Renfrew Wellness Hub

18/10/2026

BACK PAIN: WHY IT HURTS, WHAT HELPS

🔎 Abdominal separation: could it affect your back?

A client came to us with back pain and a diagnosed disc herniation. They love the gym, but their back pain has stopped them training.

During assessment, we also identified diastasis recti, sometimes called abdominal separation.

Diastasis recti is a widening and thinning of the linea alba which is a band of connective tissue, or fascia, between the two sides of your abdominal muscles.

During pregnancy, this connective tissue stretches to make space for a growing baby. It’s a normal adaptation, but the widening can persist for years postpartum. People who’ve never been pregnant can have it too.

So how does diastasis recti cause back pain?

Your abdominal muscles and connective tissues help transfer forces and support your trunk. Together with your diaphragm and pelvic floor, these structures help manage intra-abdominal pressure. This is the pressure inside your abdomen that changes when you breathe, cough or lift weights (or anything at all).

Changes in how the abdominal wall handles load may be relevant when someone is struggling with movement or exercise due to back pain.

Diastasis can exist with back pain, although the relationship isn’t straightforward. Diastasis doesn’t automatically cause pain, and finding it doesn’t entirely explain a disc herniation.

How do you know if you have a diastasis? You might notice a ridge or doming down the middle of your abdomen during abdominal exercises (chest lifts or leg lowers) or feel a gap around, above or below your navel. The gap alone doesn’t tell us how strong you are; assessing how your abdominal wall works during lifting gives us a fuller picture.

💪 For this client, we started with introductory mat based Pilates exercises: working on breathing, core coordination and abdominal pressure at a manageable level, with the aim of gradually increasing the challenge towards their gym goals.

If back pain has put your gym training on hold, get in touch:
📧 [email protected]

📖 This is the first in our “Back pain: why it hurts, what helps” series—looking at what might be contributing to your pain and what you can do about it.

Photo by Sasun Bughdaryan - Source Unsplash

18/10/2026

🌿 WHAT’S ON AT RENFREW WELLNESS HUB 19-25 October 2026🌿

Monday 19 October | 7.30–9pm
Massage appointments with Reece from Massage Therapy
Book: https://tide-massage-therapy.book.app/

Tuesday 20 October | 6pm
Vinyasa Yoga with Kimberley from Hopeyoga;
Book: https://bookwhen.com/hopey0ga =ev-s6kcf-20261020180000

Thursday 22 October | 6.15 pm
Pilates with LornaBfit Moveology Collective
Book: https://www.moveologycollective.co.uk/pricing-plans/list

Saturday 24 October | 10am–3pm
More massage availability with Reece Massage Therapy**
Book: https://tide-massage-therapy.book.app/

📸 John Masson Photography

🙃 COMING UP: HEADSTAND WORKSHOP WITH Hopeyoga;

Monday 26 October | Hope Yoga

For experienced yoga practitioners who are injury-free and ready to add a new challenge to their practice.

Flip your world upside down, discover your strength and learn the foundations of headstand safely and confidently.

Details and booking: https://bookwhen.com/hopey0ga

📍 Renfrew Wellness Hub
15–17 Dunlop Crescent, Renfrew

14/10/2026

A TALE OF TWO UTILITIES - a Halloween horror story in 2 parts.

Part the First: Ruby Energy. How to make a killing by conjuring debts out of thin air.

Ten months ago on LinkedIn, I posted about Ruby holding up our electricity switch. I am still dealing with the aftermath.

In June 2025, our Community Interest Company took possession of Renfrewshire Council-owned premises to create Renfrew Wellness Hub: a community rehabilitation and movement space.

Ruby was the Council’s incumbent supplier. We chose Jellyfish.

Ruby’s failure to process the change of tenancy affected our ability to switch. That is now an Energy Ombudsman finding.

The transfer did not happen until October. Meanwhile, Ruby charged higher deemed-contract rates. Its original bills and added charges totalled £2,229.92.

At a critical start-up stage, I was chasing an electricity supplier when I should have been building the Hub.

In July 2026, the Ombudsman upheld our complaint. Ruby was ordered to apply Jellyfish’s rates, remove collection charges, apologise and credit £100.

Ruby requested the rates two days before the implementation deadline.

On 28 August, it told UK Search the complaint was “completed” while admitting it was still awaiting those rates.

Completed. Except for the bit that would correct the bill.

The Ombudsman closed the case before the remedy was verified. I had to complain about its handling. That service complaint was upheld.

Ruby eventually reversed the original bills. Its replacement claim, after the credit, was £899.85.
The estimated consumption remains disputed: about 25.5 kWh daily, roughly four times our measured summer 2026 usage. That raises questions; it does not establish exact historic consumption.

Ruby then authorised renewed collection. UK Search demanded £1,044.57, including £144.72 in costs the Ombudsman had ordered removed.
In my view, describing the complaint as completed while acknowledging the main remedy remained outstanding, then resuming collection, amounts to bad faith.

UK Search also put the supply in the wrong year and pursued me personally without explaining the basis for doing so rather than pursuing the CIC.
Its collection costs have since been removed and collection suspended. The rebilling dispute remains unresolved.

By my estimate, this has consumed hundreds of unpaid hours.

This is a social justice issue. How many people pay disputed demands because they are frightened, exhausted or cannot spare the time to fight?

I have a legal background. Even so, this has swallowed time meant for community services.
There is no secret door to a well paid complaints department official behind the Pilates reformer. There is just me working for nothing.

I have sought answers through my MP and MSP about the Council’s supplier selection, and submitted evidence to Ofgem’s open Ruby/BES investigation.

TBC unfortunately

Part Two: Business Stream. Two meters on its records. Scottish Water found none. Around £2,456 disputed.

06/10/2026

Are you constantly suffering from aches and pains getting in the way of doing the things that enjoy?

Meet Julian, our final-year Sports Rehabilitation student, who’s joining us on Thursdays at Renfrew Wellness Hub.

Already a qualified yoga and Pilates teacher, Julian is keen to help people move more comfortably and get back to the activities they love whether that’s sport, training, gardening or getting out for a walk.

He’ll be offering community appointments, including assessment, movement advice and treatment where appropriate, under my supervision as a physiotherapist.

Sessions are free. If you can, an optional donation towards laundry and materials is welcome; £5 suggested, but less, more or nothing at all is absolutely fine.

Email us - [email protected] - to book a Thursday appointment with Julian 💚

30/09/2026

Pilates is a system not a collection of exercises.

This is an advanced hanging and back-extension variation on the Cadillac. It may look like one impressive exercise, but it is really the result of many smaller pieces developed throughout the classical Pilates system.

Can you spot other exercises here? See the comments below for some thoughts...

Each exercise puzzle piece early in the System prepares you for something different later on: shoulder mobility and stability, thoracic extension, spinal articulation, grip strength, hip extension, posterior-chain strength and the ability to organise the whole body while moving against gravity.

Would everyone work towards this exercise? Absolutely not and nor do they need to. This Hanging Pull Ups exercise can be broken down, supported and adapted so that each person gets the part of the work that benefits their unique body.

That is why I love the traditional studio Pilates System: the exercises on the Mat, Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, High Chair, Arm Chair Barrels and smaller apparatus are not separate workouts. They are one interconnected system, with each piece informing and supporting the others.

I have been teaching full studio-equipment Pilates for 16 years, and this is the work we offer here at Renfrew Wellness Hub.

The complete Pilates system, taught progressively and shaped around the individual will keep you mobile, strong and supple.

What other Pilates exercises can you see hiding inside this one?

📷 Photo: John Masson Photography

18/09/2026

🌿 What’s On at Renfrew Wellness Hub 🌿

Sunday 20 September
2pm — Sunday Sanctuary with New Paradigm WellBeing
Book: https://newparadigmwellbeing.setmore.com

Monday 21 September
6.15pm — Yin Yoga with Stephanie Love Yoga Crew
Book: https://book.loveyogacrew.com/class-types/8

Tuesday 22 September
6pm — Vinyasa Yoga with Kimberly Hopeyoga;
Book: https://bookwhen.com/hopey0ga

Thursday 24 September
6pm — Rhythm Pilates with LornaBfit
Book: https://www.moveologycollective.co.uk

Friday 25 September
6pm — Twilight Reiki with New Paradigm Wellbeing
Book: https://newparadigmwellbeing.setmore.com

Saturday 26 September New Paradigm WellBeing
11am — Mental Health Awareness Practice: class and get-together with Kimberly Hopeyoga;
Book: https://bookwhen.com/hopey0ga/e/ev-st1oj-20260926110000

📍 15–17 Dunlop Crescent, Renfrew PA4 8PQ

01/09/2026

Join Love Yoga Crew for Yin Yoga on Monday evenings in Renfrew ❤️

Would you like to understand why Yin yoga leaves you feeling so different to other forms of exercise?

It comes down to your nervous system.

☯️ We need both busy and calm, activity and rest, doing and being. Most of us are well practised at the busy half, sympathetic nervous system activation, alert, responding, getting through the list. What we're often missing is the other half.

Yin gives you that other half deliberately. The long, still holds signal safety to your body. There's nothing to brace for, nowhere to be but exactly where you are. Slowly, your nervous system shifts into parasympathetic state, rest and digest, the place where real recovery happens.

This is part of why LoveYogaCrew@home suits this so well. You're not managing a room, reading anyone else's energy, or thinking about how you're coming across. There's nothing to perform. Just you, your mat, and permission to be still.

If your days are full of doing and your evenings rarely switch off, this is the other side of the balance, waiting for you.

Nothing to prove and no experience needed, just come as you are.

Peace & love 💜

15/07/2026

Book now for next Tuesday, Hopeyoga;’s classes are very popular.

Join us every Tuesday at 6 PM for rejuvenating Vinyasa yoga classes in Renfrew. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced yogi, come flow with us and find your inner peace. Enjoy a harmonious blend of movement and breath that will leave you feeling centered and refreshed. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to connect with yourself and others in a warm, welcoming environment. We can’t wait to see you there!

Classes held in Renfrew Renfrew Wellness Hub

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