard to find, hinge to just below knee height and no further.

New to this? Start with one set and add the second when eight reps feel comfortable.

Any weight you can hold in front of you works. A full bottle, a bag of tins, whatever is on the worktop. Start light and build the weight gradually over time.

Save this for your next kitchen two minutes, and send it to someone who'd get on with it.

This is general movement, not medical advice. If you've been told you have low bone density, a recent injury, or you're unsure, check with your GP or physio before you start.

23/07/2026

"Running wrecks your knees" is the myth I hear most from people who've been told to stop.

The biggest review we've got (Alentorn-Geli et al., 2017) pooled 17 studies and nearly 115,000 people. Recreational runners had hip and knee osteoarthritis at 3.5%. Non-runners sat at 10.2%. The sedentary group fared three times worse than the runners.

The nuance: elite, high-mileage competitive runners crept back up to 13.3%. So this isn't a free pass to pile on the miles. It's that sensible recreational running is good for your joints, not the threat you were warned about.

If your knees complain when you run, that's a reason to get it assessed, not a reason to quit. Usually it's strength or load, and both are fixable.

Knees grumble when you run, or are you one of the lucky pain-free ones? Tell me below. 👇

📄 Alentorn-Geli et al. (2017), Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy

📍 Peebles | Edinburgh

22/07/2026

No gym. Just your kitchen.

This week: the reverse lunge. Working one leg at a time evens out the strength differences we all have, and stepping backward is kinder on the knees than stepping forward.

How to:
1. Stand tall, worktop within reach if you want a hand for balance
2. Step one foot back and lower straight down until both knees are bent
3. Drive through your front heel to stand, finish all reps on one leg, then swap

Do 3 sets of 8 each side, slow and controlled. Think 90-90-90 through the ankle, knee and hip at the bottom, then power back up off the back foot. The front leg does the work. Hold the worktop if your balance needs it, there is no shame in that.

Save this for your next kitchen two minutes, and send it to someone who'd get on with it.

This is general movement, not medical advice. If you've been told you have low bone density, a recent injury, or you're unsure, check with your GP or physio before you start.

Foam rolling doesn't do what the label says.I've got a foam roller. I use it. I'm still going to tell you the truth abou...
20/07/2026

Foam rolling doesn't do what the label says.

I've got a foam roller. I use it. I'm still going to tell you the truth about it.

Put the best trials together and one go on a foam roller doesn't shift how stiff a muscle actually is. In one trial the stiffness dropped just as much in the people who sat and did nothing, so it was the measuring, not the rolling. It won't make you stronger or help you jump higher either.

The sceptics get one thing wrong though. It isn't useless. You get a short-term benefit in how far you can move, a bit less soreness after a hard session, and it feels good. All real. Just smaller and shorter-lived than the "melts your knots, releases your fascia" story.

The likely reason it helps is your nervous system, not your tissue changing shape. Pressure lifts how much stretch you'll tolerate and quietens the discomfort for a while.

So roll if you enjoy it. As a warm-up or a wind-down, grand. Just don't expect it to fix a tight muscle. That takes loading, and time.

Save this for the next person who tells you to just roll it out.

References in the comments.

"Walking doesn't really count, does it?" I hear some version of that most weeks, usually from women told real exercise h...
17/07/2026

"Walking doesn't really count, does it?" I hear some version of that most weeks, usually from women told real exercise has to be hard.

Two big 2026 studies say otherwise, at least for your brain. One followed more than two million women: after menopause, regular activity was linked to lower rates of dementia and Alzheimer's, and even light, walking-level movement showed a measurable link. Another tracked people for up to 37 years and found the most active had around a 28% lower risk of dementia than the least active.

Both are observational, so they show a link, not a guarantee. But the pattern holds across huge numbers of people, and the bar is low enough for most of us to clear.

So if a daily walk is what you've got, it counts.

How far did you walk today?

📍 Edinburgh | Peebles

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69 Edderston Road
Peebles
EH459DT

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