icon-account icon-glass

Popular Products

The Lean Protein
Whey protein powder for weight-loss.

Innermost Recommends: September 2020

28th September 2020

28th September 2020

By Innermost

This month at Innermost, we’ve been thinking all about the idea of slowing down, resting, resetting, and readjusting to the 'new normal'. In today's busy world it's easy to forget that sometimes we all need to take a moment to pause. We wanted to find out more about how we could do this through what we've been reading, watching and doing this month, and with books, TV shows and more, we've found some amazing advice and life lessons. We love sharing our finds with the Innermost community, so without further ado here’s what we got up to in September.

Reading...

 

Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

“This book about sleep, news, social media, addiction, work and play in the digital age is unbelievably honest, personal and motivating. It helps me look at life and think about how it’s all connected and in need of balance. It's one to make you feel whole again.” - Allison

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

“This is an immensely powerful and heartbreaking novel about love and friendship, and the limits of human endurance. Tracing the stories of four classmates who move to New York, we witness their relationships become affected by ambition, pride, success and addiction.” - Grace

The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down: How to be Calm in a Busy World by Haemin Sunim

“The world moves so fast these days that it’s easy to forget to slow down. This amazing book is a great guide to mindfulness, and offers brilliant advice on everything from dealing with setbacks to handling your relationships. Absolutely not to be missed.” - Robyn

Dune by Frank Herbert

“Frequently cited as one of the best sci-fi stories of all time, I had to squeeze this one in before the film with my fave Timothée Chalamet comes out in a few months. At over 600 pages it's a bit of a tome, but I'm told it's one of those stories where knowing the book will make the film all the more enjoyable.” - Catherine


Watching...

Schitt's Creek

“I've watched it before and I'll watch it again! I always try to put something on that makes me laugh and is easy to watch. Alexis Rose, one of the main characters, always cracks me up or at least motivates me to do everything with a bit more pep.” - Allison

Chef’s Table: BBQ on Netflix

“For this season of the Emmy-nominated food series, we go deep into the world of all things barbecue. Featuring some of the best chefs in the business from the USA, Australia and Mexico, you’ll be left with your mouth watering.” - Grace

Get Organized with The Home Edit on Netflix

“This eight-part series sees super organisers Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin help a range of both celebrities and regular people clear and de-clutter their homes. As a clean freak myself, I love seeing how they help change peoples’ lives by showing them how to organise their personal space. An incredibly satisfying watch.” - Robyn


The Social Dilemma
on Netflix

“This new documentary explores the dark side of social media and the industry at large. Are we in control, or even aware, of the direction that such technologies are heading? Do we truly understand the damaging effects that social media has on ourselves as individuals and within society? Can we trust some of the largest companies in the world to remain ethical? Super eye-opening.” - Catherine

Doing...

Yoga nidra

“Here at Innermost HQ we’ve been loving yoga nidra. Also known as yogic sleep, yoga nidra is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping, typically induced by a guided meditation. We recently took part in a session hosted by Kanan Thakerar (@kananyogabliss) that left us all feeling ultra relaxed and ready for bed.” - Shiv

Baking

“I used to bake all the time as I found it really therapeutic and a great way to relax and de-stress. I think I missed the boat with the banana bread trend at the start of lockdown that everyone got on board with, but I’m definitely getting back into the swing of things now. The Hummingbird Bakery’s cookbooks are my all time favourites to get inspiration from.” - Robyn


Journaling

“Recently I’ve been journaling in the morning. My day seems to start on such a brighter note whenever I take the time to journal my thoughts when I wake up. Even if I'm trying to do it quickly, I’ll at least just jot down a few things I'm grateful for.” - Allison

Smoothies and juicing 

“After watching Reese Witherspoon make her morning green smoothie, I’ve been experimenting with different ingredients and variations myself. It’s a great way to hit your body with loads of nutrients in one go and it keeps you feeling fuller for longer. Perfect for when you’ve been feeling a bit run down or under the weather!” - Grace

Morning walks

“Getting up an hour earlier to enjoy a walk in the autumn sunshine before work makes me feel on top of the day and ready to take everything in my stride. It feels great to be out in the fresh air and soaking up nature - find a local park or trail if you can! - and it really calms and focuses my mind for the day ahead.” - Catherine

 

That's all for September. But if you can't wait until October and want to see what we got up to last month in August, check it out here. 

Need Expert Advice?

Other Insights

What Happened To My Training Over Summer (Honestly)
I did not train well this summer. A holiday to spend time with my family, a run of work trips, a couple of injuries I was trying to cope with (left shoulder and right forearm for those who are interested). If you'd asked me in June how consistent I'd be over the summer, I'd have said very. I was wrong. Most people quietly assume the founder of a wellness brand has this figured out. The truth is I run a brand, I try to have a life outside it, and summer is the season where routine goes to die for almost everyone I know. I don't think that's a personal failing. I think it's just what a normal year looks like. What I want to talk about is what actually happens to your body when this happens, because the research here is more reassuring than you might expect. What detraining research actually shows There's a real body of science on this. Strength and cardiovascular fitness don't decline at the same rate, and they don't decline anywhere near as fast as people fear. Cardiovascular fitness is the first thing to soften. Your VO2 max starts drifting down within a couple of weeks of stopping structured training, because your heart and blood vessels adapt to demand quickly in both directions. Strength is a different story. Studies that track people through a few weeks off training consistently find that measurable strength loss is small, often barely noticeable, for the first three to four weeks. The muscle itself takes even longer to shrink in any meaningful way. Several studies looking specifically at detraining periods found that visible loss of muscle protein and structure often doesn't show up until somewhere between five and eight months without any training at all. A summer of patchy sessions is nowhere near that. The reassuring partThe part I find genuinely reassuring is what's called muscle memory, and it's not just a phrase people use to feel better about a break. When you train, your muscle cells add nuclei, essentially more control centres for building protein. Research shows those nuclei stick around for months after you stop training, well past the point where the muscle itself has started to shrink. When you come back, you're not starting from zero. You're reactivating machinery that never actually left. That's a large part of why people who return to training after a long break tend to regain lost strength and size far faster than it took to build in the first place, often within four to eight weeks depending on how long the layoff was. Some of you might remember this happening post-Covid. So if you had a summer like mine, the honest scientific answer is that you probably lost less than it feels like, and you'll get it back faster than you think. What I'm actually doing this month Nothing dramatic. I'm not doing a reset week or a punishing comeback programme. I'm just going back to five structured sessions a week, prioritising the compound lifts I know well, and being honest that the first couple of sessions will feel harder than they did in June.  Don’t forget your proteinThe other thing I'm paying more attention to is protein, simply because it's the one lever that makes the rebuilding phase more efficient. Adequate protein intake supports the muscle protein synthesis that's doing the actual work of restoring what softened over summer. I've been leaning on The Health Protein for this. It's plant-based, built around pea and brown rice protein for a full amino acid profile, with glutamine in there to support recovery. If you'd rather stick with a whey based option, that's a completely reasonable choice too, and The Strong Protein remains built for exactly that. If you had a messy summer, you're not behind. You're just at the start of a normal, unremarkable return to routine, and the research says that's a far shorter road back than most people assume. Forward this to anyonre you know who is dreading their first session back. I'd genuinely like to know what generally works for you post-summer. Structured plan, just showing up once, anything. Reply and tell me. Even if it’s a one-liner, I’d love to hear from you. Read more
The Glow Blend: A Confession
I need to tell you something I've never said publicly, and it's not flattering. When our product team first brought me a plan for a collagen supplement, my honest reaction was no. Not "let me think about it." A flat no. And if I'm being fully honest about why, it wasn't the science. It was that collagen felt, in my head, like a beauty category. Something for someone else's brand. Not ours. I built Innermost around performance and evidence. Protein, creatine, mushrooms, electrolytes. Things I could point to a study for and feel comfortable talking about at a dinner table full of people who workout regularly. Collagen sat in a different mental folder. Skincare aisle. Jars with gold lids and brand sponsorship by one of the Kardashians. I'd absorbed a version of what "beauty" meant without ever examining it. The argument in the room So we had the argument internally. A proper one. A few people on the team pushed back hard, and rightly so. One of them put it to me plainly: we started Innermost to follow the evidence wherever it goes, not to follow it everywhere except the places that feel awkward. That line stuck with me. Here's what changed my mind, and it wasn't a feeling. It was the research. What the evidence actually says Collagen is the most abundant protein in your body. It's structural, it's in your skin, your joints, your gut lining, and production declines steadily from your mid-twenties onward. That's not a marketing claim, that's basic physiology. The question was never whether collagen matters. It was whether supplementing it actually does anything, and that's where most of the category falls apart. Most collagen products on the market use whole collagen molecules, which are too large to be absorbed effectively when you drink them. The ones that do use hydrolysed peptides, which are broken down into smaller chains your body can actually take up, still run into a second problem: dose. A lot of labels list collagen content that sits well below the 2 to 10 grams used in the trials that show measurable effects on skin elasticity and hydration. You're paying for a placebo with good branding. The ingredient most brands leave out The third problem is the one that convinced me completely. Vitamin C isn't a nice-to-have alongside collagen. It's a required co-factor for your body to actually synthesise collagen at the cellular level. Without adequate vitamin C, the enzymes responsible for stabilising collagen structure don't function properly. You can take a perfectly dosed hydrolysed peptide and still get a fraction of the benefit if the product doesn't include enough vitamin C alongside it. Most don't. They sell you the raw material and leave out the one thing your body needs to use it. Once I saw the category clearly, laid out like that, the decision stopped being about how I felt and started being about what the evidence supported. That's the whole operating principle of Innermost. I couldn't defend saying no to a legitimate, well-evidenced product category. What we built So we built The Glow Blend properly. Hydrolysed collagen peptides at a dose that reflects the research, alongside vitamin C, hyaluronic acid for hydration, biotin and folic acid for hair and nail health. Nothing in it that doesn't earn its place. What surprised me after launch The part I didn't expect was the response once we launched it. A good number of the messages came from women, as you'd expect, and they were generous and specific about what they'd noticed. But a surprising number came from men. Customers writing in to say they'd felt exactly what I'd felt, that awkward little flinch at "collagen," and had quietly bought it anyway because the ingredient breakdown made sense to them. That response told me more about why this category needed an honest voice in it than any research paper did. I'm not going to pretend I have this fully figured out. I still catch myself, occasionally, hesitating slightly before I mention it in a room. Old habits sit deeper than good evidence sometimes. But I take it, and increasingly a lot of men I respect take it too, quietly, without needing to make a thing of it. If this sounds familiar If any part of this resonated, and you've felt that same small resistance to a category you assumed wasn't for you, hit reply and tell me. I'd genuinely like to know I'm not the only one who had to get over it. And if you know someone, a friend, a partner, who could use this exact reasoning rather than a tesimonial, forward it on. It might do more good coming from someone else's honesty. Read more