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SIGHT

INSIGHT. Noun. The capacity to gain an accurate, deep and sometimes sudden understanding of someone or something.

Knowledge is power. We want everyone to have access to the experts in the room. Get to know whatโ€™s real and whatโ€™s a gimmick with our in-depth articles, and start bossing your health and fitness today.
INSIGHT. Noun. The capacity to gain an accurate, deep and sometimes sudden understanding of someone or something.

Knowledge is power. We want everyone to have access to the experts in the room. Get to know whatโ€™s real and whatโ€™s a gimmick with our in-depth articles, and start bossing your health and fitness today.
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Itโ€™s that time of the year again - the New Year's fitness buzz. A time where motivation is high, new workout plans are made, gym bags make a return, and everything feels full of possibility! And yet, for many people, this momentum is short-lived. By mid-February, routines can start to slip. Sessions get skipped. Motivation fades. The resolution quietly dissolves, something often accompanied by frustration or guilt. If that sounds at all familiar, itโ€™s firstly worth saying this upfront: itโ€™s not a personal failure. In most cases, itโ€™s a structural one. It might sound strange, but having a long term and consistent fitness routine isnโ€™t solely about having the most โ€˜willpowerโ€™, or forcing yourself to run just because itโ€™s โ€˜new year, new meโ€™, itโ€™s about building an individual routine that works for you and sets you up in the best position to hit your workout goals in the long term. To make things easier, weโ€™ve put together this nifty guide diving into the science of new yearโ€™s fitness, why traditional workout resolutions so often fall apart, and what genuinely helps when it comes to building habits that last for the long term. Right, letโ€™s get into it. Why New Yearโ€™s fitness resolutions donโ€™t succeedย  Before exploring how you can set your fitness goals for the long term, itโ€™s important to understand why so many fall short.ย  The main reason comes down to something psychologists call the โ€œfresh start effectโ€. This is a period that interrupts the calendar schedule (such as New Year's), creating a mental separation between the past and the future. Such a fresh start makes change - like the restarting of aย fitness routine - mentally easier to overcome because the past feels neatly boxed away.ย  While this sounds good on paper, the problem is that motivation alone isnโ€™t enough to sustain long-term behavioural change.ย  Many New Yearโ€™s fitness routines struggle to last because they often: Focus on outcomes instead of training plans and sustainable behaviours. Target instant change Focus on unrealistic fitness goals Shall we run from the top? Outcome-based targets One pitfall people often find themselves in is setting a New Yearโ€™s fitness goal that is driven by outcome without proper planning.ย  Some examples might be: Losing weightย  Getting fitย  Running a marathon All great targets to strive for, yet without a training plan or strategy to achieve them, they can quickly feel unattainable and therefore interest drops off. This makes creating and sticking to a new yearโ€™s exercise plan key to achieving your goals, asking: what do you want to achieve? What steps are you going to take to achieve them? And how will you measure your progress? Too much change and unattainable fitness goals With the fresh start effect, it can feel productive to try and overhaul all your health practices. A new training plan. A stricter diet. Earlier mornings. Fewer social plans. Better sleep. More productivity. Individually, these changes are all positive (weโ€™ve spoken about the positive effects of many in the past ourselves). Making all these large life changes in a short space of time, however, can lead to something called โ€˜cognitive overloadโ€™. Each new habit requires attention, decision-making, and self-control, leading to decision fatigue buildup and increasing the likelihood that behaviours will be dropped rather than maintained. Sustainable change tends to work the opposite way. Small, manageable shifts layered gradually over time allow habits to stabilise before new ones are added. Instead of replacing your entire lifestyle in January, long-term routines are built by choosing one or two priorities, letting them settle, and then building from there. Unrealistic fitness goals Another common reason why new year workout plans donโ€™t work is that the end goals being set arenโ€™t realistic to achieve in the time frame given. Training every day. Completely overhauling diet. Expecting visible results within weeks are just a few sure-fire ways to see your fitness plans gone by the end of January. This is because when progress isnโ€™t immediately visible, individual motivation drops. Any missed sessions start to feel like failure, and the routine becomes something to avoid rather than return to. This can lead to a plateau in motivation and a workout rut that sees you lose all motivation to continue your fitness plan. The best way to avoid this? Tailor your New Yearโ€™s workout plan to what is realistic for you to achieve. Remember, everyone is different and you should avoid trying to replicate someoneโ€™s workout plan who is at a much different point in their journey. What helps you stick to a fitness routine So now weโ€™ve covered the pitfalls faced with New Year's resolutions, what are some of the ways that you can set yourself up for success going into 2026? Starting your workouts small It might sound a little backward, but maintaining a new yearโ€™s fitness routine is all about incremental improvements - starting small and building up to ambitious fitness goals. In essence, try to make your workouts feel manageable from the outset.ย  This removes much of the physical and mental friction caused by sharp changes and removes the possibility of overtraining syndrome - something that can lead to both physical and mental fatigue. Instead of asking your body and mind to adapt to a dramatic shift all at once, you allow both to adjust gradually - which is exactly how sustainable habits are formed. Personal, not performative goals A common reason New Year's fitness routines fall apart is that the goal itself was never truly personal.ย  Many resolutions are shaped - often unconsciously - by external pressures: how we think we should look, what others are doing, or what feels โ€˜socially impressiveโ€™. These goals can create a strong initial push, but they rarely provide enough depth to sustain effort in the long term. Personal goals, by contrast, are rooted in lived experience. Theyโ€™re connected to how you want to feel day-to-day, not how you want to appear to others. Wanting more stable energy through the afternoon, fewer aches and pains, better sleep, or improved resilience during stressful periods may not sound as dramatic as a body transformation, but theyโ€™re far more motivating over time.ย  This is supported by behavioural research showing that exercise routines rooted in intrinsic motivation - feeling better, moving more easily, managing stress - are significantly more likely to be maintained long-term than goals shaped by appearance or external pressure. These outcomes are felt quickly and repeatedly, which reinforces the habit itself. Fitting fitness into your routine Again, seems counterintuitive, but a workout routine that only works under perfect conditions wonโ€™t survive beyond January.ย  You canโ€™t change things like long workdays, family responsibilities, travel, and low-energy weeks, and you shouldnโ€™t try to. Your regular workout routine should function around these things. The key here is that fitness is flexible. It allows for shorter sessions, longer sessions, varied training styles, and a broader definition of movement that can all be tailored to your day-to-day routine. Your also not limited by location, you could workout at home, at the gym, with groups, whatever fits into your routine.ย  The role of recovery in New Yearโ€™s fitness One of the most overlooked reasons people struggle to stick to New Yearโ€™s fitness routines is actually physical and mental fatigue. While this is to be expected to some extent - and you can control fatigue by following the above tips - you also need to consider the importance of effective recovery and how you are fuelling your body between workouts. Just some of the ways you can improve recovery are: Sleep quality: Quality sleep is when the body actually recovers, repairs tissue, and resets energy levels for the next day. Without it, even light training can start to feel disproportionately demanding. Effective hydration: Staying properly hydrated helps support circulation, muscle function, and focus, making both workouts and recovery feel smoother and more manageable. Complete nutrition: Providing the body with enough protein, carbohydrates, fats, and micronutrients gives it the building blocks it needs to repair, adapt, and maintain steady energy over time. Itโ€™s also worth considering tailoredย nutrition-focusedย supplementation such as Innermostโ€™s The Recover Capsules and The Hydrate Blend. Reframing New Year fitness: from resolution to routine An effective mindset shift you can make this new year is moving away from the idea of a โ€œresolutionโ€ and towards a routine. Resolutions are often outcome-focused - lose weight, build muscle, run faster. Routines are behaviour-focused - train three times a week, walk daily, prioritise recovery. This reframing is also key when thinking about how to stick to your New Yearโ€™s fitness resolution. Instead of asking, โ€œAm I seeing results yet?โ€, the more useful question becomes, โ€œCan I repeat this next week?โ€ Remember, the most effective fitness routines arenโ€™t created in January - theyโ€™re carried through February, March, and beyond. References Dai, H., Milkman K.L., Riis,J. (2013).The Fresh Start Effect: Temporal Landmarks Motivate Aspirational Behavior. Management Science. 60 (10), 2563-2582.ย Click here. Cezar, B., Macada, A. (2023). Cognitive Overload, Anxiety, Cognitive Fatigue, Avoidance Behavior and Data Literacy in Big Data environments. Information Processing & Management. 60 (6). Click here. Ntoumanis, N., Healy, L. et.al. (2014). Self-Regulatory Responses to Unattainable Goals: The Role of Goal Motives. 13 (5), 594-612. Click here. Cleveland Clinic. Overtraining Syndrome. Click here. Sebire,S., Standage, M., Vansteenkiste,M. (2011). Predicting objectively assessed physical activity from the content and regulation of exercise goals: evidence for a mediational model. 33 (2), 175-197. Click here. ย  Read more
Why the Festive Period Breaks Your Habits
Every year, the festive period gets blamed for breaking peopleโ€™s health. Too many meals out. Too many late nights. Too many โ€œIโ€™ll start again in Januaryโ€ moments. By the time the New Year arrives, the narrative is already locked in. Damage done. Time to reset, detox, or punish yourself back into shape. But hereโ€™s the truth. The festive period doesnโ€™t ruin your health. Losing structure does. The end of the year is uniquely disruptive. Work schedules loosen. Social plans multiply. Travel, celebrations, and irregular routines blur the days together. Sleep shifts later. Meal timing becomes unpredictable. Hydration drops. Movement becomes sporadic. Stress quietly rises. Food gets the blame because itโ€™s visible. But the real changes are happening beneath the surface. Our bodies are built around rhythm. Circadian biology governs hormones, appetite, energy, glucose regulation, and recovery. When sleep timing drifts and meals become inconsistent, insulin sensitivity drops, hunger cues become noisier, and cravings increase. Not because youโ€™ve lost discipline, but because your physiology is responding exactly as it should. This is why willpower fails so reliably during the festive period. Willpower is not a plan. It never was. Behaviour follows environment. And the end-of-year environment is designed to disrupt even the best intentions. More social pressure. More choice. Less routine. Less recovery. Expecting motivation to override that is unrealistic. Yet the wellness industry loves this moment. January resets. Detoxes. Thirty-day transformations. The implication is always the same. You slipped up. Now fix it. That framing is wrong. You didnโ€™t fail. Your anchors disappeared. So instead of trying to be perfect between now and the New Year, thereโ€™s a better approach. Protect structure. Not outcomes. I think of this as a Minimum Effective Routine. The smallest set of habits that keep your system regulated when life gets noisy. You donโ€™t need control all day. You need a few non-negotiables. First, a morning anchor. How you start the day sets the tone for everything that follows. Consistent wake times, early light exposure, and hydration matter more than whether you train or not. Even during the festive period, waking within a similar window each day helps stabilise energy, appetite, and sleep later on. Second, a nutrition anchor. Health doesnโ€™t unravel because of one rich meal. It unravels when eating becomes random. Skipped meals followed by late, heavy dinners create blood sugar swings that drive overeating. One simple rule makes a difference. Anchor at least one meal per day around protein and fibre. No tracking. No guilt. Just consistency. Protein in particular becomes critical when routines loosen. It supports lean mass, regulates appetite hormones like GLP-1, and reduces the likelihood of grazing later in the day. Third, a movement anchor. This is not about training hard. Itโ€™s about staying active. Walking, light resistance work, mobility, or a short session at home. Ten to twenty minutes counts. Movement improves glucose handling, digestion, mood, and sleep quality. It is one of the most reliable ways to offset stress and irregular eating. Fourth, an evening wind-down anchor. Late nights are part of the festive period. Thatโ€™s normal. What matters is how often they stack. Alcohol, screens, and social stimulation all fragment sleep. A simple wind-down routine most nights helps signal safety to your nervous system. Lower lights. Fewer screens. Breathing. Reading. Repetition matters more than perfection. These anchors donโ€™t make you โ€œhealthyโ€. They keep you regulated. Now, an honest word on supplements. Supplements wonโ€™t rescue a chaotic routine. Anyone promising that is selling shortcuts. But they can support physiology when structure is under pressure. Hydration often drops at this time of year, especially when alcohol intake increases. Electrolytes support fluid balance, nerve signalling, and muscle function. Protein becomes more important when meals are irregular, helping to stabilise appetite and maintain muscle. Micronutrients also matter when sleep, stress, and food quality are inconsistent. This is how we think about Innermost products. Not as a reset. Not as a fix. But as tools that support the fundamentals when life is busy and routines loosen. The biggest mistake people make is treating the festive period as a write-off and the New Year as a clean slate. That approach creates a cycle of extremes. If you protect structure now, the New Year doesnโ€™t need repairing. Thereโ€™s no detox required. No dramatic restart. Just continuity. Finally, as we close out the year, I want to say thank you. Thank you for your support. Thank you for trusting us in an industry that often values hype over health. And thank you for being part of a community that cares about doing things properly. I hope you enjoy the festive period with your friends and loved ones, get some well-earned rest, and step into 2026 feeling steady, not behind. Read more
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Why Building Muscle After 30 Matters
Iโ€™ve been lifting weights for a long time. My mum first dropped me off at a gym when I was 15. Back then, I was the classic kid who grew up on 90s action movies convinced that if I trained hard enough, Iโ€™d eventually look like I was forged in an action film. And in those early years, it honestly felt that simple. Iโ€™d look at a dumbbell, and my muscles would grow. Zero science. Zero strategy. Just enthusiasm, youth, and a metabolism that cooperated. Now Iโ€™m older. I still lift four times a week, but I approach it differently. These days it takes more intention, better programming, more attention to recovery but the upside is, the results feel more meaningful. And thankfully, muscle memory is very real. When youโ€™ve put in the work for decades, your body remembers how to be strong. I share this because many of you reading this are in the same boat. The early gains arenโ€™t as easy. Life is busier. The goal shifts from โ€œlook good for summerโ€ to โ€œstay strong, capable, and healthy for life.โ€ And thatโ€™s what this monthโ€™s email is really about. Letโ€™s get into it. Muscle is more than something you see.ย  Itโ€™s something that keeps you alive and well Most people still see muscle as something cosmetic, something you train for appearance. But modern research has reframed muscle as one of the most important organs in the body. Muscle is metabolically active.It produces signalling molecules called myokines that influence: Blood sugar regulation Inflammation Immune function Brain health and cognition Mental wellbeing Longevity This is why people with higher muscle mass and strength have dramatically better long-term health outcomes. Itโ€™s not โ€œgym bro scienceโ€. Itโ€™s peer-reviewed, clinical, replicated research. Muscle isnโ€™t just strength.Itโ€™s metabolic armour. The decline starts earlier than people realise. Around the age of 30, muscle begins declining. Slowly at first, then more noticeably each decade. By 60, the acceleration is significant. This process is called sarcopenia. And it affects: Strength Mobility Metabolism Bone health Stability Lifespan Itโ€™s one of the most important health issues nobody talks about. Hereโ€™s the hopeful part: Strength training is one of the few interventions proven to slow, stop, or reverse sarcopenia at literally any age. You can make meaningful strength and muscle gains at 35, 45, 65, even 75. The body responds to resistance training all through life. You canโ€™t stop ageing, but you can absolutely slow the rate at which you lose capability. The overlooked benefits of muscle 1. Better metabolic healthMuscle acts as a major site for glucose disposal. More muscle = better insulin sensitivity. 2. Brain healthStrength is strongly correlated with lower risk of cognitive decline. Myokines interact with the brain in fascinating ways. 3. Joint resilienceMuscle stabilises joints, improves posture, and offsets the consequences of long hours sitting or working. 4. Bone densityLoad-bearing exercise increases bone mineral density โ€” something that becomes crucial with age. 5. Functional freedomFrom carrying shopping bags to keeping up with kids to simply moving without discomfort โ€” muscle is what makes daily life easy instead of effortful. This is why I now see muscle less as a โ€œlookโ€ and more as a long-term investment. Something you build for your 60-year-old self as much as your current one. Letโ€™s finally kill the โ€œbulkyโ€ myth Especially among women, thereโ€™s still a persistent fear that lifting weights equals getting bulky. In reality, building substantial visible muscle is incredibly hard, even when you try. Strength training wonโ€™t make most people bulky. It will make you: Leaner More toned Stronger More metabolically efficient More confident The research is unequivocal. The minimum effective dose is smaller than you think Strength training doesnโ€™t require hours in the gym or a complicated routine. The science backs this simple formula: 2โ€“3 strength sessions per week.30โ€“45 minutes each. Focusing on five key movement patterns: Squat Hinge (deadlift or hip thrust) Push Pull Carry If you did only these, consistently, youโ€™d build strength, muscle, functional capacity, and resilience that would last. As someone whoโ€™s been training for over three decades, I can tell you: itโ€™s never about doing โ€œeverythingโ€. Itโ€™s about doing the right things, consistently. Protein: the foundation people overlook One reason people struggle to build or maintain muscle after 30 is simple: theyโ€™re not eating enough protein. Optimal intake sits around 1.6โ€“2.2g of protein per kg of bodyweight per day Protein becomes more important with age, not less. This is one of the reasons we take such care with our formulations at Innermost. No fillers, no artificial nonsense, just clean, science-backed blends that actually support muscle, metabolism, and recovery.ย  The best time to start was 30 years ago. The second best time is today. Iโ€™m glad I started lifting at 15 even if the reason back then was โ€œI want arms like Arnie.โ€ But the real value of lifting didnโ€™t reveal itself until much later. Strength training has been one of the constants thatโ€™s helped me stay grounded, focused, and resilient, physically and mentally, through every stage of life. And Iโ€™m sure I wouldnโ€™t have had the grit and determination to launch and grow Innermost without it. Whether youโ€™re starting at 30, 40, 50, or beyond, biology is on your side. Muscle is not a young personโ€™s game.Itโ€™s a lifelong tool.A form of self-respect.A strategy for ageing well.And one of the best investments you can make in your long-term health. Start with what you can. Stay consistent. Your future self will thank you. Read more
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The Myth of Optimal Health
We live in an age obsessed with the idea of โ€œoptimal.โ€ The optimal diet. The optimal supplement stack. The optimal training split. Scroll through Instagram or YouTube for five minutes and youโ€™ll find someone with a 17-step morning routine, a kitchen cupboard full of powders, and the confidence that theyโ€™ve cracked the code to human performance. But hereโ€™s the truth: Chasing โ€œoptimalโ€ is one of the fastest ways to fall short in your health. The Illusion of Optimal Health culture has a way of dangling perfection in front of us. Big food companies do it when they market the โ€œperfectโ€ meal replacement shake. Biohackers do it when they promise that cold plunges, red-light therapy, and nootropics are the missing links to peak performance. But research paints a different picture. Studies on diet adherence consistently show that most people abandon strict or extreme health plans within weeks.ย  Fad diets, whether keto, paleo, or juice cleanses have dropout rates as high as 50โ€“70% in the first two months. Thatโ€™s not because people are weak. Itโ€™s because perfection is unsustainable. When you aim for โ€œoptimal,โ€ youโ€™re often aiming for something that doesnโ€™t exist outside of a lab study or a heavily edited social feed. Consistency beats Intensity If you strip away the noise, the science is clear: the best plan is the one you can actually stick to. A Stanford University study looked at exercise adherence and found that people who built moderate, consistent routines were far more successful over the long term than those who went all in with aggressive, โ€œoptimalโ€ plans. Think about it: Walking 8,000 steps daily is far more powerful than hitting 20,000 steps once a week. Sleeping 7โ€“8 hours a night consistently beats the occasional marathon lie-in after a week of late nights. Eating balanced meals most of the time will always outperform the perfect, but impossible, โ€œclean eatingโ€ schedule. Consistency doesnโ€™t look flashy on social media. But itโ€™s what drives lasting change in real life. The Perfection Trap The bigger danger of chasing โ€œOptimal Healthโ€ isnโ€™t just that itโ€™s unrealistic. Itโ€™s that it creates guilt and paralysis. Psychologists call this all-or-nothing thinking. If you miss your โ€œperfectโ€ 5am workout, you write the day off. If you slip up on your diet, you feel like youโ€™ve failed. Over time, that mindset burns people out. A review published in the Journal of Behavioural Medicine highlighted how rigid, perfectionist approaches to health goals were strongly linked to higher stress, lower motivation, and worse long-term outcomes. In other words: aiming for perfect often leaves you worse off than if youโ€™d just aimed for โ€œgood enoughโ€ consistently. The Simplicity Advantage At Innermost, this is the philosophy weโ€™ve always stood behind: better health should be simple, not overwhelming. We donโ€™t believe in flashy shortcuts or marketing gimmicks. We believe in science-backed products designed to slot seamlessly into your life so you can actually stick with them. A few examples: The Hydrate Blend makes staying on top of electrolytes effortless โ€” without the sugar, fillers, or artificial aftertaste youโ€™ll find in the big sports drinks. The Rise Blend gives you clean energy and focus, without adding another complicated ritual to your already busy day. Our protein powders support your health and fitness goals with nutrients you and your body recognises, instead of pushing the latest overpriced fad ingredient. The goal isnโ€™t perfection. Itโ€™s progress. Progress, not Perfection So hereโ€™s the takeaway: you donโ€™t need the โ€œoptimalโ€ plan. You just need a plan youโ€™ll actually follow. If you focus on moving most days, eating whole foods when you can, sleeping properly, and staying hydrated, youโ€™re already ahead of 90% of the population. Itโ€™s not sexy. But it works. And itโ€™s sustainable. So the next time you feel the pressure to add another step to your routine, ask yourself: does this make my life simpler or more complicated? If itโ€™s the latter, it probably isnโ€™t worth it. Health isnโ€™t about chasing perfection. Itโ€™s about building momentum. An imperfect plan, done consistently, beats the โ€œoptimalโ€ plan abandoned after a week. Read more
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