THE BRIGHT STRIDE

Hello to you, my bright friends, and welcome to spring to my Romanian readers 🙂 Patience is not what us, Romanians are known for. As soon as the sun rose in the sky on the first day of March, a new season began. Spring Solstice? Never heard of it. It was time to hide those… Read more: About Paris, people and boxes

Happy Friday, my bright friends. Something took me by surprise in the gym this week. I wanted to spend a little bit of time reflecting on it, as I think there are plenty of lessons here that would’ve really helped my younger self, and maybe can help you as well. As you know from my… Read more: How often should we exercise to see results?

Hello, my bright friends. We’ve had the first post-5pm sunset of the year in the UK this week. I think that’s a good sign that spring (the season of new beginnings and also my favourite) is just around the corner. Finishing work while it’s still light outside really makes a difference for me, even if… Read more: Declutter your space, declutter your mind

As we enter the second half of January and my fourth week as a Londoner, I wanted to press pause and reflect on how this year is unfolding so far. It seems to me that, much like other Januaries that have come before it, we find ourselves surrounded by the “new year, new me” messaging… Read more: New city, new job, new year, same me

This is my first post of 2023, and also the very first one being typed up from new laptop – what an absolute world of difference! But I won’t bore you with the speed of my new laptop, I know that’s not why you’re here 🙂 This question was asked in a recent Q&A I… Read more: “How do I choose which weights to use in the gym?”

I’ll start by saying a shy hi, and acknowledging that I haven’t been posting nowhere near as much as I would’ve liked lately (ahem, at all). Turns out there’s only a finite amount of time in a day to handle a house move, a relocation, a new job, while still nourishing my relationships and taking… Read more: Happy New Year, my friends.

‘Tis the season for nostalgic runs around my favourite places in Bristol before I move away next month! The city where I learned to run. I will never forget you. Four years ago, I was running my longest ever run (35km) in preparation for my Porto Marathon in November 2018. I still get goosebumps thinking… Read more: My last October runs in Bristol

It’s been a jammed few weeks. I’ve been hard at work on numerous personal projects and I’m not going to lie, it’s not been easy to listen to my own advice and slow down! In previous posts, I’ve spoken about how I’ve struggled to find balance in the past and shared a bit about how… Read more: You can do anything, but you can’t do everything

In the past, I’ve written about why I train and training when I’m holiday, I’ve shared a strength training sample workout, and even given you a glimpse into the secret to strength training. Today, I’m going to go a little bit deeper into what a typical training week looks like for me and how I… Read more: How I train now

The other day, I came across an Instagram post enumerating “10 truths it pays to remember in your career”. This post really resonated with me, not least because I think the merit of these “truths” extends far wider than our careers. I think they apply to life in general. And since this is a fitness… Read more: Markers of progress, being uncomfortable, training optimisations. What have I learned?

You seem to love Bristol, why are you moving? The million dollar question from yesterday’s Instagram Q&A! We decided to move to London back in January, just didn’t tell that many people for a long time. In the background, we’ve been scouting locations, making plans, Ben got a new job etc. We wanted to have… Read more: I am moving to London!

“Any tips for taking a gym/work/social break? I know rest is important but I struggle with guilt..” Question from yesterday’s Instagram Q&A that I felt deserved its own post because it’s such an important topic. Not going to answer it with any specific advice, as I do not feel I am qualified to do so.… Read more: Rest is productive

You’ve booked your tickets, packed your bags, had your airport/train station ridiculously-early-o’clock coffee and pastry. A whole week of relaxation, exploration and bronzing awaits. One question remains: to train or not to train? In this post, I will be using the term “training” to mean any form of conscious exercise, that is performed in order… Read more: Training on holiday

Progress and positive change don’t come from perfection, but rather from imperfect consistency.

In my last post, we started speaking about making exercise into a habit and strategies which you can use to make this endeavour as easy and enjoyable for yourself as you can. After all, the harder something feels, the more effort that needs to go into sticking with it for the long term. There’s often… Read more: (RE)START series: 5. How to overcome a “bad” run

Have you ever set a goal for yourself and then, fueled by the excitement to start, have gone all guns blazing towards achieving it, only to run out of energy and give up a few days later? I have, too. For many people, this all or nothing approach is the only relationship with exercise they’ve… Read more: (RE)START series: 4. Making exercise a habit

I recently carried out a Q&A over on my Instagram and one of the questions I was asked was “How important is sleep in building muscle/weight loss?”. I think this is a very important topic, so I wanted to cover it in more detail here. Let’s start by talking about the impacts lack of sleep… Read more: Sleep and exercise

Strength training seems really complicated from the outside. We see people stronger than us lift, carry and drop big weights to the floor and it can all be pretty intimidating. I know that, in the chase for that perfect workout split and set of miraculous exercises, many of us are left confused and terrified to… Read more: The secret to strength training

About a year ago, I wrote an Instagram post on the source of my motivation to exercise. I spoke about how much it had changed in the previous year. That year, a big chunk of my training had taken place at home and was dedicated to rehabing my left knee, which I had injured just… Read more: Why do we exercise?

I talk a lot about my mindset and approach to training, so today I wanted to share my latest gym session to showcase how I go about my training in practice. This was my first gym session after spending a week on the south coast and London, where I swapped the gym for the opportunity… Read more: Strength training sample workout

If you know me, or have read some of my previous posts, you’ll know that for much of my twenties I lived and breathed rowing, running and cycling competitions. I ticked many distances and personal achievements along the way, which, quite frankly, would’ve come as a complete shock to not-particularly-sporty teenage me. I never had… Read more: My relationship with exercise

Gyms are amazing, but – disproportionately so for women, minorities and older individuals – they can be pretty intimidating places too.  These groups are less likely to enter the free-weights areas of gyms, especially when not accompanied by a PT or friend. I started this blog and my Instagram as a means through which to… Read more: The gym is for everyone

Happy Thursday everyone! Earlier this week, after 5 looong months of detraining, your gal here has been reacquainting with the barbell!! Needless to say, there were many happy, happy tears and smiles involved. Now before you (or more likely, me) get too excited, this isn’t a grand comeback story. I am still waiting on my… Read more: Introducing the (RE)START blog series

It’s easier than it has ever been to compare ourselves to others. They may well live on the other side of the globe with no chance to ever cross our paths, but in the era of social media, that’s no longer a barrier. With so much information about everyone else out there, I think it’s… Read more: What is the best part about being YOU?

If you’ve known me for a while, or are an early follower of the_bright_stride on Instagram, you’ll know that sport was a huge part of my life. It was my identity and what I considered to be the most interesting thing about me. You’d find me competing at Henley Regatta, running and rowing half &… Read more: The low down on why I haven’t been exercising

I’d felt for a while that I needed a change, which I’m sure others can relate to as well – haven’t the last two years just gone and turned all of our lives upside down? It’s unsurprising then that, when all of our routines, commodities and social lives were stripped away, we developed this hightened… Read more: Meet the author

The other night, I was listening to the Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal podcast. His guest for the conversation was Dr. Julie Smith, a clinical psychologist with a massive following on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and the like. I didn’t know about Dr. Julie prior to the podcast, but turns out she does these super creative… Read more: Thoughts are not facts

I found it extremely hard – in a world full of ‘do more, be more’ – to stay true to who I am, what my values are and what is important to me. We are social beings, many of our values are the values of the people we surround ourselves with (virtually or in real… Read more: I will never be my best self and that’s okay

Around mid-March 2020, the decision to work from home for the following two weeks was communicated to us via email. The Goverment hadn’t introduced any rules at that point, we all grabbed what we deemed most necessary from the office – but not expecting it to be for any longer than the said two weeks,… Read more: Nature finds a way

I grew up surrounded by a group of women stronger than they ever gave themselves credit for, incredibly kind and humble. They lived and breathed the belief that life’s meaning is family, and their sole purpose was to support theirs. They were warm as deer and strong as lions. I was, and still am, in… Read more: Love yourself