"I Could Never Do That"... Or Could You? With Ursula Goode

Episode 127: "I Could Never Do That"... Or Could You? With Ursula Goode

A poster that says “Adult Gymnastics Classes Starting” sounds harmless until it hits the part of you that whispers, I could never do that. Our guest, Ursula Good, felt that exact jolt at 35, with three small children and a life that was already full. She took the leap anyway and discovered something many of us are really searching for: an hour a week that gives back energy, confidence, and headspace, not another item on the to-do list.

Ursula is a dentist, a sea swimmer, a runner, a competitive adult gymnast, and a mum of four, but what makes this chat land is how human it is. We talk about movement as play, how self-consciousness creeps in after puberty and again after pregnancy and through midlife, and why “wear what feels good” is not a throwaway line but a genuine barrier remover. We dig into the mental side of gymnastics, the bravery of trying new skills, and how sport forces presence in a world wired for constant multitasking.

We also go deeper on setbacks. Ursula shares what it’s like to keep going through shoulder surgery, then face a sudden knee ligament injury and the long rehab that follows. We explore resilience mindset, identity beyond performance, and how hormones, menstrual cycle changes, and menopause can affect energy, balance, coordination, and injury risk. Plus, because she’s a dentist, we connect oral health to whole-body wellness, including gum disease, inflammation, and heart health, with simple habits you can actually stick to.

If you enjoy honest conversations about women’s wellness, midlife fitness, strength training, bone health, community sport, and building confidence one brave rep at a time, hit subscribe, share with a friend, and leave us a review. What’s one thing you’ll try this week that the old you would have avoided?

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Transcript

Welcome And Meet Ursula Good

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to Far Too Fabulous. Hunted by Judy and Catherine. Join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candy chat, and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Far Too Fabulous podcast. I was gonna say, Do you want to sing today? Yeah, we always have a little bit of a sing song. We've got a guest with us today, and so we're trying be on our best behaviour, but it doesn't always work, does it? No, no, I we try. Yeah, we do try. Anyway, in the past, we've had a lot of different guests on. And I asked this particular guest on because you know when we had Jo Maze on, yeah, and we were looking at inspirational stories, and she was a bit reluctant to come on because she was a bit shy and she didn't like to big herself up, etc. And I thought this guest is quite similar in a way. So we'll have to kind of coax things out of her. But basically, we're joined by Ursula Good, who I know through gymnastics. So in her day life, she's a dentist, and outside of that, she's got four kids, she's a gymnast, she sea swims, she runs, she's like a bionic woman. But she's had some major setbacks. So I wanted to bring her on to talk about just not letting those things get you down and carrying on, regardless, especially because I think you're a similar age to me, so we're both in our 50s, and we did that our first the first time we met was in 2016. The first British adult championships we did was in 2016. So 10 years now, I can't believe it. No, I can't believe it either. Yeah, I can't get in my 2016 Leotard anymore, but anyway, that's another story. But 10 years on, Ursula beat me at that competition and has gone on to do so every time because she's amazing. Oh, Julie.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Very kind, but you know, it's being around brilliant women like you who inspire me. So I think we we all, you know, support one another within an amazing sport.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

We do, and that's what I like about it. So the thing as well that we're quite similar at is that we didn't come from that background of being competitive gymnasts as a child. So I'm really interested because I've never asked you this. Like, how did you end up doing gymnastics? Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_02 2:39

Yeah, well, do you know? My third daughter had just been born, you know, matter of months, and a gymnastics club opened up near to where we lived. And I had a two and a half year old and a four and a half year old, and I thought, right, I need to get them into doing something. And this club opened up, and I thought, well, I'll

Taking The Leap Into Gymnastics

SPEAKER_02 2:55

go along and see if I can sign them up to a recreational class. And they had a poster saying adult classes are starting. And I remember so vividly seeing it and thinking, I could not do that. And I signed the two of them up and with a baby, you know, in my arms. And I went home and I could not get this poster out of my head. Juliet, I just couldn't stop thinking about it. And after several weeks, I thought this is driving me insane. And I was in the club every week with the girls, and I went, When are you starting? Can I come? And it took an absolute leap of faith. I had to be very, very courageous, which wasn't easy. And I went along and I was so nervous. I was so, so, so, so, so nervous. And I thought, I'm gonna look so silly, I'm not gonna be able to do anything. And I went along and I was made so welcome. And the irony was I was surrounded by all these other parents who were exactly the same as me, who didn't have the background, who didn't have all the history, and all the, you know, the wonderful gymnasts, you know, you and I have met along the way, who were development squad at GB level and all that, you know, it was none of that, which was so, so lovely. And I had done, I had done a little bit of recreational gymnastics as a teenager in Belfast growing up, but I never did, you know, three-year-old and doing X number of R's a week and all that. Yeah, I didn't do any of that. I was doing cartways and forward rolls. So I went back when I was 35, and it it was a game changer for me in so many different ways. Um, and I will I will always remember walking into that club.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

I love that you didn't listen to those initial stories that you couldn't do it because I hear that so frequently. People say that so easily. Oh, I couldn't do that, just really flippantly, and then totally believe that. And I love I can tell the sort of person you are that it that's probably what it was. You thinking you couldn't do it made you even more determined to do it. Maybe you're right.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

Yeah. I think at that stage in my life, I had three very small children, and I think there's a lot of people out there will relate to that. Um, working, you know, um, I was running my own business. Life was arctic, you know, full on hectic. So you kind of go, where on earth did you find the time or the energy? But I had to be brave. It was one hour a week, and what that one hour gave me more than sort of reproduced in terms of time and energy and mental space, it was so important to me then. And I it was much more important than I even realized when I first walked into the club. Because I think that when you're busy, you just, and especially as a woman, I think you feel that, well, there isn't time, you know, I've got to look after everybody else, you know, everybody else is priority. And then once you've looked after everyone else, you've got to then look after the house and you've got to, you know, get the dishwasher on and the washing machine on, da da da da. And there isn't time for you. And that class one night a week carved out the time that I needed, and with great support at home. And I'm very lucky to have a very supportive husband who made it happen, you know, by looking after all the babies to let me get out one night a week. It it really, really made such a massive difference to me. And I thought initially it was about being physically fit, and of course, that is an element of any sort of sport, but actually what I got from it was much more, it was a mental strength. It it came into my life at the right time when I was, to be honest, feeling kind of low, you know. I, you know, life was very full on, and it gave me a mental bandwidth that I think only sport perhaps can, you know, and it's just I was lucky I found what suited me. I was very, very lucky. And there are lots of different sports out there, but gymnastics was the one for me.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

What other sports did you do? Because you you give me the impression that you've always had that looked looked after yourself, aimed to look after yourself, kept yourself fit.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

I've gone through phases in my life. I think I had uh in many years where I didn't do any sport at all. I've um and then I uh went to the gym a little bit in my twenties, you know, late teens, early twenties when I was going through university.

Finding Fitness Through Fun And Play

SPEAKER_02 6:57

Then I fell away completely. But by the time I had the children, um I wasn't doing any sport at all. I wasn't doing, I you know, I was pushing a pram, that was it. But actually, off the back of starting the gymnastics, I then started to do a little bit of running. Very tentatively, very short distances. So yeah, nowadays I'm a runner as well, and um um half marathons are my favourite distance. I love them. Um, but I very much do that for fun. Gymnastics is perhaps a little bit more serious for me. But yeah, things like I live by the sea. I'm very fortunate. I live in a little seaside town, and there's a great outdoor community here. So yeah, we dip in the sea. I don't seriously swim or anything like that, but I I get into the sea, and all those things just feed into one another. Perhaps the biggest element of all of that is perhaps the social side, this the sense of community as well. It's not just about fitness. Fitness is really, really important, but it's also the fun. You've got to have fun. You're not gonna stick at some point unless it's fun. Yeah, yeah, we've got to have fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

We're always talking about this, we're always going on about this. Like for us, whenever we do any of our exercise, it's not going to the gym. We're not going to the gym, we're going out to play, aren't we? Yeah, that's what we do. We're going out to play.

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Yeah. But don't you think, Julie, that gymnastics really harks back to when we were children, when we were um completely, you know, um unself-conscious, whatever that word is. You know, we jumped and we ran and we twirled and we pulled ourselves off walls, and we we did nobody called it anything. It was play. It was play. And and then you go through this phase probably with puberty, and you become much more aware of your body, and you become aware of maybe how you look and that impacts and things you do. And then suddenly you kind of stop doing all these things, they start becoming fun. And I think rediscovering the fun is brilliant, and like gymnastics feeds into that on so many levels, you know, hurling ourselves off, being you know, this still, you know, um, trying to dismite off bars, you know, it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

It is so much fun, and you're right, you know, there's a big issue with those teenage girls in particular coming out of school. There's a big issue, and again happens when we're older and we have our own children, and then our body changes, and we go through that same thing, don't we? About I don't recognize myself, I can't possibly. We always joke about, although it's not a joke, but we always joke about you can't go to an exercise class until you're a bit fitter, don't we? Yes, yes, mentality. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

And and you know, you mentioned about leotards, you know, we worry how we look, and you know, when you have children, your body changes. Never mind menopause, you know, your body changes. I mean, I didn't wear a leotard for years. I thought there is no way anyone's getting me into a leotard, but you didn't have to, you know, to go to this class, you didn't have to. And I think it's important people know that as well. You wear whatever's comfortable, whatever makes you feel good, and and you know, just taking that first step and not thinking too far ahead into, you know, I've got to have the right hair and I've got to have the right leotards and I've got to look a certain way. No, just go and have fun. And it's it's lovely if you can find your people and and a sport or a class that allows you just to be you and be less self-conscious, and then the fitness comes, then you know, as a side with that, you know, it comes along.

SPEAKER_00 10:11

I often say that with lots of the things that I do is that the the fitness is is a byproduct. Yeah, that's we say often like people will lead if they're coming to us, they will lead with weight loss, and you're like, okay, yeah, it'll happen, but it's not what we're it's not the the main focus.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

It's not the be all and end all, no, no, and I think um where you start to feel stronger in yourself, so maybe uh you may feel a bit less breathless, say in the sport you do, or you you know, for us it's maybe I can now start to touch my toes, whereas before I couldn't even reach it, you know, all those little things build a real positivity within yourself and build self-esteem. And then you start to worry less, perhaps a little bit less about how you look, and more on, oh look, I I've now achieved this. You know, I'll never forget the first time I did a chin-up on the bar. It took me years, but I still can't do it. I still can't do it. Yeah, resistance balance. That's what I started. But you know what I mean? You do one, you do one little thing that actually has taken a lot of time and energy, and then you've got to acknowledge it and you've got to reward yourself by saying, Do you know what? I did that. And sometimes I think in life we don't stop for long enough to say, look how far I've come, and how far I've come might be only a little bit, but it's taken a lot of time and energy and effort on my part. And we have to, we have to be proud of ourselves in all those little areas of growth in all aspects of our lives, not just in sports, but in all aspects.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

And you guys have to be pretty brave in gymnastics to kind of get up crazy. Well, I mean, yeah, yeah. But you've got to get up on that beam, you've got to go and throw yourself up in the air either on the trampoline or off the bouncy thing. I don't know what's called. My point is, other

Bravery, Self-Belief, And New Skills

SPEAKER_00 11:55

than demonstrating I know nothing about gymnastics, is that when you've achieved that. So I mean, you've got to be a little bit brave, just like you've said, just to step into that new area. But once you've done it, you've got to be really brave to go and do it. There is that must be a huge sense of achievement, even honest, even if you don't totally nail it, to be able to just go and fling yourself up. And like you've just said, and then it's not about what you look like in a leotard because you're like, I'm a badass, because I've just flung myself over that.

SPEAKER_02 12:26

Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And I I I love the exhilaration of trying out new skills. I think you know, people often say, Oh, gymnastics also really physical sport, you know, when yes, of course it is, like many sports. But for me, the biggest challenge with gymnastics is the mental challenge. It's going, Well, I'm gonna try this. So I've done all the conditioning, I've done all the strength training. Coach has said you're ready to try this skill. My biggest battle is what goes on in my head.

SPEAKER_00 12:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

And I think when you and you can sometimes, you know, have these negative voices in your head, you've got to work through. But I tell you, whenever you, you know, give it some welly and you give it a go, and yeah, as you say, you might land it perfectly, you know, all just giving a new skill a go is incredible. That sense of achievement I tried and I did it. I I think is almost addictive. You know, it's it's such a wonderful thing to be part of. And whether it's front somersault, back somersault, Julie, you know all about these, you know, it's it's amazing to try new things. And I I I love how that makes me feel. I love how it takes me out of myself, both physically and mentally. Because one thing I find with gymnastics is the minute I walk into that club, it requires so much sort of mental bandwidth that there's no space left over to think about work, home, what we're going to cook for dinner tomorrow night. There's no space for that. And that's a good thing to have that time out from life and just go, let's just focus on this, this thing here and now. And gymnastics absolutely does that for me. And I think that then allows me when I go home, when I go into work, I think I've I've got more to offer, I've got more to give because I've been able to remove myself from those areas and go, right, what's happening right now? And then you go back. And I think I for me it makes me, I suppose, cope better and give more in the other aspects of my life.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, it definitely feeds into that resilience. And we were a few weeks ago, we were doing the do nothing challenge, weren't we? And because people aren't present anymore, because people are so busy, we're all busy, we're all stressed, we are in that that constantly thinking about the next thing. We've got a life that's set up on Amazon Prime. I want it now. Yeah, right now, right now, yep. Yeah, and so you are quite right that the I I like that aspect of gymnastics as well, and karate, because I do karate, and I cannot be thinking about something else. I'm gonna get smacked in the face. No, I could be on you've got to focus, yeah. Yeah you've got to focus. And I know, Catherine, you experience the same thing in what you do.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

You need to be even with things like with Paloxin when we're we're just like we're we're going for it in the class and the music's pumping, and there isn't there's no room for anything else.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

It's so healthy, it's so healthy. Do you know? One thing I've really learned about myself with you know, unfortunately, I'm injured at the minute, but so I'm on crutches. So, for instance, and this is coming from a dentist, every morning in life when I brushed my teeth, I was doing three other things. I was trying to get out the door to work, so I was picking clothes up the floor, I was putting the washing machine, I can go up and down the stairs while I was brushing my teeth. I can still talk to the children. I you know, yeah. Um because I'm on a pair of crutches,

Multitasking, Presence, And Slowing Down

SPEAKER_02 15:31

I can't do that. So in recent weeks, for two minutes twice a day, I have sat down and I have just brushed my teeth. Wow. And I'm not kidding you, but that's quite revelationary for me. And it's made me realize that we're always multitasking, we are always doing something, and then in our hands doing something else, something else, something else. And it has been quite revelationary to just sit for two minutes and focus on one task, and that's really novel. And I'm learning a lot about myself. I'm learning about maybe changes I need to make in my life. I don't mean just brushing my teeth, you know. Hopefully I'll continue doing all my life, but other thing, just focusing on one task, and that's not something I think that comes naturally to any of us nowadays because we are overstimulated with everything digital. And as you say, we want something, we want it now, you know, we don't want to wait on it and our minds are going, you know, 90 miles an hour, and to just have to kind of stop and do one thing is is is a big shift for me personally. But I think there are definitely positives to take out of that.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Yeah, I've spoken on the podcast before about how something will happen to stop me because I'm also similar, I'm very good at multitasking, I am running my own business, I am training, I do have kids that that demand a lot of time because they're still relatively young, even though I'm I'm gonna be 55 in a matter of days. There's a lot going on. So often life will do something to me to make me stop, and I get so cross with it, don't I? But at the same time, I'm like, yeah, I know I do need to stop, and just yeah, and maybe these things happen and we can take a positive from them. So I think for you, that very like last year you had to have a shoulder surgery, your gymnastics, which you've already said is a major part of you managing the joy aspect, your mental health, the stress resilience, and then you would you were on the um you were in the masters competition, yeah, represented Ireland, you represented Great

Surgery, Knee Injury, And Rehab Resilience

SPEAKER_01 17:35

Britain. I mean, this is incredible, right? Broncos, yeah. Oh and then you've got a shoulder problem and you've got to have surgery. So, how did you deal with that from uh you know the mental aspect and how did that go?

SPEAKER_02 17:48

Yeah, that that was quite a challenge whenever I knew I had a niggle that just wouldn't go away and um ended up with an MRI and was very shocked to find out uh I needed surgery. Um, because I'm still doing gymnastics throughout all of this, which no one could believe, and couldn't include the surgeon. And I really, really, really I, you know, I got this opportunity to represent Ireland and go to Germany last year to the um Master's World Cup, and I just said to him, I really, really want to do this. I can adapt my gymnastics because I already had to. He let me delay surgery to the week after masters, so I got to go and compete, which was brilliant. And then so I had time to sort of process all of that, and that was quite challenging, but I had time to process it, and I came back with really good physio rehab, which you need. I mean, surgery alone is never going to be enough, but I had all that support and I got back, and it was brilliant. It was absolutely super after I got back after, you know, the shoulder injury. In ways I was almost more grateful for my gymnastics because I had to stop, take that break, reassess, you know, where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do next. And I knew I really, really wanted to go back. So that was that was fantastic. I think what has unfortunately happened this time was, you know, this was a much more, this was an instant, quite severe injury, unfortunately, um, of the ligaments of my knee. Um, and it was just, you know, what it's like, Julie, we're we're pushing the boundaries. We want to know what our limits are. And I think any athlete at any level, whether you're elite looking for the next Olympics, or whether you're, you know, like like us, just we have a sport we love in amongst the rest of our life, you know, the minute you try and find your limits, which is exhilarating, there's always a risk of injury. But not for one second do I regret anything that has happened because I get so much back from the sport. Um, as we've already discussed physically, mentally, I'm at a stage where, you know, this is going to be a much longer, more intensive rehab. So I've got a lot of time to think about what happens next in my life. And I am now, you know, I've gone through all the emotions, you know, but I'm at the point where I'm thinking, look, this is an opportunity, and I have to find the opportunity in this, and taking time to re-evaluate everything from my sport to family life, work life, it's it's given me that opportunity, and I'm I'm viewing it with gratitude, you know, that because otherwise it could swamp me and it's not going to, it's not going to get me.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

No way. No, it's good. Like there when when you think about things in your life that were really hard at the time, I mean, like, I think back to um having chronic fatigue and thinking it was the worst thing ever. And then that led me to becoming a nutritionist, which led me to set other things. And I think if that hadn't happened, then this wouldn't have happened and that wouldn't have happened. So I think you're right that the the worst times in your life can also turn out to be the best times. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

When we were doing the podcast with Kate, who was talking about hair loss, and she said often her clients, if she asked if you could reverse this and never had the hair loss, they would have they'd say no, that they they'd learnt so much from the hair loss. And I I think you're exactly it's the same with me with the anxiety. As much as I never ever want to go back there, I learned huge amounts about myself. And I there's no way I'd be here doing what I'm doing with all the routines that I've got without it.

SPEAKER_02 21:21

Yes, and it it it shapes you, doesn't it? It shapes you to the person you are today. Um, and it's it's it's it's finding the positive. But you know, I think the challenges of life are there for a reason. I really do believe that. And um, and again, I think remind us to be grateful of the things that we have and our ability. And I I think I would, you know, for instance, I would rather be a 52 year old woman who's otherwise fit and strong, who's currently rehabbing, than to be someone who lives a sedatory life and who has never tested herself. You know, I would I would rather find the boundaries and push. I would rather, because there's so much to be given. Gained from that than always being afraid. And don't think for one second I'm very brave. I'm not. I can talk myself out of a lot of things. But whenever you talk yourself into something, the rewards are always so much greater. And you know, I'm never going to the Olympics, you know, I can watch it on TV, but I'm never going to be that person. But, you know, I can find my own Olympics. And for instance, you know, making it all the way to the Masters, that was my Olympics. Like that was incredible. And I think it's again, it's not just about being fit, it's about the people you meet along the way. You know, the the gymnasts I've met along the way, like you, you know, Julie, you said there at the at the start, you know, you and I go back what, 10 years, you know, and and you're a prime example of someone who has come into my life as a result of gymnastics. And I think we enrich one another's lives when we overlap. And this, you know, sport has given us that opportunity. I've met so many people and I've got to travel with gymnastics. I've gone to places I've been to Boston, I've been to Leipzig, you know, Lillyshaw, where the British Championships is held. You know, we've been so fortunate to be able to compete there, Julie. You and I, the home of British gymnastics. I mean, what an absolute honour and privilege to be able to compete there. We're not Olympians, but the Olympians train there, as you you and I well know. So, you know, gymnastics can give so much. Um, and and and without us, you know, we're not elite sports people, but we can still, you know, for us it is our Olympics, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 23:27

I think you're holding your own ladies, honestly. Getting all right, Chile, aren't we? Really are. What the was then the whole reason that we asked you that Julie asked you to come onto the podcast was that every now and again she'd be talking about you and she'd be like, You'd love this lady because she's she's hurt her shoulder, but she's in the gym doing her lower body stuff, or like she's she's hurt her leg. And do you know I saw her in the gym doing her upper body stuff the other day? Oh and it's and what you were talking about is like, and all these stories that we give themselves, because like you could well be like the story you've said about your injured knee is you are a lady, a fit lady in rehab. That's just the stage that you're gonna go through, but it won't be there forever. The other story that somebody could use is oh, I'm I'm injured, I'm out. Like, yeah, I can't I can't do anything. And and I so I love that there is a mindset that there is, you know, that there either that this is a stage and that there's still stuff that you can do.

SPEAKER_02 24:30

Do you know what? I think that one of the real benefits of getting older is that we gain life experiences, don't we? And I think again, that shapes us, it helps contribute to resilience. I mean, you don't get to 52 without having gone through, you know, birth, death, or everything, you know, illness within families, all sorts. When you know you can survive those things that you're a changed person, but you've survived them, then you realize that something like a sports injury. Yeah, I'm gonna get through this. Because this isn't the worst thing that could happen to me. This isn't, you know, it's tough. There have been tears. I'm not gonna pretend. There have been tears, and I've gone through the whole denial, the whole, if only I could turn the clock back, you know, to now I go and okay, this is where we're at. Come on, we can do this, Ursula. But I do think that's a benefit of getting older. I think if I was 20, knowing myself at 20 or 22, had I had the opportunity to do gymnastics then, I absolutely would not have approached this injury in the same way that I'm approaching it now. And I genuinely think that's the experience of life and getting older. So, you know, you know, getting older can be tough, but actually there are so many positives in it. And it's um, you know, it's not denying it and and acknowledging that we can do this, we can do this. And I I it's very important to me to get my fitness back. So, you know, I'm limited at the minute what I can do. I can do upper body, I'm gonna do that, you know, as much as I can for my mental health. Never mind my physical health. And yeah, last year it was lower body, so you know, half of me's good, and now the other half's gonna be good.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

You'll come out as a totally whole, amazing person. I wish Julie, I live at all. I must ask you because we are ladies of a certain age, although we don't really like saying that, but we are ladies of a certain age, and Catherine's a little bit younger than us, but you started gymnastics when you were 35. I started when I was 42. And so, how was the like where are you at with your kind of hormone journey? Because I still I've still got regular period. Well, actually, it's not now regular, it's

Menopause, Hormones, And Training Smarter

SPEAKER_01 26:35

gone a bit off the charts. Okay. Only the last couple, but where are you with yours and how has that impacted your body and and any anything else going on?

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Oh my goodness, I've I've gone from everything from having another baby whilst uh doing gymnastics. Um, I did gymnastics up until I was 17 weeks pregnant, with I would say with my midwife's blessing and my coach's blessing and you know, uh adapted gymnastics, went back when he was 10 weeks old. I then have since gone through menopause. I've actually probably maybe unlike maybe a lot of your listeners, I went through a surgical menopause. My sister uh was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at a very young age. She's five years older than me. So it it was sort of as a result of family genetics. So I am now, you know, I'm completely out the other side of menopause. So I've I've kind of seen everything, you know, in my sort of gymnastics career, as it were. And I've been all sorts of shapes and whatever, you know, throughout that. It's still been fantastic for me. I think there are physical challenges, aren't they? I mean, our pelvic floors are never the same. Um, but you know, you know, there are ways around that. And I think it's important, you know, I think it's important that we empower women and say, you know, you know, you wear what you want that makes you feel secure, safe, and confident and not hold women back from sport. And it's not just gymnastics, and I say that. You know, I have um teenage daughters, and again, it's it's you know, I want to empower them to do the sports that they love, regardless of what stage they're at, hormonally, you know, what stage of life and development they're at. And uh it's you know, it's it's it's not easy for young women. Again, as I've gotten older, I've felt a bit more confident, but I have definitely gone through all those hormonal stages, and uh, but I'm out the other side.

SPEAKER_01 28:22

Yeah. Well, I'm still obviously in the mess. You're in the mess as well now, aren't you? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Really, really in the sticky mess of it.

SPEAKER_02 28:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:31

As we're doing this, my cardigans off, my cardigans on. Um I'm hot, I've forgotten who I am.

SPEAKER_02 28:37

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the one thing I I often say in when I'm in the club is it's really warm in here, isn't it? Is anybody else warming here? And they're all looking at me, you know. Uh, but yeah, yeah, we we yeah, we gotta go through all that. But um and it's not easy. It's not easy sometimes, but it's um you gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Yeah, I do find that there are certain things that I will do in warm-up and I know whether I'm on a good hormone day or not as to whether I can get this certain stretch done or whether something feels, you know, I've I can start to understand that and I'm just a bit more wary. So I wouldn't, if I was when I was doing my when my cycle was quite regular and it was just those few days before my period, I wouldn't be attempting to do my new skill on the vault or on the floor or something because I'm vulnerable to injury at that point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

Do you know what I remember distinctly when I was still um menstruating was um I would have had a week every month where I was just my energy levels were really low. Yeah. And I would walk into the club, yeah, really excited to be here, and then literally would struggle to get over a vault. And I noticed that every month. That was really, really profound. And it took me a while to see a pattern, you know, which sounds so silly. But definitely there was a real um uh the the hormonal cycle impacted on my ability and my strength and my my energy levels. Um, and I think it's really important, and I say this to my girls, to recognize that. And there's a week of the month, don't push yourself too hard. Yeah, you can still go to the go rather than you can still go to the gym, but just don't push yourself too hard because you're right. I think I think we are more prone to injury than at that stage of our cycles. Um, so to be able to recognise that and identify that, and I think also what's really, really important is coaches recognising that as well when they are coaching women and girls to see that as much as yes, you want to bring them out in the best in everybody, but there's a week in the month where just you know, you just have to pair back a little bit. It doesn't mean you're any less committed, you know. But you you, you know, none of us wants to court injury. You know, injury happens, but we don't want to, you know, heighten the risk of injury taking place.

SPEAKER_01 30:53

Absolutely. So yeah, I'm I'm super aware of it and I am very mindful of it. Even things like um just that leading up to my period, I'm more clumsy, I'm not as balanced. All of those things. So if I'm more clumsy and I'm like gonna get on the beam and try and do a whatever, an excellent split leap, maybe that's not the time to be doing that. Like that could end in time. So we'll do that next week.

SPEAKER_02 31:16

That'll be a next week's job. Absolutely. But again, you know, life and the experience of life has taught you that, Julie. You now recognise and identify that. And I think that's really important because it means then you can continue to enjoy your sport while still minimising the risk of injury um and coming back next week stronger and better.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

Yeah, because we don't want to limit ourselves, do we? We don't want to put limits on and say, Oh, because of this is happening, oh, I can't do that and I can't do this. But I mean, from a gymnastics perspective, if we think about the things we need to focus on as we do get older, coordination, balance, strength, all of those things, it just ticks all the boxes, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 31:57

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And remember, impact sport um is so good for our bone health as well as we get older. So, you know, we want

Strength, Bone Health, And Community Sport

SPEAKER_02 32:05

to be doing all these things on our strength training and all our flexibility, keeping our skeletons upright, keeping our muscle mass, which is so important as we get older. And everybody's living longer. And what we want is it's not more years, it's quality years as we get older, as in living longer with good health, not simply living longer. So, again, finding your sport doesn't have to be gymnastics, but um impact and strength training is so important, and for women especially.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

That's basically what you do every week in your membership, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 32:37

Basically, all of the all of those things, tick, tick, tick. Yeah, yeah. I was just and as you were saying that, and actually that ties into the membership with all of this, it's the community. I was thinking about like the people that start park run and how that helps you know their fitness and their their bone health. But it's the community, it's all those people together, it's so important. And I I guess you've got um a swimming community that you will tap into because you you have to bond with the craziness of going into the ice cold sea and you're like walking in going, I know you're as nutty as me.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

Yes, here we go.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Yes, and it definitely suits us women of a certain age because we are a bit warmer, and but you know, parkrun is brilliant. You know, for instance, um when Ben and the children and I moved to this little seaside town, we were here um 12, 13 years, there was a parkrun on the beach. They still have it to this day, and that is how we met people, that's how we got to know people, which was wonderful. And my friends I made then who I started to run with are my friends now who I do have marathons with. And like we, you know, we were all sort of people who weren't, we weren't runners, and we weren't super fit or any of that. And um, you know, so Parkrun's a great example, and again, comes back to community, friendships, the social side, and that promotes good mental health. I I I love it. I love sport that allows you to do that, and and Parkrun's a great enabler of that.

SPEAKER_00 34:04

Yeah, it's fantastic. I've just started something called Well Being Wednesday, so we're doing an outdoor Pilates class by a local farm, and then straight afterwards we go off for a woodland walk for an hour, and it's just it's lovely. Honestly, Kitty, my youngest, is on work experience, and so she came with me yesterday, and I was like, isn't this a great way to one spend your Wednesday morning to but two, my job? Yeah, it's amazing. But those people that I'm meeting there, it's I'm using it as a way of bringing my own community within my membership together in person, which is lovely because most of it's online, but also there's people that I'm meeting there, like you've said, that have just moved to the area. One lady last week, she said, Oh, she said, I was going to set up a dog walk so that I could meet people. And she said, Now I've just found this, I don't have to. Oh, that's nice.

SPEAKER_02 34:58

Isn't it brilliant? Yeah, absolutely brilliant. Yeah, and isn't there something so soothing about the green, you know, as you talk about walking? But you know, I love I love also being by the sea because the blue, I think blue and greens are such soothing colours, you know. When you when you walk, you don't have to run, but you know, I don't know, I think it does something to our minds and settles ourselves, you know, after a busy day, or you know, or you you get out and you walk with brains, it's just oh it's a great, it's great therapy, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 35:27

We've not got much blue today.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Blue is quite grey, so we can see so we can see the sea here from my through the window, and it's pretty grey today.

SPEAKER_00 35:36

It's very, very dull, but I agree. And I feel that as I'm driving out to the farm, I feel myself calmed down. I feel my whole system just sort of drop into my body as I'm getting closer and like as I'm getting more into nature. I just love it. So therapeutic, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

But we can't have Ursula on and not talk anything about teeth. I think we need to make one thing as we were talking about bones. Yeah, because yeah, bones. Well, I just think like that our mouth can tell us a lot about our health. There's a huge connection between things like gum disease and heart disease and inflammation. And so I thought it would be remiss of us not to mention teeth since you are a dentist,

Teeth, Gum Health, And Whole-Body Wellness

SPEAKER_01 36:17

especially as our hormones change, and we are losing a bit more bone density. And of course, sometimes we forget that that's our teeth as well.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, at multiple stages in life, for instance, pregnancy gingivitis is very common. You get a change in the reaction of the gums to plaque because of hormonal changes of pregnancy, and also, as you say, bone bone density changes as we get older. So, you know, like there's some very simple things that we can all do to protect gum health, uh our you know, our oral health, our teeth, and that's um, you know, the electric toothbrush twice a day for two minutes. Don't walk about the house while you're doing it like me, just sit down.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

Honestly, I do exactly the same. I while I'm brushing my teeth, I get my clothes out. And when you were saying that, I was just chuckling to myself.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

No, I know, I know. Yeah, just sit down and chill. And the other thing is floss. Oh my goodness, if there's one change people could make, it's floss once a day. It honestly makes a massive, massive difference. And you know, Julie, you'll you'll know so much more about nutrition than me, but you know, I think when it comes to diet, everything in moderation, you know. I will hold my hands up and say, I really love chocolate. Anybody who knows me knows I love chocolate. I'm I'm a I'm a bit of a 70% dark chocolate girl, but it's everything in moderation, you know, a little bit of those things are absolutely fine if we're eating all the you know the whole foods. I talk to my patients a lot about eating the colours of the rainbow, eating whole foods and staying those colours so it's less processed foods. I think with good diet and good oral hygiene, you know, you can have healthy teeth and healthy gums for life.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Yes, I like that. Brilliant. Very exciting. When I was 16, I was a dental nurse, and I remember seeing a long time ago, and I remember seeing how it impacted when their like their gums were unhealthy and their teeth were unhealthy, how it impacted their whole body. And I think that people are we're very disjointed, we're very disjointed from our ourselves actually. But people, and I think our whole medical system is very set up to be like, I'm I'm gonna just look at your knee, I'm just gonna look at your your head, and so it's hard for people then to understand that your your health in your mouth is then going to affect your entire body.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have natural bacteria in our mouths, um, healthy, most of them are healthy bacteria, which we want to promote, but when we get the balance wrong and we get too too much of the unhealthy bacteria and less of the healthy, um, because of that interface, the the oral mucosa interface, you know, the bad bacteria can enter the bloodstream. You've already mentioned heart, that's well known that the impact on cardiac disease. There's research coming out potentially of um the impact of poor periodontal health, gum health on brain health such as dementia. So I think we should never just think of the mouth or the teeth in isolation. You know, we all want to smile nicely, don't we? Nobody wants to have bad brain, they want nice white teeth, but I think it's so much more than that for our whole body health. And the good news is that dental decay and gum disease, you know, they are preventable. It just takes a little bit of time every day. And as I say, you know, moderation with our diet and good oral hygiene to not only maintain a really nice smile, but to help promote good general health. And you know, we need that, especially as we get older. We we we need that, and um, and we want that. We're all living longer, so we we want to be in the best condition we can be. Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

It's just it's easy things that we can do to make sure that these things don't stack up against us because it and it's the same, isn't it? With with like we've been talking all the way through with the fitness and stuff, it's the weight loss and the healthy body and all that sort of stuff are almost byproducts of the of the whole process. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 40:01

Well, what else can we talk about? I think we've we've just we sorted it all again. We put the well.

SPEAKER_02 40:08

Yeah, yes. And Julie, you're still competing, which is brilliant. You're competing this year, which is wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 40:13

Yeah, there's quite a few missing in my category. Obviously, you're missing, and there's quite a few missing through injury this year. And uh yeah, it has been on my mind leading up to these competitions like just don't get injured.

SPEAKER_02 40:26

I know, I know, but you will be brilliant, and you are completely inspirational. You know, anytime I've met you in person, Julie, you you are the real deal. You, you know, you are your you know, your heart's on your sleeve, and I and I love that, and I love your enthusiasm because it really bars me up. And then I go back to my own club and I'm like, look at Julie, look what she's doing, and she's just so fabulous with it. And and you know what, that it's so good for all of us, and we we we need to share more of that love, you know, that sort of you know, empowering one another as opposed to I think there's a lot, especially social media nowadays. And again, I've got teenagers, and you worry about them on social media, there's a lot of tearing people down and comparing, you know, why are we, especially as women, why are we not building each other up? Why not? And I really find in the gymnastics community there is that that wonderful sport and enthusiasm, and there'll be someone who'll maybe make a massive scale when we all look and go, and never be able to do a giant on bars, and then someone else finally gets a you know a beautiful round off on floor, and you go, isn't that great? We can celebrate the big skills and we can celebrate the smaller skills because those are all individual achievements for those people, and we can all, you know, enjoy and celebrate those, and there needs to be more of that, just generally, I think, in life.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Yeah, I agree. And the feelings mutual, by the way. So yeah, it's it's it's always lovely. It is a nice community, and it is like when we go and compete, it's there's not although we are competitive, it's normally just against ourselves. We just want to turn up and be able to do what we've been doing in training. There's never any of that, like, oh no, I wanted to come first, or that just doesn't happen, does it? I think, do you know what I think?

SPEAKER_02 42:04

I think that we all take the sport really seriously, but I think we don't take ourselves too seriously. I think that's what it is. And I think, you know, like for instance, you and I have met not only in competition, we've met at training camps, and you know, we've had a laugh and we've had fun, you know, and I think that's what the adult gymnastic community does well. We have lots of fun, but everybody trains hard in their clubs and then turns up, and it's exactly what you say. Everybody just wants to be able to show on the day what they've been practicing in their home club. That's all. You know, I'm I'm not gonna rock up and suddenly do three backflips. Do you know what I mean? I mean, in my dreams I do, but you know, when is that when is that happening? Why didn't it happen? Yeah, in a week or two's time. No, you know, we just want to show what we we've been practicing, but I think we don't take ourselves too seriously. And also, Julie, you'll know this. You know, we end up we all go out and we have a good meal and a glass of something, you know, cold and wet and a bit of fun, you know, and a bit of crack, and and that's really important too.

SPEAKER_01 43:02

Yeah, exactly. Well, thank you so much for coming on. We wish you a speedy recovery in your rehab. I knew that you'd be great to come on because I liked your, you know, your ingratitude for this injury and your finding out what you're gonna, you know, what benefits you're gonna get from it. And I think that's such a strong message, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Honestly, I think that our listeners are genuinely gonna think that we've paid you to say all of these things. Because it just it it falls into everything that we that we talk about. But I'm gonna reiterate the fact that I love that Julie and you are being the example, being like something that people can look towards and go, oh well, if they can do it, maybe I can do it. And I think that that's that's so important.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

Yeah, absolutely. Oh ladies, thank you so much. I've love I love talking about gymnastics, but it's been an absolute pleasure to be on your podcast. And thank you so much for asking me.

SPEAKER_00 44:02

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SPEAKER_01 44:10

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SPEAKER_00 44:17

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SPEAKER_01 44:25

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Final Reflections And How To Connect

SPEAKER_01 44:27

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SPEAKER_00 44:30

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