Audrey Jarrott - Scaling New Heights

Audrey Jarrott has always led an active life: she loves to walk and is a regular at her local gym. So when she started to notice a pain in her leg she was worried her days of keeping fit were over. Thankfully someone at her gym had a solution.

I used to work in…

customer services for an insurance company. I did a variety of jobs there but for the most part it involved sitting at a desk, answering phone calls and typing correspondence.

I love to...

keep fit. I’ve just walked up Snowdonia. I’ve always been active. I don’t drive so I like to walk. Even when I used to live in London I would walk everywhere. I like to go to the gym most days. I’ve got a 9 year-old granddaughter who loves to keep fit as well. She does martial arts and used to do gymnastics. My daughter is also very active, I like to keep up with them.

I do pilates classes because…

I’ve got arthritis in my back, neck and shoulders. It really helps loosen all the stiffness up. They say if you don’t use it you lose it so you have to keep active.

I first noticed I was having joint issues…

a few years ago. I was walking on a bit of an incline and noticed a pain in my leg. I used to go for massages, the masseuse told me I need to go and see a doctor and get my neck X-rayed. She said I had an issue with one of the discs in my back. So I have arthritis in my neck and my lower back.

As the pain got worse…

it was restricting what I was doing. From going for a walk right through to getting up off the sofa. I had painkillers but I really didn’t like taking them.

I tried various solutions…

Including a visit to a physio. Having waited weeks for an appointment, I was told there was nothing they could do. I also tried acupuncture but that didn’t work for me.

I discovered Flexiseq…

at the gym. One of my instructors, called Laura, who I’d never spoken to about my arthritis in great detail, said I needed to try this new gel. I tried it and after a few weeks Laura noticed that I wasn’t flinching anymore - previously she could see when she was teaching the class, certain movements were causing me pain.

Using Flexiseq is a ritual…

That I do everyday after I’ve had a shower. I’ve started using it on my foot because I fell over at the gym and my foot swelled up. When I first started I was using it twice a day but now I just use it once a day.

For me it’s similar to using...

special toothpaste for my sensitive teeth and you think when they stop being sensitive you’ll stop using it but then it comes back. Flexiseq is like that, you have to keep using it to help your body move the way you want it to. If I run out and don’t use it for a couple of days I become very stiff.

Since starting to use it I feel…

more flexible and moveable. There are still some things I struggle with like doing squats. That puts too much pressure on my problem areas. The arthritis will never go away, it will always be with me but thanks to Flexiseq I can jump around more than I used to and I can take better part in the classes at the gym I was taking. I’ve been telling other people about Flexiseq. It’s much better than taking all the painkillers they wanted me to which was eight a day. That’s too much in my opinion. If it weren’t for Flexiseq I’d have to take all those pills.