The Working Mums Podcast

Ep #65 - Redefining Fitness for Busy Mums with Jess Snape

• Nicky Bevan

Share episode

Jess Snape joins me to shatter fitness industry myths with her refreshing approach to physical wellbeing. With 15 years as a personal trainer specializing in strength and mobility coaching, Jess shares wisdom that feels like a warm hug in a world of comparison and impossible standards.

"I see a lot of guilt," Jess reveals when discussing what she observes most in mothers she trains. This guilt manifests through constant comparison to friends with different body types, unrealistic time expectations for fitness routines, and shame around natural aging processes. For women juggling childcare, careers, and households, the belief they should somehow fit hours of exercise into already packed days creates a crushing pressure.

Jess challenges the common belief that motivation must precede action. "I am never motivated to exercise," she admits candidly – a surprising confession from a fitness professional. Instead, she advocates starting without motivation and allowing the good feelings that follow to naturally build motivation over time. This perspective shift removes a significant psychological barrier for many women.

The conversation takes a practical turn as Jess demonstrates simple scapular squeezes – exercises particularly beneficial for those spending hours at desks or looking at screens. By integrating these brief movements throughout your day – perhaps while waiting for the kettle to boil – you can prevent issues ranging from tension headaches to lower back pain. Her advice emphasizes small, manageable changes over dramatic transformations.

Perhaps most powerfully, Jess encourages a shift from punishment-based fitness to celebration-based movement. Rather than exercising to "fix" perceived flaws or achieve an idealized aesthetic perpetuated by influencers (many of whom have had undisclosed surgical interventions), we can move our bodies out of appreciation for their incredible capabilities. For mothers especially, acknowledging that pregnancy represents "the biggest biomechanical change a human being can go through" invites gratitude rather than criticism.

Ready to transform your relationship with fitness? Follow Jess on social media for daily inspiration and check out her new "Desk Detox" app featuring 15-minute workouts you can do at home with just a resistance band.

IG: @jessicasnapestudio

LI: Jessica Snape 

website: www.jessicasnape.com 


You can also watch this episode on YouTube with Captions - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWorkingMumsLifeCoach

If you'd like to have a chat about how I can help you further, please don't hesitate to click here & book a time with me, I'd love to meet you.

You can also follow me on IG @NickyBevan_LifeCoach

Nicky Bevan:

Welcome, welcome, welcome to this week's podcast, where I am absolutely delighted to be joined by Jessica Snape. I'm going to let Jessica tell you all about herself in a second, because I won't explain it as beautifully as she does, but I'm really excited to have this conversation with her. Jess, do you want to start by introducing yourself?

Jess Snape:

Hello everyone. I am Jess Snape. I am a personal trainer with 15 years experience. I specialize in strength and mobility coaching. My kind of thing is I'm really into individualized fitness. I've been in the industry a long time. I've worked with hundreds of people. I've had lots fitness. So I've been in the industry a long time. I've worked with hundreds of people and I've had lots of qualifications. I've worked in everything from postnatal rehab to working with professional athletes and I like to work one-on-one with people and come up with specific, bespoke, tailored, individualized whatever your word of choice is routines and programs that work for them, that work with their personality, them, that work with their personality, that work with their lifestyle, that work with the amount of time they have. Because that is the big thing busy people can find it hard to find the time to get their exercise in, to get their flexibility training in, to get all of that. So that's kind of what I specialize in.

Nicky Bevan:

I'm kind of a individual led personal trainer.

Jess Snape:

Yes, and you're a mom. I am a mom, I have an age.

Nicky Bevan:

My son is going to be eight a week from today Eight, oh my goodness, and you have a furry teenager.

Jess Snape:

I have a puppy who is entering puberty. That's hard work, possibly good practice for when the other one enters puberty. I don't know.

Nicky Bevan:

I have no idea. Um, I'm not sure that my, my dog is a teenager. It has was anything compared to my boys as teenagers. So wait, I've brought the puppy up because we may get interrupted by the puppy. Yeah, he has already been chewing shoes this morning.

Jess Snape:

We're going to invite the puppy to come into the space, love smelly trainers, yeah. So apologies in advance if, um, if I have to. Suddenly, if you hear me yell, he's called frankie. So if you hear me yelling at frankie, that's who that is. That's who that is so we're.

Nicky Bevan:

We're furry, furry moms as well as like human moms. So we're just going to chat about all things what it's like to be a working mum, what you see most from a physical perspective in the mums that you work with. And then I'd be really curious, given that I sit at a desk most of the time, I would be really curious around some very basic exercises that we could possibly do at our desk to kind of open our shoulders up. So where do you want to start?

Jess Snape:

Oh gosh, Well, should we start with talking about being mums.

Nicky Bevan:

Let's do it, because I do know when I that seems the natural place to start. It does know when I that seems the natural place to start. It does because when when I spoke to when I said she would you like to come on the podcast, she said yes, because I have lots to say about mums. Do you even remember that comment?

Jess Snape:

but I stand by it. I'm not so tell me.

Nicky Bevan:

Start by saying what you? What do you? What do you see most common with mums that you work with?

Jess Snape:

I see a lot of guilt. I see a lot of comparing themselves to their friend who carries body fat different places, or my friend but my friend has a flat stomach.

Jess Snape:

You know, I see a lot of this time. I'm a bit of a time fantasist. I don't know about you. I always think, gosh, I want to do these 7 million things tomorrow. And then, of course, I only get three or four done and then I beat myself up over it. So I get that with clients. They think they should be doing three or four hours of fitness a day. They've got children, they've got a family, they've got children, they've got. They've got a family, they've got a job. You know they. You know so that I see a lot of that.

Jess Snape:

I see a lot of this kind of guilt and shame around what they think they should be doing in terms of fitness, in terms of, you know, their pain pattern. I feel most people have a pain pattern, especially past middle age. There's something, there's a niggle, there's something, something it's a hip or it's a lower back, or you wake up and it's a bit hard to get out of bed in the morning, or the neck and shoulders hurt and and and there's this guilt and shame that you know I'm broken, I'm old, I'm, you know. So I really try to be a cheerleader to moms and kind of remind them of how many responsibilities they have and also how amazing they are at being a mom and and how hard it is to be a working mom.

Jess Snape:

We there's only 24 hours in the day yeah, yeah before I had kids I wasn't even doing three hours of fitness a day and. I worked in a gym. You know he's a person to be doing that yeah, it's so true, isn't it?

Nicky Bevan:

and how? Um, that comparison I can't remember who said it, I've seen it quite a lot on Instagram. Comparison is the fief of peace. Is that? Is that the quote?

Nicky Bevan:

As in, when we compare ourselves to other people, we always feel really shit, because what we don't do is we don't compare the whole picture. We just look at one little bit and, oh, she's that. But we don't do is, we don't compare the whole picture, we just look at one little bit and oh, she's that, but we don't take into account, possibly, the other areas of that person's life. Like, and if we're going to compare ourselves to one thing, we have to be willing to take everything. And when you look at everything, you're like, oh, actually, no, I wouldn't really want to deal with that bit, or I wouldn't want to deal with that bit, or I wouldn't want to deal with that bit.

Nicky Bevan:

So what's your what? How do you start to help? Because I think one of the things that I fall into is that, oh, it's something else that I have to do, um, and what I try to do and I am not by any means perfect or even maybe good at this, but it's about just the tiny little things. Like you know, I've been practicing wall angels recently in order to try and open up my you know my shoulders and start to engage that back part of me you know my shoulders and start to engage that back part of me and but if I just do that once a day, that's a bonus. I'm like well done, that's brilliant. So how do you start to? Where do you?

Jess Snape:

start. Well, it's kind of with exactly that, like exactly what you've said. It's it's about the kind of small rocks. So it's about kind of okay, what can we do to make ourselves feel a little bit better? Okay, I love wall angels. Another one I love is a a bit of resistance band revolution, where you kind of take the band all the way back and bring it forward and what I say to people is leave it, leave the band by the kettle, yeah, and then just do one or two every time you pass it throughout the day. You know, we start with the little things and then we start to notice. Or I find with my clients, they start to notice these changes, they feel better and then they automatically start to integrate it a little yeah, because that's the thing.

Nicky Bevan:

We're all waiting for motivation to come along, aren't we? And? And we all think, oh, when I, when I'm motivated, I'll do it. I am never fucking motivated, it's just, it's never been. It's never been something that I've ever been motivated to exercise. It's just, it's never been. It's never been something that I've ever been motivated to do. Some people are, which is great, but not for me, and so. But what I notice is I start it unmotivated and we can actually apply this to any task in our lives, right, but we start it unmotivated. Then we go oh, actually, that feels good. Now that primitive part of our brain that just wants to stay lazy is like oh okay, actually, maybe it's not so bad, and then the motivation starts to come. But to begin with, we just have to do it unmotivated.

Jess Snape:

I agree and also I think, yeah, people don't know what to do. That's the thing.

Nicky Bevan:

It can be overwhelming, and also I think, yeah, people don't know what to do. That's the thing it can be overwhelming.

Jess Snape:

Yeah, yeah, this pain. I want to lose weight, I want to get. I'm in menopause and I know I need to do strength training because I know that there's stuff around the skeleton and, oh my God, where, how I don't have any time to do anything. Where am I? Or motivation, yeah, where am I going to start? So I do a lot of education as well, with people. You know I try to kind of gently go, okay, you know. So this is, this is why you're feeling like this. And here's this, this small actionable thing you can do. You know, help build a little bit of a, a habit to where you go. Oh, I got this crick in my neck again. I know what I got. Just grab that band and do a few of those.

Nicky Bevan:

It feels better, you know because it's automatic better.

Nicky Bevan:

You know, yeah, it becomes automatic. Yeah, I've never quite found other than dancing. I've never quite found an exercise. I quite like yoga, um, and I do love cold water swimming, but in the winter you're not in long enough for it to be a an exercise, it's just more of a cold water therapy. But I've never quite found an exercise that I've gone. Oh, that's, I love to do it. You know those people that just go. I really love going out for a run. I'm like how does that happen?

Jess Snape:

I don't get it this is another thing I work with people on, because I work with so many women who are doing the kind of fitness they hate you know, and they're dreading it and they're really forcing themselves to do it and it's a real keeping up with the Joneses situation.

Jess Snape:

It's because their friend does it and looks great, or they've seen someone on Instagram do it and they and they say they feel great. You know, and there are so many different kinds of movement we can do. Some people they just want to do yoga and maybe long walks. You know, some people, like you say, are really into running.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah.

Jess Snape:

Some people love. I love lifting weights. That's my thing I love. I love gyms. I'm a real gym bunny. I love being at the gym. I love everything about it. You know, some people like classes, some people, like you know doing stuff outdoors. Some people just want to work out in their home. Oh, they have some dumbbells at home and that kind of thing. You will get results if you do something you like. I know that that's like a real groundbreaking piece of advice, but so, as so many people I work with especially women it's, you know I say you have to find something you enjoy.

Nicky Bevan:

You should you know if you enjoy it yeah do it more yeah, that is so true, thanks, and, and I think as well, what happens is you hear people go like one expert will say, oh, you have to go to a gym and do resistance training, and then the next expert will go, no, do it at home and do it with dumbbells. And then the next expert will say, oh, do it outside and go to a class, and it's you. We hear this with the diet industry as well, don't we? There's this diet and then this way of eating, and, and so I really think and I love what you say about doing that individual approach around, it has to suit the individual, her lifestyle, what other things she's got going on and do it that way absolutely, because you know there are some people who would prefer to be outdoors all the time.

Jess Snape:

They really thrive being outdoors. Um, I will be outdoors on a sunny day, but I'm like not into the rain, like I don't know, I can't. I didn't grow up here. I can't, I can't get rained on. I just don't. I find it degrading.

Nicky Bevan:

I don't know which, so let me just let listeners, even though you can hear Jessica's American accent, you actually live in Bath in the UK, don't you? Which is how, how we met through networking, um, and yeah, so you chose to move here. It's quite a lot in England, although at the moment it's beautiful the weather is gorgeous.

Jess Snape:

We're in the yeah and it's amazing I go out and everyone's running.

Jess Snape:

You know everyone's out for a run yeah it's glorious, it's glorious weather, but you know, and there's lots of outdoor fitness, in bath and in a lot of places in the uk if you're into park runs and there's all kinds of triathlon clubs and cycling clubs and all of that but that's not going to be for everybody At home workouts. You talk about motivation. Some people I have a few clients they hate gyms. They've got motivation for days to work out in their home. They've got. I make recommendations on quite affordable fitness kit you can get for your home and they really thrive at putting that time aside and doing that workout. I find it very difficult to work out at home. I have all the gear here but I'm like I got to clean the fridge. You know it's something to do at home that I just can't get motivated to work out at home. But if I go to the gym I'm super motivated.

Jess Snape:

You know I have to walk because I'll be there two hours If I don't know. You got to go. You've got stuff to do and it really is about the individual, it really is what suits lifestyle. What time of day do you train? I'm an I'm an early bird, you know we're talking in the morning. I've already been out for a run and had two clients today and it's like it's like what 9.30. I get up really early. I'm early to bed, early to rise. I always have been so I am a really early that I do my training really early. I can't really train after about 9am. I'll talk myself out of it. You know, I've just got too much to do.

Jess Snape:

Some people train in the evening, or they want to train at lunchtime, or that's just when their natural rhythm is best fit for exercise. And that is really the crucial thing If you want to have a sustainable fitness plan. You've got to figure these things out about yourself. Yeah, yeah yeah, kind of work with those things, because I tried briefly in my life to go to evening fitness classes and I just I shut down after like school pickup like three o'clock.

Jess Snape:

I'm kind of like going into stamp and it was, it was, it was a slog, you know, to have to go to these evening fitness classes. So we have to be really aware of when we're, when we're at our, at our, you know best for this but it works best with our schedule yeah, that I, I am not a morning person.

Nicky Bevan:

I wish I kind of wish I was, but I'm just I, I'm not at all. I mean, I do quite like I get up and I do yoga. So I have a glass of lemon water and I do just like 10 minutes of stretching and yoga. And I really noticed that if I don't do that, bits start to niggle and ache and I've got into that good habit now and literally because I just started with like five minutes and then I went to 10 minutes and I maybe I could, I could extend it now to 15, but it is about fitting in with the schedule, isn't?

Nicky Bevan:

I remember during lockdown I actually did the using the couch to 5k app on my phone. I did actually start jogging and I really enjoyed it, but I had nowhere to be right. I could get up, I could wake up, naturally, I could go out, I could could come back. There was no time restrictions, whereas now the boys are at school and I choose to take them to school in the mornings. I love that they can walk home, but in the morning I choose to take them and I love that time. But it does mean that you only have, you only have a specific period of time in which to do your thing, so then I think it's around going right. Okay, if I've only got 10 or 15 minutes, what is the most impactful exercise that I can do in that time? Do you have any advice on that?

Jess Snape:

Yeah, I mean, I totally agree with that, and I think it depends a lot on where you're coming from and where you're going.

Jess Snape:

So I work with a lot of women who are still still having issues from pregnancy and birth, you know, and we have a saying in the in the postnatal rehab world is that once postnatal, always postnatal. So I've worked with women whose children are now in their twenties and we are still able to kind of sort out some of the issues. So if you've got if you only got 10 or 15 minutes and you have pain, you know, then that would be the time to do mobility, for strengthening that kind of thing, activating certain postural muscles, that is. That is really the crucial thing to do before going out on a sprint session or something you know, and people going okay, I've got, I've got 10 minutes, I'm going to do a bootcamp workout or something like that is, doing the body scan, checking in, you know, going back to the awareness, getting that presence, and going how am I feeling today? Okay, I'm a bit tingly in the neck. Maybe I shouldn't go out and do a bunch of push-ups, you know. Maybe I should instead work on some wall angels or some scapular squeezes which I'm going to show you in in a bit, because that's something that can really be done at a desk or just seated that um some chin tucks or something like that, because as we get older we need to do more mobility and flexibility we

Jess Snape:

need to really supplement our exercise with mobility and flexibility. We need to really supplement our exercise with mobility and flexibility and and that is really that, that's where longevity is going to happen is that taking care of the joints? We're taking care of how we move, and then we can put the exercise on top of it to get, to get the strength, to get the aesthetics. You know people wanting weight loss, that kind of thing. But I always start with the foundation of if you've got time, do you need to do any mobility? Does anything hurt? Does anything feel stiff? That kind of thing.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, one thing that I love that you um put on I think I saw on Instagram it may have been, it may have been LinkedIn I know you do similar content on both, don't you like? Which is exactly what I do as well. Um, but it was, there's not much point stretching if the muscle you're trying to stretch isn't strong, or something like that. And it really made me think the amount of times that I'm trying to like stretch out my neck and I was like, oh, hang on a minute, maybe, maybe I need to do some strengthening around this as well, like the other parts of my body in order to it just really made that. That one little comment that you said just really made me think. That's so interesting.

Jess Snape:

Yes, I think I did a series where I was talking about um, yoga and flexibility and then the concept of mobility, because I do sports massage and I do a lot of social work on people as well and, um, you know, people come in like I don't understand. I do all this stretching and yoga and I've still got all this stiffness and pain and say, well, there's a difference between stretching out a muscle, between a joint and actually working on the joint. Our joints are meant to move through a certain range of movement and when they get locked up and they don't move through that range of movement, then that affects the muscles. You won't be able to stretch those muscles because they're not in their optimal position anyway. So mobility is kind of, you know, doing more stuff like the wall angels stuff, where we're doing repetitions, 10 to 15 repetitions, just kind of getting the joints to open up a little bit more and then we can stretch and then we get the benefits of the stretching.

Jess Snape:

And yoga is really good. I love yoga. I think it's so good for so many reasons. You can stretch a lot of things at once, but if your joints aren't working properly, you're not going to get a lot out of it.

Jess Snape:

You won't be able to get the benefits of moving through those movements.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah, that's so true. So is there, like your one exercise that you seem to, just everybody seems to do?

Jess Snape:

Yes, do I have my band? I don't have my band here. I'm so unprepared. You can do it with a towel as well, but I don't think. Let's see, actually, let's do the scapular squeezes now because there's Okay, yeah, okay. So our scapula is our shoulder blades, right, yeah, and when a lot of people, especially if they're looking at screens, that can be looking at a phone, it can be doing a lot of driving. I count the windscreen as a screen, yeah, yeah, well, it has the word in it.

Jess Snape:

So, or sitting at a desk, our shoulder blades lose their mobility. So that means they don't move as they're supposed to. And the shoulder blades move a lot of different ways they move up and down, they move together. In a part they kind of rotate, that kind of thing. So one of a really simple way that we can get that mobility back is is we just squeeze them together yeah, so we have a slight.

Jess Snape:

Let me change my angle here if anyone's watching. So we've got a slight bend in the elbows and we're kind of thinking about drawing our elbows back and down and really visualizing that space in between our shoulder blades and seeing do they move? It looks like you've got pretty good there, nikki. How does?

Nicky Bevan:

feel so when we're, when I'm doing it, am I focusing on that? That that bit between, like, the shoulder blade and the spine, like that? Yeah, exactly the people. If you're not watching this on YouTube I'm actually trying to point to my back, but you can't even see that on YouTube, but that, yeah. So, and when you're doing it, are you? Are you trying to hold your shoulders down at the same time? Because that's what I noticed my shoulders get lifted up, so for the shoulders.

Jess Snape:

We're thinking about, almost we're drawing the shoulder blades together, but we're also trying to put them in our back pockets. Oh, okay, scapula, to draw together and can we slide it down the back? And when you get that movement, you might need to do five or six repetitions before you get this.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah.

Jess Snape:

When we get that scapula moving, you start to feel a lot of stuff in the middle of your back. Activate.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah.

Jess Snape:

So that's those are. That's the thoracic spine region. This is the issue. This is the area that just gets really locked up and kind of stops working when people do a lot of sitting.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah.

Jess Snape:

Or whether it's driving. So even just doing a few of these you can do these anywhere, thinking about drawing the shoulder blades together and then again down, really depressing, depressing them. It's called into the back. That's going to activate your middle back, which is automatically going to change your posture.

Nicky Bevan:

You're getting up straighter, yeah and it's kind of interesting, isn't it?

Nicky Bevan:

Because I think most people know what their stomach muscles are, you know, because we're so used to seeing stomach crunches and yes, right, you know, and I think during pregnancy and childbirth I'm actually really grateful that I really focused on my pelvic floor exercises and even talking to you now, I can feel myself going and like clenching them all up, and so, from that perspective, that area for me is actually it's good, but, um, but no one, we don't ever, it's not really in my um, it's never really come into my orbit.

Nicky Bevan:

No one's ever really said this area is like that back area that you called it the threat. Did you say the thoracic spine? That that is actually also a really vital just, and I think even if you just bring it into your awareness which is what I'm always talking about with our thoughts, right, but it's the same with our physical body Just bringing it into your awareness instantly takes your focus and your energy there. And we've never, I've never, really I've never heard. I think we're probably hearing more about it because of screens and phones and the physical impact that's having on our bodies, but that's not a normal area that you kind of think, to think about.

Jess Snape:

It's not sexy. There's nobody in a bikini going look at my thoracic region Whereas people can become very obsessed with abs. You know, yes, I grew up in the 80s, I feel, like there was lots of talk, there was lots of crash dieting, there was lots of endless, endless aerobics because everyone wanted that, that stomach. You know, yes, and I feel a lot of women I work with who are similar age to me are a bit older. Okay, they're kind of. They want that, they want that six-pack.

Jess Snape:

You know, I kind of go. We don't live in a warm weather country like at the moment. How often are you, how often does your stomach out that you want six? You know, but it is. It is kind of easy to get, I think, very focused on the core because we have been just there's just so much imagery around the kind of sculpted stomach.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah, and I'm thinking those Cindy Crawford DVDs that you used to see and it and it was.

Jess Snape:

it was all about this like having that that you were thin and that you were. You know, that was how we were supposed to look.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah.

Jess Snape:

So the yeah. So I think that's why. But I'm like feeling my thoracic spine is really activated now, so I like it's easier. It's easier to sit up, yeah, right, yeah, I've got my sternum up, I've got. My shoulders are in a perfect position, my neck, all of that. Um, I tell people you set little reminders throughout the day, once an hour. Just just do five of those. Just reset your scapula, because as you sit, whether again you're driving driving's terrible for us or you're on your phone all day, or you're at a computer, that the shoulder blades are going to slide out of position yeah and over time, the crucial muscles around them become weak.

Jess Snape:

Because we're in this bad position all the time, and that's when we start to get tech neck, we start to get rounded shoulders, we start to yeah. But we can prevent that and change it just by doing these few simple yeah but you have to kind of do them throughout the day, and I think that's where most people um, they don't succeed because you're not going to remember especially if you're not going to remember to do your scapular squeezes every hour.

Nicky Bevan:

No, unless you've got a, like you say, a um, a notification popping up. But I do notification and you know, yeah, but I do, like what you said about the kettle, like there, there are things that we do, um, like I quite often say to my clients just, it's easier with your thinking because you so when you're brushing your teeth, that's. We do that twice a day without even considering, we just do it. It's so habitual, so that's a habit that you're already into. Well, whilst you're brushing your teeth, start thinking about your thoughts. You can't that's not quite so easy to do a scapula squeeze whilst you're brushing your teeth.

Nicky Bevan:

No, no, no exactly when the kettle's on that two minutes that the kettle takes to cook. Have a sticker on your kettle and go right whilst you're waiting for the kettle to boil, instead of scrolling on social practice, your scapula squeezes yeah, reset your scapula. While you're waiting for someone to come into a meeting, practice your scapula squeezes whilst you're. You know there's there's little things that we do throughout the day already that we could easily add that into yeah, and I think that it will make such a big difference yeah because that thoracic spine, because of where it's at in the body, if that starts to again get switched off, get deactivated.

Jess Snape:

You've got everything from tension headaches to lower back pain to you know, and it's awful to go through life with this chronic pain yeah or you, you know it colors everything, doesn't it?

Jess Snape:

And it is. It is preventable, but it has to be, we have to. Again, I feel like I'm a broken record here. I keep talking about awareness, but we have to be aware that if we're sitting in these postures for sometimes, you know, five, six, seven hours over a working day, with little breaks here and there, like the body is where no one's going to be able to sit eight hours, like you know, like this yeah, we are probably going to slouch a bit, especially if you're absorbed in what you're doing, that kind of thing yeah just need to reset it and it's.

Jess Snape:

It's five, six reps here and there makes a huge difference yeah 30 seconds I can already yeah, that's it.

Nicky Bevan:

And I can already feel that that, having just done those bits that we've done, I'm already sat up straight. I mean, in a minute I'll probably be back down like this because I'll be. I'm already slouching now, yeah, but but also what I think, what you were just saying, is that awareness because that's exactly what I teach with with thought work and emotional work is the awareness is key first of all, without them beating yourself up for being where you are.

Jess Snape:

Yes, absolutely.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, I think that's, that's the optional piece, cause I think what we can sometimes do is go oh, I should know, this I shouldn't have, I shouldn't be slouching, I shouldn't be, I shouldn't. Now we end up that bitchy voice in our heads, end up beating ourselves up, and that part is totally optional. I think, like from here onwards, now you've listened to this podcast and and also go and follow Jess on the social medias, because your, your videos are brilliant usually the the puppy's there somewhere.

Jess Snape:

I love it. I have to have him in there because he's just gonna bark or tear something up, chew up all my shoes, yeah, but it just makes it, um, normal.

Nicky Bevan:

You know, this is what most people are dealing with. We don't have the perfect life where we, you know, breeze through our day doing exactly what we want to do. We are checking, checking the dog, checking the kids, like looking after everyone, doing our businesses, doing our work. You know we are going through all those things. So seeing you doing it that way, I just think, makes it so much more personable and human and it's more engaging. It's more it feels to me like it's more doable, like I look at you and go, I could do that, whereas I look at you know, these going back to the Cindy Crawford 80s, kind of tiny little stuff, and I'm like I'm never going to be that and yet I'm comparing myself to try and be that and it feels shit, that's not motivating.

Nicky Bevan:

But you know, know I, so I think so we will put all of Jess's details in the show notes, um, so you can connect with her and follow her on your preferred platform. But, um, what do you think? Or is there something that we haven't talked about that you feel is really relevant?

Jess Snape:

um, we covered. I talked about how I mean. The big thing for me and I talked about this at the beginning is the shame that comes with comparing ourselves to to other people online. As someone who's worked in fitness for 15 years, I look at some of these accounts that women compare themselves to, and these women have had plastic surgery yeah on their abs, little tummy tucks.

Jess Snape:

You know it, and and and I just it, but they would never say that they're claiming it's from their you know, from from their diet and lifestyle. And with the, with the rise of the weight loss jab, you are getting a lot of this. You know, you're getting a lot of people, celebrities, going no, I've lost these 200 pounds in three months through diet and exercise, which is literally impossible. Um, so I would just say just keep that in mind. You know, um, men get it as well. There's a lot of male influencers who are on steroids, who claim they're natural. You know, yeah, of the women lying about their tummy tucks and plastic surgery, but I see a lot of that, especially in the postnatal market. I worked in the postnatal market, um, exclusively in the postnatal market, probably about seven or eight years ago, and and there were so many personal trainers who'd had work done, who were claiming they looked like that because of, because of the programs they were selling. Um, sad, isn't it?

Nicky Bevan:

very, very sad and very, very deceptive yeah, well, it's not and it's not true. Is it like you're? You're, there are some. There are body shapes as well. We have. We have different body shapes. I even just look at me, me and my sister-in-law. My sister-in-law is proper and she loves it if fitness and exercises is easy for her to do, but when I look at us, we have very different shapes.

Nicky Bevan:

I am very curvy I always have been and she's naturally more, um, like thin and tiny and and like a runner's physique. Well, I, I will. Even if I did hours and hours and hours of exercise a day, I would not get her body because that's her body type, that's not mine. So it's working. It's learning to love and have so much gratitude, I think, for the gorgeous bodies that that we have been given and our bodies are incredible, regardless of the size, shape or you know, we can celebrate that. And actually starting to do the like, the shoulder squeezes, the thoracic squeezes I can't remember exactly what you said Doing the wall angels when the kettle's boiling Out of a celebration for how incredible our human bodies actually are. I just think it's so much nicer than trying to do it out of shame or comparison or judgment.

Jess Snape:

Absolutely and kind of acknowledging that pregnancy and birth is the biggest biomechanical change a human being can go through yeah and we know what happens in pregnancy and you look at the spine, is is pulled really far forwards. There's nothing else in life, maybe a terrible car accident. You know where you're that would happen and and and we give birth and then the body kind of reverts. You know, it's just incredible and you think, wow, we've been through this enormous biomechanical change and we're still working and raising kids and you know all of this stuff.

Jess Snape:

Like be kind to yourself, don't worry about your six pack, it's going to go back to raining like within a few days. Anyway, you never have it out. Wear a one piece on your beach holiday. Like don't worry about the crash dieting and the and the abs and all of that. Like, yeah, wow, again the longevity. You know I work with slipped discs. You can. You can slip a disc from sitting too much. Yeah, you can avoid that by doing some simple mobility exercises that reset the posture so that you're not going to put that pressure through the, through the spinal discs.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah.

Jess Snape:

Celebrate that, you know. Celebrate, yeah, Let you say different body types. It's the grass is always greener. I'm a very I have an athletic build. I'm very straight up and down and all I ever wanted was to have a big something. I just want a curve somewhere where so many women will go. I just want to be straight up and down, I know.

Nicky Bevan:

It's the same with curly hair, though, isn't it? People with curly hair want straight hair. People with straight hair want curly hair. We always think the other is better.

Jess Snape:

Always think the other is better, and it's not at all.

Nicky Bevan:

It's not. So I'm really fortunate that I live close to you so I can come to you, uh like in person. But for those people that aren't quite as close to Bath geographically, do you work online, or is it only?

Jess Snape:

I do and actually I'm launching my.

Jess Snape:

I have an app, I have a Jessica Snape app that I'm going to be doing a soft launch for at the end of this month and I'm going to be doing courses in the app that you can do at home. So my first one is called the desk detox Ooh, and it's a three day a week at home strength and mobility program. The only equipment you need is a resistance band and it's a six week program, though it then progresses. You can stay on it as long as you want. The workouts are about 15 minutes, so they're not too long, and I'm just going to be doing new courses every two or three months.

Jess Snape:

So I'm currently working on my postnatal course and that, again, is not not solely for women who've just had babies, but once postnatal, always postnatal, if you've had a child, you're a mom and you feel you've got core issues or you've got a little bit of leaking or even hip issues or just something this could be for you. So I'm gonna be launching that. There'll be a membership. Um, people can do as many courses as they want. I'm gonna do everything from elbow pain to knee pain to, you know know, a course for runners. I'm even going to do one on how to build a bigger butt, because I get asked this all the time, you know, by straight up and down women.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, it's really funny because that's one of the things. My sister-in-law looks at me and she's like I had the. It was really funny. So my brother-in-law got a plunge tub. I love cold water, nice bath Not really funny. So my brother-in-law got um, a plunge tub. I love cold water not initially, but I like the after effects of cold water and he had it outside when he first got it and we arrived and I didn't have my. I didn't have my swimming costume, so I literally got in in my bra and knickers and I wear a thong. So I'm climbing over, really undignified, into this plunge tub and I'm trying to cover my bum as if I could with my hand. But I am blessed with a sizable ass and my sister-in-law is like I would dream to have an ass like yours, because she's trying to build her butt, because she doesn't have one and I think, like I think she's beautiful and her body's incredible. But it is fascinating, isn't it? How?

Jess Snape:

oh wait, the grass is always greener on the other side yeah, I have clients who have a similar shape to you and, um, because of course I have noticed your, your butt, nikki, I'm not gonna it's there and I always say to them it's gorgeous, what would you want to make so we could make it bigger?

Jess Snape:

you know, they go just no, I don't want to make it, but yeah, so I do. So I am going to be launching that app and, um, there is the. You know people can text me through the app and and with questions and and all of that kind of thing brilliant and I've got all the you know all the videos. I film all the videos at my house. My dog's in them sometimes, of course.

Nicky Bevan:

Has to be. It's like cats as well. Cats are the same. Cats always have to make an appearance.

Jess Snape:

Yes, right, I know they have to get their little time in the limelight.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah. So we will put all of those details in the notes below. So if you're listening, either on youtube or driving or cooking tea actually, if you're listening whilst you're cooking the tea, not while you're driving, unless you're sat at traffic lights have a go. Yeah, because it does actually feel good. Even just bringing your awareness to that part of your body which you're probably not at all aware of, it does actually feel really nice.

Jess Snape:

Yes and think again. Just to review we're bringing the scapula together, but we're also thinking about pushing it down. We're trying to push back pockets, because that will really activate those mid back muscles.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah.

Jess Snape:

Get really sleepy because we're slumped yeah, yeah so they don't need to hold us upright anymore.

Nicky Bevan:

So they just check out, they go yeah, yeah, and I think what you just said really hit home. Actually, they don't need to hold us up anymore and I think, like I noticed for me, my I'm always trying to hold my shoulders always up, right, yeah, and I think my shoulders are trying to hold not only me up but the rest of the world. It's like I don't need to hold because these shoulder muscles here, like the top I'm pointing to the end where my arms meet my shoulders looking at me, um, they're not actually holding my body. It feels like I'm being drawn up by two wires, as if that's what's holding me up and that's not what's holding me up. What's holding me up is my, when I activate it, my core, my back, thoracic area, that lower back, and then my shoulders have permission to relax yes, and that's the thing I I know that when I get stressed, I hunch and I catch myself.

Jess Snape:

You know, especially if I'm angry, I've got my shoulders up to my ears, you know. And then, wait a minute. That's gonna make certain muscles overactive, which means yeah right, well, if I'm holding the shoulders up, I might as well hold the neck and the head up so yeah, and the rest of the world? All that can just go to sleep and that's when you start to get the tension headaches and the technic and all of that.

Nicky Bevan:

Yeah, yeah, I love it. I've enjoyed this conversation so much, jess, thank you. Thank you so much for joining me thank you, hope everyone's gorgeous day.

Jess Snape:

Yes, rainy day by the time this goes live, probably, but hopefully not.

Nicky Bevan:

Well, I don't know it, because this is gonna go live next. Well, what is irrelevant if you're talking like listening to this next year in 2026? But we're recording on the 2nd of May, so I think it's gonna go live, whatever next. So the 9th of May, next Friday, um, but yes, I mean, in England the weather looks like it's dry for as long as you can see at the moment, which is like unheard of no, but now I'm going.

Jess Snape:

I'm so anglicized. Now I'm going, I need some rain for my garden. I know I have to water my pot. What have I become?

Nicky Bevan:

I know it's funny, isn't it? It is funny. Thank you so much for joining me. Everybody needs to connect with Jess because she's, as you can tell by her voice and, if you're looking on YouTube, just this beautiful little angel that's come to talk to us today. So, thank you for your time. I appreciate you so much, and everybody else. I'll talk to you next week, bye, bye.